Cheap Filler
Yes, an open thread, in which to share links and then bicker about them.
Our previous free-for-all included the abolition of clapping at the University of Manchester Student Union; the hazards of genital steaming; and the joys of waiting 30 seconds for 26 adverts to load on a 200-word story on a local newspaper website. There was also the question, as yet unresolved, of what to tell relatives who politely ask what this blog is actually about.
If all else fails, you can always poke through the reheated series and greatest hits.
In the University of Georgia’s Department of Philosophy, a deep thinker emerges:
Today’s words are teaching assistant.
The lump of metal that literally is the kilogram is losing its job, because it decided it identified as a pound.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/09/in-the-balance-scientists-vote-on-first-change-to-kilogram-in-century?CMP=share_btn_tw
Regarding Irami Osei-Frimpong, my question to him is “Who’s ‘we,’ Kemosabe? And what army are you going to use?”
Undoubtedly, he believes he’s merely posturing for his colleagues withing the safe confines of academe, but does he really think he can spout such provocative nonsense indefinitely without someone deciding he’s being serious and responding in kind?
Tim Newman, on who’s welcome, and who’s not.
Further to the Tim Newman link, above, Douglas Murray on multicultural consequences:
The lump of metal that literally is the kilogram is losing its job, because it decided it identified as a pound.
This sort of thing I find enormously interesting. Pitty the article references concern that the change might not be approved yet offers no perspectives on the concerns of those who might be opposed.
On another note, pity we can’t do similar for monitary currency. (*ducks and runs for cover*)
Apology note of note.
Via Holborn.
One good reason not to visit Thailand. (Don’t open the link at bedtime: it is the stuff of nightmares):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6371445/10ft-python-sinks-fangs-mans-penis-sits-toilet-Thailand.html
Apart from not visiting Thailand, here’s another key recommendation – don’t smear peanut butter on your genitals when you are alone with a bulldog:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6343269/Man-penis-testicles-eaten-bulldog-room-animal.html
I’m glad to be of help!
Mick Hartley visits Tate Modern.
There was also the question, as yet unresolved, of what to tell relatives who politely ask what this blog is actually about.
The downfall of Western civilization?
The downfall of Western civilization?
Heh. Bearing in mind that the relatives asking the question are generally doing so out of politeness, rather than a desire to be ensnared in a long and involved conversation, I’m not sure how that one would go down.
Not that it’s wildly off the mark, you understand.
Re the Tim Newman piece…
This right here. Where was the outrage in the Rushdie case? It was very, very apparent to me at the time that Islam was projecting its laws into western civilization. It was effectively an invasion on British sovereignty. Yet no one I ever met seemed concerned about this and when the subject would come up, mostly in amusement. When I expressed concern over such things my concerns were dismissed as being silly. The fatwa was essentially an act of war. The west, specifically the UK but the US was weak on this as well, should have been much, much stronger in its objections to the point of stating in no uncertain terms that any harm that might befall Rushdie would be considered an act of war. And yet bookstores in the US were bombed and there was no effective response. Camel’s nose and now here we are.
Mick Hartley visits Tate Modern.
I see. Actually I don’t, and neither would anyone else, because all they would see is a room full of people lying down. I don’t think the “artist” thought this through, or thought at all, for that matter.
Camel’s nose and now here we are.
I worked in a bookshop at the time and remember the atmosphere quite well.
Regarding Irami Osei-Frimpong, my question to him is “Who’s ‘we,’ Kemosabe? And what army are you going to use?”
The Democrats.
I worked in a bookshop at the time…
So help me out here. Where was Thatcher on all of this? I know it’s Wikipedia and thus transitory and somewhat superficial but I notice the names Thatcher nor Bush appear in this article…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy?wprov=sfti1
She is one of my favorite politicians, next to Churchill (yes, distance probably helps my perspectives on them). Was she still somewhat crippled in regard to military action due to the Falklands conflict? Yet y’all won that rather decisively. Of course western powers never win a war according to the western media.
Apology note of Note
Never, ever underestimate the power of a sincere, heartfelt acknowledgement of fault and remorse for one’s failings. And I say that as a lawyer whose career has been spent primarily defending people in personal injury claims, conventional wisdom notwithstanding. I’ve found in cases where a defendant has apologized sincerely from the outset when s/he has nothing to gain, plaintiffs tend to receive substantially less, simply because they wind up looking petty and vindictive.
I think most people realize we’re all subject to failure and need forgiveness and mercy occasionally. Consequently, we’re ready to give it to others if we know their contrition is real and they are prepared to accept the consequences of their actions and/or make things right.
Where was the outrage in the Rushdie case? It was very, very apparent to me at the time that Islam was projecting its laws into western civilization.
To this day the slow right observes Obama and asks what he doesn’t understand. That’s eight years late to the game and counting.
The artist, and I use the term loosely, doesn’t want people to understand her work. If they did, she’d have to engage with them as equals, whereas this way she can still sniff at their ignorance while avoiding substantive debate.
My wife asked me the other day what this blog was about. I told her it was about the cultural madness all around us, as seen through the eyes of those not infected.
So help me out here.
I don’t recall Thatcher’s specific comments at the time – I wasn’t a politically animated teenager – beyond some supportive noises about free speech and about religions being strong enough to take a little mockery, along with the promise of a security detail. (Despite the fact that she was ridiculed in the very same book.)
I do, though, recall another bookstore, down the road, being subject to some kind of heated protest, which led to discussions at the place I worked about whether to remove a window display of Rushdie’s book or risk having to repeatedly call a glazier. I think the display remained in place, unmolested, though I recall things being a little tense for a while.
I told her it was about the cultural madness all around us, as seen through the eyes of those not infected.
Again, not, I think, inaccurate; but also likely to lead to an awkward silence.
. . . it was about the cultural madness all around us, as seen through the eyes of those not infected.
How do you know? Do zombies know they’re zombies?* < / Tongue-in-Cheek >
*”Do Zombies Know They’re Zombies?” will be the title of my next book. A collection of post-structuralist poetry, I think.
A collection of post-structuralist poetry, I think.
So a collection of blank pages interspersed with random jumbles of letters, numbers, and the occasional word?
Sure to be a top seller. Probably it’ll become mandatory in University literature classes.
Probably it’ll become mandatory in University literature classes.
Better there than on the comments page of an “Open Thread” post.
Damn…don’t know if I got caught in the spam filter or more likely my miserably slow internet connection right now…
Regarding Irami Osei-Frimpong, my question to him is “Who’s ‘we,’ Kemosabe? And what army are you going to use?”
What makes you think IO-F will need an army? Might even use ours if necessary. Our police are increasingly impotent and imagine being a millennial in our current military having to decide to disobey an order, under threat of mutiny and the consequences of such, which the prevailing culture (as perceived) seems to endorse?
Don’t know if I got caught in the spam filter or more likely my miserably slow internet connection right now…
[ Checks spam filter. ]
Nada. Not a bean.
For those of you weighed down with jewellery and unsightly bundles of cash, Tim Newman has a Patreon.
I don’t think he’s dyed his hair blue yet.
What makes you think IO-F will need an army?
Fair question.
Ace had a post regarding the assault on Tucker Carlson’s home last week about the Left’s seeming inability to game out the results of of its behavior. While my “army” question was facetious, the underlying problem for the left remains. There are still millions of people in this country who will not succumb quietly to the Left’s agenda. There is a breaking point. It will come when people acknowledge or believe that the social compact and rule of law no longer exists. We are on the cusp of it now. When the “preference cascade” or its equivalent in this context appears, the result will not be pretty. I pray it won’t come to that, but every day I become less hopeful. (See, e.g. recent vote county shenanigans in South Florida.)
about the Left’s seeming inability to game out the results of its behavior.
Somewhat related:
Mr Yglesias studied philosophy at Harvard.
There are still millions of people in this country who will no succumb quietly to the Left’s agenda.
They won’t have a choice and the left’s agenda is only the framing and rhetoric. None of the real problem is binary, symmetrical, or overt. Why would it be?
The right is therefore outmatched. It did nothing to identify its values, establish and institutionalize them, or harden its world.
Again, not, I think, inaccurate; but also likely to lead to an awkward silence.
Not in the least! In fact, my wife brightened and said she was looking forward to checking it out.
This, um, might not be wholly generalizable across society.
They won’t have a choice …
No snark intended, but I think that’s my point. When choice is removed from the equation; when peaceful disagreement is no longer an option; when reasoned debate is impossible because one’s opponents are presumed to be acting in bad faith, if not from evil motives, then only one thing remains.
The Left has been successful on its Long March because most of the country has not yet reached a breaking point. The Left’s success has emboldened it and it (falsely) believes that there will never be a line which cannot be crossed.
It’s wrong.
The Left may ultimately win, by hook or crook. But it will not be painless and we will be the worse for it.
IOF wants to dismantle white families. Presumably because the mass dissolution of black families has produced such stellar results.
my wife brightened and said she was looking forward to checking it out.
Clearly, a woman of poise and discernment.
This, um, might not be wholly generalizable across society.
Well, you see the problem. I might just mumble something about collecting action figures, or rating detergents.
“So if we are serious, we have to dismantle the institutions that make crappy white people,” he continued. “Their churches, their schools, their families.”
Yes, they’ve been trying that for the last 60 years or so here in the UK. Hasn’t worked out too well.
“… if we say our unit of mass is based on a lump of metal we keep in Paris, we’ll be the laughing stock of the universe.”
Ditto if we say that we traded a system of measurements that was convenient for everyday life, based in part on the extremely useful number 12 and in part on powers of 2, for one that’s based on the number of fingers we have.
I used to think these guys were a bunch of cranks. Now… well yeah, they kind of are. (Ɛ? Seriously?) But I’m beginning to think they have a point.
“Pity the article references concern that the change might not be approved yet offers no perspectives on the concerns of those who might be opposed.”
Well, it is the Guardian.
“Apology note of note.”
If anyone got a letter like that these days, they’d think someone was taking the piss. Yep, just about 60 years, right enough…
Mick Hartley visits Tate Modern.
I’ve become convinced that ‘modern art’ is purposely designed to be ugly and/ or incomprehensible. In other words, a sort of ‘anti-art’.
“Who’s ‘we,’ Kemosabe? And what army are you going to use?”
Do you imagine that the mass immigration of tens of millions of non-white people into North America and Europe is a naturally occurring phenomenon?
The Left has been successful on its Long March because most of the country has not yet reached a breaking point.
Aside from those claims being incongruous – the latter being unrealized despite the former – rightists forever misidentify their customary, rhetorical, binary left.
Not showing up is no less a defeat.
Not showing up is no less a defeat.
Bingo.
Where was the outrage in the Rushdie case? It was very, very apparent to me at the time that Islam was projecting its laws into western civilization.
To this day the slow right observes Obama and asks what he doesn’t understand. That’s eight years late to the game and counting.
. . . . . Um???
To map things out for reference, these days, as noted, we do have the very fast reacting right wing that is indeed shrieking for the death of a woman on grounds of blasphemy, where the conservatives remain aware that mere faith is mere faith is mere faith, and not the basis of any societal decision. And of course Christian right wing vs Islamic right wing vs Pastafarian right wing vs Hindi right wing vs Cthulhian right wing remains irrelevant, that’s just the coequal siblings bickering amongst themselves.
Obama certainly is Christian, and has repeatedly and openly acknowledged that, so the right certainly has no grounds for complaint about ‘im, or at least the Christian right wing.
With The Satanic Verses, the conservatives at the time did rather act to support Rushdie, with rather massive book sales, and rather definite personal security.
Apparently the right wing remains quite utterly pissed off about Rushdie, but that’s the right wing for you, where conservatives remain focused on what to do, rather than what to “believe” in . . .
Norman Rockwell, whose paintings reflected in both humour and detail many aspects of American culture for more than half century, is now being used as a base for the talentless to mock the west — and as always the sneering comes from within the tolerant west.
http://www.unz.com/isteve/its-not-cultural-appropriation-when-the-good-people-do-it/
If you are familiar with the late Norman Rockwell’s excellent work, you will be appalled how his themes have been hijacked by, among others, the haters of art and life.
To map things out for reference, these days, as noted, we do have the very fast reacting right wing that is indeed shrieking for the death of a woman on grounds of blasphem
Yeah, that’s as far as I got. As for the rest of it, Fuck Off Hal.
Um???
Again: Even now we ask what, for example, an Obama does not understand. Understand? Why does the right assume ignorance or especially, incompetence? (Or take a Marxist at his word?)
…conservatives remain aware that mere faith is mere faith is mere faith, and not the basis of any societal decision.
In a culture war societal indecision dooms.
Apparently the right wing remains quite utterly pissed off about Rushdie, but that’s the right wing for you, where conservatives remain focused on what to do, rather than what to “believe” in…
If by that you allow that the right is substantially small-r reactionary, correct. The right would probably elect Alec Baldwin if the Democrats stridently opposed him for a week before an election, or Kayne if he yowled at kneeling sportsbowl thugs long enough.
We’re still no closer to an institutional cornerstone the sort of which is absolutely incumbent for structuralists to maintain. The best the right can muster is a couple of YouTube channels, an obscure think tank or two, and very bad teevee. The rest is watching to see what the left does next, it being culturally arguably psychotic.
Yes, I f’d the italics
Hopefully that fixes it. Sorry. My nerves are rather raw since last Wednesday. So shoot me.
[ Turns on spotlight, taps enormous sign. ]
Your host’s top pie tip for the day:
Meadowfresh of Chesterfield’s steak pie slices. Available via the Chatsworth House Farm Shop.
They give good pie.
Thanks David for the shout out for Meadowfresh. As a Yorkshireman now living in Derbyshire, I am glad there are good things in Chesterfield.
Available via the Chatsworth House Farm Shop.
Tell us again how the blog is barely keeping afloat……
Tell us again how the blog is barely keeping afloat……
They’re my only vice. My sole indulgence.
Tell us again how the blog is barely keeping afloat……
Actually, having now checked, they’re only 25p more expensive than the supposedly decent steak pies in the local supermarket, and they’re much, much better. Seriously, there’s no comparison.
You can see how morally flexible the people can be who have taken ownership of empathy as a basis for morality.
Iglesias has gone from (i) having warm feelings towards somebody makes it easier to treat them morally, to (ii) my warm feelings are a moral authority, to (iii) those I don’t have warm feelings about aren’t entitled to moral treatment.
And the “forced empathy” tear gas room in the Tate exhibition shows us the Orwellian inversion of what the owners of “empathy” claim is a modest appeal to kindness.
Seriously, there’s no comparison.
Feeling hungry now, and not a steak slice for miles. You Sir, are the devil incarnate.
You Sir, are the devil incarnate.
Can’t talk. Making onion gravy.
On “Apology of note” Yes this sort of service still exist, although I didn’t receive the apology in snail mail, rather I got a phone call.
I made a purchase using Paypal with sweetwater.com (music store), received a call from my “sales engineer” apologizing profusely as their Paypal link was down and did I mind waiting or would I like to cancel.
He (the sales engineer) routinely emails me after I make a purchase to see if I am happy, I have never had this level of service.
I recommend them constantly to other musicians, I wear a T-shirt with their name on it and answer any questions about them, and I only buy from them now.
Surprising what a profound effect good customer service had on me.
Neo-Puritan Revival
…a jaw-dropper of a soundbite from Stotland…
There is a joke in there about never talking with your mouth full, but that would be beneath the dignity of this establishment.
… I have never had this level of service.
One man’s service is another’s annoyance, I had to tell them to leave me alone as it was clear from their calls and emails they were really trying to sell me more stuff, not really concerned whether I was happy.
“If you go in somebody’s dorm room and she touches you, and places your penis in her mouth, she has not conveyed consent.”
You have to wonder what kind of mannered and bureaucratic sex these people have.
“I am tumesced, my love. May I begin to unbutton your blouse, continuing downwards only if granted explicit permission?”
“Sure, but I have to pick up the kids in 45 minutes.”
“I’m not making you feel uncomfortable, am I, or raping you with my words?”
“Look, Derek, can we just get on with it? You’re really killing the moment.”
but that would be beneath the dignity of this establishment.
Interesting theory.
You can see how morally flexible the people can be who have taken ownership of empathy as a basis for morality.
They have an entire industry powering them. These are our great newspapers; our national Papers of Record, bastions of reason:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/04/arts/dance/brown-point-shoes-diversity-ballet.html
and on character:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6380661/If-narcissist-Mr-Trump-feel-true-empathy-try-FAKE-it.html
and self-promotion:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6380651/Michelle-Obama-says-Sandy-Hook-shooting-changed-Barack-skipped-vigil-grief.html
What’s really going on is industrial Moralism.
You have to wonder what kind of mannered and bureaucratic sex these people have.
They are entitled to have whatever kind of sex they want. They use their rules selectively to exert power over whomever they choose. Using sex as a control mechanism is nothing new. But of course you already knew that. Much like when Jim Acosta has a microphone taken away from him it’s the end of free speech as we know it, meanwhile Tucker Carlson’s wife cowers in fear in her own house whilst a mob attempts to break open her front door. Nothing to be seen here…
Stan Lee, RIP.
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/stan-lee-dead-dies-marvel-comics-1203026230/
Stan Lee, RIP.
Messrs Lee, Kirby and Ditko helped me while away many hours as a wee seedling. For which, I’m grateful.
There’s a lovely little browser extension by the name of AdNauseam that mucks about with advertisements.
Irami Osei-Frimpong also said that white churches, schools, and families would have to be “dismantled” to remedy the issue of “white supremacy.” “So if we are serious, we have to dismantle the institutions that make crappy white people,” he continued. “Their churches, their schools, their families.”
Or, the discontented could be ejected from the country.
@Farnsworth M Muldoon
Shame it never came across that way to me, I’m impressed with them they get all my business.
Not once have I felt “they were trying to sell me anything”.
Why?
Why?
The mystery deepens.
Probably the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Anybody who does business with the EU needs to comply with its increasingly onerous data protection laws, and several American newspapers have decided it’s less hassle just to be unavailable online in the EU.
I might just mumble something about collecting action figures, or rating detergents.
LOL. You should do that.
Your host’s top pie tip for the day:
Meadowfresh of Chesterfield’s steak pie slices. Available via the Chatsworth House Farm Shop.
They give good pie.
Now I’m hungry.
They’re my only vice. My sole indulgence.
“Every man should have a few redeeming vices.”
Now I’m hungry.
It was marvellous. It really was.
You should do that.
Yes, but someone within earshot might turn out to have very strong views on detergent choices, and an eagerness to share them, in detail, and my bluff would be called. My own opinions on cleaning products (and action figures) are rather limited. It could play out worse that muttering something about prevailing cultural pathologies and the downfall of Western civilisation.
The mystery deepens.
A J.C. Penny selling this sartorial splendor that no doubt has Saville Row scurrying for new patterns and fabrics.
In case y’all over there can’t open that link, this is the “suit” in question.
Laughingly it can be had in a chest size up to 52.
No well-dressed Flintstone should be without one.
Laughingly it can be had in a chest size up to 52.
Heh. Just sarcastically pointed that out to the wife earlier. What was the low end, 36? That seemed kinda high to me as well.
Farnsworth,
Someone should send that link to James Lileks.
No well-dressed Flintstone should be without one.
The club accessory is extra, probably it should not be worn during hunting season.
Do check their website for other fabrics if this is not to your taste. Meanwhile, in some Southeast Asian or Central American clothing factory, some poor sod working for 20 cents an hour is wondering WTF is going on that someone would actually wear this.
I don’t think they thought out the name for this pattern.
Not everyone can carry off the leopard skin look. I think size 52 would be the lower limit of acceptability.
I used to work with a guy who wore a yellow suit. Sometimes for a change he’d show up in a green suit. He claimed he was the “only Jew in South Dakota”. But he wasn’t – not the only, and not Jewish either.
If you go in somebody’s dorm room and she touches you, and places your penis in her mouth, she has not conveyed consent.
While male college students are too enthralled by hormones for a true Lysistratan response to this kind of treachery, the result of this is that they’re slowly eschewing dating the women on campus.
Sadly, we’ve ample evidence that you don’t even need to know your accuser to get slandered and tossed out of college based on a false accusation of sexual coercion.
Damn you Darleen. Thanks to clicking on your Why link, when I go to other sites, Tim Newman’s for one, I’m now seeing ads for that get up.
Was she still somewhat crippled in regard to military action due to the Falklands conflict? Yet y’all won that rather decisively.
As I recall, that expedition stretched Britain’s military to the limit.
Theodore Dalrymple (and for future reference, what’s the tag to make block-quotes appear? Anyway, here’s the quote) : “These two stories illustrate something important about a lot of recent social agitation: its purpose is not to promote tangible improvement, such as a clean water supply or better public transport, but to exert power, often by a small minority over a large majority. It derives from a sadistic impulse to inflict pain on others in revenge for the agitator’s existential discomfort; the pleasure is in forcing others to swallow their disagreement.”
https://www.lawliberty.org/2018/11/12/bores-and-bullies-pursuing-conformity-and-power/
what’s the tag to make block-quotes appear?
blockquote and /blockquote to close. Each enclosed with the < and > symbols, of course.
Got it.
Posted by: Ten | November 12, 2018 at 18:48
Yes and the man in your link accusing Trump of narcissism is… Piers Morgan.
Surely worlds are imploding somewhere – no other reaction from the universe is remotely adequate.
Quite.
If you go in somebody’s dorm room and she touches you, and places your penis in her mouth, she has not conveyed consent
Surely there has to be some sort of comeback for the person who combined the above quote with the words “slowly eschewing”?
Further to recent rumblings, Kevin Williamson on the allure of radical LARPing:
I do like the term performative hysterics.
Bit of Wikipedia research on Thatcher and Rushdie. The Fatwa was issued in 1989, and Thatcher was kicked out of office in 1990, so she didn’t have much time to involve herself in the Rushdie affair, but Rushdie has expressed gratitude for her support, even though he opposed her politics. Her successor John Major, not so much. (The Falklands War was in 1982, six years before the book was even published, and it strengthened Thatcher politically – she was reelected with an increased majority in 1983.)
when I go to other sites, Tim Newman’s for one, I’m now seeing ads for that get up.
Own it. It’s who you are now.
Own it. It’s who you are now.
I know you didn’t mean it this way, but as a country I’m afraid you’re right. Listening to younger male coworkers brag on and on about how much they like the color pink. Bizarre.
John Major, not so much
Thanks for that. Major was quite the establishment cuck, though not a term of the times, cottect? And Rushdie not really knowing who his friends were saps some of my sympathy for him, though my concerns about Western sovereignty are thus amplified.
Vino Cardboardo for the Tide Pod generation.
Calling yourself an “antifascist” while defining “fascism” as “the enforcement of ordinary immigration laws” or “thinking that Bernie Sanders is a grumpy Muppet who should be kept far from the levers of power” is entirely childish and deeply stupid…
Industrial Moralism starts somewhere, naturally, which is why the right needs to wake the f*ck up and restore some institutions. Right now it has only the accidental orange potus running interference.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By pursuing our own interests first, with no regard to others’, we erase the very thing that a nation holds most precious, that which gives it life and makes it great: its moral values.”
-Chancellor of Industrial Moralism, Emmanuel Macron
Interpreted: Soul-crushing globalism is a requisite moral value. I’d love to hear this guy on gaslighting or begged questions and how they’re something something everybody’s highest argle bargle.
Kevin Williamson on the allure of radical LARPing
“Ordinary politics provides insufficient drama, as anybody who has observed the real business of government in action knows. Fantasy politics — I’m fighting the Nazis! — offers a lot more emotional oomph.”
That.