Elsewhere (292)
David Solway on the feminist enthusiasm for fatness:
In a speech on the topic of “radical fat liberation” jointly sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Department and the Centre for Equity and Inclusion at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, the prodigiously overweight Sonalee Rashatwar, a self-proclaimed Fat Sex Therapist, compared fitness trainers to Nazis, defined child dieting as sexual assault, attributed the Christchurch shooting to ‘thin” white supremacism, and condemned science as “fataphobic” for “promoting the idea that certain bodies are fit, able and desirable.” She wonders, rhetorically, “is it my fatness that causes my high blood pressure, or is it my experience of weight stigma?” She goes on to blame the Reagan administration for having refused to provide “social supports that also help me to subsidise my food costs.”
When not equating routine health advice with eugenics and “Nazi science,” Ms Rashatwar claims that “diet culture and fat phobia are forms of sexual violence.” Mr Solway is the husband of Janice Fiamengo, whose own probing of feminist pathology has been mentioned here before.
Heather Mac Donald on cooking the books for “diversity”:
The average white score on the SAT (1,123 out of a possible 1,600) is 177 points higher than the average black score (946), approximately a standard deviation of difference. This gap has persisted for decades. It is not explained by socioeconomic disparities. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported in 1998 that white students from households with incomes of $10,000 or less score better on the SAT than black students from households with incomes of $80,000 to $100,000. In 2015, students with family incomes of $20,000 or less (a category that includes all racial groups) scored higher on average on the math SAT than the average math score of black students from all income levels…
Those who rail against “white privilege” as a determinant of academic achievement have a nagging problem: Asians. Asian students outscore white students on the SAT by 100 points; they outscore blacks by 277 points. It is not Asian families’ economic capital that vaults them to the top of the academic totem pole; it is their emphasis on scholarly effort and self-discipline. Every year in New York City, Asian elementary school students vastly outperform every other racial and ethnic group on the admissions test for the city’s competitive public high schools, even though a disproportionate number of them come from poor immigrant families.
Somewhat related, on racism as an excuse. And related to that, on the absurd and rather sinister Implicit Association Test.
Christopher Rufo on Seattle’s progressive garbage policies:
Rather than take additional steps to remove illegal encampments, officials have chosen to accept, and even enable, them. The city council recently launched a pilot programme to offer weekly garbage-pickup services to ten of the more than 400 encampments, promoting the illusion that these illegal tent cities are just like any other neighbourhood. The programme has been a failure. According to a Seattle Times report, campers returned only 26 percent of the trash bags that the city distributed and “even some of the ones returned had been ripped apart by people looking for needles with a bit of heroin left.”
When the local seafood is testing positive for opioids, it’s probably fair to say that something is awry.
And because I’m only human, one from The Onion:
Saying their once-beloved viewers have lost much of their lustre in recent years, Game Of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff acknowledged Friday they have been frustrated with the way fans of the HBO series have declined in quality over the past few seasons.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
That’s a pretty strange position to assume if the idea you’re trying to get across is “No sex for you.”
I imagine our U. S. government, which prefers importing temps to making new citizens, is quite pleased about the Lysistrata revival.
I have a full day ahead. Could somebody throw some raw meat into the pickled “egg” cage? Maybe that fireman has some left that he doesn’t want.
You know, if I was in a job where I might be deployed to a disaster area, and I was on a special diet, I think I’d keep a week’s worth of shelf-stable food ready to take with me, rather than assuming the disaster area would be able to accommodate me. Firemen rescue people. This guy’s too dumb to be entrusted with human life. I think they ought to move him out of the field and into the office.
Before I go, a quick question. Would a modern-day liberal-arts college student be likely to know about the Gordian knot? I read some time back that about half of them don’t know when WW II was fought, so I’m not assuming anything.
Why bother with Mozart, when you’ve got Stormzy?
In fairness, I don’t recall Mozart or Bach writing monotonous ditties about “getting freaky in the sheets” and “finishing with a facial.”
You know, for school.
“Fuck the government” and boasting about being able to “take your chick” presumably constitute those “social issues” that our taxpayer-funded ‘charity’ is praising Mr Stormzy for raising, ever so bravely.
David – I finally was able to watch the Everything and Nothing documentary recommended here, and it was slightly mind blowing with lots of what-ifs flying through my head. Thanks!
However the biggest “what-if” came to me when the presenter was describing the chain of philosophers and scientists that lead to these amazing discoveries, and how it all seemed to come to a stop in the early 1900s: imagine the world we would have now if we’d managed to avoid WW1 and were able to more-or-less peacefully transition from the romantic colonial to the modern industrial era? The decades preceding the Great War were definitely tumultuous but managed to produce outrages genius – and from all walks of life to boot.
Maybe I’m just sick of being stuck in the Clown World Timeline.
This guy’s too dumb to be entrusted with human life.
Maybe not dumb, but certainly a smug, self-entitled nitwit with an overinflated impression of his worth and importance. I knew an orthodox Rabbi who would either pick out kosher stuff (or eat non-kosher rations if kosher weren’t available) and not bitch about it, understanding as he did the concept of having to do expedient things in trying circumstances. Perhaps veganism is a more powerful religion.
I think they ought to move him out of the field and into the office.
Nah, into the unemployment line maybe, in the office he would only screw things up for everyone else, I am sure the other firemen would be delighted to have nothing but soy burgers out in the field.
I finally was able to watch the Everything and Nothing documentary recommended here,
[ Taps watch, rolls eyes. ]
Maybe I’m just sick of being stuck in the Clown World Timeline.
Testify, brother. Testify.
Why bother with Mozart, when you’ve got Stormzy?
. . . . symphonies of the . . . . composer . . . .
Hmm. So for swapping in rap instead of, say, Mozart, when noting a specific instance of rap, what does that melody sound like when transposed to a piano or harp, so that rap can be given a fair assessment in comparison to the music?
. . . when noting a specific instance of rap, what does that melody sound like when transposed to a piano or harp . . .
An old observation; Presenting the world’s most boring sight gag, Liberace Plays Rap!!!
So we have the stage lit up with lights, the piano covered in sequins, the candelabra, himself comes sweeping out in a sea of feathers and more sequins, big smile, aaaaand, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink . . . . . . .
Talk about a one note performance. Literally.
imagine the world we would have now if we’d managed to avoid WW1 and were able to more-or-less peacefully transition from the romantic colonial to the modern industrial era?
But would we have learned anything?
But would we have learned anything?
Well…did we learn the main lesson of the 20th century – that governments are the single biggest threat to human liberty and prosperity? Or did we learn that big governments/organizations can accomplish anything, given enough power and influence?
Did we learn to preserve what is best from the past while incrementally changing for the better, or did we smash everything and learn to hate ourselves?
I’ll admit that I don’t know much about the history of Veganism, but I’m pretty sure it WAS invented by white people. Because only middle and upper class westerners . . . . and their entire lifestyle depends on it.
Oh, this cluster of affectatious spasming isn’t particularly “white” and definitely is not upper class, and goes back to at least the early nineteen empties. This round of the particular mindset first congealed when declaring they were to be called “preppys”, and then extended from there. Such a behavioral fiasco has nothing at all recent or original about it. There are identical and well documented parallel instances of frantically demanding pointless and unworkable attention based on behavior or acquisition in French colonial Congo with the sapeurs, and all of the behavior is merely bog standard cargo cult posing and posturing . . . .
Hipster, chav, preppy, [insert latest term here], sloane, yuppy, yob, all merely being absolutely the same behavior of I do or have [fad Stuff], therefore everyone is required to openly and repeatedly declare me to be utterly wonderful, fawn over me endlessly, and enable my delusions even more . . .
And, no, the [hipster . . .preppy] is not upper class, upper class is the entirely different mindset. This lot is merely a product of improved manufacturing of lower cost Stuff and behavior as driven by marketing—and thus these posers can choose to do all that behavior based on and enabled by that manufacturing and easy access.
Regardless of personal DNA of any mix, this lot is entirely the lowest of the middle class and—again, with those advances in manufacturing and advertising—sometimes working class . . .
what does that melody sound like when transposed to a piano or harp,
A few years ago, there was a televised celebration of Bond film music with a full orchestra and Honor Blackman as host. It was varying degrees of fun until they got to Madonna’s contribution for Die Another Day, which, when orchestrated, sounded comically thin and weedy in comparison.
I’m surprised they haven’t called for the banning of the word ample yet.
Looking at their website, you’d think the ethnic make-up of Britain was much the same as that of Soweto. Until, of course, you come to the (lengthy) staff page, which is full of lily-white types who look like they wouldn’t survive a 3 week soy drought.
*Applause*
That’s magnificent.
It is also functions as a omni-purpose response to so much of the shite being pushed by Govt, “charities” and large corporations proclaiming their “wokeness”.
Would a modern-day liberal-arts college student be likely to know about the Gordian knot?
No. Being a software developer, I work with a fair number of twenty-somethings on a day-to-day basis. They’ve routinely commented that they have to Google half of the things I say. I’ll accept that when it’s references to things like Gordius’ knot or Procrustes’ bed (look, I did minor in Classical Studies) but when it’s things like idempotency or ACID compliance I weep for the future.
. . . until they got to Madonna’s contribution for Die Another Day, which, when orchestrated, sounded comically thin and weedy in comparison.
Oh.
Dear.
My.
. . . there was a televised celebration of . . . music with a full orchestra and . . .
Does bring to mind the 2003 concert done with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, where the guest artist for that occasion was Kiss.
One can definitely see the orchestra musicians quite having fun with the entire idea . . . .
APNewsBreak: Theme park to star ‘Hunger Games,’ ‘Twilight’
I predict that once through the gates—and thus locked in—customers will be issued bows and sharpened stake arrows, will be told that there are no food stands of any variety, and that the only source of something to eat must be hunted down and killed and is Tinkerbell(1).
(1)Well, let us consider the core details of such textual and cinematic concepts as Breaking Wind, The Twit Saga, Parts Wee And Twee.
In The Twit Saga we have entities who:
Are fixated on adolescents, early teens.
Float through the air.
Glitter.
Are recurringly seen in daylight.
. . . . Vampire. My. Ass.
That is Tinkerbell.
Those who rail against “white privilege” as a determinant of academic achievement have a nagging problem: Asians. Asian students outscore white students on the SAT by 100 points; they outscore blacks by 277 points. It is not Asian families’ economic capital that vaults them to the top of the academic totem pole; it is their emphasis on scholarly effort and self-discipline.
Inter alia.
David, your spam filter is being capricious again. Could you check it for a reply I sent earlier for me, please, and free it? Thanks.
Nothing in the spam filter. Try again?
Right, time to be horizontal. Play nicely. Use coasters.
Oh, bother. I’d really rather not try again. It was quite a long reply, and why I was hoping it was stuck in the spam filter. Oh well.
“Pioneers of gender equality…”.
I thought David would NEVER go to bed.
Popcorn ball fight, everybody!
Saying their once-beloved viewers have lost much of their lustre in recent years, Game Of Thrones showrunners . . . .
Pentagon forms community of disinterest to plan Iran war
“I’ll admit that I don’t know much about the history of Veganism, but I’m pretty sure it WAS invented by white people.”
It goes back a fair way in a few cultures, Buddhist and Hindu mostly.
As it turns out, these traditional vegans were usually unwitting meat-eaters, getting proteins from the unseen moths and aphids that gathered on their food. Western standards of hygiene tends to eliminate such pests, though, hence the western vegans dependence on the sad protein pill….!
I read some time back that about half of them don’t know when WW II was fought, so I’m not assuming anything.
The modern university student is, what, 20?, so born about 2000. WWII ended 55 years prior to that. Not only do they not have parents that fought, they have grandparents that didn’t fight. Most of them will never have talked to a person that did serve. I have met almost no-one that served. I’m 55. (My granddad did serve, but he died before I was born.)
If we take people aged 65, and ask about a war fought equivalently earlier, the result would be that most of them could not tell you when it was fought. In my country (NZ), I would be amazed if most 65 year-olds could name the dates of the Boer War accurately. How many Americans could date accurately the equivalent wars of their time, such as the Spanish-American war (actually, I would suspect that most 60 year-olds would tell you that the US has never fought Spain).
It’s all very well saying that WWII is important. But you thinking it is important doesn’t actually make it so. It really is ancient history to young people.
Well, I’m pushing 60 and I know when the U.S.Civil War was fought.
Speaking of war, I am sorry to bring up Game of Thrones, but I read the books and I did wonder if the TV show let Tyrion make his great rouse-the-troops speech, which I enjoyed. Whoever was attacking King’s Landing was heading up the river, and Tyrion’s speech to the troops went something like “They’re coming to destroy our town, enslave our families, kick our puppies, and barbecue our kittens, so follow me and let’s go kill those bastards!” Best dialogue in the whole sordid saga.
Daniel, I hope you don’t weep; I never heard of idempotency (although I think they have pills for it these days) and whatever that other thing was.
So how do the young sprouts complain when they find themselves in a Procrustean bed?
I hope they don’t think the sword of Damocles is a TV show.
Right, voting done, ephemera compiled, and the sun is shining. Could be a good day.
Is that another Brexit election?
Is that another Brexit election?
In a manner of speaking.
Is that another Brexit election?
Brexit wasn’t able to manage to occur on March 29th, when it was originally scheduled, or on the extended sell-by date of April 12 . . . . at which point all noted that, well, Um, Ooops, even for those rather disapproving of the European Parliament, there was still going to be the elections of the Members of the European Parliament—MEPs . . .
I live opposite a polling station. It’s a beautiful day. So far, I would say voting has been quite a bit heavier than usual, tho’ not as busy as it was in 2016.
So far, I would say voting has been quite a bit heavier than usual,
The ladies at the local polling station were expecting a busy day.
Is that another Brexit election?
Lefties are assaulting pensioners now.
https://twitter.com/jeremydrysdale/status/1131502651882004481
Daniel, I hope you don’t weep; I never heard of idempotency
Well neither had I until RESTful services came along. TBH, I wouldn’t fault someone for not knowing much of any one specific thing in the software business beyond the fundamental basics. And as REST stuff hasn’t come up in my little area of work in the last two years or so, I kinda forgot about it myself until it was mentioned here. The SW biz has gotten so huge, there are so many new (and mostly useless) ideas coming along every 15 minutes, that I’m suspicious of anyone who claims to know sooo much of this crap off the top of their heads without a significant degree of cynicism. Off the top of my head I can’t give a reasonable explanation of many of the technologies on my resume. I need to look much of it up again before each interview. Some of that stuff I used regularly for a year or more. And I only have on my resume maybe 1/4 – 1/3 of the tech that I’ve used. I still get a brain freeze when asked to extemporaneously give an explanation of an inner vs. outer join, though I’ve written a few in my long ago past. But hey, I’m old. Though I would expect anyone under 30 or so in the business to know idempotency (heh…doesn’t even pass my spellcheck), and anyone older to grasp it at first explanation. Ignorance is curable. Often quite easily so. Stupidity, not so much.
Chester, no one’s arguing that WWII isn’t ‘ancient history’ to young adults and teenagers. What most of us would, I think, claim is that it’s a defective education that fails to teach this ‘ancient history’. After all, at school I learnt about quite a few major conflicts, from the Punic Wars (which really are ancient history) onwards.
By the way, Hal, re. an earlier post: chavs aren’t in the same semantic field as yuppy, Sloane, etc: chavs here in Blighty are working-class (or, often, non-working-class), not upper middle, characterised by heavy use of taboo language and public drunkenness (which admittedly doesn’t distinguish them much from their social superiors).
Lefties are assaulting pensioners now.
A WWII in his 80’s. At the polling place as a teller (poll watcher in America.) British Army, Parachute Regiment, retired from military in 80’s, wrote two books about his military experiences.
“chavs”
From “Council House And Violent”.
A radically different social category than “preppy” or “yuppie”.
Lefties are assaulting pensioners now.
In happier news, as the chap was determined to stay at his post, as it were, a member of the public bought him a new shirt.
Daniel, I hope you don’t weep; I never heard of idempotency (although I think they have pills for it these days) and whatever that other thing was.
We make web apps that use REST APIs backed by databases. These are fundamental skills for a web developer.
I hope they don’t think the sword of Damocles is a TV show.
Well, actually…
pst314: That’s folk etymology. The OED has: “Probably either < Romani čhavo unmarried Romani male, male Romani child (see chavvy n.), or shortened < either chavvy n. or its etymon Angloromani chavvy.
It has also been suggested that this word is a colloquial shortening of Chatham , the name of a town in Kent where the term is sometimes said to have originated (compare quots. 1998, 2002), although this is probably a later rationalization.”
A radically different social category than “preppy” or “yuppie”.
Guardian columnists get terribly upset if you use the word ‘chav’. Apparently, it’s “offensive to a largely voiceless group.” Though it seems to have escaped their attention that the word is most often used by working-class people to describe the kind of creatures they wouldn’t want living next door, or next door to their elderly parents. Which is to say, feckless and ill-mannered wasters, thugs and low-level sociopaths, and what might euphemistically be called “problem families.” The kinds of people who steal from their neighbours, play loud music at 3am, are often known by the police, and who, for entertainment, throw pets from upstairs windows.
But hey, victimhood.
“a largely voiceless group”
They’re hardly voiceless. On the contrary, they are obnoxiously loud. Gotta love those cute Grauniad writers and their pet savages.
It really is ancient history to young people.
So? That’s not an excuse for ignorance. Nor an excuse for education systems not to teach it. The flippin’ point of any education beyond learning basic readin, writin, ah-rith-mah-tic is to expose youngins and let them know of the wider world around them that existed and exists.
But there was a reason why slave owners didn’t want their slaves educated – the same reason much of the university system is set up to cripple their students.
pst314: That’s folk etymology.
Another clever idea, murdered by a cruel fact.
I suppose this is an example of the recurring lesson, “just because you read something in a blog or magazine does not make it true.”
They’re hardly voiceless. On the contrary, they are obnoxiously loud.
Jemima, Tom and Zoe seem to assume a usage exclusive to their own middle-class peers, when in fact it’s much more common to hear the term in less Guardian-friendly circles. I suspect the usage by working-class people also offends our fretful columnists because it draws a distinction between the respectable working class and the antisocial vermin that roam among them and make their lives a misery. A distinction that jars somewhat with leftist conceits about how poverty comes about.
just because you read something in a blog or magazine does not make it true
There are no lies in this here pub, only liars.
just because you read something in a blog…
You take that back. You take that back right now.
[ Faints with indignation. ]