Friday Ephemera

About 20 years ago in PRC, looking at all the “new” construction of basic city commercial / apartment buildings in Kunming, Xian, and some other places (all same, enormous quantities) 3-d gridwork of steel reinforced concrete, ten stories high. Street level was all garage-size retail shops. Above that, every “grid” (roughly 10’x10′) on the facade was filled in with unreinforced brick-and-mortar, some with windows.
So this Californian is looking up ten floors at expanses of bricks, just waiting to fall. And of course the steel was (visibly) inadequate in quantity, and probably lousy as reinforcement, too. This in Kunming, not too far from the N. Vietnam border. FAMOUS for its mountainous cliffs rising sheer from farm fields. That is to say, tectonically active. Scared the crap out of me.

Every parent will relate.

Important developments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In one issue that unfolded during the Nixon administration, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with the villainous Dr. Doom to discuss a non-aggression agreement with Doom’s Latveria, an eastern European nation. Kissinger would later intercede, ordering the Fantastic Four to back off during an invasion of Latveria territory.

Children are not nunchucks.
What the hell?

This.
Via Darleen.

That can’t be real…
Apparently, it was. In Russia, unsurprisingly.

It’s Christmas season, Australian style. Please send all your snow memes.
If you guys didn’t deliberately go out of your way to have your seasons backwards, this wouldn’t be an issue now, would it ?
Meanwhile in London, once again virtue signalers don’t quite think things through as they make a road “emissions free”.

Petrol and diesel cars are set to be completely banned from a busy London street under plans for Britain’s first 24-hour zero-emissions road…This would allow air quality and traffic to be monitored as the plans to help “eliminate toxic air” get under way, it said.

I am not a London expert, but looking at a map this Beech Street is about 1000ft between where it is Long Lane to the west, and Chiswell Street to the east, and mostly under some sort of plaza that connects the north and south parts of this Barbican Estates complex. Again looking at a map, anyone who wants to use a real car, or even a Robin Reliant, to get where they would have gotten on Beech, now has to divert about a mile on a circuitous route either north or south.
Unless I miss my mark, that will create more emissions, and they have a force field they haven’t told us about, how that is going to “eliminate toxic air” for the rich folks who live in the Barbican Estates seems a bit of a mystery.

For fitness enthusiasts, a lower back workout.
I’m studying the video closely. For fitness.

For fitness enthusiasts, a lower back workout.
My back doesn’t go down that far, David.

Someone nudge Mike. He’s getting a distant look in his eyes.

Not for the faint-hearted,
“Gobbled up.”

Jingle Bells.
Further proof that in [current year] you can entertain millions and possibly become rich by simply filming yourself while bored. A truly great time to be alive!

Prophesy of note.

Prophesy of note.
Dick Tracy has that beat by seven years. 😉

This comes from decades of the Left taking over education
While I wholeheartedly agree that we need to root out the Left from education root and stem, it does beg the question of how our mighty republic thrived when most of the population could not read, much less were educated in civics. I think the answer will have something to do “personal responsibility”, as in fully responsible for one’s healthcare, welfare, children, children’s education, etc.

Does anyone here read reason online or print? It’s been sad to see it go from a refreshing, tastefully snarky but level-headed libertarian publication to a barely concealed soft-leftist cheer squad with occasional libertarian outbursts.
Case in point: a video titled “Impeaching Bad Presidents Should Be No Big Deal”
Damnit reason, every bit of that title is silly so you’ve lost me already. Of course impeachment is a big deal. Something like half of voters will oppose it and half will be gleeful, but everyone will consider it a “big deal”. But more importantly, the notion that a president is “bad” is the very damn thing under debate you overgrown children. Unless of course we live in the North Virgina/DC bubble and take it as writ that ORANGE MAN BAD lest our cocktail intake diminish.
Oh well, at least the Remy videos are funny.

“”pillow fight” … now officially homophobic.”
What the actual fuck? I’m going to guess that there may be some overlap between the people who declared this and the ones with votes in Farnsworth’s link.
“reason”
Ironically, the British Spiked, which can trace its lineage back to Living Marxism, is now a much more level-headed and – ahem – reasonable advocate of libertarian thought.

It’s been sad to see it go from a refreshing, tastefully snarky but level-headed libertarian publication to a barely concealed soft-leftist cheer squad with occasional libertarian outbursts.
Show of hands, who saw that coming? Mememememememememe. Anyone else? Bueller?
Libertarianism, for all it’s potential use, is a joke. It mostly consists of people who only object to government because government requires non-professional electricians and plumbers to work to code, makes them pay taxes, and/or gets between them and the next pot shipment. I have yet to meet a Libertarian with any sense or grasp of social responsibility. Freedom only works amongst people who are willing to put in some extra effort, stick their necks out just a litte for others. Like toddlers, libertarians won’t really stand for anything that isn’t about them getting what they want. So if society (whomever they see as the grownups) applies a little pressure, a little ridicule, a little serious intimidation, so long as they hold out that ‘but we’ll legalize pot’ thing, plays the ‘be good and Mommy will give you a cookie’, Libertarians will fold like wet cardboard.

WTP – I consider myself a libertarian and your understanding of the philosophy is the boilerplate misrepresentation coming from both conservative and liberal statists alike. Like a toddler, you believe social responsibility is doing whatever mommy government compels you to do, and have no grasp of personal agency and the massive responsibility it entails*.
Though you and Darleen’s point about wet libertarians (or the far, far more common libertarians-of-convenience seen on both right and left) is spot on, though I’d remind both of you that folding under pressure from the Left is par for the course for any and all political stripes it seems. Any institution not explicitly right wing etc etc etc.
*I don’t think you actually believe that but figured I’d join in on the disingenuous reductive turd flinging.

Like a toddler, you believe social responsibility is doing whatever mommy government compels you to do,
I’ve never seen WTP advocate government impose “social responsibility”. Between libertine and Big Gov exists what the Founding Fathers wanted – a small, limited Fed government and allowances for experimentation on local/state levels.
AND they expected a robust, religious population that would cover the “social responsibility” part. But I’ve also notice a fair number of libertarians mock religion as much as the Leftcult does.
We can either control ourselves as individuals or the government will do it. As religion has lost its influence within society, do we have more or less authoritarian rules (statutes, business codes, college codes of conduct, etc) covering personal behavior — “sex harassment” in the workplace? speech codes? pro-noun use? etc?

your understanding of the philosophy
I’m not talking so much about the philosophy, the simple aspects that are easily understood, as I am the implementation. My sense is that the implementation fails because without religion society falls back to a government imposed “social responsibility”. Which is the worst kind.

Agree in practice. Again because of the lack of religious backbone involved. And I say this as someone only marginally religious because…religion itself has failed. First it failed to adapt to science when science had answers that religion didn’t want to hear, then it failed a second time (today) by going all wet-noodle out of a fear of becoming totally irrelevant due to its prior failure. Well that and, as much as I hate to say it, it becoming a safe haven for thieves and child molesters. Though it seems our schools (government) have yet again stepped up to fill that role. Sigh…A circle in a spiral of an ever spinning wheel.
Just for background on where I’m coming from, if you hold a gun to my head and MAKE me say some words that describe some sort of political philosophy, it would be “Classical Liberal”. I’m not one for personality cults and reserve my right to disagree with anyone about anything, no matter how highly I might otherwise think of them but Thomas Sowell and, lately somewhat, Jordan Peterson do a good job. Though of course I’m in pretty good company here saying that.
…hopefully that’s flushed out. Gotta go.

Not sure what happened there but italics start where I thought I had quoted
” I’d remind both of you that folding under pressure from the Left is par for the course for any and all political stripes it seems. Any institution not explicitly right wing etc etc etc.”
..now I’m really late…

“Every parent will relate.”
Heh. My son (now 27) used to freak out over the tag attached to the neck area of shirts. He’s mostly normal now.

My son (now 27) used to freak out over the tag attached to the neck area of shirts.
I spent more time than I care to recall carefully snipping out labels on from the neckline of blouses and sweaters for my girls. When looking for clothing for the grandkids I’ve noticed a lot more tops with info actually printed on the fabric instead of a label.
Blessed be the person who started that practice.

That video couldn’t be more Dog if it tried.
It is a bit like Dog Concentrate.