I’m Sensing Unease

“Everyone understands English, but nobody understands England.”
Until I saw Juncker’s name, I read that aphorism with the opposite of its intended meaning. I thought it must have been a quote from say George Orwell or G.K. Chesterton arguing that the nation states of Europe have diverse, complex, deeply-rooted cultures that can only partially be understood by outsiders and globalists.

I didn’t walk barefoot, you understand.
Was that because, as an eevil colonist, you had stolen Kumar’s shoes? 😀

the Thompson Compound
Band name.

Running a marathon is now unprogressive.
The braincrap in that piece is packed so densely that I’m amazed it hasn’t formed a sort of po-mo singularity. This in particular stood out:

As cultural critic Mark Greif aptly explains in his 2017 essay Against Exercise, the gym-goer may be a ‘solitary evangelist’ but the runner is most insidious because they take proselytising out of the gym and into the public sphere.

Now, the runners of my acquaintance just run. They don’t preach, they don’t browbeat — hell, they barely interact with the world at all. They just plug in the earbuds and run. To the extent that the simple act of running serves as a sort of guilt-inducing example to others, well, I just don’t see it. Quite the opposite, in fact. Every time I see a runner in the city, it looks as though he or she is suffering horribly. It’s more of a cautionary tale than a guilt trip.
So, not only is this Greif character completely full of excrement, but young Ms. Bennett quotes him as authoritative. Evidently, we’re supposed to be impressed that she has read this joker’s work and regurgitated it for our benefit. Little wonder that her skills with rhetoric are so deficient, if this is the diet she was educated upon. I’m tempted to bookmark the piece in case I ever need a handy example of a 23-year-old child aching to be accepted as an intellectual.
As for the whole “proselytising in the public sphere” thing, I can only say that it’s obvious that they don’t teach self-awareness in the Art History programme at Monash.

“Family”
https://twitter.com/ScottMGreer/status/1202603989503807490

“Social justice is climate justice”
Is there nothing, not even weather, that can’t be shoved into the intersectionality-we-all-be-victims event horizon?

Is there nothing, not even weather, that can’t be shoved into the intersectionality-we-all-be-victims event horizon?
Darleen, I’m getting you one of these:

Reading the op-ed linked from Darleen’s post is not something I’d recommend unless you have a bottle of bourbon or ibuprofen close at hand.
This paragraph, in particular, is a real doozy:

When one of these storms strikes, the affluent have no problem taking time off work to prepare their families for an impromptu vacation, and either jump in their car or even catch a flight to spend some time at a hotel where it’s safe. Many households who live on the economic margins are left behind before and after disasters strike.

Sounds like a good reason to work at becoming affluent. What’s the average wage for a professional Climate Protestor these days?

Folks in low-income communities, meanwhile, have to stay and work as many days as possible, before finding their way (without a car) to a likely overcrowded shelter.

Which is why we all need to give up our cars, of course. Also, how overcrowded will the shelters be when all the formerly-affluent families are forced to stay there?

(Assuming they’re welcome in the shelters, which are often churches. And while many people of faith welcome all comers, religious institutions traditionally haven’t been particularly welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community, to put it mildly.)

Poppycock! I’ve never seen a church group turn away anybody in their hour of need. You really think there’s some kind of intake form, where you have to prove your hetero status before you’re given dinner and a bedroll? Just because the church grannies don’t approve of your lifestyle decisions doesn’t mean they’re monsters who will happily let you drown. Get over yourself already.
And that’s just one paragraph! It gets so tiresome, playing whack-a-mole with these lazy assertions all the time.

Poppycock! I’ve never seen a church group turn away anybody in their hour of need. You really think there’s some kind of intake form, where you have to prove your hetero status before you’re given dinner and a bedroll?
PBS is always ready to defame those it disagrees with.
But maybe I am being too harsh: Maybe PBS means that the churches are oppressing gays by not allowing them to have sex on the alter and use the crucifix as a toy.

Let me be the first to thank our host for giving us a little reminder of the delicious Jill St. John. The 1970s were most definitely not all bad.

The 1970s were most definitely not all bad.
The 1970s did give us two of the worst James Bond films though. The pictured film (Diamonds are Forever) is a pretty weak and campy cheese-fest, and Moonraker’s even worse. Both are redeemed slightly by the excellent-as-always set design by Ken Adam, and the brilliant scores of John Barry – the upbeat, jazzy one from Diamonds are Forever and the lush, sweeping melodic string lines of Moonraker. And, bad as it is, even I have to admit that Moonraker has perhaps the best double entendre: “‘My god, what’s Bond doing?!’ – ‘I think he’s attempting re-entry, sir!'” out of all the Bond movies.

This is too flippin’ funny!
You’ve gotta hear it!

Well then, we certainly can’t have nukes.
Source here:
https://twitter.com/zackkanter/status/1201259377816027138
He then tweeted:
“Isn’t it beautiful to see the left and right united? Let’s build us some nuclear power plants, friends.”
and:
“Difficult to logically reconcile ‘climate change is a priority’ with ‘no nuclear power.’ “