Friday Ephemera
Simpler times. (h/t, Damian) || Trophy malfunction of note. (h/t, Julia) || “No Trump supporters.” || Getting to grips with a foreign tongue. || Snug. || Ideal gift for Julia. || Next best thing. || Now, about that bad day you’ve had… || Our betters impart their wisdom. We need reminding, you see. (h/t, Darleen) || Our betters impart their wisdom 2. || Unsupervised potatoes. || Pedal-powered at 590 feet. || Hardcore headline. || Crane use of note. || New York, 1930s. || Nommy nommy nom. || Nature sound map and wild ambience. (h/t, Things) || Bolero, on one cello. || These are some of those. || The thrill of sea slugs. || Silent-era film effects. || And finally, understandably, she feared its mighty power.
I once saw The Unsupervised Potatoes open for Rod Stewart.
I’d love a shelf full of the glass spiders.
Beltway pundit says “It’s time to stop feeling sorry for restaurants”.
Via Garbage Human and Orwell & Goode.
Getting to grips with a foreign tongue.
That was freakin hilarious!
“Nom! Rear, the rear! Gnaw, Jean Reno’s great rear!” was funny enough, but then the end – “Suck them off Avatar!” And the tail!
I’ve been hitting replay too many times.
“No Trump supporters.”
Seems superfluous.
Now, about that bad day you’ve had…
Jesu.
Now I want some handblown glass sea slugs too!
Toxic masculinity. (Actually toxic white masculinity.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3osMnq7XSvE
Morning, all.
Jesu.
It does rather throw into perspective those routine grumbles.
Beltway pundit says “It’s time to stop feeling sorry for restaurants”.
I recently learned how many city centre businesses will not be reopening after lockdown. I was quite shocked. I didn’t often visit the city centre as it was, but will now have, quite literally, no reason to do so. The cost of lockdown is about to become vividly apparent.
Now, about that bad day you’ve had…
God, for a minute I didn’t think it was real.
This is classic….
https://twitter.com/FlashMuellerF30/status/1375170227378475009?s=20
Vox is wildly misleading trash shock.
Trophy malfunction of note
Ha ha ha ha…I needed that laugh, thank you!
I needed that laugh, thank you!
Proof, if more were needed, that Julia has a filthy mind.
Ian Miles Cheong brings us a glimpse of a bold new Marvel comic book, though I am not at all sure what is going on; “…Yeah, this campus is a safe space…”, “…For everyone but you!”.
“…Yeah, this campus is a safe space…”, “…For everyone but you!”
And again, the same pattern. It’s not just the ludicrous, adolescent, utterly predictable politics. It’s the tin-eared, ham-fisted, cack-handed delivery of the ludicrous, adolescent, utterly predictable politics. It’s all shoehorned in and foregrounded, as if it were a selling feature, but done so ineptly. And so, when you hear how woke some new “creative talent” is, the things that you can assume will not be on offer are deftness and subtlety.
Traffic problems.
“…Yeah, this campus is a safe space…”, “…For everyone but you!”
Are we sure that’s not a parody of SJWs? Reads like a pisstake to me.
How to do funk music in two minutes:
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1375122593318064136
Via:
https://twitter.com/DamCou
Are we sure that’s not a parody of SJWs? Reads like a pisstake to me.
Reads like sjw Overton window control. They seem to realize that they’ve pushed things to the edge for now. Time to take a step back and look like “reasonable” people by saying canceling people is ok, but killing them is not. Which will be the new meaning of “tolerance”. Those others who call for the killing are the extremists. Those just canceling people are the new normal. They are showing restraint. Until sufficient time passes and they can move on to just killing those who oppose them. In that future time eating them (or some other “far” extreme) will be the bridge too far. It’s how we got to where we are today. Wake up.
Next best thing.
Buried lede: this is why I’m suspicious of the whole “muh repreezentashun” thing. That kid doesn’t care that Anthony Mackie’s black. He just thinks the Falcon is cool.
Which is one of the reasons I’m not jazzed about Sam taking up the shield and becoming the new Cap; Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson is just a cool character design with a lot of story potential. He’s one of the few Marvel characters who doesn’t have any superpowers, in a community full of people who can leap small buildings and lift tanks. You could do a lot with that.
Are we sure that’s not a parody of SJWs?
The problem with SJW writers is that to them, any thought to the right of Stalin is self-evidently foolish and risible. Their right-wing straw men – Archie Bunker, Ron Swanson, Fake Ann Coulter, President Forrest – reiterate entirely mainstream conservative rhetoric. The result is that the audience, generally more centrist than the writers, ends up identifying with the right-wing straw man.
Nothing Fake Ann Coulter says in that comic is inaccurate – El Falcon is an illegal immigrant, there are scholarship programs available only to illegal immigrants and Hispanic students, and he is, legally, a citizen of another country that he can return to any time he wants. And barging on to the stage to disrupt a scheduled event because you have an axe to grind is a massive dick move.
As for the Bombshells – Marvel has been pretty badly rocked by ComicsGate and the aftermath, and some of the writers are starting to try to draw a distinction between their Good, Righteous and Sensible left-wing nuttery and the Extreme, Illogical and ridiculous left-wing nuttery. It’s not working, though (note Cheong is joking when he says a writer was cancelled for writing those panels; the writer is Nick Spencer, who is still employed at Marvel writing The Amazing Spider-Man).
Reads like sjw Overton window control
That. Marvel has long since ceased to be an entertainment company and has been all in on propaganda for years now.
Which will be the new meaning of “tolerance”. Those others who call for the killing are the extremists. Those just canceling people are the new normal. They are showing restraint. Until sufficient time passes and they can move on to just killing those who oppose them.
If only we had an appropriate term for human punching bags whose unbelief is conditionally permitted by a righteous state, for the sake of the contained unbelievers’ usefulness as economic producers and as a psychological vent for disatisfied and malicious believers.
I’m a bit of a WWII buff so I’m rather surprised I hadn’t heard this story before. I have heard of WWII airmen (or maybe just one airman) bailing out of aircraft without a parachute or the parachute didn’t open and they survived. I had not heard this story about a tailgunner riding the tail to the ground until I saw the video on Ace’s ONT. I still found it hard to believe I hadn’t seen it so I looked it up further. Here’s the guy’s obituary:
https://www.swnews4u.com/obituaries/eugene-p-moran/
Before seeing it on Ace, had anyone here heard of this? Seems like it would have been/should have been a movie or more publicized in some manner.
“The problem with SJW writers is that to them, any thought to the right of Stalin is self-evidently foolish and risible. Their right-wing straw men…”
That reminds me: Somebody recently mentioned Harlan Ellison, which led me to locate one of his essays so that I could be sure of what he had (and had not) said. In the course of that search I saw a few others in which he demonized conservatives, Christians, defenders of the right of individuals to own firearms, and so on. In a short essay purportedly about political correctness, the only examples he gave were demons of the right such as Jesse Helms, suggesting to me that he could not bring himself to admit that there were leftists who sought to silence those they disagreed with.
bailing out of aircraft without a parachute or the parachute didn’t open
I remember one who landed in a thick snowbank, possible also cushioned by fir trees. Yikes.
The result is that the audience, generally more centrist than the writers, ends up identifying with the right-wing straw man.
See also Col. Nathan R. Jessup, Commanding Officer, Marine Ground Forces, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. You can’t handle the truth. Similar with songs like Born in the U.S.A. and American Woman. The latter of which was nearly used as walk-on music for Laura Bush at an event. Or so I was told. I’ve gotten to the point where I regard virtually every piece of information I receive as probably being a lie, no matter what the spin. I get rather frustrated with my conservative…”conservative” friends when they fail to grasp how much of the rah-rah America stuff in our culture is really left-wing, Overton Window moving propaganda. I try to point these things out, but restrain myself to only doing so when they come up naturally where they are being misunderstood. They then get mad at me. Like I’m inventing this shit. Because they can’t handle the truth. But this is why we are where we are.
Though TBF, I was similar myself in regard to the Starship Troopers movie. Though never having read the book, I still think it works as camp and will share the shit out of any version of the “It’s afraid” meme. If it suits my purpose.
New York, 1930s.
Note the absence of trash in the gutters, paper or trash around the buildings or shrubs and Dept. of Sanitation trash cans about every couple of blocks (all standing upright, no graffiti).
Maybe because it’s down 5th Avenue, but I still found it remarkably clean.
Reads like sjw Overton window control
I am certain you are correct: that is the inherent nature of leftism.
In a short essay purportedly about political correctness, the only examples he gave were demons of the right such as Jesse Helms, suggesting to me that he could not bring himself to admit that there were leftists who sought to silence those they disagreed with.
Anyone familiar with a certain Cass B. Sunstein and his book It Can Happen Here? Picked it up a the library yesterday. The leftist projection in the opening introduction/forward was stunning. I planned to share it here but no time right now to retype it. Maybe later, but if anyone is familiar it might save me the effort.
New York, 1930s.
Note the absence of trash in the gutters…no graffiti…
We are fascists for noticing this and asking why our cities are now so filthy.
Their right-wing straw men – Archie Bunker, Ron Swanson, Fake Ann Coulter, President Forrest…
I was recently re-watching Dennis Potter’s Cold Lazarus and the solid central idea isn’t helped by his need to caricature the class of people that he saw as evil in real life. By depicting the story’s two business moguls as crass pantomime characters with no goal or argument beyond cartoonish greed, he basically cheats. It’s a dramatic short-cut, a way to score points without risking comeback.
Anyone familiar with a certain Cass B. Sunstein and his book It Can Happen Here? Picked it up a the library yesterday. The leftist projection in the opening introduction/forward was stunning.
I have not read it, but I’ve glanced at Sunstein’s introduction. I agree that the leftist projection is stunning and instructive. Note that Sunstein poses as a libertarian but has a history of favoring government “nudging” of the citizenry into making the “right choices”.
bailing out of aircraft without a parachute or the parachute didn’t open
Which makes me think of pleasanter things, namely Pressburger and Powell’s 1946 classic A Matter Of Life And Death, in which bomber pilot David Niven bales out of his badly-damaged Lancaster and… but that would give it all away.
Find it and watch it, a wonderful film.
Has everybody seen the cheat cards that Joe Biden used at his press conference? Complete with names and photos of those journalists whose questions he would answer? Note also the silence of almost all American news outlets.
God, for a minute I didn’t think it was real.
Here’s the rest of the story.
Though TBF, I was similar myself in regard to the Starship Troopers movie. Though never having read the book, [….]
Well, you’ve done it in the correct order. Having read the book, I had absolutely no doubt that the movie would totally bleep up the story.
Since you didn’t read the book, you can enjoy the movie. Judging from your comments here, I suspect that you’ll like the book; albeit not as camp.
BTW, the director didn’t read the book either.
Note the absence of trash…
And the difference in architecture, both near and distant.
We are fascists for noticing this and asking why our cities are now so filthy.
It was all part of the plan.
Somebody recently mentioned Harlan Ellison…
Good writer. Better jackass.
Reading “Boomers” by Helen Andrews — a book inspired by “Eminent Victorians” — was fantastically instructive and depressing. The Al Sharpton chapter, with its accounts of blackmailing American businesses into paying him money to silence his “racism” accusations, reminded me of “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers,” that seminal essay by Tom Wolfe, that showed that back in the Sixties, the practice of “transformational politics” was gaining power over “transactional politics.”
In transactional politics, the political machines controlled the cities. Like a feudal fiefdom, they traded favors for votes. Ward heelers who could command blocks of votes could receive favors to pass along. It was a corrupt system, but it benefitted people up and down the chain.
In transformational politics, leaders with no real constituency gain power in the media, and win benefits that they largely keep to themselves. They destroy the system for their benefit, then move along to the next target.
We’ve reached the point where it has metastasized to a nationwide, imitative campaigns. People at the bottom no longer benefit; they’re the object of money-draining taxes and fines. The organizations which control the votes have grown so powerful, and so sophisticated, that they can imprint whatever narrative on voters they want (which is why we’re, as pst314 points out, few people know how Robotic Joe Biden works), and soon they won’t need voters at all. We pretend to vote, and the machine reports the result they want.
pst314 — even the cheat cards didn’t help
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA >>>Here <<<< HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH :::deep breath::: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
People at the bottom no longer benefit; they’re the object of money-draining taxes and fines. The organizations which control the votes have grown so powerful, and so sophisticated, that they can imprint whatever narrative on voters they want
For the benefit of those who did not waste their callow youth on a Classics degree, this is exactly how the tribunes usurped power from the Roman tribes. This led to increasing concentration of power in the hands of the upper classes.
Whether Gaius Iulius Caesar is Trump or Biden is left as an exercise for the reader.
Since you didn’t read [Starship Troopers], you can enjoy the movie
I’ve read the book and seen the movie. The movie works quite well as an in-your-face to the idiots who claim the book is fascist, or jingoistic, or something. IF they’re going to deliberately, grossly misrepresent your position, there’s little point in trying to defend yourself. Just double down on their cartoonish version of your position and use it to mock them.
It’s a dramatic short-cut, a way to score points without risking comeback.
Funny enough it was, I think, Ann Coulter who said about leftwing hollywood preaching: “they cannot win arguments or make valid points based on reality, so they retreat to a medium where they control all the variables” (heavily paraphrased)
Bolero, on one cello.
It’s not everyday you see a mainstream parody of a p0rn concept, rather more often the other way around.
Trump was the Gracchii – the dissident patrician who tried to reform a failing system before it was too late, only to be destroyed by a corrupt establishment which profits handsomely from the decaying hulk of the Republic. Biden is no one in particular, I think – if anything he’s an early Empire trope, the doddering aristocrat installed by the Praetorian Guard who will be swept aside when someone offers the Guard a bigger donative.
Who will be our Marius, I wonder?
Today in racism, pedestrianism.
The Secretary quotes a website where I think they missed seeing the problem
The Secretary quotes a website where I think they missed seeing the problem
“People walking in lower-income neighborhoods are also killed far more often. The lower a metro area’s median household income, the more dangerous its streets are likely to be for people walking.”
No mention of the behavioral factors, such as more reckless behavior by pedestrians and drivers.
No mention of the behavioral factors, such as more reckless behavior by pedestrians and drivers.
Like the guy jaywalking and the one walking in the middle of the road they have in their first picture ? Nope, we must re-engineer all roads to compensate for dumbassery, it is the equitable thing. Or something.
if anything he’s an early Empire trope, the doddering aristocrat installed by the Praetorian Guard who will be swept aside when someone offers the Guard a bigger donative
So Claudius, then?
I tend to see Trump more as an Aurelian figure – fully comfortable with the infrastructure he inherited, while trying to harken back to a mythical Republican era.
So Claudius, then?
It pleases me that these threads can accommodate allusions to antiquity and knob jokes.
Today in racism, pedestrianism
I refuse to believe there are enough American Indian[1]/Alaskan Natives to produce those numbers. They’re only 0.8% of the population. Is every Indian in the US constantly flinging themselves in front of passing motor vehicles?
[1] “Painted savages.”
“Snug” – that wouldn’t be made out of marshmallows, would it? Sta-Puft marshmallows? It has a very “head of the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters” air…