Friday Ephemera
The price of happiness. || Postmodern Pong. || Paragliding DJ. || The ideal male body. || Logo of note. || Have you licked your eyes today? || Clearly, his are way stretchier than yours. || The thrill of waxing (or, One Man’s Woes). || Nook-dweller detected. || When autogynephile men get off in ladies’ bathrooms. (Not, needless to say, suitable for work). || And nobody helps. || I’m not entirely sure what’s happening here. || Posh pad. Hit ‘walkthrough’ and turn left. (h/t, Julia) || The joys of public transport, part 4,868. || “It’s time to talk about my pronouns.” Because she’s just so damn fascinating. || The progressive retail experience, parts 440, 441, 442, and 443. || Only recruiting the cream. (h/t, pst314) || A cat’s conscience is at best intermittent. || First contact. || And finally, how Marvel shat the bed – one woman’s point of view.
Also, I now have a Twitter account.
In January 2016, the Shiv Sena demanded that the words “secular” and “socialist” be “permanently removed” from the Constitution’s Preamble
I like these guys more with each passing post.
Making India officially Hindu might be “problematic” given the multiplicity of religions, the reality of religious conflict, and the aggressive intolerance of Shiv Sena and other Hindu nationalist parties. From the 2011 census:
Hinduism 79.8%
Islam 14.2%
Christianity 2.3%
Sikhism 1.7%
Buddhism 0.7%
Tribal 0.5%
Jainism 0.4%
No religion 0.25%
Other 0.15%
(Not that Islam doesn’t have a well justified reputation as the most violently intolerant religion.)
The West was happy supplying massive arms aid…
“Happily” would misrepresent the situation: The only personal memory I have of the 1971 war was widespread horror at what East Pakistan was doing to West Pakistan.
Instead of “happily” you should think “grim necessities of Realpolitik”.
The key problem was that at the time India was strongly aligned with the Soviet Union, an aggressively imperialist genocidal tyranny against which the West was fighting its own Cold War of survival.
If only the people of India had not been so foolish as to embrace socialism and the Soviet Union.
What would David do without us heathen rabble?
[ Enjoys ham-and-egg breakfast conspicuously devoid of beans, while drinking coffee instead of tea. ]
“I think most of David’s readers do not hold the SNP in high regard”
When I compared that Indian local party to the SNP, did you think I was being complimentary? As an aside, for a long time I didn’t realise how malevolent the SNP truly is, before coming to the comments in places like this or the Speccy / Unherd.
“What the hell is wrong with you?
Calm down.”
Ha. Apologies, rhetorical line aimed at the quoted message, came out a bit aggressive and rude towards you.
“Please explain: How does he define it, and how is he wrong? And who else do you feel are his ilk?”
Check the dictionary definition of fascism, and other than the Shiv Sena’s petty, ethno-supremacist, “non-locals should be kicked out” ideology nothing else matches. My main beef is that genuinely fascist “progressive” groups smear their opponents by equating fascism with conservatism and nationalism. One could make a case that the current Democrat party is more truly “fascist” (one party rule effectively in say California or certain large cities, “supremacist” ideologies, close links between the political class and media/ corporates as in 1930s Germany / Italy etc). But it’s the Republicans who are habitually labelled Fascist.
“In January 2016, the Shiv Sena demanded that the words “secular” and “socialist” be “permanently removed” from the Constitution”
Here is the difference. The constitution is not a bunch of words. Its a legal document which decides how the government acts.
India tried socialism in the 60s to 80s. Not words, actual action. One of the many cases where socialism failed to work, and very real impact on India’s ability to raise people out of poverty.
Similarly, secularism was inserted in the constitution in the 70s. Not words, real impact. Just like “anti-racism”, it means the opposite of what it says.
Hence, Hindus are subject to common law which outlaws a lot of evils that crept into their society. But thanks to “secularism”, muslims are exempt and retain archaic religious laws with real, dreadful impact on muslim women. For instance, based on encoded laws on “secularism” the Indian high court recently decided that muslim men (and only muslim) are allowed to marry underage girls. Even at the age of say 13-14.
Can you imagine what the real, harrowing consequences for women thanks to such laws?
And finally
“The passionate indignation Williams’s comments have provoked in you quite clearly demonstrate that words are not somehow separated off from action.”
My indignation is that words are used to subvert action and cover up real issues. Just like words like “BLM” or “anti-racism” or “diversity” obscure the real problems that blacks facr in America – gang violence from blacks themselves, lack of fathers, poor education standards. I have found, for eg, that those complaining about renaming Mumbai tend to ignore the actual, ghastly genocide of Hindus in Kashmir (which also happened in the early 90s)
The problem for Hindus / Sikhs / Christians in Pakistan for instance, is NOT that name of the country literally means “land of the pure” (guess who are the impure) or their capital called ISLAMabad. Those are words. The problem is laws that relate to blasphemy or permit “marriages” where young 12-14 year old Hindu girls to “voluntarily” convert and marry 40-50 year old muslim men.
[ Enjoys ham-and-egg breakfast conspicuously devoid of beans, while drinking coffee instead of tea. ]
[ Sounds of Other Half preparing roast chicken with carrots, spring onions, mushrooms, mashed potato, and a whisper of unsweetened peanut butter. ]
[ A stomach rumbles. ]
When I compared that Indian local party to the SNP, did you think I was being complimentary?
No, did not. And I have read before that the Congress Party had some truly fascist/communist tendencies. I try to always remember, of course, that my perspective is from a distance of 12,000 miles and cursory news coverage.
Ha. Apologies, rhetorical line aimed at the quoted message, came out a bit aggressive and rude towards you.
That is one of the most common errors of phraseology found in social media comment threads: A remark directed at a third party is phrased in such a way that it might be directed at the original poster or at another commenter.
Check the dictionary definition of fascism…One could make a case that the current Democrat party is more truly “fascist”…
The Democratic Party does indeed display significant fascist tendencies, both in its embrace of racial/ethnic/sexual identity politics and in its fervent pursuit of corporatism.
Returning to Kevin Williamson, I am still not sure: Do you feel that what he said about fascism is totally wrong, or just incomplete? Bearing in mind that in any public talk or written essay one might touch only on a few aspects of something. I do not recall much about what he has written, so I am not clear on his complete views of the nature of fascism, but it is common in America for people to focus on the corporatist aspect of fascism when talking about modern liberals.
India tried socialism in the 60s to 80s. Not words, actual action…
Yes, it is widely recognized here that the abandonment of socialism is what led to today’s economic growth and decline of poverty.
The problem for Hindus / Sikhs / Christians in Pakistan for instance, is NOT that name of the country literally means “land of the pure” (guess who are the impure)
Not many Americans know that, unfortunately.
David, did you just make a change to the blog?
When I clicked “preview” on the previous (long) comment, the “post” and “edit” buttons were invisible. There was nothing below the preview text to scroll down to.
Either you hold that words are a means to an end and nothing more (“Words are a means to an end. Simple fact of life.”) or you hold that each word has a precise and particular meaning and usage that is immediately noticeable when misused (“If words such as ‘literally’ are meaningless, even internally what is the point of sticking to them?”).
Or I am saying that amongst honest, decent people, amongst people who believe words have precise meaning, they do. In that context. Amongst the dishonest and untrustworthy, they don’t. Ultimately, either way, actions matter more than the words. In the former context, words enhance or lead to the greater probability that the verbally intended actions happen. In the latter they do not and often indicate something other than their literal meanings.
David, did you just make a change to the blog?
No. Busy peeling potatoes.
You wish you had my glamorous life.
There was nothing below the preview text to scroll down to.
If it happens again, try resizing the window. The buttons may appear.
I’ll just leave this here:
https://twitter.com/BanrionVI/status/1563808128537329667?t=G5wCAR_vWZcp4qy2ysX3Cg&s=19
If it happens again, try resizing the window. The buttons may appear.
Tried about six times. Resized down from 110% to 80%. Tried twice more. No change. Screen shot below.
And I had to drastically shrink the screenshot in Postimage to avoid seeing the same problem again.
Resized down from 110% to 80%.
I’ve had it happen twice and so I made my browser window narrower, at which point the buttons reappeared. After posting the comment, I returned the window to its normal proportions and it worked fine. I have no idea why.
Leningrad was once St. Piotrsburg
Sorry, but it wasn’t. The Russian name for the city would have been transliterated then (and now) as Sankt-Peterburg.
The Russian equivalent of Peter is indeed normally Pyotr (well, Пётр), stressed on the endings in the declension, so the genitive for example would be Petra, stressed on the a. The city, however, got a Germanic name.
And the colloquial name for the city is Питер/Piter.
Sorry to be such a pedantic bastard, but this is one of the times I get to use the four years of Russian I studied in college. 😉
Just like “anti-racism”, [“secularism”] means the opposite of what it says.
It’s like the French public official at the opening of a big mosque in Saint Denis connecting it to France’s tradition of laïcité (secularism), the laïcité of the 21st century is what he calls it. Whereupon the imam makes his own connection to the history of France, presenting the Saint Denis mosque as the successor to the Saint Denis cathedral.
It reminded me of Terry Eagleton’s example of the London Underground sign saying “Dogs must be carried on the escalator” – uprooted from its context, muses Eagleton, this could be interpreted to mean that only dog owners can use the escalator. Contrived pedantic nonsense I thought when I had to sit through lectures on it. Duh, I wanted to study literature precisely because I thought it would root me in the context that gives things meaning. Not let’s pretend we’re Martians who think that the London Underground is a dog-worshipping temple and that accommodating triumphalist Islam has always been a French value.
Secularism in France, a set of ground rules evolved over centuries for balancing the demands of Christian believers and Christian non-believers – a great achievement in itself, but the grandiose French believe themselves to have discovered a universal plug and play system which can accommodate any world religion, and probably the religion of any other planet too. Then when Islam builds up the demographics to make demands of its own, the rootedness of laïcité in French Christian culture, for example that a cathedral ringing its bells isn’t seen as an ostentatious religious display, is brought up again, and not as evidence that Muslims don’t belong in France but as proof of the moral failure of the French to give Islam the respect it’s entitled to.
I’ve had it happen twice and so I made my browser window narrower, at which point the buttons reappeared. After posting the comment, I returned the window to its normal proportions and it worked fine. I have no idea why.
Trying your solution:
Problem did not go away.
I have *never* seen this problem before.
Problem did not go away.
You’re cursed, obviously. I’ll call a priest.
I could have written this sketch decades ago. If I could only stop at two back then.
His public defender said he has an associate’s degree in business management.
I am intrigued by the whisper of unsweetened peanut butter.
And you are worried about evil Yindoos apparently upsetting Muslim feelings by renaming Bombay Mumbai…a city with flourishing minorities such as Parsi, Jains, etc…
What the hell is wrong with you?
You completely missed the point, he is not worried about it. This, like all the rest of the painful absurdities of life is just a dark joke. We are all doomed, but if you can’t laugh at the absurdities, regardless of the pain, you are doubly doomed.
Personally, I come here for the humor, especially on Friday. If you are looking for answers to the dilemma of life you might look elsewhere.
[hits tip jar]
Every post in this account. Every single one.
I thought the “” was there (I think). forgive me.
I am intrigued by the whisper of unsweetened peanut butter.
If your peanut butter is whispering to you, you should either throw it out or stop taking drugs.
But seriously, I have noticed that nearly all peanut butter is now modified in one or more dubious ways: Added sugar, hydrogenated fat, and so on.
forgive me.
Will you be my taste tester when David puts out new snacks?
Will you be my taste tester when David puts out new snacks?
I’m fasting right now – need to lose a few pounds.
I am intrigued by the whisper of unsweetened peanut butter.
Two teaspoons of unsweetened peanut butter – ManiLife Deep Roast, since you ask – added to the stock before braising. Quite subtle and works surprisingly well.
Oh, and if you often find peanut butter too sweet and sickly, I also recommend this.
[hits tip jar]
Bless you, sir. Should you be tasked with the peeling of potatoes – obviously, the bedrock of any Sunday lunch – may said potatoes be big ones and thus less fiddlesome.
If you are looking for answers to the dilemma of life you might look elsewhere.
While not addressed to me…Been elsewhere. It’s how I ended up here.
If you are looking for answers to the dilemma of life you might look elsewhere.
Perhaps I should have said “…better answers than humor…” since humor is the only answer I have found…
– humor and common sense.
-humor, common sense, and diligent pursuit of the necessary tasks before you.
cue Spanish Inquisition..
I’m fasting right now – need to lose a few pounds.
You might lose more as a taste tester.
[ Assumes innocent expression. Avoids David’s eye. ]
Words: in a sense, yes, they are arbitrary symbols for communication. So we can make up words like Google or Zoom. And words can change meaning. Fine. But existing words also have an origin that relates to other words and can help us decipher them: roots, prefixes, suffixes, tenses. To arbitrarily change word meaning without the rest of the world going along with you causes confusion and LACK of communication. There can also be politics: your words are violence but my violence is free speech. If you go along with that word change you condone censorship and violence.
There can also be politics: your words are violence but my violence is free speech. If you go along with that word change you condone censorship and violence.
And by “go along” you mean what, exactly? To “go along” is a state, correct? How does one “go along” vs. NOT “go along”?
WTP: not going along is to push back when people claim someone’s speech is violence, ridicule them, argue with them (if one is free to do so). Not going along is refusing to put up BLM signs in your yard. Not saying “sorry” if called racist for making a true statement.
Exactly. Still short of physical activity but heading in the right direction. Though the “not putting blm signs” thing should go without saying…words.
Just wait until they find out they have to prove their seriousness by eating beans on toast before they will be allowed to disembark.
It appears to me that if the British hadn’t come along, the Indian subcontinent might have gone through some wars of Indian Unification (a direct comparison of what Germany went through in the latter half of the 19th century). If not, there probably would still be a situation there similar to the current Balkans.
I’m not Indian (23&Me claims that I’ve got 0.2% DNA from the Southern Indian Subgroup, so there may be some tiny connection) so I merely wonder what it would take to create an Indian identity. Is there a common theme among all the people living within that somewhat triangular piece of the word that can have the tag of “Indian”?
Off to the pantry for peanut butter….
So, what became of that sack of expired flour?
These bar snacks have an appetizingly “meatlike” odor.
Peanut butter, pinot noir, paprika, chicken thigh chunks, Portobello shrooms.
Mixed carrots , broccoli, sundried tomatoes, a bit of sugar.
Brown rice, black rice, quinoa.
Sounds of approval from nearby!
Thanks, David.
Should you be tasked with the peeling of potatoes – obviously, the bedrock of any Sunday lunch – may said potatoes be big ones and thus less fiddlesome.
Brings to mind a Tasmanian speciality. Bristling with deeply embedded eyes (something amiss here) the spud is left seriously disfigured once they have all been gouged out. Unfit for the Sunday roast.
The Russian name for the city would have been transliterated then (and now) as Sankt-Peterburg
Doesn’t scan.
Also there were a great many more interested parties to the naming of Constantinople than the Ottomans.