Reheated (73)
Some items from the archives:
On pronouns, politeness, and the strange mental rumblings of Ms Laurie Penny.
Regarding rudeness, I’m generally polite by default, at least in person, and don’t go out of my way to needlessly put a kink in someone else’s day. I’ve had perfectly civil chats with people who regard themselves as transgender or gender-non-conforming or whatever. Nobody got upset. But what is often being asked – or demanded – is not a small thing, not in its implications.
Taken broadly, we are being asked to affirm, wholesale, a bundle of phenomena that includes not only actual gender dysphoria, whether the result of developmental anomalies or childhood molestation, but also autogynephilia, serious personality disorders, adolescent pretension, and assorted exhibitionist and unsavoury compulsions. The expectation seems to be that we should take these different phenomena, with very different moral connotations, as being one and the same thing, and then defer to them, habitually and uncritically. Which is asking rather more than can readily be agreed to.
At Middlebury College, woke piety erupts. A 74-year-old scholar is quite literally chased off campus.
Note that the rather animated protestors don’t seem too familiar with Dr Murray’s research and commentary, and as one of Middlebury’s sociology professors noted, “few, if any” of the protestors had ever read Murray’s books. Evidently, he’s nonetheless someone to be othered and to whom the students can attach the usual out-group labels – denouncing him as “sexist,” “racist,” “anti-gay,” and a “white nationalist.” (As even the briefest use of Google would reveal, Murray married a Thai woman while in the Peace Corps, has mixed-race children, has tutored inner-city black children for free, and was an early advocate of gay marriage – hardly the most obvious markers of a supposedly anti-gay white nationalist.)
But Why Aren’t People Rushing To Buy My Art?
Deep thoughts, shifting paradigms, and heads wrapped in meat.
For those who may be confounded by the profundity of the piece, a handy walk-through guide is available. Said guide points out that the performance will encourage among onlookers “a deeper level of critical thought.” Of the many ruminations that will doubtless be inspired is the following: “After seeing someone wrap their head in meat twice, does it still hold the same weight as it did the first time?”
The guide notes, rather earnestly, that the first attempt, by Mr Carvalho, to envelop his head in bread, string, and assorted meat products, prompted more amusement from the tiny audience than the subsequent repetition of it by Ms Cochrane. This is presented as an invitation to “a fundamental shift in paradigm” and some allegedly profound insight into gender politics. Or, how “different actions are read on different bodies.” Our artistic deep thinkers are seemingly unaware of the concepts of novelty and diminishing returns.
There’s more, should you crave it.
Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
but the solution to gendered words in Spanish, is to make them French ?
It’s a passive-aggressive revenge for their loss on Cinco de Mayo. Burritos to baguettes.
A new “trans” update to download: gender dysphoria now in three new flavors: Total; Top; Bottom.
Posted by: pst314 | October 12, 2022 at 15:32
Hey pst314-three-hours-in-the-future, what did the Dow Jones open at this morning? Better yet, what is it in your ‘now’?
“What is a woman ?” Your draft board knows.
Hey pst314-three-hours-in-the-future, what did the Dow Jones open at this morning?
That’s enough of that, now. Move along, move along.
Covid vaccine: the rush to create the vaccine led to a “vaccine” unlike any in the past. It is not a live or even killed virus, but a tiny piece of the virus that your body responds to. You never had partial protection against polio or measles, like you do with covid. You got the shot and you were 100% protected for life (or at least for decades). Partial protection is what results from taking that shortcut. Side effects? There is no basis for knowing for this novel “vaccine”. And yet having doubts was tantamount to murder.
“In this house, we believe”
https://www.takimag.com/article/invasion-of-the-nasty-nerds/ – “In its compilation of woozy conventional wisdom, Garvey’s sign is something of a master class in how not to be a critical thinker”
“What is a woman ?” Your draft board knows.
Tweet from (official?) Selective Service: “Parents, if your son is an only son and the last male in your family to carry the family name, he is still required to register with SSS. ”
Something odd about an official governmental agency in the 21st century addressing such patriarchal concerns as only sons carrying on the family name, even if only to dismiss those concerns as having any weight with the draft board. Who would need to be told this? Is it addressing something specific? Are families really petitioning for exemptions on the basis of preserving their name and lineage?
Apart from anything else it goes against the feminist prohibition on associating military sacrifice with male duty and male virtue, on the basis of which “the men who gave their lives on D-Day” can always be expected to be auto-corrected by public officials to “the men and women who gave their lives on D-Day”.
Did people really pick up wrong ideas from Saving Private Ryan, where the principle wasn’t patriarchal (the Ryan name must live on), but matriarchal (Mrs Ryan has suffered enough).
In this house, we give to Derrick Chauvin’s legal defense fund.
And yet having doubts was tantamount to murder.
Or at the very least made one a medical science denier, a fool, just like those tin-hat wearing conspiracy theorists or those aboriginal witch doctors. Though we must now take the aboriginal witch doctors very seriously. They have much to teach us. Unlike right-wing freaks screaming about their “freedoms”.
[ Deletes inexplicable time-travelling comment. ]
It was amusing at first, but now it’s just faintly aggravating.
It was amusing at first, but now it’s just faintly aggravating.
Hey, at least it gave me hope/faith that Western civilization would hold itself together until at least 15:32 GMT. Which is just about the time my grits will be done. Glad I made the effort.
Who would need to be told this? Is it addressing something specific? Are families really petitioning for exemptions on the basis of preserving their name and lineage?
It all started, IIRC, when all five Sullivan brothers were killed when the USS Juneau went down during the Battle of the Solomons. Policy was changed during Vietnam to make any son exempt, current policy below:
DoDI 1315.15 Separation Policies For Survivorship
RTWT, is only 5 pages, bottom line, service members can request, families not so much, but you know if they were to start hitting up congressmen or senators exemptions would be made.
I have somehow mastered time-travel.
That’s one way to salvage the Doctor Who franchise.
https://www.takimag.com/article/invasion-of-the-nasty-nerds/
Some good points in there, mostly based on the fact that men and women’s brains are different and there really are biological differences in what they like and are good at. Also, don’t let them vote.
This bit resonated with me: For instance, sheer numbers suggest that there might be a Michelangelo- or Beethoven-level genius at work in the gaming industry today
Jeremy Soule isn’t John Williams, but he’s up there with Alan Silvestri or Hans Zimmer as a score composer. But since he works in video games no one’s heard his work except those rare times when a game breaks through into the mainstream.
A new “trans” update to download: gender dysphoria now in three new flavors: Total; Top; Bottom.
From the link:
If I had boobs I’d never leave the house. What? Oh, I said that out loud.
Re Taki Magazine link, I liked this
That’s one way to salvage the Doctor Who franchise.
Tall order.
Jeremy Soule isn’t John Williams
Not quite damned with faint praise. John Williams being the John Denver of classical music, so-called.
It all started, IIRC, when all five Sullivan brothers were killed
I think that’s correct. Of course, all males still have to register when they turn 18.
If I had boobs I’d never leave the house.
What, and miss the whole wide world of boobs out there?
It was amusing at first, but now it’s just faintly aggravating.
That’s my goal in life: amusing but faintly aggravating.
Pfizer Executive: Oh, you wanted our vaccine to stop transmission of the virus? Why didn’t you say so in the first place.
I prefer Johnny Williams, of “How to Steal a Million” fame.
I’d be careful about that deletion, David. Asimov pointed out the risks long ago in his papers on Thiotimoline. Might destroy the world!
On second thought…
Meanwhile, from the Guardian, France has found a solution to the energy crisis. How it works in the sumer is not explained, but well done you, France!
However, on this side of the pond, a 41 year old Harvard grad, a true light of the left, has a baffling automotive conundrum.
How many doctors have protested and/or refused to give mandated vaccinations?”
Around 60,000 docs and real scientists signed the Great Barrington Declaration, and, aside from the fact that during the recent brouhaha most vaccinations were given by drug and grocery stores, as well as who the hell knows in parking lots, a doctor “refusing” would either sued and/or censured in some way.
Not to mention the latest California law to beat down uppity doctors who dare dissent from “scientific consensus”.
John Williams being the John Denver of classical music, so-called.
[shrugs shoulders] I like both of them.
All of the things the Left wants (being cold in winter, hot in summer, skipping meat, not going on airplanes, tiny houses) are what we used to call POVERTY.
John Williams being the John Denver of classical music, so-called.
[ Digs out Wild Signals from Close Encounters. Recalls being a wee seedling at the cinema. ]
“like a duck on a junebug” –this means the duck EATS the junebug, not “on” it physically.
John Williams–compared to the alternatives, he is refreshing. Also the number of movies he has done (at any level of quality) is pretty amazing, like 100).
“like a duck on a junebug” –this means the duck EATS the junebug, not “on” it physically.
Visualize a bird (duck, chicken, whatever) energetically pursuing and eating bugs.
From a very old children’s story about happy farmyard chickens: “Everything was bugs for breakfast”.
The punchline arrives before the set-up.
What’s the problem with time travel jokes?
“We don’t serve your kind here.”
Tachyon walks into a bar.
Things are awfully quiet around here.
[ Fruitlessly searches joke book for items that are amusing but faintly aggravating. ]
There once was a lady from Bight
Who travelled much faster than light
She left home one day
In a relative way
And returned the previous night
This sort of problem can be solved by the frequent application of Charles Bronson tactics.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
At three o’clock he had his great fall.
The King set the time machine back to two.
Now Humpty’s unscrambled and good as new.
(From The Space Child’s Mother Goose by Frederick Winsor and Marian Parry)
Really? Am I the only one who finds JW a wee bit…syrupy? I mean, that’s ok-ish for movies but compared to big time movie scores of the past he seems rather lightweight to me. Plus he’s bit ubiquitous. The John Denver thing, somewhat like the BeeGees, good songs done much, much better by others. Though to be clear it’s not so much JW’s written scores themselves, which I do think are rather good, it’s the syrupy production. I was rather disappointed when he took over the Boston Pops. I don’t listen to as much “classical” music as I once did, though I have been back into it just the last week or so. I would be curious if there are other conductors covering his stuff.
There once was a man from Nantucket,
Whose ship was so long he could stuff it,
Full of extra whale oil, because he was a whaling captain.
“It will all go so splendidly when we just eat nuts and berries and sleep under the stars…”
… and pick fleas and lice off one another. I understand they contain many important nutrients.
I understand they contain many important nutrients.
Did you ever eat a pine tree?
Did you ever eat a pine tree?
“Hi, I’m Euell Gibbons, did you ever lick a river? You may not know it, but some parts of a Maytag washer are edible.”
“Hi, I’m Euell Gibbons, did you ever bite a boulder? You may not know it, but some parts of a Michelin radial tire are edible.”
Old drinking game…
Plus he’s bit ubiquitous.
That’s the problem isn’t it. Over-exposure to anything tends to dull down the impact. It’s like the girl in my grade 12 English class who said she really liked Shakespeare but found he used too many clichés.
John Denver? I loved his duet with Nirvana.
Did you ever eat a pine tree?
You’ll live ’til you’re a hundred, but you’ll wish that you were dead. Johnny Carson.
When you’re approaching forty.
Perhaps the $165M will be some small comfort.
Tall order.
I prefer to think of it as a low bar.
I mean, that’s ok-ish for movies
That was rather my point. Alan Silvestri, Hans Zimmer, even Basil Poledouris are not great “classical musicians” but they are very successful score composers. Jeremy Soule is at least in their league – he certainly understands leitmotif better than Silvestri[1] – but since he works exclusively in video games he’s virtually unknown outside of millennials who grew up consuming Skyrim memes.
she really liked Shakespeare but found he used too many clichés
I have this problem with Tolkien now. Thanks to every terrible D&D knockoff fantasy series, movie or book shoehorning elves, dwarves and not-hobbits-because-that’s-copyrighted into the setting whether they make sense or not, I have to slog through Lord of the Rings reminding myself that it’s the original.
[1] Quick. Hum any Avengers theme
Alan Silvestri, Hans Zimmer, even Basil Poledouris are not great “classical musicians” but they are very successful score composers.
That’s the thing, surely? When I hear music by John Williams or whoever, I’m not thinking of it as classical music. It’s a film score, written for a purpose, a context. The piece Wild Signals, mentioned upthread, won’t be on many all-time playlists. It’s not something I’d often dig out for musical purposes. It ain’t Bach. But in context, in the film, or as a mental revisiting of the film, it’s totally effective, quite giddying, and very much part of what made Wee Seedling Me enjoy that night at the cinema, many moons ago. Likewise, as a feat of composition, the main theme of Superman: The Movie won’t turn heads; but as part of the cinematic experience, excited children in a darkened cinema, or adults of a certain age wanting to relive that tingle of excitement, it was quite a belter.
A banging choon, as I believe the kids say.
https://youtu.be/jvUuMsLsGuk
Time travel. Some kids tv is pretty damned good.