And These Are My Knickers
Yuliah Alma on a suboptimal substitute teacher:
When not conscripting middle-school children into his cross-dressing psychodrama, and presumably being thrilled by the thought of 11-year-olds seeing him in various states of undress, while discussing “kink” and sexual positions, Mr Lamere tells us, “I’m not a predator, I’m just a woman who happens to be super tall and hot.”
Mr Lamere’s employment history includes “environmental educator” and, er, pest control.
Update, via the comments:
We’re told, by Tess Nacelewicz, communications co-ordinator for Portland Schools, that “the process for vetting substitutes includes interviewing candidates and conducting background checks.” Readers may therefore wonder what was made of Mr Lamere’s fairly extensive – and, shall we say, uninhibited – social media presence. A presence only deleted, hurriedly, following parents’ complaints. Readers may also be tempted to imagine the candidate’s job interview. Did someone sit opposite Mr Lamere and decide, “Oh yes, here’s a totally stable and not-at-all concerning person. Let’s put him in charge of small children…”?
It is, I think, interesting that so many psychologically marginal people are being employed to teach small children. To a degree that suggests they’re being actively selected.
As noted following one of the items linked above,
Likewise, their teachers’ favoured, and rather niche, sexual activities.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
Teachers are entitled to indoctrinate children however they wish.
Unless the teachers are conservative: Then they must be gotten rid of. (The process begins in schools of education, where conservatives are discouraged from pursuing education through a process of disrespect, harassment, shunning, and formal policies of exclusion.)
John Cleese is working on a reboot of Fawlty Towers.
Developed by actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner‘s Castle Rock Entertainment
OK, never mind.
Having just stepped down from being an HOA president for four years and serving on one other board for a combined 13+ years, I know quite, quite well what assholes both can be. But a whole lot of that asshole behavior is driven by legal entanglements, restrictions on what people are allowed to say, etc. etc. It is far worse and far, far more painful than it needs to be mostly because the more rules and such one has, the more opportunities for lawyer scum and lawyer wannabe scum have to make money by ratcheting things up.
But this man is 91 years old. They are harassing him for smoking…in his own home. I happen to know, through extended in-law relationships, the two gentlemen trying to help him. They arranged to have his condo made as air tight as possible. Whatever sins this 91 yo man may have committed against the condo association do not at this point justify throwing an old man, who is otherwise able to support himself, out on the street. He has no other close relatives to help him…for whatever reason…maybe he was an asshole. But his assholeness should have been addressed back then when it could have done some good. And even then addressed within the association. Bringing in the law with a threat of eviction from the home that he owns is a disgrace on all parties. As I said, I have served on boards and even had to raise my voice and tell at least one old bat to STFU and another older jerk of a “gentleman” a thing or two. But tossing people out of their own homes at 91 years of age, especially in a world where we bend over backwards to give second and third and infinite chances to excuse truly dangerous behavior lest we be called racist or similar, is a bit much. I doubt anyone would treat him this way were he a tranny.
Not coincidentally, the number of unmarried and childless teachers has been climbing as those decades pass.
And when they do marry, it’s amongst their own caste. We’re where we are because of all the years of incestuous breeding.
It’s more the thinking that has been incestuous more so than the biological. And much more dangerous. See the original meaning of the word meme coined by Richard Dawkins (for some reason I thought it was Stephen Jay Gould).
Much as I remember enjoying the original, particularly Sybil, I don’t see that working somehow. A key virtue of the original is that it didn’t outstay its welcome.
@Daniel Ream
In the decades since I’ve experienced the same attitude nearly uniformly among the K-12 teachers I’ve met; the children belong to the teachers, not the parents. And the teachers will instill the proper thoughts in those children’s heads.
The r/teachers subreddit on reddit.com is a perfect example of this. I was wondering how representative they were of the general teacher population. I suppose you’ve just given me the answer.
Two details, from The Maine Wire, catch the eye:
Details that would include a man obviously gripped by serious mental health problems, using at least four pseudonyms, and variously declaring himself “non-binary,” a “transgender woman,” and a “transgender lesbian,” while endlessly posing in supposedly erotic scenes and discussing his sexual appetites for a public audience of random strangers. Oh, and apparently brandishing knives. Obviously, an ideal candidate for employment as a middle-school teacher.
Actually, I’d say that was precisely what was happening, and clearly the intent. An attempt by Mr Lamere to sexualise the children in his class and to use them as props in his own obnoxious mental drama.
@David
Actually, what you describe is pretty much what I mean by ideological titillation.
You’re attributing a very different motive than I am.
You’re imagining them looking into a vanity mirror, praising themselves as they contemplate their ideological perfection, and to hell with the children.
I’m imagining them walking to work on a path which just happens to take them past a huge KGB office building. They rehearse the politically correct nostrums until their every fiber exudes ideological compliance – so as not to attract attention – and to hell with the children.
Fear or self-praise? They’re not mutually exclusive, as motives. But if the ideological cudgel were removed, I believe a lot of this nonsense would disappear. If true, this suggests that the fear component is significant. The ideologically titillated would persist even without the cudgel.
Maybe. It’s hard to say. And as you note, the effect is much the same. Though I have been taken aback, more than once, by how some people will signal their conformity on these matters, and go out of their way to do so, with no external pressure that I could discern.
Re the above, it’s probably worth bearing in mind that expressing conformity on such matters is generally regarded, at least by the people doing it, as sophistication, as high status. And for many people, whether a position is coherent, or sincere, or bears any relation to observable reality, is much less important than whether it confers status.
This chap, for instance, mouthed his progressive pieties, presumably accustomed to the nodding of his equally progressive peers. For him, clearly, these views were markers of status, of nuance and superiority. When people outside of his peer group saw those pieties and expressed their bewilderment and disdain, with numerous moral and factual corrections, and quite a lot of mockery, chappie started deleting his tweets. But he’s since mouthed much the same noises again, among his peers, as if no rebuttal had taken place.
Which, again, suggests that in-group status matters rather more than whether a position is realistic, or moral, or remotely self-supporting.
This never happens.
Maybe they are just outraged and vengeful because he’s a smoker who has actually lived to a ripe, old age. I thought just getting a whiff of tobacco smoke gave you instant disease (pot smoke is OK of course).
Why it’s right up there with sex, violence and swearing these days.
That reminded me of The Blurting.
Probably some of that. But also the fact that he’s not a submissive supplicant of the state. In order for the woke and the elite to march us into our glorious technotopia everyone needs to become a ward of the world government, so they can be instructed on how better to live, for their own good of course.
Independently minded commoners, or disobedient freemen with agency must be denigrated and constrained.
It’s why the woke abhor law-abiding citizens and instead elevate criminals and those who can claim mental illness requiring perpetual governmental interventions.
How can you force people to live better lives if you don’t have some hold over them with which you can leverage their compliance?
For those who missed it.
Definitely a part of it. And similar to some of what I was saying to the inlaws involved…the basic problem here sounds like the retaliation. But that would not be possible without the great number of often petty rules. The rule gets created, sounds reasonable, and people sign on to it because they get sold on the nuisance angle. A legitimate concern. But then the lawyers and lawyer-wannabes latch on to these things as a cudgel to beat people into submission in order to serve their own petty purposes. The irony of course being that the cure for a modest nuisance becomes a much greater nuisance itself. And then combine that with the “philosophers” who insist that there is no such thing as a slippery slope and you have yourself a legal system that is essentially lawless. Legislating society into an anarchy where the law is now irrelevant because it has become incoherent in a broader context.
@Cloudbuster,
Coincidentally, Buffalo Bill was the informal name given to the serial killer in silence of the lambs who memorably said, “It puts the lotion in the basket.” The one who wore women’s skins.
The anger directed towards the 91 year old could be an example of the increasing demonisation of a generation which votes Republican (our equivalent being Brexiteers) and has the temerity to remain alive and occupy their own dwelling (our equivalent being elderly nhs “bed-blockers” who are often only in that situation because their children refuse to care for them) which should rightly be theirs.
Much as I remember enjoying the original, particularly Sybil, I don’t see that working somehow. A key virtue of the original is that it didn’t outstay its welcome.
Outstaying its welcome is a recurring problem in entertainment: See Star Wars, Star Trek, and Marvel superhero movies. American TV series are notorious for going on season after season until they become so dull that the networks have to put them out of their misery. Science fiction publishing is notorious for disappointing sequels to best selling novels–Dune is a notorious example but I could name others.
Maybe they are just outraged and vengeful because he’s a smoker who has actually lived to a ripe, old age. I thought just getting a whiff of tobacco smoke gave you instant disease (pot smoke is OK of course).
Why it’s right up there with sex, violence and swearing these days.
I remember the jihad against “second hand smoke”. No honest science, just lies. And as best I recall the popular news magazines and papers happily repeated the lies while ignoring the evidence.
A 91 year old man may get evicted from his own condo in the John Hancock Center for smoking.
This is a very upscale building: FYI, the John Hancock Center is right in downtown Chicago, north of the Loop on Michigan Ave. (The district is known as the Magnificent Mile, and is immediately north of the Loop and immediately south of the Gold Coast.) Typical prices for a condo are over $300,000 for 800 square feet and one bedroom, $800,000 or more for two bedrooms and 1700 square feet.
The old stereotype is that people with money vote conservative, but that’s not necessarily true and I expect (without checking) that Mag Mile residents are very liberal in all areas except those that affect their income.
Unsurprising conclusion: People with money can be utter assholes, but they typically use lawyers rather than drive-by shootings to harm those they hate.
I have other memories.
Has John Cleese done anything new and original in the last 30 years? I haven’t noticed.
91 year-old smoker
I doubt anyone would treat him this way were he a tranny.
There’s his solution to the problem, accuse his tormentors of transphobia
To be fair, if you worked in a bar or restaurant and were breathing it all shift it might very well be a problem. On the other hand, proper ventilation should take care of that (not to mention whisking away nasty airborne germies, too).
I’m down to one cigarette per day.
Again. But bigger?
Nope 🙁
The anger directed towards the 91 year old could be an example of the increasing demonisation of a generation which votes Republican
You find that sort of attitude everywhere. Only last week, someone on our condo board opined that one of our owners would never make a good board member because she is too pessimistic about everything due to being a conservative. There is no connection between conservative views and a pessimistic attitude, but that liberal thinks otherwise. [ Rolls eyes. ] I now question the accuracy of everything else she has said about that owner.
Again. But bigger?
Nope
WordPress auto-sizes images to fit the screen. But you can click the image to see it full-size.
I don’t remember what she said in that scene, but she did make some good points.
To be fair, if you worked in a bar or restaurant and were breathing it all shift it might very well be a problem.
Agreed. And as I vaguely recall, back in the 60’s restaurants could be dense with cigarette smoke (depending on the type of patrons).
On the other hand, proper ventilation should take care of that
We used to have a problem with an unknown person smoking in the lobby and setting off the fire alarms. But although the smell was unpleasant, it did dissipate fairly quickly as the ventilation system brought in fresh air.
I have heard of apartment buildings which are so poorly constructed that the smell can go from one unit directly into another, but I expect that is a rare phenomenon.
Again. But bigger?
Even bigger.
Ah. Simpler times.
OH MY GOD THEY’RE DANCING!
And for many people, whether a position is coherent, or sincere, or bears any relation to observable reality, is much less important than whether it confers status.
These are what Veblen described as luxury goods. One signals status by certain beliefs, stated loudly and often, since too many people drive a nice car for that to confer status (ugh, the plebs are driving teslas). A characteristic of a luxury good is that the speaker is free to state these beliefs without risk. For example, “defund the police” is a popular slogan showing moral superiority over those brutish (not british, for those who have not had their coffee yet), evil cops. It is not their neighborhood that goes to shit when cops are removed from the streets and this is of no concern to them because they had good intentions.
Somewhat related.
Also, this. Note in particular the self-ratcheting dynamic.
David is correct: luxury beliefs, replacing luxury goods (though the truly rich of course do have their multiple homes and boats).
I think the xylophone is what really makes that video work. I really need to watch that again.
Yes. I hear this a lot from people who insist that the deadly virus that is sweeping the world will kill us all, that a (supposedly) one degree rise in “the earth’s temperature” (wtf that means) will destroy all life on the planet, and that fascism literally-I-can’t-even exists here in Florida. But that belief does carry the day because no one mocks them for their absurdities. Did anyone speak up/object to her reasoning? Was there even so much as a chair squirm? If not, then perception being reality, she is right.
I doubt anyone would treat him this way were he a tranny.
someone needs to hand him a pink wig and coach him on how he just has to repeat “I’m a woman, you bigots!” very loudly on video tape and let’s see how the HOA reacts.
A key virtue of the original is that it didn’t outstay its welcome.
Knowing when to stop is a lost art. A Fawlty Towers sequel is about the worst idea I’ve heard this week.
Did anyone speak up/object to her reasoning? Was there even so much as a chair squirm?
The problem is that, as is so often the case, she said that quickly and in the middle of a much longer and fast-moving exposition on various things. It would have been very difficult to interrupt her, and it would have resulted in a longer distraction from condo board business. And that’s how liberals operate.
Some day I will ask her what she thinks my political views are.
Nothing about it bodes well. And again, even the idea of a sequel is rather at odds with the comedic economy of the original. What was it, just 12 episodes?
Yes. If I think of comedies I’ve enjoyed, most of the best episodes, and best gags, tend to be in the first two seasons. (There are exceptions, but they’re quite rare.)
At one point in U.S. history, teachers were expected to be unmarried & most definitely childless.
Teacher, and vetting…
My experience with this is from about 1996. My kid was in 2nd grade in a “magnet” public school adjacent to Silly Valley. I was between gigs, so volunteered to do whatever, and they had me do “reading level assessments” of the students. I had a stack of booklets across a range of difficulties, and worked with the kids, 1-1, in the class.
A good experience all round, I thought, so the next year the school and I connected about repeating it. But this time I was told I needed to have a background check done, through the school district and the county sheriff office.
Hmm. Is this new? No. They screwed up by not doing it last year. Ok. But this being around the time when Folks Like Me were becoming paranoid about personal data, I said, “Sure, glad to have the check done. But first, please email me the district’s privacy and retention policy for my records.” ( how’s it stored, who has access, and when is it dicarded.) They say ok.
I never hear from them again. Too much trouble, right? Coda: I find out later, during a random encounter with school staff, that background checks are only required if I was going to be alone with kids, which I never was.
So: my bet is Portland did no actual checking on their new sub. My bet is he was accepted based on a referral from an existing staff person, and when he showed up they were afraid to object. I believe in laziness and incompetence.
I doubt anyone would treat him this way were he a tranny.
“That’s MA’AM!”
At one point in U.S. history, teachers were expected to be unmarried & most definitely childless.
All teachers, or only the female ones?
For anyone else who enjoyed the Hang on Sloopy video here is the important information.
https://qzvx.com/2021/09/20/deconstructing-a-myth-sloopy-girl-lisa-leonard-dalton/
I have watched that video too many times to remember. For some reason.
“The fast food industry is so racist, even the bread is white.”
Tell me you are a low-IQ racist without telling me you are a low-IQ racist.