Reheated (92)
For newcomers, some items for the archives, on a loosely health-related theme.
“Equity” woo comes to Canada’s Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
We are, however, told that the priorities of physicians, nurses, and medical administrators should be less about “professionalised knowledge,” those drug dosages and such, and more about “lenses of social justice.” These allegedly corrective lenses will “allow physicians to more effectively engage in… social change.” Suitably re-educated, their mentalities rewired, medical workers will have “bidirectional relationships with… the land.” Which is obviously what you want when that itchy rash won’t go away.
Get Thee Behind Me, Mr Kipling.
The trauma and violation of being offered a slice of cake.
Professor Jebb insists that her desire to make workplace cake-bringing taboo – and seen as something harmful and antisocial – is “not about the nanny state,” or, dare I suggest, some personal inadequacy. You see, the advertising of cakes and other confections – and the fact that they may be accessible in the workplace – is “undermining people’s free will.” Free will being demonstrated only by compliance with Professor Jebb’s New Rules Of Cake-Eating. And which is why, one assumes, this grown woman, a professional intellectual, can’t say no to a bit of sponge.
Guardian columnist denounces Western medicine as “outdated,” champions use of bush dung.
Despite attempts to romanticise aboriginal medicine, the persistent differences in health and lifespan rather speak for themselves. If aboriginal approaches, untainted by “colonial organisations,” are so praiseworthy and desirable, one wonders why aboriginal people suffer from alarming rates of diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis, chlamydia, and any number of other afflictions – from cardiovascular problems to hearing loss and disastrous oral hygiene. And the less contact they have with the “biomedical models” that so offend Ms Blow, the more pronounced the disparities seem to be. Being “disruptive” and “the antithesis of colonial” doesn’t appear to be working out awfully well.
By all means, consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
The book is great, and in multiple ways. (Which is why the left hates it.)
The movie, no. What weasel Verhoeven did was inexcusable. And it wasn’t just the uniforms, there were other things designed to tell us that this was some sort of fascist dystopia. And what was with the absurd sadism in boot camp?
That hate remains one of my favorite illustrations of how loathsome the left is: Two of science fiction’s leading intellectuals, Thomas M. Disch and Samuel R. Delany, denounced the book as “fascistic” on transparently false grounds. I could come up with more names if I were to do some archival research, but when leftists are willing to misrepresent facts the historical context of those facts, they leftists lose all right to be treated with trust and respect. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, although it’s more than mere uno.
Close enough, from the perspective of planetary geography. 🙂
And I retain from the book the impression that there was no negotiating with the Bugs.
[ Remains confused by the reference to Uma Therman’s hindpaws. ]
The sick in body call for aid: the sick
In mind are covetous of more disease
—Edward Young, “Night Thoughts,” (1742-1745)
I did not know that he was involved in that. And on the bad-guy side as well, eh? I was never too rah-rah for Jeff but that specific situation was terribly messed up and (apparently) I don’t know/remember all of it. What went on there was absurd, but that’s the terror potential of lawfare. What the legal system did to Jeff (and family iirc) was horrible. I loathe those people and the legal profession in general just from seeing lighter versions of lawfare a bit too close for comfort.
Patterico banned me about four times. The first time, without warning, for asking/referencing his job in whatever no-no kind of way that was IMNSHO not well stated. After that it became a bit of a game for me. The last time I outed myself, partly because I grew tired of dropping hints. This was after his total TDS meltdown after Cruz lost Indiana and his never recovering even months later. I never thought he, nor the rest of the NT-GOP would carry this madness on for years. It’s a lifetime thing now. I do like to drop back in there every couple of months just to observe and to take the temperature of the various elements. Especially after significant events to get perspective on where the TDS hive-minds and a few independent thinkers there are headed. I wonder if this absolute clown show of a Trump trial has finally broken the fever. In a good way or a bad way. I kinda doubt it. I just can’t kill the optimist in me.
Never read the book and only saw the movie while channel surfing (I miss that) late one night. I find it rather hard to apply the term ‘fascism’ to a force defending humanity against…bugs, FFS. We’re not supposed to cheer the humans? The bugs are the fascists, FFS. Plus…and I know this sounds crazy but..they’re bugs.
Anyway, I enjoy the movie in a campy kind of fun way without all the bloody politics. Hell, I had a left-wing(ish) neighbor who named her dog ‘Coco-Chanel’. Not sure how that’s specifically relevant but it kinda is…somehow…It has to be…In a Volkswagon/Hugo Boss kind of way.
Gathering of communists: I remember the CHAZ (renamed repeatedly) encampment in Portland 2020. In their meetings they could not make any decisions and after a while a gangster came in and announced he was boss, as one does.
In a so socialists meeting in NYC, I saw a video and they were doing all the “points of order” about sensitive ears and vegan food that people were making fun of. Again, unable to make decisions. hahaha idiots
black racism: there is a particular hatred of Koreans who came with nothing and opened shops in black neighborhoods (providing services and probably jobs)–why? because koreans show that the “can’t succeed due to racism” attitude is a lie.
They show the same hatred towards other groups that do the same thing: Chinese, Arabs, South Asians, you name it.
See, for example, Chinese Girl in the Ghetto by Ying Ma, which recounts many examples of black racist attitudes and violence.
See also this black woman in Chicago, ranting against Arabs who carry firearms to stop blacks from looting and burning their shops on the South Side.
EDIT: I found the video. My older links were broken because Facebook kept taking the video down for violation of terms of service (“hate speech”).
See also certain Nigerians and/or other authentic Africans. The resentment sometimes based on the first generation Africans not having suffered “generational wtf”, thus not deserving their own successes here.
Yes indeed. And the disdain is reciprocated: “Who are these losers? Ignorant, lazy, entitledfool, living in the Land of Plenty surrounded by opportunity but all they can do is complain while collecting welfare and committing crimes.”
That’s their stock in trade.
That sounds like a video I saw sometime in the last four years. Posted here by David or one of the commenters, and also on various other blogs.
Hah!
There was an epic blogspat between him and Jeff of Protein Wisdom. The convo ranged back and forth between the blogs and I think on a third or fourth space, wherein Jeff and I (and probably others) patiently explained and explained and explained Jeff’s theory on Intentionalism, which managed to elude him the entire time. Or at least he made like he didn’t get it.
Sounds like the setup to Ender’s Game. In fact, I think it was.
Jeff had several woes.
Patterico did have a blog-war with him, but I don’t think he took legal action against Jeff. He might have participated in the whisper campaign to get Jeff blackballed from the conservative commenter scene, but I don’t actually know. I do know Patterico used to go into Jeff’s dead threads and post stuff that was supposed to be damning or to mess up the algorithms. Really demented revenge stuff simply because it was obvious that Jeff had the better intellect.
Protein Wisdom met its demise after someone infected it with a fatal virus. He suspects a Trump supporter, because Jeff was highly critical of Trump during the primaries.
The legal thing he’s been wrangling with is Deb Frisch, whom they’ve had to take legal action against because of her unhinged harassment. She’s currently out of jail.
Brief video of a small number of illegal immigrants fighting with large knives on a downtown Chicago street. Amazingly, no actual injuries. I used to drive through that area when I was younger, but I haven’t for many years. I don’t know whether to be shocked or just shrug.
https://x.com/ChicagoCritter/status/1792352873876967935
Google maps street view of the scene.
One of the problems with Starship Troopers (the movie) is that Verhoeven’s vision was that the film should be viewed as a propaganda film by the UCF. So the UCF ends up looking pretty damned awesome. The few parts where you’re supposed to notice the “true fascism” are so hamfisted they just come across as intentional screwball comedy.
One thing I find interesting about the book that even fans seem to miss is that the Mobile Infantry is not the default choice for civilians seeking citizenship. It’s literally the last possible option. Rico wasn’t qualified for anything else, and the recruiter explicitly says “if you want to sign up, we have to take you”. Heinlein wanted to write a hagiography for the Poor Bloody Infantry, so you get a focus on the Mobile Infantry, but the notion that the UCF is inherently militaristic isn’t actually borne out by the book.
Don’t know for sure if they are illegals or just home-grown hood rats, although one usually hears about “our” hood rats brandishing firearms. My deep thanks, once again, to my liberal “friends” who have enabled this horrible state of affairs. /spit
That location is North Michigan Ave, an upscale commercial area.
Oh, I can believe this. There’s a bit of a crossover between short man’s disease and memorization people who fear people who are more algorithmic/logic oriented. Hard for me to describe but I’m working on a theory…Patterico has that. In spades.
The sharp end of cultural enrichment.