Friday Ephemera (757)
Incoming. || Incoming 2. || Substantial component. || I have questions. || Drywall toast, a project for dads everywhere. || He doesn’t practise a relationship model. || Odd dog. || Our Betters deploy adhesive tape. || Children of privilege gather in woods, howl about their chains. || Patient of note. || The dog ate her pretend penis. || Modern-day palm reading. || A library of computer-games magazines. (h/t, Things) || Man commits murder, flees scene, then phones police to complain about being “misgendered” in a supermarket. || At last, transgender candles. || Weaponised astrology. || You want one and you know it. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Tinned fish recipes. || It’s fine. || Freed. || On Mills & Boon, 1981. || Eighty-three minutes of Mrs Thatcher. || And finally, not smoking, just misting.
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Should David keep one behind the bar?
“You leadless pencil”
If only it were permanent.
Too little, too late.
The concern for the dog’s well-being is underwhelming.
Grotesquely fascinating.
*snerk*
But what do the bottom surgery candles smell of?
I’m thinking about the palm payments in China and part of me is alarmed, but part of me thinks it’s a good way to prevent fraud and also to solve the problem of losing your card or phone.
It’s the Chinese, tho. It must be some clever way to control people. Imagine if they decided to debank you. You couldn’t go apply for a palm print from somewhere else.
Morning, all.
“Now your home can smell of cadaverine too!”
On journalism, the media, and public trust:
With bonus charts and statistics!
[ Slurps coffee. ]
I’ll take two.
I’m a little scared to ask if they are scented….
Well played, sir.
Under ‘Shellfish and eels’ the first recipe is for….octopus. Which is neither of those things.
Today’s word, since you ask, is Rubenesque.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology.
Her brave little foot soldiers.
Cinema ceiling collapses during screening of Captain America: Brave New World. Happily, the two people watching the film were not hurt.
No laughing at the back.
Thanks for that. Perfect for my (train) commute.
I’ve posted it before, years ago, but I think it bears rewatching. It’s a useful history lesson and a nimble shredding of quite a few myths. It’s also worth seeing just for the comically disingenuous squirming of Mary Warnock and Neil Kinnock.
As I said in the original thread, the film omits some of the less flattering details, but it conveys quite vividly why Thatcher was both an outsider and very popular, and it reminds the viewer of just how grim and absurd the reality that faced her (and us) was.
The UK’s slide into socialism had prompted Helmut Schmidt, then German Chancellor, to describe Britain as “no longer a developed country.” Given the number of people, especially younger people, who seem to regard Thatcher as some inexplicable act of vandalism, a Demon Queen, the context Durkin provides is rather welcome.
No idea if that’s real or AI…
Plenty of meat on this one, too.
Just sayin’.
Odd dog.
We’re gonna need a bigger rotisserie.
At last, transgender candles
For the love of God, tell me they’re not scented.
More confusing details about the Australian food chain. You’re welcome.
Is there a Hot Crazy Matrix for cars?
“Assume a spherical chicken in a vacuum.”
“I said in a vacuum.”
Jill Rogan’s snake was feeling fine.
Ate three red bras from off the line…
@PST, you buggered the link:
Is there a Hot Crazy Matrix for cars?
Try this one
Good to know the womenfolk’s bras are not in danger.
[ Hangs head in shame. ]
They should check on him in ten years and see how that’s going.
Well, yes, Quite. That’s the thing about modish alternatives to conventional coupling. They do tend to be unstable and prone to crumbling. Not least because of the kinds of people to whom they appeal.
It reminded me of the clowns who gush about squatting as a lifestyle, and “shared” or “communal” childcare, children “raised by communities,” as if the transient misfits in question would still be around in five or ten years.
Another day, another thing that doesn’t happen.
Hold my calls.
Go on, treat yourself.
Go on, treat yourself.
TBF, the cellulite does show some pretty good attention to detail unless, of course, those are abscesses from the industrial silicone injected into the buttocks.
I’m once again reminded of the time Beloved Sister-In-Law #2 handed me, as a random gift, a ludicrously fancy scented candle. Posh box and everything.
I can’t begin to imagine what possessed her to believe that I’d like a scented candle. But I do remember the effort required to suppress a look of bewildered horror.
Still, at least the damn thing didn’t resemble the lumpy buttocks of an overweight woman.
Band name.
Is this a possible clue explaining the mysterious disappearance of David’s hamster?
A long-time lurker has asked Grok, X’s AI, to describe me. I am, it says here, “a distinctive voice in the UK blogging scene”:
Though I notice the words dashingly handsome have somehow been omitted.
[ Writes stroppy letter to Elon Musk. ]
At which point, I shall remind readers that there are three tip-jar buttons with which to indulge any tipping impulses.
Fun fact: In modern Hebrew the same word is used for “candle” and “suppository”.
David:
That is a really sad testament to the power of media and academia – although one can’t expect the centuries-old system of class to just go away. Or human nature.
One of the merits of Mr Durkin’s documentary – other than at times being very funny – is that it teases out, quite vividly, the patrician, class-based assumptions of many of Thatcher’s opponents, on both left and right.
Ridley Scott’s Alien walkthrough, part six.
Reubenesque might be closer to the mark.
DoGE can’t harrow the Department of Education soon enough.
Oh Hells, not another physical chemist.
Must all your lilies be gilt?
The power of media and academia doesn’t derive from a class system but rather a caste system. There is ‘churn’ in a class system, deliberate though it may be. Caste systems are intended to be perpetual.
First album along with that pic as cover art by The Lumpy Buttocks. Have they brought back using ‘The’ in band names or am I too late for that reverse-trend-objection-trend? I really have no idea what the kids are on about these days. All I see is people’s names. Are there even bands with names these days? Are we all trapped in a late 20th century music mindset?
“I don’t want to hear anything about beans on toast ever again.”
The Flemish breed of rabbits really does get that big.
Hey, I’m just a stickler for accuracy.
What?
Perhaps the term ‘heads will roll’ needs to be made literal.
Would it be possible to influence Grok by posting filthy lies around the internet?
I ask purely in a spirit of intellectual inquiry, of course.
Various branches of government have already “lost” various subpoenaed items.
We only have David’s word that he never microwaves tea.
[ Waits to be invited to glamorous party with other luminaries of “the UK blogging scene.” ]
[ Hires consultant to scrub all evidence of French ancestry from the internet. ]
Classic Wile E. Coyote.
Congratulations, it’s a cat.
The Swedes have had this since, at least, 2018. Like most “Chinese” technologies it’s probably stolen IP.
Ooh, it will take place on an island owned by a billionaire. The luminaries will be murdered one by one in strangely ironic ways. It will be up to David Thompson to out-blog them all and solve the mystery.
I might actually watch that.
Congratulations, it’s a cat.
Cough
How about a blogger version of Takeshi’s castle?
Such nostalgia!
x.com/Enezator/status/1892640361098707010%20cat%20births%20cat
Dude.
Check for schmutz in the URL.
Remove all URL-encoded stuff: %20cat%20births%20cat
[ Eyes widen. Jaw clenches. Face turns red. Fists clench. ]
Damn the Link-O-Matic 9000! Damn it to hell!
[ Throws chair across the room. ]
It’s all your fault, David, for switching from good old reliable Typepad!
[ Throws another chair. ]
Two tier justice, guy shoots woman driver, woman driver is arrested.
This latest Rogan & Elon interview is pretty good.
Well, now it’s been measured:
Everyone who is surprised by this result, please stand on your head. Likewise if you’re surprised by the researchers’ conclusion:
How?
It’s different when you have buttsex with your friends.
How dare you defend your home and loved ones from sociopathic intruders with long criminal histories.
But remember, wokeness is just about being compassionate.
Entirely unsurprising.
Surgery can’t fix what’s wrong with them, only add to their problems.
Compassionate towards monsters.
So much of leftism is about making normal, good people helpless.
Oh, well then, as long as there is a piece of paper, strip search away, what could possibly go wrong?
boy in a bubble
Except that I’ve known heterosexuals with the same cluelessness about boundaries.
I wish I was.
It’s all part of the ‘that’s not happening / it’s a good thing that it’s happening’ reality-is-optional spectrum.
As Mr Burkett says, the level of moral wrongness is hard to overstate. It’s an attack on the very premise of civilisation. A policy seemingly designed to demoralise the law-abiding, and according to which the law-abiding man must not prioritise the safety of his loved ones over the wellbeing of the sociopath violating his home.
As I said in reply, it may be unkind – but it would not, I think, be unfair – to wish upon such people some first-hand experience of the home-invasion scenarios they would happily see others endure, impotently, and sometimes not survive, supposedly in the name of “progress.”
So . . . California is taking a page from the British judiciary?
Nothing to see here, move along.
Important to whom?
‘It was a slow day . . .’
A firm respect for reality is what changed my mind from stoner to solid conservative adult. It changed my mind seeing how consequences work. Another great example is Thomas Sowell. He was a young black radical but started to study economics and took it seriously. He took data seriously. Too many people never encounter consequences, especially since grade inflation and safe spaces.
As to the law of self defense, the idea that you can accurately assess if you are in physical danger in that moment when you encounter an intruder in your home is simply insane. Are you supposed to ask them if they intend to harm you and then believe them? In robberies and home invasions, the perp may just shoot you for no reason, even if you “retreat” or hand over your money.
This is why the “Trump told people to drink bleach” question is so important. It is a litmus test for people’s perception of reality. Never in my lifetime has there been a more clear, crisp, precise objective test to determine whether the person I am talking or interacting with is someone whose thoughts I should take seriously. Even…especially …a lot of “conservative” people have problems answering it. Almost everyone I ask it of gets mad at me for asking it.
It’s almost like a gift from God and like most gifts from God it is ignored by the people whom it would benefit most.
WTP bleach question:
Well, of course they do. They have been told it by their handlers and they know it is insane but also know the consequences for being the first to stop clapping. A current test for insanity is if they oppose cutting waste in government. Why on earth would a sane person defend fraud? Because their handlers know that their personal slush fund is in danger and have handed out the talking points: Musk bad (reasons never specified)
Yes indeed. See the many bodycam and security cam videos in which a criminal pretends to be peaceful and then suddenly becomes deadly violent.
If you wake to discover some predatory sociopath with an extensive criminal history has broken into your home, violating an intimate and fundamental boundary, on what basis can you assume that no further, even fatal, boundary violations will occur?
To assume that the intruder is anything other than an existential threat to you and your loved ones seems a gamble too far.
As illustrated quite vividly in the links here. (Scroll down for the word crowbar.)
Exodus 22.1
If while breaking in the thief is found, and struck and killed, there is no guilt/compensation for his blood.
Interesting that a distinction is made between daytime and nighttime housebreaking. I suppose that the understanding was that nighttime house breaking was–and victims could assume it to be–a far more violent crime. But nowadays we have plenty of ultra-violent daytime home invasions.
I would argue otherwise.
Leaving aside that the Indian caste system was not as rigid as you might think, the key difference was this: the “caste” system, essentially said that you were tied to a profession.
Any hierarchy among castes was due to certain professions being more “desirable” (military castes and the priest / teacher Brahmin caste had more political power).
But a) you were dedicated to doing well in your pre-determined profession and b) Even the “upper” castes were bound to their duty and the betterment of society, rather than just doing anything for power.
The current media / academia elite class in the West has no real commitment to their professions or society. Unlike Indian “upper caste” Kshatriyas who would take responsibility for defending society and die on the battlefield if needed, the West elite class only cares about power.
This modern Western system is also unlike both class and caste, as it is genuinely highly open to anybody. You can come from any background, as long as you pledge complete, unflinching allegiance to it’s weird, rigid rule systems.
So, in a way, it is actually much closer to a religious system, such as islam. Probably explains why they are so pro Islam even though many of their tenets (LGBT, feminism) are so opposed for islamic thought.
[ Slides Morello cherry pie in oven, fondles tub of custard in a suggestive manner. ]
@pst314
From the same lady I believe, found this amazing, rather moving comment:
https://x.com/ShamashAran/status/1884979458584551658
She is the kind of girl I would want my daughter to become.
While the original comment, to which she responded, lays out what our betters would like young girls to be.
That is indeed marvelous.