The Thrill Of Shopping
With the season of good cheer bearing down upon us, like the walls of the Death Star trash compactor, patrons are reminded that any Christmas shopping done via this Amazon UK link, or via the widget in the sidebar, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you.
Readers are of course welcome to direct any surges of goodwill to the tip jar buttons located in the sidebar and below the fold. I promise not to protest.
Oh, and open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
But, you know, in a jolly kind of way.
[ Racks brain trying to think of jolly way to say leftists are not people. ]
Wishing everybody a jolly Christmas.
When claiming a disability becomes an accepted scam: At Brown and Harvard, more than 20% of undergraduates are registered as disabled. At Amherst, more than 30%. At Stanford, nearly 40%.
“Is it them, Yogi?”, I ask in a jolly voice.
In a civilised world bystanders would have bounced his head on the floor in a repeated, jolly, manner.
I’d call that a jolly pastime.
Burl Ives singing “Holly Jolly Christmas”, on endless repeat.
On the other hand…
Two words: Daniel Penny
I guess she’s just a hyper-wimpy California girl:
It would take a heart of stone not to at least chuckle.
In a civilized world he would have been honored, not charged.
Recall the episode in a Heinlein novel in which the protagonist and wife kill a gang of robbers, after which the local government gives them the customary award and the robbers’ heads are displayed on spikes provided by said government.
And given that the hallways aren’t being clogged with mobility scooters, I think we can assume that those alleged disabilities will be psychological in nature.
There is, I think, an assumption, most obvious among progressives, that in a civilised society, you should just stand around impotently and demoralised, so that the bedlamites and ferals can do whatever they like, over and over again. As if the civilised aspect of the society will never require maintenance and enforcement of a kind one might call vigorous. As if it all just happens automatically, for free.
“I do not want these criminals to be rehabilitated.” — Burkett
“…the outcome isn’t even desirable for the worst offenders.” — Burkett
I was just reading those. I don’t disagree.
The idea that you shouldn’t want or tolerate a society in which people just stand around watching a disabled man being mugged, for instance – while pretending it isn’t happening right in front of them – is, for some, quite troublesome, ideologically. And probably psychologically.
But it seems to me that this learned impotence – this cowed pretending that bad things aren’t happening – is much more corrosive and demoralising than a world in which the degenerate and predatory – say, those who choose to mug the disabled in broad daylight – know that they run a risk of being given a good kicking.
A good kicking that they very much deserve. And upon which, the gods would smile.
Felt a surge of goodwill. Ping.
Bless you, sir. May you never be short of power points.
That.
Well, should any benign godlike entities be watching, I doubt they’d be impressed by the dismal spectacle of people standing around pretending not to notice that some lone disabled guy is getting mugged right in front of them, mere feet away, and at a leisurely pace.
I doubt that sorry sight would please.
Not exactly catching us at our best.
I mean, I’m no theologian, but…
An interesting exchange on my social media after I shared a tidbit from here to there. Regarding sympathy to Communist ideology, a fellow photographer wrote:
“I think it would be beneficial for those espousing communism to live in a communist country for 3 months as a citizen of that country. No running to the US embassy, not falling back on their US citizenship, no expectation that the US will swoop in and save your ass. Many years ago, I spent 2 months in a former Soviet satellite country, and the living conditions were the most dismal. The tenet of communism is that everyone suffers equally, and it was very evident there. The Iron Curtain had recently fallen and the Mongolians HATED the Russians for what they had been put through under the Communist regime. It takes just a glance at North Korea or Cuba to see what the people are subject to every day.”
Fair enough. But another photographer replied by writing a bloody book, starting with:
“You’re focusing on the wrong variable here. Mongolia’s historical struggles aren’t simply a case of failed communism; they are a direct and lingering consequence of centuries of colonial domination and challenging geography . . .”
What follows was a LONG exposition of Mongolian history and his explanation of how events through history led to where Mongolia is today. The kicker, though? He ended it with this:
“I GTS BTW”
I had to look that up. In cyberspeak, GTS means either “Go To Sleep” or “Google[d] That Stuff.” Given the context, I think it is fair to interpret to mean “I googled that stuff (or “shit”) by the way.” Now, I admit is IS speculation . . . but I think it was an off-handed way of implying the first fellow is sub-par in intelligence if he can’t work the Internet to educate himself.
I greatly appreciated his response:
“wow good Googling, Kev. I was basing my information and observation from having spent 2 months living and working with the Mongolians and actually visiting them in their dismal, cramped Soviet built apartments. I was there on a joint project with the Department of Energy, the USAID, and The World Bank to help the people rebuild and update their infrastructure after the Soviets left the country in shambles after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I’m well aware of the history of Mongolia. The Soviets were giving Mongolia money but in exchange the Soviets were pillaging the natural resources and leaving the dregs for the Mongolians. How do I know that? Well, I didn’t GTS, I was involved with the Mongolian coal suppliers that were trying to run the steam plants with the subpar coal the Soviets allowed them to have. I shared an office with the Morrison Kanutsen mining engineers that were there help with the gold mining, and I ate breakfast every morning with an Aussie that was there working to get the ancient airport updated. And from actually talking to the Mongolians, they hated the Russians for what they were doing before the collapse of communism. They hated them for keeping everyone in poverty and for taking their freedoms from them. Here’s a life hack for you: if you don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s ok to STFU and let the adults talk. If you don’t know what STFU means, GTS to find out.”
Our mutual photography organization’s Christmas party is coming up next week. This should be interesting should both come face-to-face.
Burl Ives singing “Holly Jolly Christmas”, on endless repeat.
That’s the only acceptable version of that song.
On one of our in-car playlists there’s a Burl Ives rendition of A Little Bitty Tear.
Just sayin’.
Make it so, Number One.
Interesting, and all this time the assumption was you had a very low psychopathology score on your MMPI.
Meanwhile, other thrift advice for this holiday season.
I was going to say that our in-car playlists include everything from Bond themes to Chinese rap. But I’m sensing that may not help.
…everything from Bond themes to Chinese rap.
Great googly moogly, ordinary rap is bad enough, but Chinese? On the subject is anyone else weary of all the rap “music” or crap like the “boom boom boom” Pepsi nonsense that has infiltrated ads of late?
But I’m sensing that may not help.
Have you considered couples therapy?
Meanwhile, a short history of labor in the US.
You sort of have to lean into it, with a certain amount of irony.
[ Compiles Friday’s Ephemera, thaws hefty bag of chili. ]
Possiblyundoubtedly related: The neglect of other forms of maintenance, from roads and buses and trains to bridges and levees and flood control systems, to reservoirs and aqueducts and fire hydrants and fire fighting equipment, to “public” housing.No version is acceptable.*
* On the internet it is mandatory to express all preferences in absolute terms, making no admission that others are allowed to have their own preferences, their own joys, their own nostalgic memories that give them a warm feeling. But on this site we express our contemptuous disapproval of others’ preferences in a jolly way.
Generations of pillaging, but Marxists call it liberation.
Remember “What have the Romans ever done for us?” in “Life of Brian”? Someone did a “What have the commies ever done to us?” version. Need to track it down.
I assume the writer is exaggerating for humorous effect.
Mandatory cultural reference here.
[ Weighs merits of refried beans. ]
Regulations.
And ping!
Bless you, sir. May the transparent plastic of your freezer drawers not be cracked to buggery due to the Great Defrosting Oversight of 2022.
[ Orders replacement freezer drawer. ]
Middle-class wankers, supposedly protesting “inequality,” dump shit on hotel floor for someone else to clean up.
Beat their asses and force them to eat it.
I’m guessing the irony of their self-indulgence has escaped them.
What kind of man would want to join the Girl Guides?
As if one needed to ask.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords seems preferable to strange men allowed to go camping with Girl Guides.
The courts and legislatures have been active enemies of civilisation for some time now.
Time Enough For Love and it was a single robber holding up their café.
Are body-cams allowed? Will they be needed?
Muldoon’s Guide to Holiday Grift Giving, in bookstores now.
On the future of motoring.
The tech is impressive, of course. Though I can’t help thinking that, in context, the word autonomous takes on a certain irony.