Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 6:03:35 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 6:16:33 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 1:

Nor have I.

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 6:53:22 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 2:

I'm thinking of giving Midnight's Children a try. 

doppelganglander 8/16/2022 7:14:07 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 1:

Nope. 

buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 7:27:01 AM

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Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 7:35:58 AM

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In #5 buzzsawmonkey said: I heard some Teheran professor on the BBC Newshour earlier today, fulminating about how two-faced the West is for defending Rushdie, which it would not do if he'd "attacked" blacks or Jews.

They know how to "play" us.  

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 9:32:57 AM

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Good grief. 

buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 9:57:01 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 7:

Nte that the racial/woke restrictions are greater than any sort of sexual restrictions from the days of sexually-separate dorms, strict visiting hours and rules against "entertaining" a caller in one's room, and curfews.

vxbush 8/16/2022 10:29:27 AM

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In #7 Occasional Reader said: Good grief. 

They have just invited a lawsuit. 

vxbush 8/16/2022 10:34:02 AM

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In #8 buzzsawmonkey said: Note that the racial/woke restrictions are greater than any sort of sexual restrictions from the days of sexually-separate dorms, strict visiting hours and rules against "entertaining" a caller in one's room, and curfews.

I'm wondering if we're going to have people proclaim the vapors when two people of different skin tones announce they are getting married. Would it be possible to have anti-miscenegenation laws on the books before long? 

buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 10:38:44 AM

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In #10 vxbush said: Would it be possible to have anti-miscenegenation laws on the books before long? 

That would make things very interesting, since the voiding of such earlier laws was misused to justify the invention of same-sex marriage.  The resurrection of such laws might strike an axe at SSM.

buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 10:39:44 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 9:

BTW, I hope you found at least some of my vaporings around the subject of the '30s yesterday to be of interest.

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 10:55:27 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 8:

"The POC House intro states in part that many members moved in “to be able to avoid white violence and presence.” 

Golly.  Two questions:  1) "Violence": Have there really been lots of incidents of white Berkeley students committing acts of violence against "of color" Berkeley students?  Can we get some stats on that?  2) "Presence": How is it possible that a Berkeley student effectively declaring "I cannot stand the presence of people of race X" is not grounds for expulsion from the university, let alone, something that's encouraged? 

The Left is utterly, completely, totally deranged, racist, and hateful.  (Yes, I know, you knew that.) 

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 11:17:50 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 11:24:24 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 14:

What are they?

buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 11:45:59 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 14: Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 15:

Never mind; I did a little goggling.

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 12:01:53 PM

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In #16 buzzsawmonkey said: Never mind; I did a little goggling.

There was speculation at Insty that those previous droughts must have been caused by climate change, induced by late 15th-century SUVs.   But I pointed out that the vehicles of that era in Europe, at least in England, weren't big 4-door SUVs, but rather much smaller tudors.  

vxbush 8/16/2022 12:53:37 PM

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In #12 buzzsawmonkey said: BTW, I hope you found at least some of my vaporings around the subject of the '30s yesterday to be of interest.

Yes and no, to be honest. Having a list of movies about that time is useful in the sense of understanding how many people may view the times, but I'm rather more interested in the actual history itself and not representations in entertainment. 

In #17 Occasional Reader said: But I pointed out that the vehicles of that era in Europe, at least in England, weren't big 4-door SUVs, but rather much smaller tudors.  

Heh. Very droll, yes. 

buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 1:38:54 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 18:

Frankly, I remember little about what Smedley Butler actually got up to; I know he was a brief blip on the political horizon, but he didn't have any staying power.

What bothered me about the article was that it began from the notion that The Evil Plutocrats had intentionally crashed the economy, which is simply silly---and got more conspiracy-minded as it went along.  Meanwhile, it completely ignored the Bonus March and its effect on the country; it completely ignored the fact that FDR admired Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin (at least initially), and Mussolini admired FDR.  It ignored Huey Long, who was considered an actual fascist threat. 

Worst of all, in my view, is that the article suffered from a problem that many writers exhibit when writing about "the past"---they telescope happenings and incidents of note that are widely separated as to time or cause and cram them together as if they all happened at the same time and for the same reasons because, after all, it's all "the past."  They also tend to look at actions or incidents from times gone by through the lens of today's prejudices/popular beliefs/"understandings," rather than trying to understand a past incident the way the people experiencing and responding to it did.   You see this all the time; I was reading something at Insty a few days ago where everybody was slagging the poem "The New Colossus" on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.   The anti-Jew brigade, of course, was down on the poem merely because it was written by a Jew; that she was also a "socialist" was the icing on the cake for them.  They did not understand that "socialism" in the 1880s was hardly what we know it to be today; back then, it had never been tried and was primarily a dream of a better future at a time when there was little in the way of a "social safety net," a great deal of economic hardship, and very primitive medicine.   By the same token, the oratorio "Ballad For Americans," written in the late '30s by (communist) Earl Robinson, with the lead singing performed by (communist) Paul Robeson, sounds right-wing today.  

A long way round to say that you've got to know the territory when writing about the past, and my impression was that the author did not.

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 2:00:24 PM

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In #19 buzzsawmonkey said: you've got to know the territory

Ever meet a fellow by the name of Hill?...

buzzsawmonkey 8/16/2022 2:12:53 PM

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In #20 Occasional Reader said: Ever meet a fellow by the name of Hill?...

Oh, we've got trouble, my friends!

We've got terrible, terrible trouble!

Right here in Diversity!

Kosh's Shadow 8/16/2022 3:32:57 PM

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In #17 Occasional Reader said: weren't big 4-door SUVs, but rather much smaller tudors. 

I believe Henry VIII was rather large

Kosh's Shadow 8/16/2022 4:58:33 PM

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Hey, Russia, I want to order one of your military robot dogs. Not selling it to me? OK, I'll go to alibaba. and buy it there!

Yes, a Russian  military robot dog is really a Chinese consumer item.

Kosh's Shadow 8/16/2022 5:02:31 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 23:

The Russians are taking hints from the Iranians and trying to look tough.

Need a cartoon that shows a picture of a Borzoi with a chihuaha behind it with a megaphone.

Kosh's Shadow 8/16/2022 5:31:52 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 8/16/2022 6:07:26 PM

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Remember Greyhound - go Greyhound and leave the driving to us

Go Google, and leave the thinking to us

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 6:50:59 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 26:

You know what they say… “once you “go greyhound….”:

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/08/15/dog-monkeypox/8431660595586/

Kosh's Shadow 8/16/2022 7:13:24 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 27:

I'll have to watch if my dogs start to sound like monkeys/

JCM 8/16/2022 7:15:58 PM

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Most of the remote members of my team are in town this week so I'm heading into office every day this week.

Kosh's Shadow 8/16/2022 7:39:24 PM

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Reply to JCM in 29:

This group expects me in every day, but it is at a field stie with a much easier (and scenic) commute.

Occasional Reader 8/16/2022 8:42:54 PM

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Liz Cheney is out.

And so am I.  Good night.

@PBJ3 8/16/2022 9:56:33 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 31:

Thank goodness.