buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 4:30:19 AM

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lucius septimius 6/14/2020 6:52:45 AM

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Morning from sunny Chambodia.  I'm drinking mimosas and making waffles because why not?

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 6:57:30 AM

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Kosh -- re: Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.  Yes, the Van Johnson film.  I think it's one of the best to come out of the war.  Spencer Tracy is excellent as Doolittle and the parts of the film on their training are really interesting.  The last part of the movie, dealing with what happens to the hero after losing a leg, anticipates the "what now?" question facing all of the vets once the war ended.  In that sense it anticipates The Best Days of Our Lives.  

My mom had a copy of the book she got in high school -- I read that and God is my Co-Pilot (about the Flying Tigers) for book reports in junior high.  I suspect those books would be banned no.

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 7:09:18 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 7:17:05 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 4:

++++++++++

Occasional Reader 6/14/2020 7:48:37 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 7:51:57 AM

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In #6 Occasional Reader said: So, I see that the supersecret white supremacist infiltrators got up to some fun in Atlanta last night.

Civil war re-enactors, practicing up for the burning of Atlanta.

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 8:07:22 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 7:

Guy resists arrest, assaults cop, take his taser, appears to fire the taser at said cop, runs, gets shot.

The current Commie talking points are "did he deserve a death sentence for defending himself against raaaaaacist cops?" and "But they didn't shoot Dylan Roof (that he voluntarily surrendered to police apparently doesn't matter)"

Occasional Reader 6/14/2020 8:41:52 AM

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This essay needs to be posted, in its entire tea, on every telephone pole and street sign in my neighborhood, and probably yours as well:

https://threader.app/thread/1271219776606687233

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 8:57:34 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 9:

I saw that -- excellent overview of the problem.  Of course it will end in tears.

Occasional Reader 6/14/2020 10:31:51 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 10:

I can’t see how this person will remain anonymous.

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 10:37:44 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 11:

No doubt disciplinary action of some sort will follow, along with mobbing by faculty and students.

What pisses me off is the number of people who sign on to these "open letters" even though they know it's bullshit.  Cowards abound in the halls of academe.

buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 10:41:05 AM

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In #12 lucius septimius said: Cowards abound in the halls of academe.

Did I mention here the other day that one of my just-former students tried to dragoon me into signing onto an "anti-racism petition" directed at the University administration?

That'll happen about one covid lockdown period after hell freezes over.

doppelganglander 6/14/2020 10:41:11 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 9:

Reply to lucius septimius in 10:

Dead on. There's been some question whether the author really is a POC at Berkeley. I'm surprised anyone would include personally identifiable information like that, but maybe he/she wants to be outed to make a point. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way, but they believe they're the only one. If this draws out others, it will be a monumental step in the right direction. 

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 10:43:29 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 13:

I did see that.  I also saw that my doctoral advisor, who knows better, signed on to one of these idiotic letters.  

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 10:44:43 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 14:

I remember Harvey Mansfield being asked if he was the only conservative in the school of government at Harvard.  He said "I'm the only one in the faculty lounge but there are others in the voting booth."

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 10:51:24 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 10:56:39 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 17:

++++++++++

Always a fave.

doppelganglander 6/14/2020 11:02:16 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 16:

I despise cowards. I understand wanting to keep your job, but scholarship produced by people acquiescing to a lie is inherently false and therefore worthless.

If you're not already, you should follow James Lindsay @ConceptualJames on Twitter. He has made exposing the academic rot that is Critical Theory his full-time job.

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 12:05:12 PM

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Occasional Reader 6/14/2020 12:16:29 PM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 20:

His celebrity-studded funeral with the horse-drawn carriage and the (irony of ironies) police escort was perhaps the single most surreal moment so far in the Surreal Year of Our Lord 2020.

He put his gun on a pregnant woman while robbing her in her own house.

I repeat: 

He put his gun on a pregnant woman while robbing her in her own house.

JCM 6/14/2020 12:29:16 PM

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I GOT A HAIRCUT!

Now I don't have to worry about a cop yelling, "OUT OF THE CAR LONG HAIR!"

doppelganglander 6/14/2020 12:33:55 PM

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Reply to JCM in 22:

That's just because your mama don't dance and your daddy don't rock 'n roll.

doppelganglander 6/14/2020 12:40:06 PM

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In #20 lucius septimius said: Is it just me or does the canonization of St. George Apneumatikos follow the usual leftist pattern of making people celebrate criminal thugs as heroes?

It's not just you. Leftist elites secretly, or not so secretly, admire criminal thugs the same way some liberal white women secretly lust after Muslim men who just might slap them around a bit. In a nation of betas, there is a thirst for true masculinity, but all that's left are brutes.

Also, St. George Apneumatikos: pure genius, thank you!

JCM 6/14/2020 12:50:01 PM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 23:

They are good Baptists!

buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 12:54:16 PM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 20:

You mean like the McNamaras, Joe Hill, Sacco & Vanzetti, and the Scottsboro Boys?

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 12:57:00 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 26:

And many, many others.

buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 12:58:06 PM

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In #27 lucius septimius said: And many, many others.

True---but I thought it useful to go back a ways to show that this was a more-than-century-old tradition.

buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 12:59:17 PM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 27:

I'd add that having "heroes" with a clearly checkered past is a feature, not a bug---because it creates an endlessly-arguable controversy where a clear case of innocence or guilt does not.

lucius septimius 6/14/2020 1:04:46 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 29:

It also helps perpetuate the nefarious argument -- one that goes back to the 12th century at least -- that somehow members of the underclass are inherently virtuous.  

Occasional Reader 6/14/2020 4:34:47 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 29:

And as I think you’ve pointed out before, it also serves to advance that 2+2 = 5 distortion of reality that is being useful for the people seeking to gain and seek power by these means.

buzzsawmonkey 6/14/2020 4:55:07 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 31:

Exactly.