buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 6:40:22 AM

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As a rousing topper to the Fourth of July weekend, here are two lovely offerings from Morning Sedition:

The NPR Washington correspondent's take on Trump's Mount Rushmore speech, and, if that isn't enough to bring your blood up to a temperature higher than the external temperature, some musings by a professor emeritus at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, to keep the "race" pot boiling.

Occasional Reader 7/6/2020 6:42:41 AM

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So here’s a cheery little piece to brighten your Monday:

https://unherd.com/2020/07/americas-cultural-revolution-is-familiar-to-the-chinese/?

Syrah 7/6/2020 6:57:55 AM

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An Epidemiologists talks about the Shutdowns.

https://fee.org/articles/modelers-were-astronomically-wrong-in-covid-19-predictions-says-leading-epidemiologist-and-the-world-is-paying-the-price/

Syrah 7/6/2020 7:02:58 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 7:12:00 AM

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If you're looking for some timely and humorous viewing, I recommend taking a look at the musical of "Li'l Abner" from 1956.  

Everyone's familiar with the mountain community of Dogpatch.  In the musical, their Senator, Jack S. Fogbound, has volunteered Dogpatch for destruction as a nuclear test site, because it has been determined to be the most useless area of the US.  The only thing that can save Dogpatch is if they find something there that is of national importance. 

For a while, it looks like Yokum-berry Tonic---a tonic from the Yokum-berry tree that grows only in the Yokums' front yard---may be of sufficient national importance to save the community, but when that fails and it looks like the evacuation and destruction of Dogpatch is inevitable, the community is saved by the statue of Confederate General Jubilation T. Cornpone,  which Lincoln had decreed a national monument because his incompetence had materially shortened the Civil War. 

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 7:12:31 AM

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In #4 Syrah said: was it ever about Floyd George?

No.

Syrah 7/6/2020 7:16:04 AM

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Has anyone ever heard of a racist Elk?

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/iconic-portland-elk-statue-removed-from-downtown-after-fire-set-during-protest.html

what is this really all about?

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 7:21:32 AM

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In #7 Syrah said: what is this really all about?

It is about showing that vandals can vandalize with impunity, and it is about Leftist politicians permitting them to do so to terrorize the populace at large.

It is about destroying any and all aspects of history so that history can be rewritten by the mob. 

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 7:26:48 AM

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In #7 Syrah said: what is this really all about?

The Confederate statues, the street names, and, yes, the naming of military bases after Confederate generals was done as a matter of magnanimously honoring the valor of one's former adversaries, and was a part of the national healing following the divisions of the Civil War itself.

These statues, etc., were part of what Lincoln referred to as "binding up the nation's wounds," as was the Lincoln Memorial itself (built and dedicated while there were still living Civil War veterans), and as was the favorable portrayal of the South in films from the silent through the sound era.

The vile American Taliban is intentionally destroying a century and a half of national healing.

doppelganglander 7/6/2020 7:31:20 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 8:

There is no such thing as systemic racism. It hasn't existed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There are only individual racists, who are very few and have no influence thanks to social pressure over the last half century. The Left needs the fiction of systemic racism to justify their sweeping plan to turn the country into a Marxist dystopia. They enjoy destroying lives and statues and institutions one at a time, but they think big and talk big; nothing less will do than the complete annihilation of our society and the subjection of the survivors under their authoritarian rule.

doppelganglander 7/6/2020 7:38:42 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 9:

Well, not exactly. Many of the monuments in the South were put up by organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy in memory of their fathers and grandfathers who had fought in the war. 

There's a Confederate Avenue in my BF's little redneck town. Last week there were two protesters on the corner with a sign demanding the name be changed. Such a groundswell of support.

doppelganglander 7/6/2020 7:40:45 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 9:

As for the bases, I'd have to check but I understand many of the Confederate generals were honored for actions prior to the Civil War, especially the Mexican-American War.

JCM 7/6/2020 7:42:00 AM

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Reply to Syrah in 7:

GET WOKE!

It was never lizard overlords under Denver Airport!

It was Elk in the Woods!

Down with the alien Elk overlords!

lucius septimius 7/6/2020 7:54:24 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 5:

I'd forgotten about that show. One of the few successful translations from the funny pages to the stage.

Then there is the 1922 ballet Krazy Kat ...

Occasional Reader 7/6/2020 8:13:06 AM

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In #4 Syrah said: Floyd George

Other way around.

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 8:17:21 AM

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In #11 doppelganglander said: Many of the monuments in the South were put up by organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy in memory of their fathers and grandfathers who had fought in the war. 

True.  But the fact that there was no protest or objection to their doing this was not merely a function of the greater state autonomy that existed prior to FDR, but also to the fact that it was generally understood that recognizing the valor of one's former adversary was part of the healing process.  That's the reason for films like "The Littlest Rebel" and "The Little Colonel" that Shirley Temple starred in; the reason for the various Noble Southerners played by John Wayne and Ben Johnson in cavalry films set in the post-Civil War West.  

The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in 1922; if there were living Confederate Civil War veterans at the opening of "Gone With the Wind" in 1939 in Atlanta, and there were,  there would have been many more alive 17 years earlier when the Memorial was dedicated.  It would be interesting to read what Southern sentiment was regarding the erection of this memorial; the passions of the War lasted a long time.  

I used to have a book of jokes from the late 19th century---I don't know what happened to it---that I remember chiefly for three things: how bad the jokes in general were; how inferior the humor of the then-well-known comedian Petroleum V. Nasby (yes, that was his name) was to that of Mark Twain; and an anecdote that for some reason stuck in my head, in which a prosecuting attorney is browbeating a witness; "Have you ever been in prison, sir? I repeat---have you ever been in prison?"  The witness finally whispers, "Yes...Andersonville," at which point the prosecutor drops his overbearing manner, walks over and embraces the witness, and says, "My God---I was, too!" 

I'm kind of all over the place on this, but what I'm trying to say is that the wounds left by the war were deep, and the erection of the statues was part of the healing process---if only because the nation could afford to let them be erected because it made the defeated side feel better.  The favorable popular-culture portrayals of the South were also part of this healing.  It is all an extremely intricate and delicate historical spiderweb, which is being brutally destroyed by our modern barbarians.

Occasional Reader 7/6/2020 8:24:25 AM

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In #7 Syrah said: Has anyone ever heard of a racist Elk?

Yes... i’m pretty sure Martin Luther King once said of “Bull” Connor, “I have a dream that one day this nation will be free of him, and all his racist elk.”

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 8:29:58 AM

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In #10 doppelganglander said: There is no such thing as systemic racism. It hasn't existed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There are only individual racists, who are very few and have no influence thanks to social pressure over the last half century. The Left needs the fiction of systemic racism to justify their sweeping plan to turn the country into a Marxist dystopia

Actually, there is systemic racism. It is the leftists who are systemically racist, and see black people as nothing but pawns of the environment, pawns to be controlled by the government, kept down by public schools where the teachers think the black students can't amount to anything except sports and rap, so they need government assistance in return for votes.

The leftists just don't think this is racism.

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 8:33:48 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 18:

Reminds me how in All in the Family, Gloria and Meathead were just as racist as Archie, but in a different way.

George Jefferson's son Lionel played them knowing the way they'd react. (In the show, he went on to be an engineer.)

Lionel and Edith were the two sane ones in the show.

Occasional Reader 7/6/2020 9:08:05 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 17:

Thank you! I’m here all week! Try the veal.

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 9:32:42 AM

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It just occurred to me...I wonder if the underground living of Tolkein's hobbits was inspired by the underground living of Badger, Mole, and---to a lesser extent---Rat, the symbols of Stout English Yeomanry in Kenneth Graham's "Wind in the Willows."

It would not surprise me.

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 10:47:30 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 10:55:01 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 22:

Bunch of Gays Went Down to Georgia
—apologies to Charlie Daniels and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

Bunch of gays went down to Georgia, they were lookin’ for a Chick-Fil-A
They’d got all bent ’cause its President liked marriage the old-fashioned way.
They drove right up to the window, under their collars they were hot
And they said to the girl takin’ orders there, “We don’t like the chicken in your pot.
“Now girlie, you may not know it but we’re a bunch of militants,
“And while we insist on our own liberty, we don’t like Dan Cathy’s stance.
“So we’re gonna have a kiss-in here just to show our contempt for you
“‘Cause nobody nowhere nohow can criticize what gay folks do.”
The girl spoke back right smart at them, and didn’t damn their eyes,
But said, “I think you’ll change your mind when you try our waffle fries.”

Chick-Fil-A, fire up the grill and spread that chicken spice
See if you can make militant gays learn how to act real nice;
Everybody has free speech, that’s how this country’s made
Maybe you’ll sweeten their dispositions with a glass of lemonade.

The gays all piled out of their car and locked in an embrace
A couple guys with tattoos started in to gnaw each other’s face
But no-one paid them any mind, although they acted rude
They practically were trampled by folks looking to buy food.
They writhed and gripped hard as they could, but it was no big deal
‘Cause Chick-Fil-A was swamped with people clamoring for a meal
They yelled, “Gimme a spicy sandwich, do
“Gimme a drink, waffle fries too
“Whether you’re for gay marriage or not
“We don’t care for kiss-ins or boycotts.”

The militants were angry ’cause they knew that they’d been beat
They were about to get into their car and drive off in defeat
They knew they’d really lost when one of them came back outside,
Saying, “Hey, guys, you know this sandwich? It’s the best I’ve ever tried.”

They yelled, “Gimme a spicy sandwich, do
“Gimme a drink, waffle fries too
“Whether you’re for gay marriage or not
“We don’t care for kiss-ins or boycotts.”

lucius septimius 7/6/2020 10:59:30 AM

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Just saw that Charlie Daniels died.  Damn.

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 11:46:41 AM

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Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 12:00:59 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 25:
We have rabbits in the yard that the dogs like to chase. We don't want them to catch the rabbits, so we bang on the screen door before letting them out. 

One dog starts chasing as soon as she detects a critter moving. The other stood there while a rabbit ran by. I think it had time t o stop and say "Ehhh, what's up, Dog?" before the dog would react.

vxbush 7/6/2020 12:08:37 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 18:

I have been watching the local university as they imbibe the BLM koolaid, and recently someone there linked to a document that used the phrase "hierarchy of human value," something I have never seen before. Did a Google search and DuckDuckGo search, and only ended up at leftist sites. From the context, the argument seems to be that because European settlers expanded west and took land owned by American Indiana, those settlers didn’t value Indian lives and thus today these offspring, steeped in a white supremacism, Don’t value each individual person but rates them on a hierarchy of which life is more valuable to society. I think.

i keep seeing this phrase used but never defined and, of course, no analysis is presented of a different position or interpretation. Does anyone have any names or links that could help shine a lot of light on this?

Occasional Reader 7/6/2020 12:29:33 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 27:

Never heard of it; nor would I trouble myself unduly trying to make logical sense of leftist dogma-phrases. 

Occasional Reader 7/6/2020 12:31:03 PM

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In #27 vxbush said: those settlers didn’t value Indian lives and thus today these offspring, steeped in a white supremacism, Don’t value each individual person but rates them on a hierarchy of which life is more valuable

And the same people who are piously condemning this alleged phenomenon will round on you if you dare utter the words "all lives matter", without the slightest hint of self-awareness. 

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 12:37:08 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 12:38:38 PM

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In #27 vxbush said: "hierarchy of human value,

Sounds racist to me. And from your description, it is, because it assigns people value based on their race.

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 12:43:04 PM

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In #29 Occasional Reader said: And the same people who are piously condemning this alleged phenomenon will round on you if you dare utter the words "all lives matter", without the slightest hint of self-awareness. 

Someone lost her position in a Mass. public college because a student was upset at her use of "all lives matter" in a message that was completely woke and leftist except for that phrase.

If I were the administration, I'd have asked the student which lives she thinks do not matter, because those people would be uncomfortable with her on campus.

Or the idiot with a Hahvand degree who lost her position with Delotte because she said on social media she'd stab anyone who said All lives matter and blames Trump supporters, not the corporate lawyers who would have pointed out that if that woman did go on to stab someone on Delotte property, the company could be liable because they hired someone who had made threats like that.

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 12:43:10 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 27:

Everyone remember that the Constitution does not ever, at any time, in any place, mention skin color.
Never.

It does deal with people in a "condition of servitude"---and most (most) such people, by the time the Constitution was written, were black, but it does not in any way express bias towards people on the basis of the color of their skin, or their "race."

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 12:46:53 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 12:48:19 PM

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In #33 buzzsawmonkey said: Everyone remember that the Constitution does not ever, at any time, in any place, mention skin color. Never.

Therefore, it is raaaacist and must be replaced because it does not assign value to people based on their victim status, as intersectionality requires. (Except the perennial victims, Jews, are assigned the value of privileged whites)

-Any leftist

Occasional Reader 7/6/2020 12:54:14 PM

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In #31 Kosh's Shadow said: And from your description, it is, because it assigns people value based on their race.

Well... yeah.  Per vx's description, it's the Left who are accusing white Americans from engaging in this "hierarchy of human values" exercise.

Of course, in fact, today's Left does that very thing, quite explicitly.  

doppelganglander 7/6/2020 1:53:39 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 36:

It's always about projection. Always.

JCM 7/6/2020 2:04:44 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 36:

Lebensunwertes Leben at the bottom

Useless eaters and woke elites....

Kosh's Shadow 7/6/2020 2:13:43 PM

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Reply to JCM in 38:

Eloi and Morlocks

lucius septimius 7/6/2020 2:18:55 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 16:

What you were saying about jokes from the past not being funny made me think about Dan Leno, an English comedian from the late nineteenth century.  He was about as big as you could get, but his jokes are mostly incomprehensible now -- they are topical but about the sort of stuff that doesn't make its way into the history books.  And it is full of in-jokes based on the dance halls and obscure Cockney slang.  Here and there one can see the humor, but most of the time it just seems like nonsense. 

lucius septimius 7/6/2020 2:23:12 PM

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In #39 Kosh's Shadow said: Eloi and Morlocks

The current crop of college students reminds me of this scene.

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 2:25:10 PM

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In #39 Kosh's Shadow said: Eloi and Morlocks

What was the name of their single, again?

lucius septimius 7/6/2020 3:56:59 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 42:

Saw and responded to your email.

buzzsawmonkey 7/6/2020 4:09:39 PM

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In #43 lucius septimius said: Saw and responded to your email.

Got it, thanks.  I'll let it slide, unless ordered otherwise.

lucius septimius 7/6/2020 4:14:46 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 44:

There is a kind of grudging respect one earns by not surrendering.  Those who capitulate out of fear or ambition are rightly despised by the true believers.

JCM 7/6/2020 5:19:56 PM

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