Happy Independence Day, brethren.
We’re putting it all back up. And no modern art, either.
Not Even Slightly Fake News
”Americans Excited To Celebrate Their Liberty While Confined To Their Homes By The Government.”
“I sure am glad I live in a free country," said one man in California as he checked his phone to see what the current unilateral mandates by his governor would allow him to do this year....
Guidelines released by governors across the country so far include the following:
Launching fireworks inside
Barbecuing inside
Watching fireworks on YouTube since they're probably illegal in your state anyway
Whispering "God Bless America" so as not to upset your neighbors
Wearing a mask while inside your home to muffle any patriotic songs or statements
Forgoing hamburgers and hot dogs in favor of more sustainable food products like bugs and tofu
Sitting in silence and contemplating how much you hate America
The Elite Eats Its Own
An article at American Mind suggests that we are just watching a street-fight among the elite's children, over the future of our nation, to which none of us are admitted.
A new study by Pew research says only 1/6 of the protesters are Black. Four out of five are Democrats. This is not the poor working class fighting for a livable wage. It’s an act of performance art staged and underwritten by our nation’s elite, in the tradition of Woodstock or Occupy Wall Street.... This is a generational fight within our ruling elite class. For decades, the elites have taught their children that America is a bad place. It’s an evil country, they say: To be patriotic is to be ignorant about America’s many sins. Be woke, the upper classes bark at their kids! Open your eyes to all that is wrong with the U.S. and its history.But it's almost Independence Day, and I'm not feeling it. I love my country -- not my government, but definitely my country -- and I'm not willing to give it up. I'm willing to run up the black flag, but not quite ready to give up the red, white, and blue one.
America’s elites are scrambling to find ways to show they’re on the side of the oppressed so that they, too, can be considered victims.... One writer put it this way: This is a revolution that comforts the comfortable.
Fake News Today?
BB: New bodyguard hired for Epstein mistress.
Following the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell for sex abuse charges, the FBI is taking no chances in keeping her safe while she awaits trial. Sparing no expense, the FBI has hired top-notch Italian bodyguard Hiluigi Clintonelli.... Thanks to the particularly glowing reviews from high-profile individuals such as President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, all federal prison security checks were waived for Hiluigi....Do we want to run a death pool on how long this woman lasts in our prisons?
Clintonelli also connected all camera feeds to her personal server to ensure that all recorded video was properly secured.
Alert business owner
The police came pretty fast, but the business owner did a great job in the meantime.
Cyberpunk 2020
Since we are on the subject, and the year, here's an appropriate tune.
"Give me a reason to be... a woman." "I just want to be a woman." "It's all I wanna be, a woman."
Well you know, I can help you with that. I have an oath to respect, but I can make you feel like a woman. I know how to be a man.
"Give me a reason to be... a woman." "I just want to be a woman." "It's all I wanna be, a woman."
Well you know, I can help you with that. I have an oath to respect, but I can make you feel like a woman. I know how to be a man.
More Mazzy
You probably missed them. Almost everyone did. She wipes her eyes at the end of that set, because it still moves her however often she's played it before.
This one was the one they had that was closet to a hit.
Speaking of Woodstock
Parts of it really do look appealing, even from this vantage. Yes, let us all go riding on horses with pretty girls (or the opposite, for those of you who prefer), singing songs in the country.
It's not hard to see how it took hold.
It's not hard to see how it took hold.
A Proposal for Republicans
I've always thought of myself as a Democrat, though my wing of the party -- the originals -- is largely dead. Republicans haven't been much good except for Reagan, not in office; some of them were good in uniform. But it's a difficult time, and perhaps reform is possible.
It's a three point plan.
1) Insist on absolute equality under the law: everyone has exactly and only the same rights. "A colorblind meritocracy."
2) Defend freedom of speech, and not just in terms of the First Amendment but broadly. "Americans have the absolute right to tell the truth."
3) Serve the interests of normal, ordinary people.
Number three is an interesting one; Jimbo has been bending my ear about it for years. It's true that as early as Woodstock -- earlier, I suppose, since the easy reference implies it had been in common usage -- it was ordinary for the American left to define themselves as "freaks." They've marched through a mainstreaming of a lot of what used to be considered freakish behavior: drugs, especially marijuana; radical feminism -- just last week the SCUM manifesto was in the news again; homosexuality, which is now as normal as being a married couple of any kind; currently they're running up on the rocks of the transgender problem, which is a thorny one because it is objectionable to both the feminists and the kind of gays who really did want to be accepted as ordinary married folks.
What if you just wanted to be a cowboy? Or just a guy who raised his family -- you know, the kind of family you produced naturally, with a real man and a real woman bringing forth ordinary children? Maybe you adhere to one of the ancient faiths that don't support all this freakishness, of which there are some several?
I personally have a soft spot for the freaks; I don't dislike them. They probably aren't the right people to have power, though, if indeed anyone is. The best thing is to reduce the incidence of power so that people are left minding their own business by default -- and if they choose freakish business, well, that's theirs and not mine.
Still I think there's something to be said for the proposal of defending normality, though it's a slippery philosophical project and needs limits. It's good to have left/right limits and freedom to maneuver at will between them; it's not good to have any sort of crushing conformity. The project to make people mind their business leads to room for the freaks, but also for the ordinary people who just want to do what they learned from their ancestors. Just let 'em be. They know what they're doing; they're doing the thing that worked for a thousand generations. They'll be all right.
The freaks probably won't be, frankly, because they're running against the received lessons of generations. But that's their lookout. If we can just get them to the place where they stop butting into everyone else's business, they can go run their hazards as they please.
It's a three point plan.
1) Insist on absolute equality under the law: everyone has exactly and only the same rights. "A colorblind meritocracy."
2) Defend freedom of speech, and not just in terms of the First Amendment but broadly. "Americans have the absolute right to tell the truth."
3) Serve the interests of normal, ordinary people.
Number three is an interesting one; Jimbo has been bending my ear about it for years. It's true that as early as Woodstock -- earlier, I suppose, since the easy reference implies it had been in common usage -- it was ordinary for the American left to define themselves as "freaks." They've marched through a mainstreaming of a lot of what used to be considered freakish behavior: drugs, especially marijuana; radical feminism -- just last week the SCUM manifesto was in the news again; homosexuality, which is now as normal as being a married couple of any kind; currently they're running up on the rocks of the transgender problem, which is a thorny one because it is objectionable to both the feminists and the kind of gays who really did want to be accepted as ordinary married folks.
What if you just wanted to be a cowboy? Or just a guy who raised his family -- you know, the kind of family you produced naturally, with a real man and a real woman bringing forth ordinary children? Maybe you adhere to one of the ancient faiths that don't support all this freakishness, of which there are some several?
I personally have a soft spot for the freaks; I don't dislike them. They probably aren't the right people to have power, though, if indeed anyone is. The best thing is to reduce the incidence of power so that people are left minding their own business by default -- and if they choose freakish business, well, that's theirs and not mine.
Still I think there's something to be said for the proposal of defending normality, though it's a slippery philosophical project and needs limits. It's good to have left/right limits and freedom to maneuver at will between them; it's not good to have any sort of crushing conformity. The project to make people mind their business leads to room for the freaks, but also for the ordinary people who just want to do what they learned from their ancestors. Just let 'em be. They know what they're doing; they're doing the thing that worked for a thousand generations. They'll be all right.
The freaks probably won't be, frankly, because they're running against the received lessons of generations. But that's their lookout. If we can just get them to the place where they stop butting into everyone else's business, they can go run their hazards as they please.
Don't Scare the Horses
As the younger generation loses our cultural metaphors from the old cowboy days, they lose a great store of practical wisdom. Also, sometimes they meet real horses.
Happy Canada Day to Our Friendly Neighbors
Canada has been a pretty good neighbor, and so to them I wish them a happy Canada Day. I must confess that I rather like their national anthem, and having heard it many times as a hockey fan, know it pretty well,
I did not know much about the history of New Foundland- that it was not originally part of Canada, but it's own Dominion of the Crown. It raised a battalion to fight in WWI in the British Army, and that battalion, the St. Johns Regiment, had the misfortune to be part of the British 29th Division at Beaumont-Hamel, and in the battle of the Somme, suffered 80% casualties, essentially destroying the Regiment.
Thanks to Fr. Brad Sweet, I also found out about the memorial to their ill fated destiny in that battle, and as a fan of good monuments, am sharing it here with you- After the war, and thanks largely to Lieutenant Colonel Tom Nangle, the former Roman Catholic Priest of the regiment, a tribute to their courage was erected at the site of the battle- The Beaumont-Hamel New Foundland Memorial-
It consists of a bronze Caribou rising proudly up off a prominence of New Foundland Granite and native New Foundland plants, overlooking the battlefield where they paid such a heavy price.
Clearly not the happiest event in Canadian history, but one that marks their valor, and thanks to the memorial, their fine aesthetics.
I did not know much about the history of New Foundland- that it was not originally part of Canada, but it's own Dominion of the Crown. It raised a battalion to fight in WWI in the British Army, and that battalion, the St. Johns Regiment, had the misfortune to be part of the British 29th Division at Beaumont-Hamel, and in the battle of the Somme, suffered 80% casualties, essentially destroying the Regiment.
Thanks to Fr. Brad Sweet, I also found out about the memorial to their ill fated destiny in that battle, and as a fan of good monuments, am sharing it here with you- After the war, and thanks largely to Lieutenant Colonel Tom Nangle, the former Roman Catholic Priest of the regiment, a tribute to their courage was erected at the site of the battle- The Beaumont-Hamel New Foundland Memorial-
Clearly not the happiest event in Canadian history, but one that marks their valor, and thanks to the memorial, their fine aesthetics.
Protesting is Good For You
We've all noted the ways in which ordinary activities like visiting the beach, attending funerals or religious services, and dining in restaurants have been banned by executive orders as too dangerous; but protests have been allowed to occur in intense, crowded spaces for days at a time. Now the scientists would like you to know that not only are protests not risky for spreading viruses, they actually seem to slow the spread.
“We think that what’s going on is it’s the people who are not going to protest are staying away,” said Andrew Friedson, the CU-Denver professor who is one of the paper’s co-authors. “The overall effect for the entire city is more social distancing because people are avoiding the protests.”Well, I'm certainly not going down to any of the protests, so maybe there's something to that.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)