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June 17, 2017

One person's assimilation is another's appropriation

Appropriation

"Indigenous leaders from across the world requested that the UN outlaw cultural appropriation." Elizabeth Warren aka Fauxcahontas was unavailable for comment.

"Mosaicist vs assimilationist: On the multiculti side, there were smug, self-congratulatory sermons scolding melting-pot types like ourselves for xenophobic/racist views we do not hold," we blogged back in February of 2014, quoting a holier-than-thou Daily Beast opinionator:

At this point, we shouldn’t be shocked by the intolerance of some towards immigrants and other cultures. 

As our Shakesperaean actress sis always says, nothing changes but the date. In the wake of the latest iterations of the national "debate," we've narrowed the question down to fewer than 140 characters:

That appropriation bit is but the latest iteration of the Gramscian March through the institutions, and Sara Hoyt has been on the case forever. This from her November 2015 "Prepare to be Assimilated":

Humans are tribal, and living in a multi-ethnic society doesn’t make you less tribal. This is why people keep looking for racists under their bed, because you know, it’s baked in.

And from just the other day:

The problem is the left has bought into Marxism and its pseudo-scientific lies. And the system despite many past failures to predict anything, purports to predict our emergence into a paradisaical “perfect communist state”. Everything, from leftist “science” to leftist “art” (that is to say the establishment versions of those, since our establishment is solid left) is designed to hasten the coming of that ah, eschatological result. According to Marxist/leftist/progressive exegesis, of course.

Because their minds were not trained in flexibility and they’re something of a cult, they are having a nervous breakdown.

In cults, this usually ends up in koolaid. In nations, too, when a paradigm (yes, sorry, but it’s the right word) breaks in a way perceived as sudden.

As we blogged back in February of 2005 in our post "Bloggers are 'cracking, popping, drilling and peeling their victims open":

The leftist utopian dream was doomed from the start because it denied the economic logic of nature and human nature. The long-repressed voices of opposition in a free society, now ringing loud and clear through talk radio, cable TV and -- of course -- the blogosphere, will force the left to rethink its arguments or go extinct.

Posted by on June 17, 2017 at 07:18 PM in Democrats Implode, Epistemic closure, Human nature, Political incorrectness | | Comments (1)

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June 05, 2017

"A young ballsy girl in pigtails showed why the cowards of ISIS will never win"

"Last night you showed true grit and also why the cowards of ISIS will never win," writes British TV provocateur Piers Morgan in an open letter to U.S. pop star Ariana Grande, who laughed in the face of the Jihadi losers who had terrorized fans outside her original Manchester concert two weeks ago:

Last night I felt a surging sense of pride watching the bigger, better show than the one two weeks ago…

Then I chuckled to myself at the thought of how utterly enraged those pitiful ISIS douchebags must feel to see that their efforts to destroy our way of life, and force us to cower away in hiding, have been so roundly thwarted by a young ballsy girl in pigtails.

"My grandmother used to speak of the ‘Blitz Spirit’ whenever we spoke about her experiences during World War II when she was a young teenage girl," Morgan recalled:

The official dictionary definition is ‘stoicism and determination in a difficult or dangerous situation, especially as displayed by a group of people.’

You displayed that exact same spirit last night.

The inspirational 21st-Century "Blitz Spirit" of Ariana Grande and her mostly young, mostly female fans at the #OneLoveManchester benefit concert last night in the face of a mysogynous, totalitarian death cult called to mind Glenn Reynolds' provocative proposition that Elvis Presley was "The King of Anti-Fascism."

"Hitler used the tools provided by the new technology," Reynolds – AKA Instapundit – wrote back in August of 2002":

But Elvis owned them: radio, television, movies, it didn't matter: he conquered them all. And the changes that he brought about helped to topple totalitarian regimes, and make new ones less likely, for he left behind a changed culture that short-circuited the mechanisms that Hitler had used to secure power - and the mechanisms that other regimes used to maintain it.

Since Elvis, the bonding-and-catharsis element of mass media has expanded to outdo anything that any politician can deliver. We describe an especially popular politician today as looking "like a rock star," rather than the other way around, after all.

After Elvis, the commercial culture of rock and roll simply occupied the mindspace that totalitarians need, and it out-competed them.

The same holds wherever people try to tyrannize the minds of men and women. It's no wonder that the Taliban opposed dancing and Western music, and no wonder that the increasingly desperate mullahs of Iran are flogging people for dancing at birthday parties. They can't compete with the King and his descendants. And they know it.
Ariana Grande. A Vera Lynn for our time?

Posted by on June 05, 2017 at 01:30 PM in Girls just wanna have fun, Hearts and minds, War on Terror | | Comments (0)

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May 22, 2017

Pigs — and fracking — are a girl's best friend

6a00d834518c7969e201b7c8faf0b3970b-800wi

"European ingenuity! Can't get access 2 a gun b/c of strict laws, buy yourself an attack pig.

"Trump in Saudi tells me something: We lost the argument. But who rewired Trump?" tweets anti-cultural-jihad warrior Diana West this afternoon. We're with her fundamental argument re President Trump's apparent dhimmitudinous cave to the usual "Islam is a religion of peace" meme. BUT, as we tweeted her, acknowledging her case but with a larger view:

Don't know who "rewired Trump," agree re #dhimmitude, BUT. #Fracking means oil won't be enuf for KSA —> Cultural changes w new generation.

Unforeseen westernizing results in KSA economy & culture will counter #CulturalJihad in western nations

The link goes to Peter Bergen's must-read "The real reason Saudis rolled out the reddest of red carpets":

When oil wealth seemed an endless spigot of gold, the absolute Saudi monarchy created, somewhat paradoxically, a quasi-socialist state: an astonishing 90% of Saudis work for the government and have long enjoyed subsidies for water, electricity and gas. Health care and education are free.
 
But in late 2015 the IMF warned that, given falling oil prices, the Saudi government could run out of financial reserves in five years if it kept up its present rate of spending.
 
With oil prices holding steady at around $50 a barrel, the Saudi government is now cutting government salaries and reducing subsidies. Trump's visit -- and deals -- therefore create a critical opportunity in the private sector for Saudis who can no longer exclusively depend on the government.
 
The Saudi government calls it "Vision 2030." The aim is to privatize the education, health care, agriculture, mining and defense sectors and to sell off Saudi Aramco, perhaps the wealthiest company in the world.

Adam Smith is smiling.

Update:
Rogerlikedyourtweet

Posted by on May 22, 2017 at 06:13 PM | | Comments (0)

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April 25, 2017

“Just a circle of people talking to themselves who have no f***ing idea what’s going on”*

"In some profound way, the election made clear, the national media just doesn’t get the nation it purportedly covers," writes a somewhat bemused Jack Shafer at Politico in "The Media Bubble Is Worse Than You Think."

Shafer should have asked us. We've been on the media navel-gazing case for decades. He attributes his "surprising" discovery to "the data on where journalists work and how fast it's changing":

The results read like a revelation. The national media really does work in a bubble, something that wasn’t true as recently as 2008. Concentrated heavily along the coasts, the bubble is both geographic and political.

"Wasn't true as recently as 2008"? You're off by decades, sir. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air explains:

This might shock everyone who lives inside that bubble, but not anyone on the outside. Conservatives have long accused the media of living in a bubble, and Jack Shafer writes today at Politico that they were right — even if the bubble might not be exactly what they thought. In fact, there may be more than one bubble, one ideological and the other geographic, and the impact of both together may make it worse than people — even conservatives — imagine. However, Shafer’s analysis has its own limitations, and misses a key point…

He’s correct in that limited sense, but he’s got the root cause wrong, or at best incomplete. The trend toward cultural narrowness and ideological blinkering started long before the Internet shook up the news business, and in some ways the Internet’s impact was a reaction to bias in newsrooms. At least they agree on one core outcome: America’s media exists in a series of self-reinforcing bubbles, and it’s getting worse.

As we tweeted Ed:

 We were delighted with his reply: "Excellent. Just added it as an update":

Sissy Willis has further thoughts on the timeline … or rather had further thoughts. In 2004. And used a 1990 critique from Insight magazine to make the point.

*NOTE: Author of the quote in our title is the fiery presidential strategist and former executive chair of Breitbart News, Steve Bannon, quoted by Shafer in his Politico piece:

“The media bubble is the ultimate symbol of what’s wrong with this country. It’s just a circle of people talking to themselves who have no f***ing idea what’s going on.”

Haven't we been saying that forever? Self-awareness is not their strong suit. As we quoted William Staneski in our 2010 post "Marc Ambinder and the epistemic echoes of his mind":

This is the way cultural Marxism is taking over our world in its inexorable Gramscian march.

Posted by on April 25, 2017 at 03:54 PM in Epistemic closure, journolist, Media Bias, Twittering | | Comments (0)

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March 18, 2017

"One thing people don’t quite get is that she is a living, breathing folk hero for millions of people around the country”

Kellyannecute

"Horrified critics of the president are often surprised to find that, in person, it’s very difficult to dislike Conway," writes Olivia Nuzzi in "Kellyanne Conway Is a Star: Not your star, perhaps. But that’s the point," New York Magazine's cover feature on the lady of the hour. A fair and informative headline and subhead, unlike Molly Ball's (see below). (Martin Shoeller photograph)

"Will the truth ever catch up with Trump's most skilled spin artist?" asks the snarky subheader of Molly Ball's "Kellyanne's Alternative Universe" in the April 2017 issue of The Atlantic. We got wind of the well crafted albeit tendentious profile of the Counselor to the President of the United States from Redstate's Jay Caruso, who seemed quite smitten:

Reading between the lines, our own take was not so enthusiastic:

Can you say #FakeNews?

Posted by on March 18, 2017 at 05:26 PM | | Comments (0)

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January 28, 2017

Hallmark Movies foretold Trump Nation

We know this in our soul.

That thing they call "everyday Americans" LOVE the HallmarkChannel movies. Especially women. Beautiful parents who love their kids and their country. Heroine always ends up winning her man. Corny & romantic. What's not to like?

Never thought of ourselves that way as we won the Exeter Day School spelling bee back in 1955 (?). Never thought of it when we got through the gates at Harvard Design School in the 90's. Thought we were pretty darned smart, fergossake. But all the while we knew there was something wicked wrong with the liberal/progressive mindset. Utopian vs. Tragic View of human nature. Coupla twitter hashtags sum things up: #gramscianmarch #virtuesignaling

Posted by on January 28, 2017 at 06:02 PM | | Comments (0)

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September 26, 2016

Has Typepad jumped the shark?

Tinyrage

From our March 3, 2009 post "Tiny performs Meowzart": Tiny inhabits the role of Queen of the Night singing "Der Hölle Rache" in Meowzart's The Magic Twig (German Die Zaubersweig). Listen here.

Just checking to see if Typepad is as clueless as the latest note from a "helper" suggests:

"Additionally, it looks like your account is suspended. You will need to update your billing information before you can make an edit to your posts or other content"

HUH? Has Typepad been hacked? Also, did you know that the word "Typepad" is routinely spell-checked to "Typed" within your own program?

Posted by on September 26, 2016 at 05:44 PM | | Comments (0)

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September 23, 2016

Mugged by reality: "The thought police are the democrats" says former democrat

Demonobama

Has this demonic image of President Obama been wiped — What, like with a cloth or something? — from the internet's memory bank? We ask because a Google search for "Obama crazed look" images rendered scant results, mostly a recurring photo at Allen West's web site.

"He could have been a Martin Luther King here…But he has such a chip on his shoulder, I believe he is a racist, he hates white people, he hates this country." The rantings of a flaming Alt-Right white supremacist? Not at all. As Jacqueline Alemany tweets, those are the measured words of a former Democrat in Mahoning, Ohio:

Read the whole thing for a fascinating democrat take on The Donald. Meanwhile, we've known about that chip on then Senator Obama's shoulder since December 11, 2006, when we asked ourselves the question "Did Obama just call me a racist?:

“Are some voters not going to vote for me because I’m African-American? Those are the same voters who probably wouldn’t vote for me because of my politics,” Barack Obama told ecstatic New Hampshire voters yesterday. Being one of those voters who probably wouldn't vote for him because of his politics, we were naturally offended at his suggestion that people like us are racists. Swept up in the locals' devotional hysteria, however, the media didn't seem to notice. Folks hear what they want to hear.

Obamasmokes

According to Paul Joseph Watson of the controversially conspiratorial InfoWars, there are leaked videos in the offing that show a young Obama "railing against white people" during a 1990 trip to his father's Kenya homeland.

Dutiful Alinskyite acolyte that he is, President Obama has taken every opportunity through the years to fan the flames of racist hatred, always loudly taking the side of alleged victims of white-on-black crimes and indignities before the facts were in. In the wake of the latest Soros-funded riots in Charlotte, North Carolina, he's assuming a lower profile, preferring to lightly scold the outside agitators whose mission in life is to turn peaceful protests into deadly riots. And if you were wondering about the end game for Soros & Company, the twitterer who calls himself Lost World Reporter has a theory:

"In 8 days freedom is gone," of course, refers to Obama's phone-and-pen UN internet takeover plan. And speaking of Edward Bernays, "the father of public relations," his ideas are as fresh and new — and potentially unnerving — in this Age of Obama as they have ever been. Look at the way political and academic and media elites are spinning the "Donald Trump is Racist" narrative:

Not to mention last week's twitter sensation, Hillary's trashing half The Donald's supporters as "a basket of deplorables."

Posted by on September 23, 2016 at 04:51 PM | | Comments (0)

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June 19, 2016

The end of an era: Repost

In remembrance on this Father's Day, June 19, 2016, a repost from September 13, 2014:

Goomp

Goomp left this mortal coil yesterday afternoon. We three siblings knew the time was near. He'd withdrawn of late, unable to hear much of anything, not even asking about the cats last time our sis visited him at the "home" the other day. A different kind of news than when Mummy died of ALS twenty-one! years ago. We knew she was doomed to only a few weeks back then, but when it's just old age, who knows? We need to talk.

Goomp always said he didn't want a funeral. No formal speeches or viewing of the corpse. We WERE Unitarians, after all. Turns out Tuck and I feel the same way. Just have a hell of a drinking party. We two had a talkfest of a wake last evening and will join bro and sis and sis-in-law this afta for more reminiscing.

Our fave remembrance of the Goomp, known before grandchildren as just plain Daddy, was his teaching us what it meant to sail on wilder seas. You don't just flop around. You keep your eye on the luff and constantly adjust your heading to find the stars. He always trusted us to be all that we could be. Thank you, Daddy. Love you so much:

Disturb us Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore…

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

BxanabsIgAASs13

Arthur Chesterton Jameson

AKA The Old Salt, Goomp, Ahtie

November 14, 1919 - September 12, 2014

Posted by on June 19, 2016 at 06:07 PM | | Comments (0)

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September 08, 2015

In our mind's eye she is forever young: Repost

In honor of Grammy's birthday, September 8, 1899, a repost from September 08, 2007:

Grammy

Grammy, a magical word and a magical teller of tales of our childhood. She lived 93 years. Today is her birthday. She would have been 108 years old. Photos (above and below) scanned from one of the snail blogs -- magnetic albums of Kodak prints with Letraset headlines and text -- of our salad days.

Grammy -- our magnificently contrarian Finnish-American grandmother, Julia Kock Loddy, JuJu to her great grandchildren -- was a shining star in the family constellation of our childhood. Today, September 8, is her birthday. 1899 was the year. In our mind's eye she is forever young, a force of nature inspiring us to be all that we can be. A voracious reader and moviegoer who seemed to conflate T.E. Lawrence with Peter O'Toole -- she devoured The Seven Pillars of Wisdom even as she took us young girls to see "Lawrence of Arabia" early and often when it was still playing in Cinemascope at the Gary Theater in Boston.

Mummy2

Grammy's baby girl, our own precious Mummy. She outlived her mother by little more than a year, taken down by something we never would have dreamed of, Lou Gehrig's disease.

We were the apple of Grammy's eye -- Sissikins -- until we hit puberty, and then all bets were off. In our early teen years in Exeter, New Hampshire, her wit and wisdom outshone our own whenever gentleman callers from Phillips Exeter came a courting:

How can I speak of her virtues?
I don't know where to begin.
She's clever, she's smart, she reads music,
She doesn't smoke or drink gin.
(Like I do)

Girlsjustwanna

Bride of the hour Susan, Mummy and Sissy in the day. Girls just wanna. We don't care what anyone says. Being young and pretty is wicked fun.

Herewith a republication of our homage two years back to the woman whose Finnish gloom and gypsy joi de vivre are surely the soul of our wit:

September 8. Grammy's birthday.  Julia Kock Loddy, the child of John and Aurora Kock, Finnish emigrants who settled on a farm in Lunenburg, Massachusetts -- near the Finnish "ghetto" of Fitchburg -- around the turn of the (20th) century. Shades of Bronson Alcott, with lots of leftist utopianism in the air. Julia was the golden girl, the adored but cloistered sister -- Alice James, sister to Henry and William comes to mind: "In our family group girls scarcely seem to have had a chance" -- amidst a family constellation of two high-achieving brothers. Also one other brother that died as a child and broke the mother's heart. Grammy, the greatest teller of tales we ever knew, told of her family's watching the dead brother's soul ascend to Heaven. She also recounted a horrifying tale of her father's shooting the family dog for getting pregnant one more time (the woman made me do it, Lord?).  Here must lie the deepest roots of our life-long feminism.

Julia would have been 105 today had she lived, but she was more than ready to go at 92, stuck in an old-folks' home, when she left this vale of tears.  Eyesight gone, she could no longer read the great works that had sustained her lively mind when she lived for many years in her own little room upstairs at our parents' home.  She was the one who took us grandchildren to the widescreen theater in Boston umpteen times to see "Lawrence of Arabia."  She had read The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and everything ever written by or about T.E. Lawrence. Oh, wouldn't we love to tap that recalcitrant all-about-oil mind today.

In our high school hussy days -- our sis and ourselves -- as townie gals in Exeter, New Hampshire, entertaining the Phillips Academy boys who lit up our lives, it was always Grammy -- later known via her first grandchild, Matthew's, epithet as JuJu -- who engaged the minds of those brilliant young future Masters of the Universe.

Julia had been a "child bride," arrange-married to a dashing Estonian officer of the Tsar's army -- the mysterious Hubby of our childhood -- as an eighteen-year-old.  Mary, the precious child who later became our own dear mother, was born the next year.  At some point in there, Grammy fled with infant Mary back home to her mother, who had long since returned to Finland. A year or two later Grammy returned stateside, and there's some faint memory of her having chosen, years later, to fund her daughter's college education vs. taking another trip back to Finland to see her mother one last time. Don't we wish we had paid more attention to her oft-repeated stories?  So intense, so heartbreaking, so American.

Grammy.

Posted by on September 08, 2015 at 01:46 PM | | Comments (0)

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