I'm guessing there have been "Rear Admiral" jokes for as long as there been been rear Admirals. Long ago and far away, we were visiting Sydney AU at the same time a giant navy carrier was in port (something like 5000 US sailors on it). By even bigger coincidence, my wife and I were at the "Lord Nelson's Pub" in The Rocks area sitting near the Admiral, himself (I have no idea what his name was) and some of his officers. The Admiral was getting pretty wasted. The Jr. officer siting right next to me was not drinking, because he was in charge of keeping the Admiral out of trouble and eventually getting them all back on the ship. They had a draft beer called "the Little Admiral" on tap. The officer whispers in my ear that the Admiral was making "have a pull on the Little Admiral" jokes. Good times.
“The Deep State is packed with patriots.” — ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, during a recent appearance on The View.
In the short span of my lifetime the Left has moved from contempt for authority to the hard right stance "america, love it or leave it." Once again proving that most people (and all politicians) values alone with their interests and when their interests change, their values change.
The idea that humans, and especially these humans called politicians and journalists, live according to their "values" is a self-flattering romantic fiction—there are a handful of people alive who live according to actual "values" and they are either unknown (because becoming known isn't a real value) or are hated outcasts, because as Socrates and Jesus and Spinoza taught us, people REALLY HATE people with real values who refuse to compromise them.
What people have are needs and incentives, and when our liberal class decided what they needed most was TOTAL POWER (so total that they could sleep at night without worrying that the hated Other was sneaking over the gates), the incentives all switched to their opposite, and thus yesterday's rebels became today's authoritarians, the people who preened about tolerance could only tolerate obedience, and the people who said they were devoted to free expression became prudes and censors.
And if incentives and the needs of the tribe shift again, most people will go from libertines to moralists and back without ever even noticing.
the problem I have is that most people, when I was growing up were generally on favor of free speech. Yes there were some challenges coming from the right on cultural issues but the best example was that most Americans agreed with the Skokie decision despite the abhorrence of the marchers. What always scared me was the soviet sympathizers (that's you Bernie) because whatever your opinion of economics, the repression and intolerance was beyond obvious. Those are the people who want TOTAL POWER and they are on the cusp of it. What bothers me so much is how those on center left, who used to care about freedom are OK with this.
We could tolerate Skokie because that took place in a confident country deeply rooted in faith and family, and even more importantly, that was a mostly middle-class country where people were mentally and socially stable enough to accept some deranged freaks at the edges, sort of like how a lion can tolerate a gnat or how a strong tree can tolerate one rotted branch.
But once we allowed the Trojan Horse called Crit Theory to be wheeled inside our gates, we essentially handed our educational and cultural institutions to zealots who weren't shy about how much they hated everything healthy, normal and successful and who worked diligently to destroy what they could never create.
And our liberal class are the watchdogs who fell asleep on the job, because one of their few solid beliefs is No Enemies to the Left—they have no ability or vocabularly to oppose anyone who claims to be a Victim of Oppression (or a fighter on their behalf)—and thus they will always appease the radicals as long as they think it can save their careers and social status, which is their real reason for living. Our liberal class and their abject cowardice is the great scandal of our time.
Pete Mama Ganuush Lorenz Pelosi "Integrating the gender perspective, guns, gays, God, into strategic plans and operations, what I call a legal genocide, mean we should carpet bomb Texas?"
We'll miss ol' crooked Nancy, just a garden-variety kleptocrat that every society coughs up and who is America's embarrassing drunk grandma at this point, when she's gone and replaced by the Taylor Lorenz AWFLocracy, who treat dissent like Kathy Bates in "Misery" treated James Caan, who'll weep the whole time about how much it hurts their feelings to muzzle and wound you. Corrupt leaders are nothing compared to the ones who believe they've been chosen to the save the world, one crushed enemy at a time.
Annie Wilkes (the character in "Misery") is the OG Munchausen mama—she just wants a beautiful, perfect world, and she'll smash your bones to make it happen!
My ongoing thanks for your always interesting links. Even better this week, no paywalls! That ARPA piece.is proof positive that the Uniparty is alive, well, and undaunted. And the hand sanitizer story demonstrates the necessity of fixing the three and four letter agencies by abolishing all of them.
As usual, excellent links. I wonder if the ARPA restoration of quotas (last link) provides an entry into lawsuits striving for gender parity in college enrollment. For example, the Ivies (which are probably the most balanced), other than Dartmouth, still are skewed towards higher female admissions. I think the acceptance rate might be equal - so no disparate impact on acceptance rate, but definitely one on admissions.
Elon Musk should understand that in California, a public official with blood on their hands becomes VP material. That’s why the machete lugger was let go.
"There is reason to believe that progressives would be better equipped to resist the present crackdown on pro-Palestinian advocacy had social justice activists not previously popularized an expansive conception of harmful speech"
The scariest quote is the unintelligible word salad from an Admiral who is the President of the Naval War College.
Lunacy from lunatics is expected; lunacy from high ranking military officers is terrifying.
hey, he's not the rear admiral for nuthin ;)
I'm guessing there have been "Rear Admiral" jokes for as long as there been been rear Admirals. Long ago and far away, we were visiting Sydney AU at the same time a giant navy carrier was in port (something like 5000 US sailors on it). By even bigger coincidence, my wife and I were at the "Lord Nelson's Pub" in The Rocks area sitting near the Admiral, himself (I have no idea what his name was) and some of his officers. The Admiral was getting pretty wasted. The Jr. officer siting right next to me was not drinking, because he was in charge of keeping the Admiral out of trouble and eventually getting them all back on the ship. They had a draft beer called "the Little Admiral" on tap. The officer whispers in my ear that the Admiral was making "have a pull on the Little Admiral" jokes. Good times.
rim shot!
Lunatic and Senior Administration Official are not mutually exclusive terms.
“Joe Biden protects free speech.” — Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), during an interview with CNN.
Easy when you have no regard for the truth.
"Joe Biden cured cancer."
"Joe Biden freed the slaves."
"Joe Biden is a political genius."
“The Deep State is packed with patriots.” — ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, during a recent appearance on The View.
In the short span of my lifetime the Left has moved from contempt for authority to the hard right stance "america, love it or leave it." Once again proving that most people (and all politicians) values alone with their interests and when their interests change, their values change.
The idea that humans, and especially these humans called politicians and journalists, live according to their "values" is a self-flattering romantic fiction—there are a handful of people alive who live according to actual "values" and they are either unknown (because becoming known isn't a real value) or are hated outcasts, because as Socrates and Jesus and Spinoza taught us, people REALLY HATE people with real values who refuse to compromise them.
What people have are needs and incentives, and when our liberal class decided what they needed most was TOTAL POWER (so total that they could sleep at night without worrying that the hated Other was sneaking over the gates), the incentives all switched to their opposite, and thus yesterday's rebels became today's authoritarians, the people who preened about tolerance could only tolerate obedience, and the people who said they were devoted to free expression became prudes and censors.
And if incentives and the needs of the tribe shift again, most people will go from libertines to moralists and back without ever even noticing.
Well said!
the problem I have is that most people, when I was growing up were generally on favor of free speech. Yes there were some challenges coming from the right on cultural issues but the best example was that most Americans agreed with the Skokie decision despite the abhorrence of the marchers. What always scared me was the soviet sympathizers (that's you Bernie) because whatever your opinion of economics, the repression and intolerance was beyond obvious. Those are the people who want TOTAL POWER and they are on the cusp of it. What bothers me so much is how those on center left, who used to care about freedom are OK with this.
We could tolerate Skokie because that took place in a confident country deeply rooted in faith and family, and even more importantly, that was a mostly middle-class country where people were mentally and socially stable enough to accept some deranged freaks at the edges, sort of like how a lion can tolerate a gnat or how a strong tree can tolerate one rotted branch.
But once we allowed the Trojan Horse called Crit Theory to be wheeled inside our gates, we essentially handed our educational and cultural institutions to zealots who weren't shy about how much they hated everything healthy, normal and successful and who worked diligently to destroy what they could never create.
And our liberal class are the watchdogs who fell asleep on the job, because one of their few solid beliefs is No Enemies to the Left—they have no ability or vocabularly to oppose anyone who claims to be a Victim of Oppression (or a fighter on their behalf)—and thus they will always appease the radicals as long as they think it can save their careers and social status, which is their real reason for living. Our liberal class and their abject cowardice is the great scandal of our time.
Pete Mama Ganuush Lorenz Pelosi "Integrating the gender perspective, guns, gays, God, into strategic plans and operations, what I call a legal genocide, mean we should carpet bomb Texas?"
We'll miss ol' crooked Nancy, just a garden-variety kleptocrat that every society coughs up and who is America's embarrassing drunk grandma at this point, when she's gone and replaced by the Taylor Lorenz AWFLocracy, who treat dissent like Kathy Bates in "Misery" treated James Caan, who'll weep the whole time about how much it hurts their feelings to muzzle and wound you. Corrupt leaders are nothing compared to the ones who believe they've been chosen to the save the world, one crushed enemy at a time.
Damn, the Kathy Bates allusion is perfect, hilarious, frightening! Well done!
Thanks!
Annie Wilkes (the character in "Misery") is the OG Munchausen mama—she just wants a beautiful, perfect world, and she'll smash your bones to make it happen!
the Moral busybodies who willnot rest until you behave that C.S Lewis describes.
My ongoing thanks for your always interesting links. Even better this week, no paywalls! That ARPA piece.is proof positive that the Uniparty is alive, well, and undaunted. And the hand sanitizer story demonstrates the necessity of fixing the three and four letter agencies by abolishing all of them.
Three times I tried to edit; no luck. Unitary should be Uniparty.
As usual, excellent links. I wonder if the ARPA restoration of quotas (last link) provides an entry into lawsuits striving for gender parity in college enrollment. For example, the Ivies (which are probably the most balanced), other than Dartmouth, still are skewed towards higher female admissions. I think the acceptance rate might be equal - so no disparate impact on acceptance rate, but definitely one on admissions.
Elon Musk should understand that in California, a public official with blood on their hands becomes VP material. That’s why the machete lugger was let go.
“I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump.”
Ya think?
And the Jimmy Fallon quote is funny. Didn't he get canceled for being friendly to Trump back in 2016? I remember something like that. Time flies.
"Joe Biden protects free speech."
And Mrs. O'Leary founded the Chicago Fire Department.
"There is reason to believe that progressives would be better equipped to resist the present crackdown on pro-Palestinian advocacy had social justice activists not previously popularized an expansive conception of harmful speech"
Ya think?
Brad - Thanks for bringing back Tay-Tay. I was getting concerned.
Does Mama Guunash suffer from up herself syndrome?.... she should get some help with that.