Well-written and quite interesting. The models’ attractive appearance gave away their current day hygiene. I imagine the pungent odor associated today with long-term homelessness was the norm when running water was unknown and one stood in the billowing smoke of a smoldering indoor fire to dress each morning. I’m also thinking the cleanliness of hair, complexion, and teeth typical then was something else! Everyday life then was quite a challenge compared to the luxury we take for granted.
Neo – while your erudite, understated writing on a wide range of topics is the obvious draw at this site, the clips you post to accompany your open threads are quite a treat. Keep up the good work!
Whenever I see 16th and 17th century paintings of people with all their heavy garments on I always think how difficult it had to be to answer the call of nature.
You get tired of being cold. Not just freezing cold. Even slightly chilly for long periods.
The high, pointed hats worn by upper class women, the ones with veils hanging from them, had a purpose. The veil would shield the skin of the face from ferocious heat when warming oneself near a roaring fire in a fireplace.
Lower classes couldn’t afford a roaring fire.
People carried lap robes under which to put one’s hands while seated.
Keep in mind that the French go south, to the Med shore, in August.
Whatever grace notes clothing possessed, cold was the factor in layers and construction.
The classical music world has been entirely cowed and has submitted to the demands of the Critical Race Theory mob. After cataloging the endless, impossible equity demands for black classical music and black classical musicians, MacDonald turned to leading professional musicians and none would say a word about the problem:
________________________________________
Though the keepers of our tradition know that classical music is a priceless inheritance, fear paralyzes them as that legacy goes down. Among the leaders contacted for this article were conductors Daniel Barenboim, Dudamel himself, Riccardo Muti, Franz Welser-Möst, Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Charles Dutoit, James Conlon, Neeme Järvi, and Masaaki Suzuki; pianists András Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Lang Lang, Evgeny Kissin, and Richard Goode; singers Anna Netrebko, James Morris, and Angel Blue; and composers John Harbison and Wynton Marsalis. All either declined to comment or ignored the query….
Those music professionals who did speak to me, with few exceptions, required that they be referred to in so generalized a category that it would contain thousands of members. A former household name in classical music gave an anodyne interview, with one brief exception: an anecdote undercutting a black conductor’s unchallenged reputation. A day later, his wife wrote me: “We have just been informed that an interview has taken place between yourself and [former household name]. We request that you delete any comments made by [the name]. While we appreciate your enthusiasm for your project, we must decline from [sic] any involvement, on or off the record.
________________________________________
I don’t think of myself as a classical music guy. I don’t go to the symphony or opera. But this deeply saddens me.
Many of you have probably read of Israel’s recent COVID-19 research showing that those who have had it and recovered appear to be 6.7 times more resistant to Delta (and far less likely to spread it) than the vaccinated. Israel is a fairly good petri dish due to its approach in collecting data, controlling its population and high percentage of vaccinated citizens.
I won’t pretend to have a useful, scientific opinion based on reading a few articles, but this is a good example of how the U.S.’ CDC could cause a great deal of harm, or good, depending on which course it takes. If the Israeli study is correct, then it seems a good course of action would be to encourage social activity among the young and healthy while simultaneously discouraging vaccination among that group. Universities requiring vaccination as a prerequisite for admission could be causing harm to society.
Even if the CDC encouraged such a path, there are almost certainly some 20-somethings and younger who would get very sick, and possibly die. It’s just that the overall, societal impact would be much better. No course is without risk and harm. These are the realities of proscribing policy in the face of a novel virus utilizing a new vaccine.
As I wrote, I don’t have the expertise to posit an opinion on the correct course of action, but our CDC appears to have planted its flag firmly on the hill of vaccinations for all, no matter age or overall health. If the Israeli research is correct, this will result in more spread to the vaccinated, who can still get sick.
huxley,
I read that also. Or, rather, read about 1/3 of the first part. MacDonald is a wonderful writer and it’s an interesting topic, but it’s a longer read than I realized when I began.
I share your sadness. It’s literally a switch away from color-blind applications in a field that should be irrefutably based solely on merit. The good news is she had plenty of quotes from minority musicians who not only disagree with the shift, they insist they have not encountered racism in their careers.
No big deal.
You’ll just have to get your classical music from Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing.
You’re not going to see an eruption of decorative Darkies and trumpeting trannies in the Tokyo Philharmonic anytime soon.
Don’t trust me… go Google notorious Xi Puppet David Goldman (Spengler) on this.
In return you can export the slanties some Hip Hop. Whats’ not to like? 🙂
@Richard Aubrey —
Whatever grace notes clothing possessed, cold was the factor in layers and construction.
I’m firmly convinced that one factor in the Casual Revolution of the postwar era was the increased use of insulation in houses and therefore less need to wear multiple layers, i.e. suits, indoors all the time.
@Bryan Lovely:
Very likely.
In other parts of the world, the increasing ubiquity of air conditioning did away with the Safari Suit and the various white suits and uniforms worn by many people…
The decline of white as a colour for suits in Africa and Asia possibly also had something to do with more modern infrastructure as well as indoor climate control. A big unstated part of wearing white garments was not just the solar radiation reflecting property but also because it’s more of an achievement to look spotlessly clean and tidy in pure white western style garments —> huge status marker because you’re showing that you can’t be spattered with shit and detritus in your daily doings.
Things will get even more casual once the Greens make A/C too expensive for the majority or outlawed entirely except for some ‘special’ exemptions.
Something for all you Reasoned and Calm Debate Fetishists to cogitate upon:
“Mx. MacDonald thinks these knuckle-dragging anti-vaxxers are making her look bad to someone, so who is it? That is the key to understanding conservative perfidy and failure over the last half century. What matters most to them is the people in the managerial class and their place in it. It is very important to someone like Mx. MacDonald to never be associated with someone like Alex Jones, who thinks vaccines are making frogs gay and lowering the sperm count of American males.
.
.
This is why conservatives always lose. The main principle of the conservative is to conserve their reputation at all costs. No cause is ever so dear as to lead them to spend a penny of their reputation on it. Put another way, for the conservative, there is never anything worth fighting for, so they are always willing to cede the battle to the other side, no matter the cost. The Left sends thugs carrying bats and knives, while the Right sends out dandies dressed like interior decorators.
The test in these matters is this. Is the world better or worse with a small group of people who think vaccines alter your DNA? The obvious answer is the world is not affected in the least by people with crackpot ideas. Is the word made better or worse by allowing the evil of progressivism triumph? The answer is obvious. People fetishizing their rationality should be able to grasp this. Instead, for generations they have come to the opposite conclusion and lost every fight.”
The first step along the very long and winding road to Victory is to embrace your local mis-educated, unacquainted with orthodontistry, History Channel bingeing, paranormal-believing Dirt Person.
“…This brings us to the current crisis, which is taking on the same snarling face of previous revolutions from the top. The unleashing of the Covid panic coincided with the “build back better” campaign. Build Back Better World is a global initiative launched by the G7 countries. This revolution from the top is intended to reengineer the West from the ground up. The proposed $7 trillion plan working its way through Congress is even called the “Build Back Better Plan.”
The fact that no one wants any of this is an important part of these schemes that offers an insight into the people behind them. The lack of popular support is proof that these schemes are needed. You see, the resistance is proof that the peasants and those stubbornly independent kulaks remain trapped in the old ideology. What must happen is they must be made so miserable that they are ready to abandon the old for the new.
This is right out of Marcuse and critical theory. It is what lies behind the riots targeting the white middle class. It is behind critical race theory in the schools. It is behind the crazy mandates over Covid. The point of this is to so immiserate the people so that they will accept the new social schemes, just so they can go back to having something of a normal life again. In other words, the beatings will end when morale improves.
Circling back to Bukharin’s observation about what would come to be known as Stalinism, this sort of thing is only possible when the revolutionary holds the people in contempt. To sadistically inflict harm on the innocent in pursuit of some dream of a future world requires a genuine loathing of the people. The reason they are putting masks on your kids is they hate you and they hate you because the revolution demands it.
In this age, there is another wrinkle to this that fuels their hatred. In 18th-century France and 20th-century Russia, the intellectual revolutionaries lived a comfortable life relative to the people. They did not live like the aristocrats they despised, but they did not toil in factories or on farms. There was always the tug of sympathy for the plight of the people, which is why Stalin killed those with such sympathies.
In modern America, the peasants are fat, live in comfortable homes, and spend their free time consuming mass culture. The kulaks often live better than the radicals who rule over them from their perches in the managerial state. Worse yet, the oligarchs underwriting this revolution make the aristocrats of old look like paupers. From the perspective of these Marcusean radicals, they are trapped in a world of inequity.
Like all radicals that came before them, our present-day revolutionaries are driven by a self-loathing that expresses itself as a contempt for the system. Their pretensions about building a better future are just a mask to hide the ugly truth from themselves. The only question that remains is will this revolution follow every revolution into the horror of mass murder, genocide, and destruction? History says that is the way to bet.”
Zaphod @ 8:30pm,
I did not read the Heather MacDonald piece attacked in your link, nor do I need to. It doesn’t matter if I agree with her opinion in this particular piece, or not.
What I take issue with is this:
What matters most to them is the people in the managerial class and their place in it. It is very important to someone like Mx. MacDonald to never be associated with someone like Alex Jones…
Heather MacDonald is an outstanding journalist and has taken many heterodox stances, often going against the prevailing opinions of main stream media and elites. She is unflinchingly courageous and fearless. She also tends to back her stances up with data and facts.
No one person is going to agree with any other person all the time, but to accuse Heather MacDonald of choosing her opinions based on who shares or doesn’t share them is to completely misrepresent her and her outstanding body of work as a journalist.
Heather MacDonald reminds me of our hostess, Neo, in that they are both intelligent, curious and unafraid to go where facts and research lead them.
Zaphod,
Regarding your comment at 8:42pm, I think you might like the podcast from James Lindsay that I mentioned in a comment on a different post, “Bourgeois Overproduction and the Problem of the Fake Elite.”
Mr. Lindsay’s thoughts align with much of what you write in your comment and he provides some interesting history and statistics on the current state of affairs to enforce his viewpoint.
@Rufus:
And yet one day, you will be inside the tumbril, and Heather MacDonald will be outside the tumbril — curious and unafraid to go where facts and research lead her. She’ll have data and facts alright…. Probably bang out a nice long article on how if you paint a white dot on one of the wheels of your tumbril, it will describe a cycloid or something.
I don’t care how outstanding her body of work is. She Punched Right in a Total War. Alex Jones is a clown and a nutter. I don’t care. Can still be a Useful Idiot. That Woman penned an article in an enemy publication punching right. Ergo not on our side. The Left NEVER punches Left.
I think you just don’t get it. The Left is playing for keeps. You don’t get to beat them by being fair or reasonable or ‘Christian’… You beat them by doing things even they won’t do. And then when it’s done, you return to your sunny uplands.. if you can. Of course you might have to sacrifice your own precious soul for your progeny. Nobody said it would be easy.
I also think that problem with Democracy is not just that every fool thinks he/she has a worthwhile opinion on everything, it’s that every fool thinks that it’s *necessary* to have an opinion on everything. It’s not. We in the West live in in a World of Total Politics — everything has been politicized.
I did read Heather MacDonald column, and have read many other articles by her over the years. I see no justification for the ad hominem attacks on this person of demonstrated courage.
There is indeed a lot of craziness about vaccines coming from people on the Right. Several people who I know to be Trump supporters are insisting that the vaccines are something perpetrated by Fauci and Gates, evidently having forgotten all about Project Warp Speed.
The sheer volume of noise tends to make it hard for any valid concerns about the vaccine to be heard and responded to, and the approach taken by the CDC, NIH, and the Biden administration isn’t helping. There is not enough focus on information, education, and persuasion, and too much “because I told you so—respect mah authoriteh.”
For example, I have seen it asserted that the mRNA vaccines can lead to dangerously high antibody levels in certain individuals:
Is this a valid concern? I don’t know, but I *do* know that it’s not the same level of craziness as the assertions about the vaccine containing tiny wireless receivers tuned to receive commands from Bill Gates. A competent vaccine marketing program would accumulate concerns like this and respond to them, rather than just insulting anyone who raises any questions at all.
(Cont.)
China Shill Mode Again:
Much less of daily life is politicized in China in 2021 than in the West. And politics is poison. If there’s a criticism to be made of the Chinese, it’s that they’re too pragmatic and amoral rather than too politicized. Pick your poison.
@David Foster:
You can’t win against the Left and their Crazies by being so pure that you purge your Crazies and Berserkers *before* SHTF.
You purge them afterwards. You savvy?
All been done before. Plenty of templates. Why is this so difficult?
Too many on the Cuckservative Right worry about optics. It’s too late to be putting on nuanced civilized airs with the Enemy. They hate you regardless.
Trial Balloon. It’s already no simple matter to enter or leave PRC during past 12 months, but restricting to a single point of entry would be a significant escalation.
Don’t worry, Cuckservatives… Dennis Prager was in the audience and so it’s safe to watch. He permits you to watch. You won’t catch Nazi Cooties from clicking the link 🙂
Zaphod @ 9:12pm,
I don’t have the energy to look right now, but Heather MacDonald has written pieces regarding crime statistics and race that would make you and your comrades at gab blush. Her well written and documented pieces have brought the rage and ire of the Academy against her, personally, in full force yet she has not backed down. If 50.1% of the population of this country had the intelligence and courage of Heather MacDonald it would be a Utopia.
So she took umbrage with Alex Jones in a piece? Did she back up her stance with facts? Does the truth matter, or only whom is on which side?
I found Hillary Clinton’s statement about “deplorables” one of the most odious sentences ever spoken by a U.S. politician. I didn’t mind the word “deplorables” so much, but, “irredeemable?” It’s such an un-American, inhumane adjective to describe any human, let alone half the country. Apparently, for questioning something Alex Jones said Heather MacDonald is now irredeemable.
Google Experiment.
Google these terms:
Happy Asian Woman
Happy Black Woman
Happy White Woman
Have a look at the images each search returns. Feel free to comment here on your thoughts. Do you think this is random happenstance or some algorithmic quirk?
@Rufus:
I wouldn’t go so far as to call her irredeemable. I call her foolish and vain for taking logical and factual and reasonable plastic Economy Class butter knives to what is a rhetorical and will soon be a literal gun fight.
She’d be better off with an Alex Jones Souvenir Tactical Spork.
She doesn’t need to defend him. She needs to STFFU about him and leave him and his low IQ but still on your side future Brothers-in-arms alone. Her doubtless inestimable talents should be aimed Leftward. If she survives the coming deluge, she can Right the Right when the day is done.
Like it or not, the Intelligent Right is going to have to embrace the sweaty buck-toothed hillbilly Aliens Invaded Their Rectums Right to win the coming Thing. Who knows.. both might be improved by the experience. But separately they WILL hang.
@Rufus:
Out of idle curiosity, what could Hillary Clinton do to redeem herself?
Please limit your answer to the material plane of existence.
The problem with ‘Un-American’ as a term of art is that Un-Americans have gotten you to your present sorry state over a period of decades by painting any feeble attempts at pushback as being… wait for it… Un-American.
I think you have a bit of a problem here. I’m no Kurt Goedel…just a bloviating dummy… but strikes me that you might need to take a leap out of Axiomatic American-ness if you want to have a hope of returning to being, well, American.
Not being Un-American got you where you are. Or do you want to argue like the Communists that True Americanism has Never Been Tried?
I’m such a a bore, I know.
Yet again, more stupid, stupid #$%^ing retarded, stupid White Pathological Altruism:
I certainly agree with you regarding opinions. I don’t know if it’s strictly an American thing, but it seems like everyone feels they should have an opinion on everything. I first became aware of this during the O.J. Simpson murder trial. People would ask me what my opinion was and I’d answer, “How would I know? I’m not on the jury. I’m not seeing the case as presented to them, nor do I know what their instructions are.” People would look at me like I had two heads. Based on what I saw in the media he appeared guilty to me, but I don’t think Americans should be tried and sentenced based on five minute media narratives.
Zaphod @ 10:32pm,
I used the word “un-American” deliberately. Unlike North Korea we do not persecute grandchildren for the sins of their grandfathers. Our Constitution was engineered to attempt to eliminate the notions of “blood and soil.” I know you have written that you think that’s a fool’s errand, “humans gon’na human, tribe’s gon’na tribe,” but I do think people can rise above their base, animalistic urges.
Do you think Europe would be in better shape today had we assumed the Germans were irredeemable after twice waging total war against their neighbors in less than a 30 year span? I suppose the jury is still out, but the irredeemable approach in the Treaty of Versailles didn’t have a long shelf life. Had I been alive in ’45 and knowing what Westerners then knew of the Japanese Empire I would have never believed the populace could be pacified. In 1865 would Americans ever believe southern states could vote for Republican candidates?
And, not only do I believe Hillary can be redeemed, I hope she does see the error of her ways and learns to understand and appreciate the views of the “deplorables.” She does not yet seem willing, but stranger things have happened.
Zaphod @ 10:48pm,
Unfortunately, very unfortunately, pathological altruistic efforts that bear fruit rarely make the news. Not enough clicks. If you choose to build a philosophical house of cards on “if it bleeds it leads” more power to you, but don’t forget Herr Nietzsche’s warning:
“Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.”
@Rufus:
That’s very true about the Abyss. Made a profound impression on me when first encountered it ca. Age 19 (Late Developer, alas). As is the one about always bringing your whip when you go to Woman. Lou Andreas-Salome could not be reached for comment.
Returning to the Pelagial theme, “Cthulu Always Swims Left” is another Truth expressed by that Cod-Nietzsche, Curtis Yarvin.
As I’ve implied in earlier post, I’m not sure there’s any getting out of this without some self-sacrifices to go along with the other sacrifices. Later generations will look askance and simultaneously feel better about themselves. And the Wheel will keep turning.
@Rufus:
“Do you think Europe would be in better shape today had we assumed the Germans were irredeemable after twice waging total war against their neighbors in less than a 30 year span? ”
You’re dissing the Morgenthau Plan. Are you an anti-Semite or something? 😀
Looking at the German and Japanese birthrates today, I’m not sure that the Rehabilitation and ‘Redemption’ was quite the most wonderful thing.
BTW, there’s a very erudite, very weird, very grumpy, and absolutely headless Mishima Yukio-san for you on Line 3. Moshi-moshi!
OK… now that you’re back:
Both the Germans and the Japanese had their national souls repossessed for a mess of pottage. They still ape about in German and Japanese skinsuits but they’re not real Germans or Japanese anymore. That’s a fate worse than death. NB: I’m not saying it was fun to be their neighbours. I’m saying what you think of as Mercy is very much up for debate.
I think it’s a fate Legacy Americans would do well to avoid.
I’m not all into being disagreeable. I do believe that some individuals are capable of personal redemption. But playing the odds, don’t see much upside betting on Hillary C experiencing a conversion. Distinct whiff of brimstone about the witch.
Worth noting though that this Politely Dissident Managerialist BugXirson still argues against the AU Covid-19 strategy in Managerialist Bugspeak terms. I guess could argue he’s addressing fellow BugXirsons and doesn’t want them to ignore him by coming across as a filthy white male plebian shitbag… but here we go again with the whole Saphir-Whorf thingy —> arguing against it on very narrow grounds.
I noticed in my feeds starting yesterday and running into today that there’s another big concerted Climate Change media push going on.
It got me thinking. And the article you just linked just adds to this. He talks about the insane expense of the Australian response to Covid-19. The flip-side of this is just how many snouts are now in the trough and how many new Interests have arisen and become Vested.
I’ve got a really bad feeling about the Covid Thing. Too many of the Good People are doing too well out of this. Power, Money, and sheer joy at crushing those they despise. As with ‘Climate Change’, the perverse incentives to drag this out and metastasize it are huge. I don’t see any reason for them to stop.
Would like to be proven wrong, but I wonder if the Managerial Parasite Class and the Oligarchy behind them are now so entrenched and sufficiently numerous and insulated from daily reality that there’s no reason at all for them to back off.
“If the Israeli study is correct, then it seems a good course of action would be to encourage social activity among the young and healthy while simultaneously discouraging vaccination among that group.”
Yes, but I—with no credentials except that I caught the virus in January 2021 and had, fortunately, a very mild case, who knows why? Luck, all the quercetin and zinc and Vitamins D and C I was taking? God’s grace? Who knows….—would go even further…with what might seem a suggestion of perhaps somewhat diabolical provenance.
Here goes: One should put a plan in place to ensure (or try to) that everyone who is basically healthy (i.e., NOT the elderly, the obese, those with other diseases or medical conditions, etc.) BE EXPOSED to the virus, but under CONTROLLED conditions. That is, if the Zelenko (and other) Procedure indicates that regular dosages of (HCQ+zinc+azithromycin) OR (querecetin + zinc) OR ivermectin OR other, taken (especially) in advance of having contracted the virus (AND/OR during/after) significantly mitigate the symptoms and the severity of the virus, then it would seem common sense to try to do this.
I imagine it could be considered a kind of “vaccine” except that one is allowing the “Real Thing” to infect the body and create all those magnificent antibodies (as well as getting those T-Cells in gear) while making sure that the individual is—simultaneously in the best possible position to fight the virus.
Given the mayhem, panic, economic, social and psychological destruction—AND POLITICAL CHICANERY and EXPLOITATION (OH, AND MALARKEY)—that has already ensued (and likely will continue), one might conclude that this alternative, while a tremendous bureaucratic and organizational challenge (as well as being, perhaps, counter-intuitive(?) or even disgustingly EVIL(?)) is preferable, ESPECIALLY if natural immunity is far superior than any possible vaccine (the big IF?—but that seems to be the conclusion of not a few)…
E.g: https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/canadian-refused-entry-own-country-despite-proving-strong-natural-covid-immunity-and
FWIW…
(Anyway, wondering if one can be jailed for this sort of suggestion….)
File under: “But what are you doing OUT of jail?”(?)
Barry Meislin,
Along those same lines, it’s absurd the CDC has not been bombarding the U.S. public with billboards, television ads, radio spots… encouraging fitness and health. Whatever comorbidities are controllable; obesity and vitamin D deficiency for example, should be addressed. Had our society been doing this for a year, rather than cowering like sheep, who knows how many lives could have been saved and natural immunities increased? And your plan isn’t bad. I’d rather see Universities seeking volunteers for your plan than insisting on vaccinations for all. It would almost certainly be better for the volunteers and the rest of us.
“…absurd…”
Actually, it’s criminal.
(OTOH, if the point is to keep the Democrats in power forever and ever, it’s DIVINE…though the particular deity is open to debate…)
Zaphod,
Well, you got me to look up “Pelagial,” and now I know a new word, so at least there is that.
The birthrates in Germany and Japan (and all the West) are certainly a problem, but I don’t think they are related to their treaties of surrender that ended hostilities in 1945. It seems that humans, unlike Lemmings, do not throw themselves off of cliffs when their numbers get high, but rather use capitalism to raise their standard of living which has the effect of decreasing birth rates. Not having children and grandchildren is a problem for modern societies, especially those built on economic ponzi schemes that require ever expanding bottom tiers on the pyramid, but do you really think overbreeding and then culling the 18-35 year old male population in war is the answer?
Zaphod @ 3:26am,
I too have a bad feeling about “The Covid Thing.”
@Rufus:
“but do you really think overbreeding and then culling the 18-35 year old male population in war is the answer?”
Depends who is asking the question. When you ask it of me, I answer “Well, I hope not… it’s clearly undesirable and sub-optimal.”
When Gnon asks, I look back at the Arc of History (the real one… not the Gay Fairy Vero Possumus one *) and head for the nearest cave containing a bed and hide under the bed. Because clearly it *is* Nature’s Way.
Come to think of it, quite a lot of excess males just North of where I’m situated. Damn. Someone really needs to go have a chat to them about Natural Law.
I mean think about it… disciplining public officials for incompetence?!? That’s Tyranny! Next thing you know they’ll be barbecuing Bambi and booting BlackRock. The Humanity!
Don’t seem very keen on Covid Delta, do they? I posit because it’s a Face / Domestic Governance issue more than a serious public health threat. But let’s see. Early days for Delta.
Time to rake in some Rubles. This one is for all the Judeo-Christians out there:
(What is it? Who really knows… could be re-packaged HRQ/Ivermectin for all we know…but, but if it really works, then Pfizer et. al will surely be royally pissed— “After all we did for that ‘shitty little country'(TM) and they go and do THIS?! TO US?! THIS!! They gotta NO RESPECK. They gotta NO GRATITUDE!”…as “Biden” wonders just how soon “he” can sic the mullahs and their proxies on that inconvenient little country, which just might have thrown a size 17 sabot into “his” finely honed plans for eternal domination of the USTA…. Well, never a dull moment, nossiree…)
@BarryMeislin:
“Yes, I love it when ex-KGB heads talk about values.
I find it—what’s the word?—invigorating? Inspiring? That’s it. Inspiring!:”
It’s OK to become respectable and mend one’s ways after one makes it to the top… One might even become a Light unto the Nations… Kind of like the Irgun and the Stern Gang, you might even say.
Atavism Good Sir… it just ain’t Natural. Errr.. Wait…
Someone doesn’t know the difference between sh** and Shinola.
Charming <3 Thanks so much for posting
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Well-written and quite interesting. The models’ attractive appearance gave away their current day hygiene. I imagine the pungent odor associated today with long-term homelessness was the norm when running water was unknown and one stood in the billowing smoke of a smoldering indoor fire to dress each morning. I’m also thinking the cleanliness of hair, complexion, and teeth typical then was something else! Everyday life then was quite a challenge compared to the luxury we take for granted.
Neo – while your erudite, understated writing on a wide range of topics is the obvious draw at this site, the clips you post to accompany your open threads are quite a treat. Keep up the good work!
Whenever I see 16th and 17th century paintings of people with all their heavy garments on I always think how difficult it had to be to answer the call of nature.
You get tired of being cold. Not just freezing cold. Even slightly chilly for long periods.
The high, pointed hats worn by upper class women, the ones with veils hanging from them, had a purpose. The veil would shield the skin of the face from ferocious heat when warming oneself near a roaring fire in a fireplace.
Lower classes couldn’t afford a roaring fire.
People carried lap robes under which to put one’s hands while seated.
Keep in mind that the French go south, to the Med shore, in August.
Whatever grace notes clothing possessed, cold was the factor in layers and construction.
Election Observers Alarmed Over Newsom Recall: All California Voters Can Download Ballots in the ‘Comfort of Their Own Home’
Have printer, will vote.
Heather MacDonald has written two brilliant, but oh-so-depressing pieces on the state of the classical music art:
–“Classical Music’s Suicide Pact (Part 1)”
https://www.city-journal.org/classical-music-under-racial-attack-part-1
–“Classical Music’s Suicide Pact (Part 2)”
https://www.city-journal.org/classical-music-under-racial-attack-part-2
The classical music world has been entirely cowed and has submitted to the demands of the Critical Race Theory mob. After cataloging the endless, impossible equity demands for black classical music and black classical musicians, MacDonald turned to leading professional musicians and none would say a word about the problem:
________________________________________
Though the keepers of our tradition know that classical music is a priceless inheritance, fear paralyzes them as that legacy goes down. Among the leaders contacted for this article were conductors Daniel Barenboim, Dudamel himself, Riccardo Muti, Franz Welser-Möst, Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Charles Dutoit, James Conlon, Neeme Järvi, and Masaaki Suzuki; pianists András Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Lang Lang, Evgeny Kissin, and Richard Goode; singers Anna Netrebko, James Morris, and Angel Blue; and composers John Harbison and Wynton Marsalis. All either declined to comment or ignored the query….
Those music professionals who did speak to me, with few exceptions, required that they be referred to in so generalized a category that it would contain thousands of members. A former household name in classical music gave an anodyne interview, with one brief exception: an anecdote undercutting a black conductor’s unchallenged reputation. A day later, his wife wrote me: “We have just been informed that an interview has taken place between yourself and [former household name]. We request that you delete any comments made by [the name]. While we appreciate your enthusiasm for your project, we must decline from [sic] any involvement, on or off the record.
________________________________________
I don’t think of myself as a classical music guy. I don’t go to the symphony or opera. But this deeply saddens me.
Many of you have probably read of Israel’s recent COVID-19 research showing that those who have had it and recovered appear to be 6.7 times more resistant to Delta (and far less likely to spread it) than the vaccinated. Israel is a fairly good petri dish due to its approach in collecting data, controlling its population and high percentage of vaccinated citizens.
I won’t pretend to have a useful, scientific opinion based on reading a few articles, but this is a good example of how the U.S.’ CDC could cause a great deal of harm, or good, depending on which course it takes. If the Israeli study is correct, then it seems a good course of action would be to encourage social activity among the young and healthy while simultaneously discouraging vaccination among that group. Universities requiring vaccination as a prerequisite for admission could be causing harm to society.
Even if the CDC encouraged such a path, there are almost certainly some 20-somethings and younger who would get very sick, and possibly die. It’s just that the overall, societal impact would be much better. No course is without risk and harm. These are the realities of proscribing policy in the face of a novel virus utilizing a new vaccine.
As I wrote, I don’t have the expertise to posit an opinion on the correct course of action, but our CDC appears to have planted its flag firmly on the hill of vaccinations for all, no matter age or overall health. If the Israeli research is correct, this will result in more spread to the vaccinated, who can still get sick.
huxley,
I read that also. Or, rather, read about 1/3 of the first part. MacDonald is a wonderful writer and it’s an interesting topic, but it’s a longer read than I realized when I began.
I share your sadness. It’s literally a switch away from color-blind applications in a field that should be irrefutably based solely on merit. The good news is she had plenty of quotes from minority musicians who not only disagree with the shift, they insist they have not encountered racism in their careers.
No big deal.
You’ll just have to get your classical music from Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing.
You’re not going to see an eruption of decorative Darkies and trumpeting trannies in the Tokyo Philharmonic anytime soon.
Don’t trust me… go Google notorious Xi Puppet David Goldman (Spengler) on this.
In return you can export the slanties some Hip Hop. Whats’ not to like? 🙂
@Richard Aubrey —
Whatever grace notes clothing possessed, cold was the factor in layers and construction.
I’m firmly convinced that one factor in the Casual Revolution of the postwar era was the increased use of insulation in houses and therefore less need to wear multiple layers, i.e. suits, indoors all the time.
@Bryan Lovely:
Very likely.
In other parts of the world, the increasing ubiquity of air conditioning did away with the Safari Suit and the various white suits and uniforms worn by many people…
The decline of white as a colour for suits in Africa and Asia possibly also had something to do with more modern infrastructure as well as indoor climate control. A big unstated part of wearing white garments was not just the solar radiation reflecting property but also because it’s more of an achievement to look spotlessly clean and tidy in pure white western style garments —> huge status marker because you’re showing that you can’t be spattered with shit and detritus in your daily doings.
Things will get even more casual once the Greens make A/C too expensive for the majority or outlawed entirely except for some ‘special’ exemptions.
Something for all you Reasoned and Calm Debate Fetishists to cogitate upon:
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=24710
“Mx. MacDonald thinks these knuckle-dragging anti-vaxxers are making her look bad to someone, so who is it? That is the key to understanding conservative perfidy and failure over the last half century. What matters most to them is the people in the managerial class and their place in it. It is very important to someone like Mx. MacDonald to never be associated with someone like Alex Jones, who thinks vaccines are making frogs gay and lowering the sperm count of American males.
.
.
This is why conservatives always lose. The main principle of the conservative is to conserve their reputation at all costs. No cause is ever so dear as to lead them to spend a penny of their reputation on it. Put another way, for the conservative, there is never anything worth fighting for, so they are always willing to cede the battle to the other side, no matter the cost. The Left sends thugs carrying bats and knives, while the Right sends out dandies dressed like interior decorators.
The test in these matters is this. Is the world better or worse with a small group of people who think vaccines alter your DNA? The obvious answer is the world is not affected in the least by people with crackpot ideas. Is the word made better or worse by allowing the evil of progressivism triumph? The answer is obvious. People fetishizing their rationality should be able to grasp this. Instead, for generations they have come to the opposite conclusion and lost every fight.”
The first step along the very long and winding road to Victory is to embrace your local mis-educated, unacquainted with orthodontistry, History Channel bingeing, paranormal-believing Dirt Person.
Now do you feel up to that? 🙂
On Revolutions from Above:
https://www.takimag.com/article/a-revolting-system/
“…This brings us to the current crisis, which is taking on the same snarling face of previous revolutions from the top. The unleashing of the Covid panic coincided with the “build back better” campaign. Build Back Better World is a global initiative launched by the G7 countries. This revolution from the top is intended to reengineer the West from the ground up. The proposed $7 trillion plan working its way through Congress is even called the “Build Back Better Plan.”
The fact that no one wants any of this is an important part of these schemes that offers an insight into the people behind them. The lack of popular support is proof that these schemes are needed. You see, the resistance is proof that the peasants and those stubbornly independent kulaks remain trapped in the old ideology. What must happen is they must be made so miserable that they are ready to abandon the old for the new.
This is right out of Marcuse and critical theory. It is what lies behind the riots targeting the white middle class. It is behind critical race theory in the schools. It is behind the crazy mandates over Covid. The point of this is to so immiserate the people so that they will accept the new social schemes, just so they can go back to having something of a normal life again. In other words, the beatings will end when morale improves.
Circling back to Bukharin’s observation about what would come to be known as Stalinism, this sort of thing is only possible when the revolutionary holds the people in contempt. To sadistically inflict harm on the innocent in pursuit of some dream of a future world requires a genuine loathing of the people. The reason they are putting masks on your kids is they hate you and they hate you because the revolution demands it.
In this age, there is another wrinkle to this that fuels their hatred. In 18th-century France and 20th-century Russia, the intellectual revolutionaries lived a comfortable life relative to the people. They did not live like the aristocrats they despised, but they did not toil in factories or on farms. There was always the tug of sympathy for the plight of the people, which is why Stalin killed those with such sympathies.
In modern America, the peasants are fat, live in comfortable homes, and spend their free time consuming mass culture. The kulaks often live better than the radicals who rule over them from their perches in the managerial state. Worse yet, the oligarchs underwriting this revolution make the aristocrats of old look like paupers. From the perspective of these Marcusean radicals, they are trapped in a world of inequity.
Like all radicals that came before them, our present-day revolutionaries are driven by a self-loathing that expresses itself as a contempt for the system. Their pretensions about building a better future are just a mask to hide the ugly truth from themselves. The only question that remains is will this revolution follow every revolution into the horror of mass murder, genocide, and destruction? History says that is the way to bet.”
Zaphod @ 8:30pm,
I did not read the Heather MacDonald piece attacked in your link, nor do I need to. It doesn’t matter if I agree with her opinion in this particular piece, or not.
What I take issue with is this:
Heather MacDonald is an outstanding journalist and has taken many heterodox stances, often going against the prevailing opinions of main stream media and elites. She is unflinchingly courageous and fearless. She also tends to back her stances up with data and facts.
No one person is going to agree with any other person all the time, but to accuse Heather MacDonald of choosing her opinions based on who shares or doesn’t share them is to completely misrepresent her and her outstanding body of work as a journalist.
Heather MacDonald reminds me of our hostess, Neo, in that they are both intelligent, curious and unafraid to go where facts and research lead them.
Zaphod,
Regarding your comment at 8:42pm, I think you might like the podcast from James Lindsay that I mentioned in a comment on a different post, “Bourgeois Overproduction and the Problem of the Fake Elite.”
https://newdiscourses.com/2021/05/bourgeois-overproduction-problem-fake-elite/
Mr. Lindsay’s thoughts align with much of what you write in your comment and he provides some interesting history and statistics on the current state of affairs to enforce his viewpoint.
@Rufus:
And yet one day, you will be inside the tumbril, and Heather MacDonald will be outside the tumbril — curious and unafraid to go where facts and research lead her. She’ll have data and facts alright…. Probably bang out a nice long article on how if you paint a white dot on one of the wheels of your tumbril, it will describe a cycloid or something.
I don’t care how outstanding her body of work is. She Punched Right in a Total War. Alex Jones is a clown and a nutter. I don’t care. Can still be a Useful Idiot. That Woman penned an article in an enemy publication punching right. Ergo not on our side. The Left NEVER punches Left.
I think you just don’t get it. The Left is playing for keeps. You don’t get to beat them by being fair or reasonable or ‘Christian’… You beat them by doing things even they won’t do. And then when it’s done, you return to your sunny uplands.. if you can. Of course you might have to sacrifice your own precious soul for your progeny. Nobody said it would be easy.
To be fair to Christianity, there’s this:
https://propertarianinstitute.com/2018/06/21/the-origins-of-kill-them-all-and-let-god-sort-it-out/
Re over-production of ‘Elites’: Yes.
I also think that problem with Democracy is not just that every fool thinks he/she has a worthwhile opinion on everything, it’s that every fool thinks that it’s *necessary* to have an opinion on everything. It’s not. We in the West live in in a World of Total Politics — everything has been politicized.
I did read Heather MacDonald column, and have read many other articles by her over the years. I see no justification for the ad hominem attacks on this person of demonstrated courage.
There is indeed a lot of craziness about vaccines coming from people on the Right. Several people who I know to be Trump supporters are insisting that the vaccines are something perpetrated by Fauci and Gates, evidently having forgotten all about Project Warp Speed.
The sheer volume of noise tends to make it hard for any valid concerns about the vaccine to be heard and responded to, and the approach taken by the CDC, NIH, and the Biden administration isn’t helping. There is not enough focus on information, education, and persuasion, and too much “because I told you so—respect mah authoriteh.”
For example, I have seen it asserted that the mRNA vaccines can lead to dangerously high antibody levels in certain individuals:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/08/the_vaccine_experimental_times_two.html
Is this a valid concern? I don’t know, but I *do* know that it’s not the same level of craziness as the assertions about the vaccine containing tiny wireless receivers tuned to receive commands from Bill Gates. A competent vaccine marketing program would accumulate concerns like this and respond to them, rather than just insulting anyone who raises any questions at all.
(Cont.)
China Shill Mode Again:
Much less of daily life is politicized in China in 2021 than in the West. And politics is poison. If there’s a criticism to be made of the Chinese, it’s that they’re too pragmatic and amoral rather than too politicized. Pick your poison.
@David Foster:
You can’t win against the Left and their Crazies by being so pure that you purge your Crazies and Berserkers *before* SHTF.
You purge them afterwards. You savvy?
All been done before. Plenty of templates. Why is this so difficult?
Too many on the Cuckservative Right worry about optics. It’s too late to be putting on nuanced civilized airs with the Enemy. They hate you regardless.
@Huxley:
More China Covid Delta Rumblings:
https://asiatimes.com/2021/08/calls-rising-for-a-single-air-entry-point-to-china/
Trial Balloon. It’s already no simple matter to enter or leave PRC during past 12 months, but restricting to a single point of entry would be a significant escalation.
Tucker Carlson just made a speech in Hungary.
https://tv.gab.com/channel/a/view/tucker-carlsons-powerful-speech-in-hungary-6111cebbd24793a986dbf54e
Don’t worry, Cuckservatives… Dennis Prager was in the audience and so it’s safe to watch. He permits you to watch. You won’t catch Nazi Cooties from clicking the link 🙂
Zaphod @ 9:12pm,
I don’t have the energy to look right now, but Heather MacDonald has written pieces regarding crime statistics and race that would make you and your comrades at gab blush. Her well written and documented pieces have brought the rage and ire of the Academy against her, personally, in full force yet she has not backed down. If 50.1% of the population of this country had the intelligence and courage of Heather MacDonald it would be a Utopia.
So she took umbrage with Alex Jones in a piece? Did she back up her stance with facts? Does the truth matter, or only whom is on which side?
I found Hillary Clinton’s statement about “deplorables” one of the most odious sentences ever spoken by a U.S. politician. I didn’t mind the word “deplorables” so much, but, “irredeemable?” It’s such an un-American, inhumane adjective to describe any human, let alone half the country. Apparently, for questioning something Alex Jones said Heather MacDonald is now irredeemable.
Google Experiment.
Google these terms:
Happy Asian Woman
Happy Black Woman
Happy White Woman
Have a look at the images each search returns. Feel free to comment here on your thoughts. Do you think this is random happenstance or some algorithmic quirk?
@Rufus:
I wouldn’t go so far as to call her irredeemable. I call her foolish and vain for taking logical and factual and reasonable plastic Economy Class butter knives to what is a rhetorical and will soon be a literal gun fight.
She’d be better off with an Alex Jones Souvenir Tactical Spork.
She doesn’t need to defend him. She needs to STFFU about him and leave him and his low IQ but still on your side future Brothers-in-arms alone. Her doubtless inestimable talents should be aimed Leftward. If she survives the coming deluge, she can Right the Right when the day is done.
Like it or not, the Intelligent Right is going to have to embrace the sweaty buck-toothed hillbilly Aliens Invaded Their Rectums Right to win the coming Thing. Who knows.. both might be improved by the experience. But separately they WILL hang.
@Rufus:
Out of idle curiosity, what could Hillary Clinton do to redeem herself?
Please limit your answer to the material plane of existence.
The problem with ‘Un-American’ as a term of art is that Un-Americans have gotten you to your present sorry state over a period of decades by painting any feeble attempts at pushback as being… wait for it… Un-American.
I think you have a bit of a problem here. I’m no Kurt Goedel…just a bloviating dummy… but strikes me that you might need to take a leap out of Axiomatic American-ness if you want to have a hope of returning to being, well, American.
Not being Un-American got you where you are. Or do you want to argue like the Communists that True Americanism has Never Been Tried?
I’m such a a bore, I know.
Yet again, more stupid, stupid #$%^ing retarded, stupid White Pathological Altruism:
https://news.sky.com/story/france-suspected-nantes-cathedral-arsonist-arrested-over-dramatic-assassination-of-catholic-priest-12377401
You just can’t make this #$%^ up. Thanatos, Baby.
Zaphod @ 9:12pm,
I certainly agree with you regarding opinions. I don’t know if it’s strictly an American thing, but it seems like everyone feels they should have an opinion on everything. I first became aware of this during the O.J. Simpson murder trial. People would ask me what my opinion was and I’d answer, “How would I know? I’m not on the jury. I’m not seeing the case as presented to them, nor do I know what their instructions are.” People would look at me like I had two heads. Based on what I saw in the media he appeared guilty to me, but I don’t think Americans should be tried and sentenced based on five minute media narratives.
Zaphod @ 10:32pm,
I used the word “un-American” deliberately. Unlike North Korea we do not persecute grandchildren for the sins of their grandfathers. Our Constitution was engineered to attempt to eliminate the notions of “blood and soil.” I know you have written that you think that’s a fool’s errand, “humans gon’na human, tribe’s gon’na tribe,” but I do think people can rise above their base, animalistic urges.
Do you think Europe would be in better shape today had we assumed the Germans were irredeemable after twice waging total war against their neighbors in less than a 30 year span? I suppose the jury is still out, but the irredeemable approach in the Treaty of Versailles didn’t have a long shelf life. Had I been alive in ’45 and knowing what Westerners then knew of the Japanese Empire I would have never believed the populace could be pacified. In 1865 would Americans ever believe southern states could vote for Republican candidates?
And, not only do I believe Hillary can be redeemed, I hope she does see the error of her ways and learns to understand and appreciate the views of the “deplorables.” She does not yet seem willing, but stranger things have happened.
Zaphod @ 10:48pm,
Unfortunately, very unfortunately, pathological altruistic efforts that bear fruit rarely make the news. Not enough clicks. If you choose to build a philosophical house of cards on “if it bleeds it leads” more power to you, but don’t forget Herr Nietzsche’s warning:
@Rufus:
That’s very true about the Abyss. Made a profound impression on me when first encountered it ca. Age 19 (Late Developer, alas). As is the one about always bringing your whip when you go to Woman. Lou Andreas-Salome could not be reached for comment.
Returning to the Pelagial theme, “Cthulu Always Swims Left” is another Truth expressed by that Cod-Nietzsche, Curtis Yarvin.
As I’ve implied in earlier post, I’m not sure there’s any getting out of this without some self-sacrifices to go along with the other sacrifices. Later generations will look askance and simultaneously feel better about themselves. And the Wheel will keep turning.
@Rufus:
“Do you think Europe would be in better shape today had we assumed the Germans were irredeemable after twice waging total war against their neighbors in less than a 30 year span? ”
You’re dissing the Morgenthau Plan. Are you an anti-Semite or something? 😀
Looking at the German and Japanese birthrates today, I’m not sure that the Rehabilitation and ‘Redemption’ was quite the most wonderful thing.
BTW, there’s a very erudite, very weird, very grumpy, and absolutely headless Mishima Yukio-san for you on Line 3. Moshi-moshi!
OK… now that you’re back:
Both the Germans and the Japanese had their national souls repossessed for a mess of pottage. They still ape about in German and Japanese skinsuits but they’re not real Germans or Japanese anymore. That’s a fate worse than death. NB: I’m not saying it was fun to be their neighbours. I’m saying what you think of as Mercy is very much up for debate.
I think it’s a fate Legacy Americans would do well to avoid.
I’m not all into being disagreeable. I do believe that some individuals are capable of personal redemption. But playing the odds, don’t see much upside betting on Hillary C experiencing a conversion. Distinct whiff of brimstone about the witch.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3144469/chinas-local-covid-19-cases-hit-highest-daily-total-latest
Really curious to see what the headlines will be in 30 and 60 days.
CDC Pants Pooping List Update:
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2163023/us-warns-against-travel-to-thailand-other-countries-over-covid-19
Here’s a link to a just-posted Quillette article by an Australian risk management expert on the COVID-19 hysteria in Oz:
https://quillette.com/2021/08/09/covid-zero-was-it-worth-it/
I think Neo would agree with Newburrie’s take.
^^^ So do I and I’m sure so do most here.
Worth noting though that this Politely Dissident Managerialist BugXirson still argues against the AU Covid-19 strategy in Managerialist Bugspeak terms. I guess could argue he’s addressing fellow BugXirsons and doesn’t want them to ignore him by coming across as a filthy white male plebian shitbag… but here we go again with the whole Saphir-Whorf thingy —> arguing against it on very narrow grounds.
I noticed in my feeds starting yesterday and running into today that there’s another big concerted Climate Change media push going on.
It got me thinking. And the article you just linked just adds to this. He talks about the insane expense of the Australian response to Covid-19. The flip-side of this is just how many snouts are now in the trough and how many new Interests have arisen and become Vested.
I’ve got a really bad feeling about the Covid Thing. Too many of the Good People are doing too well out of this. Power, Money, and sheer joy at crushing those they despise. As with ‘Climate Change’, the perverse incentives to drag this out and metastasize it are huge. I don’t see any reason for them to stop.
Would like to be proven wrong, but I wonder if the Managerial Parasite Class and the Oligarchy behind them are now so entrenched and sufficiently numerous and insulated from daily reality that there’s no reason at all for them to back off.
“If the Israeli study is correct, then it seems a good course of action would be to encourage social activity among the young and healthy while simultaneously discouraging vaccination among that group.”
Yes, but I—with no credentials except that I caught the virus in January 2021 and had, fortunately, a very mild case, who knows why? Luck, all the quercetin and zinc and Vitamins D and C I was taking? God’s grace? Who knows….—would go even further…with what might seem a suggestion of perhaps somewhat diabolical provenance.
Here goes: One should put a plan in place to ensure (or try to) that everyone who is basically healthy (i.e., NOT the elderly, the obese, those with other diseases or medical conditions, etc.) BE EXPOSED to the virus, but under CONTROLLED conditions. That is, if the Zelenko (and other) Procedure indicates that regular dosages of (HCQ+zinc+azithromycin) OR (querecetin + zinc) OR ivermectin OR other, taken (especially) in advance of having contracted the virus (AND/OR during/after) significantly mitigate the symptoms and the severity of the virus, then it would seem common sense to try to do this.
I imagine it could be considered a kind of “vaccine” except that one is allowing the “Real Thing” to infect the body and create all those magnificent antibodies (as well as getting those T-Cells in gear) while making sure that the individual is—simultaneously in the best possible position to fight the virus.
Given the mayhem, panic, economic, social and psychological destruction—AND POLITICAL CHICANERY and EXPLOITATION (OH, AND MALARKEY)—that has already ensued (and likely will continue), one might conclude that this alternative, while a tremendous bureaucratic and organizational challenge (as well as being, perhaps, counter-intuitive(?) or even disgustingly EVIL(?)) is preferable, ESPECIALLY if natural immunity is far superior than any possible vaccine (the big IF?—but that seems to be the conclusion of not a few)…
E.g:
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/canadian-refused-entry-own-country-despite-proving-strong-natural-covid-immunity-and
FWIW…
(Anyway, wondering if one can be jailed for this sort of suggestion….)
File under: “But what are you doing OUT of jail?”(?)
Barry Meislin,
Along those same lines, it’s absurd the CDC has not been bombarding the U.S. public with billboards, television ads, radio spots… encouraging fitness and health. Whatever comorbidities are controllable; obesity and vitamin D deficiency for example, should be addressed. Had our society been doing this for a year, rather than cowering like sheep, who knows how many lives could have been saved and natural immunities increased? And your plan isn’t bad. I’d rather see Universities seeking volunteers for your plan than insisting on vaccinations for all. It would almost certainly be better for the volunteers and the rest of us.
“…absurd…”
Actually, it’s criminal.
(OTOH, if the point is to keep the Democrats in power forever and ever, it’s DIVINE…though the particular deity is open to debate…)
Zaphod,
Well, you got me to look up “Pelagial,” and now I know a new word, so at least there is that.
The birthrates in Germany and Japan (and all the West) are certainly a problem, but I don’t think they are related to their treaties of surrender that ended hostilities in 1945. It seems that humans, unlike Lemmings, do not throw themselves off of cliffs when their numbers get high, but rather use capitalism to raise their standard of living which has the effect of decreasing birth rates. Not having children and grandchildren is a problem for modern societies, especially those built on economic ponzi schemes that require ever expanding bottom tiers on the pyramid, but do you really think overbreeding and then culling the 18-35 year old male population in war is the answer?
Zaphod @ 3:26am,
I too have a bad feeling about “The Covid Thing.”
@Rufus:
“but do you really think overbreeding and then culling the 18-35 year old male population in war is the answer?”
Depends who is asking the question. When you ask it of me, I answer “Well, I hope not… it’s clearly undesirable and sub-optimal.”
When Gnon asks, I look back at the Arc of History (the real one… not the Gay Fairy Vero Possumus one *) and head for the nearest cave containing a bed and hide under the bed. Because clearly it *is* Nature’s Way.
Come to think of it, quite a lot of excess males just North of where I’m situated. Damn. Someone really needs to go have a chat to them about Natural Law.
* FWIW: Pelagians deserve a Pelagial Fate.
No comment needed.
https://babylonbee.com/news/solution-to-government-created-problem-is-more-government-says-government
Won’t be a publicly-acknowledged Causus Belli, but this is a direct shot across the bows of your real rulers 😀
https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3144289/chinas-antitrust-regulator-starts-review-blackstones-us3
Perhaps only Chinese are to be permitted to loot the Chinese Economy. What a terrible evil idea… It’s positively Putinesque!
Covid-related:
https://spectatorworld.com/topic/zero-covid-blame-pandemic-fauci/
I feel despondent that I haven’t shilled for the CCP during the last 2 hours. Je suis désolé!
But the Old Grey Whore comes Trolloping to the rescue:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-officials-pay-price-as-delta-variant-triggers-new-outbreak-of-covid-19-tvqj6k3vn
I mean think about it… disciplining public officials for incompetence?!? That’s Tyranny! Next thing you know they’ll be barbecuing Bambi and booting BlackRock. The Humanity!
Don’t seem very keen on Covid Delta, do they? I posit because it’s a Face / Domestic Governance issue more than a serious public health threat. But let’s see. Early days for Delta.
Time to rake in some Rubles. This one is for all the Judeo-Christians out there:
Vladimir Putin on Christianity vs Liberalism:
https://youtu.be/CCMUeryzX2Y
Yes, I love it when ex-KGB heads talk about values.
I find it—what’s the word?—invigorating? Inspiring? That’s it. Inspiring!
And it looks like…yes! it looks like we have Judeo-Christianity’s Best Kept Secret(TM):
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/90-patients-treated-experimental-israeli-covid-drug-discharged-within-5-days
(What is it? Who really knows… could be re-packaged HRQ/Ivermectin for all we know…but, but if it really works, then Pfizer et. al will surely be royally pissed— “After all we did for that ‘shitty little country'(TM) and they go and do THIS?! TO US?! THIS!! They gotta NO RESPECK. They gotta NO GRATITUDE!”…as “Biden” wonders just how soon “he” can sic the mullahs and their proxies on that inconvenient little country, which just might have thrown a size 17 sabot into “his” finely honed plans for eternal domination of the USTA…. Well, never a dull moment, nossiree…)
@BarryMeislin:
“Yes, I love it when ex-KGB heads talk about values.
I find it—what’s the word?—invigorating? Inspiring? That’s it. Inspiring!:”
It’s OK to become respectable and mend one’s ways after one makes it to the top… One might even become a Light unto the Nations… Kind of like the Irgun and the Stern Gang, you might even say.
Atavism Good Sir… it just ain’t Natural. Errr.. Wait…
Someone doesn’t know the difference between sh** and Shinola.
Charming <3 Thanks so much for posting