+ Bonus:
When the going gets absurd, the absurd get going…
Dusting off a Constitutional amendment that has never ever been used: https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/490042/
See talks about how freeing it is to be true to your principles despite the opposition and she concludes with this stirring passage:
You feel that frisson when you choose a person to commit yourself to knowing full well that any marriage may fail; when you bring children into a world where there are no guarantees of their safety or success. When you summon the courage to fashion a life, something that will remain after you are gone. When you speak the truth publicly—with care and lucidity. And when you say to the world: you cannot buy me with flattery. Purchase my colleagues or classmates at bulk rate. I am not for sale.
This is some “not new news” from a couple days ago that I think is worth emphasizing.
His comments come as a growing number of people are deciding not to have children, citing concerns such as climate change and inequality.
Musk added that too many “good, smart people” think there are too many people in the world and that the population is growing out of control.
“It’s completely the opposite,” Musk said, urging people to look at the data. “If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble. Mark my words.”
When asked if this is why he has so many children, the father of six said he’s trying to set a good example, adding that he has to practice what he preaches.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note to investors in July that the “movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline.”
See “The Monkey’s Voyage” by Queiroz. Lots more on this subject.
Notice how the omicron has disappeared from the news?? Yesterday the queen of the CDC said only about 50 cases (so far) in the US, though I’m certain it’s much much higher. But her real talking point which is being ignored is that all the cases are basically a 2-3 day very mild head cold/flu. AND….over 3/4 of the cases were vaccinated which means to me the vax doesn’t stop infection at all, and the 25% not vaxed had the same mild symptoms.
Why are they pushing more and more vaxes/boosters? Just Big Pharma money?? I don’t want to go down the population control conspiracy path, but that option seems to be opining up. Here’s a couple of very concerning articles on the vax along with some actual medical journal citations:
A good friend from the college said 2 days ago, enthusiastically, that she was going to get her booster. I tried to tell not to do it, but to no avail. She now reports being very sick: extremes headaches, body aches, fatigue, and 102 fever. Sigh….
Just to let you know, your blog roll is way past due for an update. Roger Simon left PJ Media years ago.
physicsguy, I simply cannot understand why people are doing these boosters, unless they are seriously immune-compromised. We have several antibody cocktail therapeutics available, one approved oral therapeutic and another much better one soon to be approved (I hope), and the new omicron variant is mild! What on earth are low to moderate risk people doing with these shots?
The Pfizer CEO is already making noises about the need for a 4th shot. He’s clearly deeply concerned about whether or not major Pfizer shareholders will be able to afford their second private jets or new beach houses on Nantucket.
physicsguy,
I greatly hesitate to think such dark thoughts also, but I did choose the J&J vaccine just in case*. I typically give a much stronger likelihood to incompetence over planned, malicious intent, but so much of what I see going on seems too well coordinated to coincide with pure, random ignorance. If the administration would so readily kill the natural gas industry with no concern for its devastating impact on a huge percentage of Americans (and no correlation with their stated goal of reducing carbon admissions), what else might they do? Look at the number of opiod deaths and suicides since the lockdowns began. Weird, weird stuff…
*Even though I had a fairly “healthy” case of COVID and likely have strong resistance I am looking for work and didn’t want my lack of vaccination to be a stumbling block in getting hired.
My and wife and I got the boosters. I consulted with our Doctor before hand and she recommended that we get them. She is “compromised” with several medical issues. I trust her, she is very conservative in her treatments.
We also got them because we want to travel next year and the boosters will most likely be needed.
People can only make that choice for themselves. To criticize them for what your choice would be is not really fair. We all make choices and we have to live with them.
geoffb,
Thanks for the video on the Patriot Front. Although I found the presenter, “Mr. Reagan,” fairly sincere I came away from the video drawing the opposite conclusion.
I agree with Mr. Reagan that their website, their “uniforms,” their videos… all have a very “uncanny valley” feel to them. Something seems very off. My initial thought was this is some federal government operation trying to entrap “insurrectionist” minded Americans. But giving the founder a name and having him show his face makes it too possible to prove it’s a hoax, if it is.
“Rosseau” is so convenient of a name it seems to support the hoax theory, but surely someone went to High School with this guy. People know him. From the SPLC*:
Thomas Ryan Rousseau grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where he attended Coppell High School. While enrolled, he was involved with The Sidekick, the Coppell High School student newspaper where he was the staff cartoonist during his senior year. He also contributed to video production and wrote a number of opinion columns for the paper. This appears to be where the young white supremacist cultivated the propaganda production skills that propelled his rapid ascension into leadership on the racist right, first with Vanguard America and later with his founding of Patriot Front.
If this is a false flag effort it shows incredible foresight to recruit a young man in High School to head up the hoax. It’s also absurdly risky. What are the odds you would pick a young man who would not betray the hoax over the several years required to build it?
It seems INCREDIBLY unlikely the FBI would take such a risk. It also seems unlikely it is a left-wing operation. From splcenter.org:
While working for his high school newspaper, Rousseau frequently wrote opinion columns in support of conservative topics including the controversial “campus carry” law in Texas and North Carolina’s since gutted “bathroom bill.” He was also an ardent supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 election. In an October 26, 2016 column, Rousseau wrote — using rhetoric that would reappear in his future Patriot Front propaganda — that “Trump’s campaign is about more than just the election of who is president. It is a referendum on American democracy. A simple decision between who is really in control of this nation, a corrupt establishment with wishes to usurp democracy, or the American people.”
In a separate, since removed, opinion column published days after the election titled, “Trump: The silent majority no longer silent,” Rousseau wrote, “The truth is white voters, especially the working class, have had more than enough of being called racist, sexist, xenophobic, islamophobic, homophobic and the rest of the usual trite buzzwords. … The forgotten majority of the American electorate has shown that much to the dismay of the globalist agenda, that they have not yet been replaced by the tens of millions of blue-voting immigrants from abroad. That they can still hold up some semblance of a resistance against the decay of their nation.”
His first column for the student newspaper on February 28, 2016, was titled, “Diversity Club brings friendly atmosphere to students of varied backgrounds.”
Rousseau was also a Boy Scout attempting to become an Eagle Scout before his 18th birthday.
On August 12, 2017, Rousseau led members of Vanguard America at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is in the foreground of several photos depicting James Alex Fields, Jr., the young man facing first-degree murder charges for allegedly ramming his vehicle into a crowd of protesters and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Fields marched with members of Vanguard America and carried a shield bearing the organization’s emblem.
In an August 14, 2017, post to a Vanguard America Discord server, Rousseau told members that, “The statement [issued by Vanguard America about Fields] never said that what he did was wrong, just clarified that he wasn’t a member. People aren’t buying it anyways.”
Vanguard America dissolved into chaos in the immediate aftermath of “Unite the Right,” particularly at the leadership level. Dillon Irizarry, Vanguard America’s “commander” publicly accused Rousseau of seizing the organization’s [Discord] servers and web domain. On August 14, 2017, Vanguard America’s official Twitter account announced that Rousseau had been removed from leadership in the group.
On May 5, 2017, on behalf of Irizarry, Rousseau announced that Vanguard America would be breaking its Discord servers into regions. Rousseau was a moderator, with authority to ban users at his discretion which allowed him to wrest control of the organization’s chat servers from Irizarry.
In an August 30, 2017, post to “Southern Front,” formerly Vanguard America’s southern region chat server, Rousseau announced his new organization, Patriot Front.
Due to the unwillingness to meet any semblance of a compromise to resolve ongoing disputes with disagreeing parties, we are rebranding and reorganizing as a new entity. Vanguard America, as you know it, will now be the “Patriots Front.” … Our website is under construction, and will be back online via the same domain. Our focus will remain much the same, as will our overal [sic] goals, this restructuring will happen alongside the creation of an extended manifesto, and a top-down reform of the entity’s ranking system. … This change comes alongside many new visuals, and a new overall look. The new name was carefully chosen, as it serves several purposes. It can help inspire sympathy among those more inclined to fence-sitting, and can be easily justified to our ideaology [sic] and worldview. The original American patriots were nothing short of revolutionaries. The word patriot itself comes from the same root as paternal and patriarch. It means loyalty to something intrinsically based in blood.
Rousseau’s design skills are his greatest asset among his followers, hence the promise of fresh visuals for Patriot Front. He also designed the insignia used by Exodus Americanus, a white supremacist radio program hosted on the Right Stuff that frequently features headliners from the racist right.
On September 24, 2017, members of Patriot Front confronted a group of Houston anarchists at a book fair at the Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts community center. A course was being taught on how to “refuse fascism” titled, “Punching Nazis.” Masked members of Patriot Front, a Texas Daily Stormer Book Club, and the Houston Goylers, a Right Stuff “Pool Party,” held banners that read “for race and nation,” lit flares, and chanted, “blood and soil,” while the anarchists held the doors to the community center closed to keep out members of Patriot Front.
Patriot Front quickly turned footage of the short confrontation into a propaganda video that was posted to the group’s YouTube page on October 15, 2017.
With the formation of Patriot Front, Rousseau instituted strict rules on dual membership, requiring members to disclose affiliations with other organization. He also required members to disclose activity on a regular basis or risk being purged from the organization. Typical offerings include distributing flyers and banner drops, proof of which are posted to Patriot Front’s social media accounts almost every day.
Records obtained by the Texas Observer show that the FBI has been monitoring Rousseau since at least May 2017, while he was still a student at Coppell High School, for his own flyer distribution on Dallas area campuses.
Rousseau’s rebranding of Vanguard America as Patriot Front is aesthetic, rather than ideological. The group’s manifesto is adorned with images of George Washington, George Patton, Robert E. Lee, Andrew Jackson and Henry Ford. Its text focuses on the familiar themes of apocalyptic modernity, European ancestry and white homelands, but is now couched in Americana.
A nation within a nation is our goal. Our people face complete annihilation as our culture and heritage are attacked from all sides. … The State was founded on liberal ideals, even from inception, but many acts of the people counteracted its original foundation and ensured a White American homeland for a time. However, due to the basis of the State’s founding, these bulwarks against the eventual degeneration of the Republic were temporary and ultimately futile. … An African may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American. He is, as he likely prefers to be labeled, an African in America. The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people, or do not share the common unconscious that permeates throughout our greater civilization, and the European diaspora.
The rhetorical shift came at a notable moment of self-reflection across the white supremacist movement as organizations and leaders that participated in the Charlottesville rally were widely condemned. The negative response from the mainstream public resulted in an identity crisis, particularly around the issue of optics and whether to continue using well-known racist symbols or to fall back on the image of the American flag. Patriot Front, under Rousseau’s leadership, represents one distinct outgrowth of this dispute.
Under Rousseau’s direct leadership, Patriot Front’s Texas chapter is its most active — relying mostly on flyering, banner drops and occasionally demonstrations. When the organization ventures off the internet, its activities are primarily conducted in the dead of night, anonymously. Numbers at demonstrations are typically few, and tightly choreographed. They usually feature a scripted speech by Rousseau, in order to maximize propaganda value.
On November 3, 2017, roughly 30 members of Patriot Front marched through the University of Texas at Austin to the campus’s George Washington statue where Rousseau delivered a torchlit speech. The following day, Patriot Front members convened at Austin’s Monkeywrench Books with members of Daily Stormer and The Right Stuff meet-up groups for a flash demonstration. At both events, participants displayed American flags and the Texas state flag while wearing masks featuring skulls or American iconography.
These disciplined demonstrations illustrate Rousseau’s tight control of Patriot Front and its public appearance. The group emphasizes image-driven activism as pre-packaged propaganda. Its incessant social media posts celebrating members’ activism in local communities — which has recently expanded to include park clean-ups — suggests that Rousseau expects members to take initiative independently and perform activism that can be branded. Since its foundation, Patriot Front activity has expanded into dozens of states.
Patriot Front has also declined to participate in large rallies with other hate groups, preferring instead to work with small, local chapters that allow Patriot Front to remain the center of attention while controlling their message and presentation.
*I know, I know, but the bio is almost certainly accurate.
SHIREHOME, it’s very reasonable for you to get the boosters, given your wife’s health issues and your desire to travel. As you say, to each person belongs the decision.
All along, the best policy would have been to offer extra protection, via the shots and other measures, to those who are at higher risk. That’s an entirely different matter than pushing everyone, of every age, to get the shots.
Richard Aubrey,
Thanks for the link to the book. My “to read” stack is currently overly large (I’m spending too much time at thenewneo!), but I just may get to that one. I’ve been looking for a good book on that topic.
DNA will almost certainly settle most of these questions, and I think we will find some surprises when it does. Computer models are only as reliable as the programmers’ guesses when running forward in time, but the opposite is true when running backwards.
For example, when modeling something like Earth’s climate in 100 years programmers must take guesses on the impacts of thousands of variables; atmospheric gases, ocean currents, sun, moon and planetary locations, volcanic activity, amount and type of foliage cover, snow and ice cover and the Earth’s effective albedo… If a guess of just one of those thousdands of variables is off by a hair the resulting estimates can be way off 100 years into the model. But if we take the DNA of existing species and data on where the species currently thrive, what the fossil record shows, etc., computers can rather easily ascertain what percentage of DNA is common among species and where/when common mutations occured.
Biologists/Zoologists/Botanists look at an animal like the fox and try to determine if it shares a branch of the tree of life with felines or canines, or, maybe its own unique branch that shares a common ancestor with all three. Physical observation; skeletal structure, behavior, diet… can lead to well informed guesses, but DNA and statistical computer analysis provides an even better guess.
As we fill in the DNA information of species we should get a very accurate picture of when and where species and mutations within species evolved. Regarding humans, I believe we will ultimately learn artificial selection played a major role in most homo-sapien groups. Our ancestors intentionally selected for certain traits, likely out of fear of the unknown when mutations surfaced. For example; a predominantly brown-eyed group would kill offspring with different eye colors and groups discouraged mating with non-like groups.
Rufus
The cover of the book shows a monkey–it’s a drawing–who doesn’t seem at all pleased to be on his way to somewhere.
As I frequently do, I reached out to the author with some questions. One critter exists at the headwaters of the Congo, and some islands in the Gulf of Guinea. His rafts apparently didn’t come ashore down the river. Or perhaps nobody wants to go there, looking. Or there’s a nasty predator.
And since placentals took over everywhere else, what’s with Australia not so far, including even less distance during various tectonic issues and lowered sea levels. Good discussion.
Tweet purports to show pilot Union annual retrospective.
2019: 1 death
2020: 6 deaths
2021: dozens
Could be propaganda? And with, doubtless, thousands of pilots vaxxed the death of dozens is a statistic not a panic situation for policy makers.
There just seems to be so much that remains unexplained these days. https://westernrifleshooters.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/zoom.jpg
Some good news: My neighbor, the IBM coder who works from home (and has had COVID), has been approved for a religious exemption from the vaccines. She won’t be fired!
Kate, I agree. I don’t like mandates, masks or vaccinations. I also believe that the “authorities” pushing them have gone way too far.
I guess I was not clear, it is my Doctor that has medical issues.
An interesting video. Sort of the ancient rodents version of “Kon-Tiki”.
Smollet guilty on five out of six charges.
RE Sapir-Whorf and the power of language to shape “Reality” and Belief.
Apparently those on the Left believe, very firmly, in the practical reality of Sapir-Whorf, and that’s why they are making such universal and strenuous efforts to control the dissemination of information, education, vocabulary and language, with the aim of making it harder and harder to think of and to discuss and debate issues and alternative views which would harm their ideology, “narrative,” view of realty, positions, programs, and claims to power.–See Orwell’s “1984.”
@SnowOnPine:
In fact that’s a suspiciously Nordic bit of imagery you’ve got going there with your nick. Report to Room 101!
@JimNorCal:
Saw that going around on Gab.
I’d like to see a link to that on the pilot’s union website before getting excited. There are plenty of fakers and bullshitters on our side of the aisle, too.
Rufus.
WRT humans and artificial selection: I get the green monkey thing. I gather that some African tribes kill albinos.
Still, we do have some H. Nean DNA. Had to happen somehow. Since we’re here and they’re not, the mixed-breeds stayed with us and…bred with us.
So… Say a H. Nean hunter’s band dies out and he approaches a H. Sap band. Would they drive him off or do they think they could use a burly hunter? H Nean woman, same issue: Can they use another person who knows about curing skins and caring for children and possibly providing more?
H. Erectus overlapped H. Sap, and H. Ergaster overlapped Erectus. Same questions;
Jean Auel, call your office.
The Qalifornia Qahal wot pays the salary of the Kosher Samosa Dan Greenfield *really* does not like the increasing signs that they are going to be replaced at the top of the multi-ethnic pecking order by a brash pushy (oh, how the Angels wept!) new Silicon Valley Indian Ascendancy.
He keeps running the most delicious hit pieces on Silicon Valley Indian Money-backed Kamala Harris. And boy does he do a good job. Wouldn’t want to be in his sights.
I like the guy. The basis of true inter-ethnic amity is having someone else to crap on 🙂
@RichardAubrey:
I’ve got more than the average amount of Neanderthal DNA. Cue much nodding in the cheap seats.
If you’ve seen the various types of Negrito / Orang Asli peoples living in remote inhospitable parts of the SE Asian Archipelagos, you get some pretty strange primitive throwbacks.
Such a fast moving and interesting field. The PC slows down dissemination though.
Wokeism:
“Imagine you were a peasant in the early medieval times and one day you looked up from your toils to see some men on the road wearing funny outfits. You see that they must be of means as they are not covered in muck and they have men of arms guarding them, but they are strange and different. They are headed in the direction of the lord’s home. You assume they are nobles of some sort. You are a peasant, so you go back to toiling away and think no more of it.
Days later, the lord’s men come to round up you and your neighbors. Everyone is herded down to the river. The lord is there and to your surprise the men you saw the other day are there as well. The lord announces that everyone is now something called a Christian and worshipping the old gods will no longer be allowed. Along with the other peasants, you are walked out into the river where you get dunked while the strangers say something in an alien language.
.
.
.
This is why it is delusional to think this stuff is just a fad and will fade without having to confront it in the culture war. That is the old libertarian impulse to cower on the sidelines while pretending to be above it all. The new religion may be at odds with reality, but reason has never played the defining role in the ways of men. The woke can remain unreasonable longer than the reasonable can remain smug. Our peasant from before learned that when he was eventually forced to abandon his gods.”
I’m in the top quintile of Neanderthal genes, according to 23andMe if I take after my sister.
Damn proud of it!
However, I can’t seem to find any parades to march in.
Zaphod
Used to have a neighbor who’d fought in the Philippines. Said he and his buddies liked the Negritos…who hated Japs. Would occasionally two up with a head from the latter and ask for rations. Didn’t need ammo.
Occasional stories of female orangutans taking up with a remote village, wearing skirts and washing them in the river as the less hirsute women did.
Wonder what they’re thinking.
@Richard Aubrey:
I like the Orangutan Story!
The etymology is Orang Hutan : literally Person Jungle in a language which puts adjectives after nouns.
The last major instance of head taking I’ve heard of happened in the post-Suharto chaos in Indonesia. The Iban or Dayaks of Kalimantan (can’t remember which) decided that they’d had enough of the antics of some transmigrated Madurese and part of the resultant festivities involved roadblocks constructed from Madurese heads. Headhunters have humour though, so they gave them all cigarettes to puff on.
@Huxley:
You could have been a contender here:
“Neanderthal Arts is a performing arts festival for Vancouver running Summer 2012 at The Cultch.” https://twitter.com/notextinct
But they’ve gone extinct after all.
There’s a great “Strange But True” story about a wild, mute woman captured in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia in the 1870s. She was called Zana:
________________________________________
Zana’s unique features rapidly earned her celebrity status. No-one had seen anything like her. She was six-and-a-half feet tall, with black skin cloaked entirely in thick auburn fur. Zana also had more stark musculature than even the strongest men. Her sheer strength was legendary, and she did not seem to be affected by the frigid winter air, even though forced to sleep in the outdoors.
Read the link for more of her fascinating, though not happy, life. She was raped and had children. Her descendants were later studied by a geneticist:
________________________________________
In 2013, a Professor Bryan Sykes was able to conduct tests on saliva samples said to be from six of Zana’s descendants. Sykes, a Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, claims that his research yielded evidence that Zana’s ethnic background was ‘100% sub-Saharan African’, and that she was likely a slave who had been brought to the area by the ruling Ottomans of the time. Sykes also had a chance to study the unearthed skull of Khwit, Zana’s son, and was astonished to see its unusual features?— mainly, eye sockets much larger than a human’s, as well as a prominent brow ridge. The back of Khwit’s skull had another strange mark: the presence of an extra bone at its base.
Although Sykes proposed that Zana might have been a slave of African descent, there are a number of factors that make this idea less plausible. The first is that, while Zana’s DNA supposedly indicated ‘100%’ African origin, Sykes was unable to clarify which regions on that continent Zana’s ancestors could have come from. The other obvious factor is that nothing about Zana’s description and behavior was ever like that of an ordinary human being.
________________________________________
Curious.
But they’ve gone extinct after all.
Zaphod:
That’s exactly what we want you to think.
@Huxley:
So they just went underground.
Zaphod,
Regarding your statement on a different thread about media being relatively silent about Epstein and Maxwell, I see this with a lot of things and my best guess is it’s simply due to the vast availability of media alternatives and splintering of media.
I don’t know where you were when the Columbine High School slaughter of innocents took place, but it was major news for weeks. Even months after there would be special features on the aftermath. A similar thing for the bizarre, JonBenet Ramsey murder. Plane crashes would get weeks of coverage.
Now, few things stick around for more than a day or two. Look at the on-going Congressional Hearings about January 6th. Hardly any news coverage. A decade ago Smollett’s trial would have been televised, Rittenhouse’s trial would have gotten ten minutes of coverage every night.
The availability of so many news and entertainment sources has eliminated almost anything from holding the U.S.’s national consciousness.
@Rufus:
Wouldn’t it be pretty to think so.
Real power is the power to decide what is news or not news. And who is and is not off the menu for criticism or even naming/delineating.
Now one can over-fit one’s models sometimes… but the example I mentioned stinks to high heaven.
Belated Pearl Harbor Anniversary Department:
Just got this thrown at me by YouTube. When the Japanese decide to do something, they go all-in balls to the wall. No half-measures.
Some very grain-fed (by Japanese standards) talent out front, too.
Zaphod,
I agree there is much not covered by media that should be, but more than anything I blame Americans’ attention spans and the crazy abundance of eyeball options. Even scandals involving celebrities and athletes barely stick around for 24 hours.
Rufus. Or it could be that it is obvious a celebrity’s scandal isn’t worth twenty-four hours of anybody’s attention.
Richard Aubrey,
Ha! You are correct. As Zaphod wrote, wouldn’t it be pretty to think the masses have learned that? My guess is they still care way more about the latest pop, rap, youtube or TikTok star than Aristotle or Archimedes. It’s just their gnat-like attention spans have them flitting much more rapidly.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
I assume you have already seen this. But just in the off chance. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-turn-liel-leibovitz
Oops! Just noticed you already git this one!
Sorry for littering in your comments. Please feel free to delete.
Jussie Smollet is just the small time, underfunded version of this. Someone, some group has spent a lot of money and time developing this entire hoax.
Video, quite comprehensive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYG6W8Nre0U
Short written piece on the same.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/12/desperately-seeking-white-supremacists.php
Russiagate may yet see the light of day…in spite of the almost-full media blackout/misdirection:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/12/russia-hoax-whitewash-era-begins-4.php
– – – – – – – –
…and I’ll repost this:
“Interesting Times”(TM) revisited…
Evergrande has finally defaulted—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/evergrande-has-finally-defaulted-heres-what-happens-next
– – – – – – – –
+ Bonus:
When the going gets absurd, the absurd get going…
Dusting off a Constitutional amendment that has never ever been used:
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/490042/
What it’s like to become a hated activist, quite without intending it.
Saw this linked on another blog and it fits in with a few recent topics here.
https://abigailshrier.substack.com/p/what-i-told-the-students-of-princeton
See talks about how freeing it is to be true to your principles despite the opposition and she concludes with this stirring passage:
You feel that frisson when you choose a person to commit yourself to knowing full well that any marriage may fail; when you bring children into a world where there are no guarantees of their safety or success. When you summon the courage to fashion a life, something that will remain after you are gone. When you speak the truth publicly—with care and lucidity. And when you say to the world: you cannot buy me with flattery. Purchase my colleagues or classmates at bulk rate. I am not for sale.
This is some “not new news” from a couple days ago that I think is worth emphasizing.
Elon Musk says ‘civilization is going to crumble’ …
No. Elon isn’t flogging climate change.
See “The Monkey’s Voyage” by Queiroz. Lots more on this subject.
Notice how the omicron has disappeared from the news?? Yesterday the queen of the CDC said only about 50 cases (so far) in the US, though I’m certain it’s much much higher. But her real talking point which is being ignored is that all the cases are basically a 2-3 day very mild head cold/flu. AND….over 3/4 of the cases were vaccinated which means to me the vax doesn’t stop infection at all, and the 25% not vaxed had the same mild symptoms.
Why are they pushing more and more vaxes/boosters? Just Big Pharma money?? I don’t want to go down the population control conspiracy path, but that option seems to be opining up. Here’s a couple of very concerning articles on the vax along with some actual medical journal citations:
https://dailyexpose.uk/2021/12/08/278-percent-increase-in-heart-attack-deaths-among-soccer-players/
https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/extraordinary-new-chart-from-the
A good friend from the college said 2 days ago, enthusiastically, that she was going to get her booster. I tried to tell not to do it, but to no avail. She now reports being very sick: extremes headaches, body aches, fatigue, and 102 fever. Sigh….
Just to let you know, your blog roll is way past due for an update. Roger Simon left PJ Media years ago.
physicsguy, the only news story I’ve seen about Omicron over the past 24 hours is that it has yet to be officially attributed to be the cause of any deaths and there has been only 1 hospitalizaion in the US so far. Now there’s only been 43 confirmed cases revealed in the US though so obviously it’s still nowhere near enough data to conclude anything.
Just-us for Massachusetts.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/490225/
physicsguy, I simply cannot understand why people are doing these boosters, unless they are seriously immune-compromised. We have several antibody cocktail therapeutics available, one approved oral therapeutic and another much better one soon to be approved (I hope), and the new omicron variant is mild! What on earth are low to moderate risk people doing with these shots?
The Pfizer CEO is already making noises about the need for a 4th shot. He’s clearly deeply concerned about whether or not major Pfizer shareholders will be able to afford their second private jets or new beach houses on Nantucket.
physicsguy,
I greatly hesitate to think such dark thoughts also, but I did choose the J&J vaccine just in case*. I typically give a much stronger likelihood to incompetence over planned, malicious intent, but so much of what I see going on seems too well coordinated to coincide with pure, random ignorance. If the administration would so readily kill the natural gas industry with no concern for its devastating impact on a huge percentage of Americans (and no correlation with their stated goal of reducing carbon admissions), what else might they do? Look at the number of opiod deaths and suicides since the lockdowns began. Weird, weird stuff…
*Even though I had a fairly “healthy” case of COVID and likely have strong resistance I am looking for work and didn’t want my lack of vaccination to be a stumbling block in getting hired.
“Biden” goes full Monty Python:
https://twitter.com/themarketswork/status/1469040120342872065
My and wife and I got the boosters. I consulted with our Doctor before hand and she recommended that we get them. She is “compromised” with several medical issues. I trust her, she is very conservative in her treatments.
We also got them because we want to travel next year and the boosters will most likely be needed.
People can only make that choice for themselves. To criticize them for what your choice would be is not really fair. We all make choices and we have to live with them.
geoffb,
Thanks for the video on the Patriot Front. Although I found the presenter, “Mr. Reagan,” fairly sincere I came away from the video drawing the opposite conclusion.
I didn’t know the leader had shown his face at the rally. His name is Thomas Rousseau and he was at the Charlottesville rally and was arrested a year ago in Texas, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/4/1966538/-Founder-of-fascist-Patriot-Front-group-arrested-in-Texas-for-plastering-stickers-at-courthouse
I agree with Mr. Reagan that their website, their “uniforms,” their videos… all have a very “uncanny valley” feel to them. Something seems very off. My initial thought was this is some federal government operation trying to entrap “insurrectionist” minded Americans. But giving the founder a name and having him show his face makes it too possible to prove it’s a hoax, if it is.
“Rosseau” is so convenient of a name it seems to support the hoax theory, but surely someone went to High School with this guy. People know him. From the SPLC*:
If this is a false flag effort it shows incredible foresight to recruit a young man in High School to head up the hoax. It’s also absurdly risky. What are the odds you would pick a young man who would not betray the hoax over the several years required to build it?
It seems INCREDIBLY unlikely the FBI would take such a risk. It also seems unlikely it is a left-wing operation. From splcenter.org:
*I know, I know, but the bio is almost certainly accurate.
SHIREHOME, it’s very reasonable for you to get the boosters, given your wife’s health issues and your desire to travel. As you say, to each person belongs the decision.
All along, the best policy would have been to offer extra protection, via the shots and other measures, to those who are at higher risk. That’s an entirely different matter than pushing everyone, of every age, to get the shots.
Richard Aubrey,
Thanks for the link to the book. My “to read” stack is currently overly large (I’m spending too much time at thenewneo!), but I just may get to that one. I’ve been looking for a good book on that topic.
DNA will almost certainly settle most of these questions, and I think we will find some surprises when it does. Computer models are only as reliable as the programmers’ guesses when running forward in time, but the opposite is true when running backwards.
For example, when modeling something like Earth’s climate in 100 years programmers must take guesses on the impacts of thousands of variables; atmospheric gases, ocean currents, sun, moon and planetary locations, volcanic activity, amount and type of foliage cover, snow and ice cover and the Earth’s effective albedo… If a guess of just one of those thousdands of variables is off by a hair the resulting estimates can be way off 100 years into the model. But if we take the DNA of existing species and data on where the species currently thrive, what the fossil record shows, etc., computers can rather easily ascertain what percentage of DNA is common among species and where/when common mutations occured.
Biologists/Zoologists/Botanists look at an animal like the fox and try to determine if it shares a branch of the tree of life with felines or canines, or, maybe its own unique branch that shares a common ancestor with all three. Physical observation; skeletal structure, behavior, diet… can lead to well informed guesses, but DNA and statistical computer analysis provides an even better guess.
As we fill in the DNA information of species we should get a very accurate picture of when and where species and mutations within species evolved. Regarding humans, I believe we will ultimately learn artificial selection played a major role in most homo-sapien groups. Our ancestors intentionally selected for certain traits, likely out of fear of the unknown when mutations surfaced. For example; a predominantly brown-eyed group would kill offspring with different eye colors and groups discouraged mating with non-like groups.
Rufus
The cover of the book shows a monkey–it’s a drawing–who doesn’t seem at all pleased to be on his way to somewhere.
As I frequently do, I reached out to the author with some questions. One critter exists at the headwaters of the Congo, and some islands in the Gulf of Guinea. His rafts apparently didn’t come ashore down the river. Or perhaps nobody wants to go there, looking. Or there’s a nasty predator.
And since placentals took over everywhere else, what’s with Australia not so far, including even less distance during various tectonic issues and lowered sea levels. Good discussion.
Tweet purports to show pilot Union annual retrospective.
2019: 1 death
2020: 6 deaths
2021: dozens
Could be propaganda? And with, doubtless, thousands of pilots vaxxed the death of dozens is a statistic not a panic situation for policy makers.
There just seems to be so much that remains unexplained these days.
https://westernrifleshooters.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/zoom.jpg
Some good news: My neighbor, the IBM coder who works from home (and has had COVID), has been approved for a religious exemption from the vaccines. She won’t be fired!
Kate, I agree. I don’t like mandates, masks or vaccinations. I also believe that the “authorities” pushing them have gone way too far.
I guess I was not clear, it is my Doctor that has medical issues.
An interesting video. Sort of the ancient rodents version of “Kon-Tiki”.
Smollet guilty on five out of six charges.
RE Sapir-Whorf and the power of language to shape “Reality” and Belief.
Apparently those on the Left believe, very firmly, in the practical reality of Sapir-Whorf, and that’s why they are making such universal and strenuous efforts to control the dissemination of information, education, vocabulary and language, with the aim of making it harder and harder to think of and to discuss and debate issues and alternative views which would harm their ideology, “narrative,” view of realty, positions, programs, and claims to power.–See Orwell’s “1984.”
@SnowOnPine:
In fact that’s a suspiciously Nordic bit of imagery you’ve got going there with your nick. Report to Room 101!
@JimNorCal:
Saw that going around on Gab.
I’d like to see a link to that on the pilot’s union website before getting excited. There are plenty of fakers and bullshitters on our side of the aisle, too.
Rufus.
WRT humans and artificial selection: I get the green monkey thing. I gather that some African tribes kill albinos.
Still, we do have some H. Nean DNA. Had to happen somehow. Since we’re here and they’re not, the mixed-breeds stayed with us and…bred with us.
So… Say a H. Nean hunter’s band dies out and he approaches a H. Sap band. Would they drive him off or do they think they could use a burly hunter? H Nean woman, same issue: Can they use another person who knows about curing skins and caring for children and possibly providing more?
H. Erectus overlapped H. Sap, and H. Ergaster overlapped Erectus. Same questions;
Jean Auel, call your office.
The Qalifornia Qahal wot pays the salary of the Kosher Samosa Dan Greenfield *really* does not like the increasing signs that they are going to be replaced at the top of the multi-ethnic pecking order by a brash pushy (oh, how the Angels wept!) new Silicon Valley Indian Ascendancy.
He keeps running the most delicious hit pieces on Silicon Valley Indian Money-backed Kamala Harris. And boy does he do a good job. Wouldn’t want to be in his sights.
http://www.danielgreenfield.org/2021/12/the-decline-and-fall-of-kamala-harris.html
I like the guy. The basis of true inter-ethnic amity is having someone else to crap on 🙂
@RichardAubrey:
I’ve got more than the average amount of Neanderthal DNA. Cue much nodding in the cheap seats.
If you’ve seen the various types of Negrito / Orang Asli peoples living in remote inhospitable parts of the SE Asian Archipelagos, you get some pretty strange primitive throwbacks.
Such a fast moving and interesting field. The PC slows down dissemination though.
Wokeism:
“Imagine you were a peasant in the early medieval times and one day you looked up from your toils to see some men on the road wearing funny outfits. You see that they must be of means as they are not covered in muck and they have men of arms guarding them, but they are strange and different. They are headed in the direction of the lord’s home. You assume they are nobles of some sort. You are a peasant, so you go back to toiling away and think no more of it.
Days later, the lord’s men come to round up you and your neighbors. Everyone is herded down to the river. The lord is there and to your surprise the men you saw the other day are there as well. The lord announces that everyone is now something called a Christian and worshipping the old gods will no longer be allowed. Along with the other peasants, you are walked out into the river where you get dunked while the strangers say something in an alien language.
.
.
.
This is why it is delusional to think this stuff is just a fad and will fade without having to confront it in the culture war. That is the old libertarian impulse to cower on the sidelines while pretending to be above it all. The new religion may be at odds with reality, but reason has never played the defining role in the ways of men. The woke can remain unreasonable longer than the reasonable can remain smug. Our peasant from before learned that when he was eventually forced to abandon his gods.”
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=25918
Zaphod:
I’m in the top quintile of Neanderthal genes, according to 23andMe if I take after my sister.
Damn proud of it!
However, I can’t seem to find any parades to march in.
Zaphod
Used to have a neighbor who’d fought in the Philippines. Said he and his buddies liked the Negritos…who hated Japs. Would occasionally two up with a head from the latter and ask for rations. Didn’t need ammo.
Occasional stories of female orangutans taking up with a remote village, wearing skirts and washing them in the river as the less hirsute women did.
Wonder what they’re thinking.
@Richard Aubrey:
I like the Orangutan Story!
The etymology is Orang Hutan : literally Person Jungle in a language which puts adjectives after nouns.
The last major instance of head taking I’ve heard of happened in the post-Suharto chaos in Indonesia. The Iban or Dayaks of Kalimantan (can’t remember which) decided that they’d had enough of the antics of some transmigrated Madurese and part of the resultant festivities involved roadblocks constructed from Madurese heads. Headhunters have humour though, so they gave them all cigarettes to puff on.
@Huxley:
You could have been a contender here:
“Neanderthal Arts is a performing arts festival for Vancouver running Summer 2012 at The Cultch.”
https://twitter.com/notextinct
But they’ve gone extinct after all.
There’s a great “Strange But True” story about a wild, mute woman captured in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia in the 1870s. She was called Zana:
________________________________________
Zana’s unique features rapidly earned her celebrity status. No-one had seen anything like her. She was six-and-a-half feet tall, with black skin cloaked entirely in thick auburn fur. Zana also had more stark musculature than even the strongest men. Her sheer strength was legendary, and she did not seem to be affected by the frigid winter air, even though forced to sleep in the outdoors.
https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/zanas-story-78541727cd93
________________________________________
Read the link for more of her fascinating, though not happy, life. She was raped and had children. Her descendants were later studied by a geneticist:
________________________________________
In 2013, a Professor Bryan Sykes was able to conduct tests on saliva samples said to be from six of Zana’s descendants. Sykes, a Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, claims that his research yielded evidence that Zana’s ethnic background was ‘100% sub-Saharan African’, and that she was likely a slave who had been brought to the area by the ruling Ottomans of the time. Sykes also had a chance to study the unearthed skull of Khwit, Zana’s son, and was astonished to see its unusual features?— mainly, eye sockets much larger than a human’s, as well as a prominent brow ridge. The back of Khwit’s skull had another strange mark: the presence of an extra bone at its base.
Although Sykes proposed that Zana might have been a slave of African descent, there are a number of factors that make this idea less plausible. The first is that, while Zana’s DNA supposedly indicated ‘100%’ African origin, Sykes was unable to clarify which regions on that continent Zana’s ancestors could have come from. The other obvious factor is that nothing about Zana’s description and behavior was ever like that of an ordinary human being.
________________________________________
Curious.
But they’ve gone extinct after all.
Zaphod:
That’s exactly what we want you to think.
@Huxley:
So they just went underground.
Zaphod,
Regarding your statement on a different thread about media being relatively silent about Epstein and Maxwell, I see this with a lot of things and my best guess is it’s simply due to the vast availability of media alternatives and splintering of media.
I don’t know where you were when the Columbine High School slaughter of innocents took place, but it was major news for weeks. Even months after there would be special features on the aftermath. A similar thing for the bizarre, JonBenet Ramsey murder. Plane crashes would get weeks of coverage.
Now, few things stick around for more than a day or two. Look at the on-going Congressional Hearings about January 6th. Hardly any news coverage. A decade ago Smollett’s trial would have been televised, Rittenhouse’s trial would have gotten ten minutes of coverage every night.
The availability of so many news and entertainment sources has eliminated almost anything from holding the U.S.’s national consciousness.
@Rufus:
Wouldn’t it be pretty to think so.
Real power is the power to decide what is news or not news. And who is and is not off the menu for criticism or even naming/delineating.
Now one can over-fit one’s models sometimes… but the example I mentioned stinks to high heaven.
Belated Pearl Harbor Anniversary Department:
Just got this thrown at me by YouTube. When the Japanese decide to do something, they go all-in balls to the wall. No half-measures.
Beethoven – Symphony No.9 (10000 Japanese) – Freude schöner Götterfunken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6s6YKlTpfw
Some very grain-fed (by Japanese standards) talent out front, too.
Zaphod,
I agree there is much not covered by media that should be, but more than anything I blame Americans’ attention spans and the crazy abundance of eyeball options. Even scandals involving celebrities and athletes barely stick around for 24 hours.
Rufus. Or it could be that it is obvious a celebrity’s scandal isn’t worth twenty-four hours of anybody’s attention.
Richard Aubrey,
Ha! You are correct. As Zaphod wrote, wouldn’t it be pretty to think the masses have learned that? My guess is they still care way more about the latest pop, rap, youtube or TikTok star than Aristotle or Archimedes. It’s just their gnat-like attention spans have them flitting much more rapidly.