That dude’s got some serious arm strength to be able to hold up a girl who must weigh at least 100lbs (she seems fairly small, but it’s hard to tell) with just one the end of one arm fully extended even if it’s only for a second or two.
Inspirational!
Sometimes after a long day my wife and I will watch “People are Awesome.” It’s video after video of people doing stuff like this. And they’re usually very happy while doing it. Watching gives us inspiration and recharges our batteries.
Hawaii’s state utilities commission refused Hawaiian Electric’s requested rate hikes to pay for grid safety upgrades. Lots of time and money were spent on “green energy” initiatives, but practically nothing on grid safety.
Recalls my circus days: For a decade or so, I wrote for The Greatest Show On Earth, spending early January at the Tampa fairgrounds where each new edition was assembled. Serious, sweaty work by superior athletes of every hue and tongue. A sensory feast of course, but for some reason this lingers: the sight of several Chinese girls (whose act climaxed with all of them someway riding the same bicycle) on rehearsal break, some doing schoolwork, others standing there casually chatting, one leg wrapped around their necks. A llama butted me in the butt once, and I still can hear, and feel, a lion’s visceral roar shredding Florida’s perfect early-morning winter air. For many years Ringling featured a rather famous, rather infamously randy dwarf in its clown acts. Early on in my time there, so I was told, a smooth Manhattan PR lady had interviewed him a few days before I’d arrived. During it, he growled at her, “I want to ___ you; I’m going to ____ you!” To which she retorted, “You do what you have to do, but if I hear about it, you’re dead.”
Swift justice? Vicious vilifying of the vertically challenged? Or just saucy circus lore.
Maine ~ From comments: If it was a serious crime I’m sure the cops would be all over it but in Maine having more than 4 plants is a misdemeanor and the people actually growing the plants aren’t the Chinese, they’re Central American illegals. The Chinese are just the invisible organizers. They aren’t going to do the grunt work.
Cannabis is a warm-season annual, so I guess they can grow it that far north, but only one crop per year.
Lee Also,
Thanks for posting that Naomi Wolf substack piece on a prior thread*. That was a fascinating read. Very interesting. It, unfortunately, degraded in quality and importance starting with the paragraph that begins, “There were two issues, though, on which President Trump misjudged, in my opinion…” but the first half was really good. Really good writing, also. The Gatsby stuff, American industrialism… creative, clever and spot on.
I still think Salena Zito has been the best journalist on reporting on Trump, why he is liked and what most people miss, but Naomi Wolf is figuring it out.
In “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2000), the fourth book of the series, we meet the students from two other wizarding schools. However those schools are not coed like Harry Potter’s school.
One school is all girls, thoroughly enchanting French girls who move with balletic grace. The other is all boys, powerful Russian boys who burst into those furious squatting, stomping and jumping dances.
One can see how hopelessly binary J.K. Rowling is! No wonder she’s in trouble with the trans mob.
Yeah, I know, the hurricane should target The Swamp instead, but you can’t have everything.
Huxley:
As Rowling wrote in “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire”, both Beaubatons (the French school) and Durmstrang (the north European school) were coeducational, just as Hogwarts was. It was the movie producers that decided that Beaubatons should be all graceful girls and Durmstrang should all be rough, tough boys (because they like stereotypes? Because they thought the audience couldn’t handle 3 coed schools at once? I don’t know.)
Anyway, I think JK Rowling should be applauded. In this instance, at least, she was far more egalitarian then Hollywood.
Into the volcano, is that how they used to deal with such deadly incompetence?
Probably a tropical storm by the time it hits San Diego, PA Cat. But never fear, there are two fairly promising disturbances in the Atlantic.
Kate–
Since hurricane names alternate between male and female names (no transgender or nonbinary hurricanes just yet), the next female name will begin with a “J.” Are you ready for Hurricane Jill?
Thanks for explaining that in the book, unlike the movie, the Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang schools are both coed like Hogwarts.
Well, that said, JK Rowling does stick closely to the conventional male-female binary for her characters. No purple-haired androgynous kids playing “Guess my pronouns!”
As far as the French goes, I’m taking a break from the Potter books. I did like that magic wand is translated “la baguette magique” in French.
I enjoyed visualizing Harry and the wizards waving around long thin loaves of French bread, while engaged in epic sorcerer battles.
I’m easily amused.
RE: UFOs—An update
Number 1–
There is a rather detailed and lengthy Senate Amendment by Senator Schumer, Gillibrand and others, titled the “UAP Disclosure Act,” which has been made part of the 2024 NDAA which passed the Senate, and which refers to “non-earth origin” technologies,” to “exotic UAP material,” and to “Non Human Intelligence”; legislation which Schumer would not have co-sponsored unless it had a firm foundation of knowledge behind it. *
Number 2–
Ross Coulthart, the Australian investigative journalist who did the TV interview on NewsNation of AF UFO whistleblower David Grusch, gave a talk in Australia a few days ago, in which he said that he believes what Grusch has said is true because, over the years, he has found confirming information, and also has had independent corroboration of Grusch’ claims from many high level sources who he believes to be credible.
Coulthart also confirmed that there has been an 80-90 year old coverup/disinformation campaign regarding a UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering program, as well as the presence of Non Human Intelligences (NHIs) here on Earth; a NHI presence which he believes may have been here on Earth from the most ancient of times.
Coulthart reiterated what Grusch said in his interview, that these Non Human Intelligences could be of inter-dimensonal origin, rather than just being extraterrestrials from somewhere else in our Galaxy or Universe.
Coulthart also said that UFO phenomena could not be separated from all sorts of other “high strangeness” phenomena, and that they are all of a piece.
Moreover, that there is a “consciousness” component to these UAPs, which may be why it has reportedly been so hard to make any progress in reverse engineering them.**
Coulthart pointed out that Grusch had given eleven and a half hours of testimony—under oath–to the Intelligence Community Inspector General, this backed up by witness testimony—under oath—from people within government who did have first hand knowledge of the crash retrieval and reverse engineering program (called by insiders “The Program”) and presumably of NHIs, and that the Intelligence Agency IG deemed this information both “credible and urgent,” so much so that the IG sent it over to Congress.
Coulthart also pointed out that David Grusch has already given this information—under oath–to both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.
Number 3–
In a recent Q & A White House spokesman, retired Admiral John Kirby, was asked about the claims made by David Grusch, and instead of dismissing them out of hand as nonsense, and untrue, Kirby went into an explanation about how DOD and the White House were taking this matter seriously, were trying to collect information, and didn’t have enough information to come to any conclusions yet.***
It’s damn strange to watch Anthony, a pale Viking with a big red beard, singing old-timey Appalachian music, and these black guys are verging on tears.
I’m not saying all blacks will get “Rich Men North of Richmond” but many sure do.
This is why the left and its minions must do their best to destroy Anthony. I hope he’s ready.
huxley:
Thomas Sowell wouldn’t find it the least bit strange.
The title essay states Sowell’s thesis about the origins of the “black ghetto” culture.
Sowell argues that the black ghetto culture originates in the dysfunctional white southern redneck culture which was prominent in the antebellum South. That culture came, in turn, from the “Cracker culture” of Welsh, Highland Scots, Ulster Scots, and border English or “North Britons,” who emigrated from the more lawless border regions of Britain in the eighteenth century.
neo:
Meh.
I take Sowell’s and your point that urban blacks and rednecks have some shared cultural history.
Nonetheless in spite of that, urban blacks and white rednecks have had largely hostile relations for the past many decades. Recall Trayvon Martin’s last words characterizing George Zimmerman as a “creepy-ass cracker.”
So I still consider it a strange and surprising development to find blacks reacting positively to Anthony’s song.
I see it far more as a testament to the dire national crisis blacks and whites are experiencing, allowing them to find such commonality, than to historical footnotes.
@ Kate > “Cannabis is a warm-season annual, so I guess they can grow it that far north, but only one crop per year.”
We bought a house in the Denver area, about 10 years ago, which had a cellar. Along one wall was a nicely constructed shelving unit with very large, deep shelves. Along the “ceiling” (underneath the upper floor boards) were several 220 outlets.
We had to redo a lot of electrical, so I asked my electrician what in the world those could have been used for.
“Marijuana grow lights” was his immediate answer.
Who knew that it was such a common accessory of Colorado homes?
We had him take them out, and I painted over the shelves with about 3 coats.
Made a nice storage area.
huxley:
But Sowell’s point is NOT just a historical footnote. Not at all. I read some of what he’s written on the subject as well as hearing him speak on it, and the point is not just an origin story but a commonality story. In other words, there are tremendous cultural similarities that last till this day. It is those similarities that this song taps into.
Re Black Rednecks and White Liberals” and Cracker culture— “the point is not just an origin story but a commonality story.“ INDEED!
I have a young friend from Wisconsin. He turned down Dartmouth to accept attending Rice University in Houston, the best university in Texas and the Southwest (if not the South, too).
This impressive lad weathered Covid with solitary employment, that led to a B2B tech job, and founding his own company, which he then sold when he turned 18. Proudly, he said, “I can pay most of my university education.” Rice offers full rides, so that won’t be needed
His reasoning is stellar. Rice has big and strong ties in commercialised high tech. Dartmouth doesn’t. He’s seriously thought through where his maths and tech operations research interests can take him.
This month he moves into his room in Houston, where he has no previous ties and only visited once.
I’m sending this Northerner a copy of the classic “Cracker Culture,” by Southern historian Grady McWhiney. His introduction to the foreign elements of this East Texas culture which he’ll spend years in, and learn to swim around..
Neo, you are so right to say it ain’t merely origins but continuity and a rich racially shared culture. “Cracker Culture” is one of the awesome self-descriptive titles of American history….up there with “The Alcoholic Republic.” (No, not about Prohibition — but the early Republic and colonies where Americans drank…with every meal.)
and the point is not just an origin story but a commonality story. In other words, there are tremendous cultural similarities that last till this day. It is those similarities that this song taps into.
neo:
I still disagree. To me this is a matter of falsifiability.
If Sowell’s claimed similarities between blacks and rednecks were that important, we would not have waited all this time to see this one extraordinary response by blacks to rednecks in the matter of the “Rich Man” song.
I say our times make the commonality, not Sowell’s historical observation.
Otherwise, one must explain all the occasions there has been no such response between blacks and rednecks. The relationship between the two cultures has been largely one of strong emotional rejection, in spite of Sowell.
Here’s an amazing “Rich Man” remix by a black rapper:
I can’t think of anything comparable in the history of rap.
Likewise, Luke Combs heartfelt cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” in the history of country.
It’s the times.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are East Indian Americans who respond to both songs. Not because of shared cultural history.
It’s the times.
@ TJ > “He turned down Dartmouth to accept attending Rice University in Houston, the best university in Texas and the Southwest (if not the South, too).”
Good choice!
Some call Rice the Harvard of the South; however, when AesopSpouse and I were there in the 1970s, we talked about that other university as the Rice of the North.
Best-selling t-shirt from in those days, from a campus entrepreneur, was a first-person rendition of the usual-to-the-point-of-cliché second-person comment from family & friends on hearing where our students were going to school: “I go to Rice. Gee, I must be smart.”
But not very humble, for the most part.
Houston is not strictly speaking part of the Cracker Culture, nor are the vast majority of students at Rice. Both are too cosmopolitan (literally) and full of Yankees. Although the U was founded specifically for students of Houston and Texas, it has long since outgrown that 19th century parochialism.
The Wikipedia entry is mostly correct, and Rice is probably the only school whose endowment was the subject of a murder trial.
PS to TJ > your friend from Wisconsin might miss the winter snow: while we were there in the 1970s, there was one day out of 6 years with frosty flakes. School basically let out for the event, as at that time a large plurality of students were still from south Texas and had never (or hardly ever) seen the stuff.
Frost and icicles on fences are not unheard of, however, and we always wrapped our outside water pipes during the winter when we lived in the Houston area while raising our kids (got them in Utah during our first jobs after college, then brought them back to the One True State as soon as we could).
You can see what happened in 2021 when Snowmageddon hit the Texians: they didn’t know how to deal.
Personal note: one of our sons had lived in the Boulder area since his college graduation, and moved to the Houston area in (wait for it) — December 2020.
Bad timing.
There have been some developments in the thinking on what went wrong, aside from the immediately obvious. Blame fell on frozen gas lines, resources diverted to wind and solar (obviously useless), and simply the lack of weatherization for deep cold — which has never been needed before
Impressive demonstration of Toxic Masculinity.
NWO ‘Da Plan, Da Plan’ ?
Another PILOT has died inflight!!
https://twitter.com/MakisMD/status/1691882670505210323
That dude’s got some serious arm strength to be able to hold up a girl who must weigh at least 100lbs (she seems fairly small, but it’s hard to tell) with just one the end of one arm fully extended even if it’s only for a second or two.
Inspirational!
Sometimes after a long day my wife and I will watch “People are Awesome.” It’s video after video of people doing stuff like this. And they’re usually very happy while doing it. Watching gives us inspiration and recharges our batteries.
Here’s their website: https://www.peopleareawesome.tv/
And here’s a source of many of their videos on you tube: https://www.youtube.com/@peopleareawesome/videos
Going to leave this here (below) then call it a day and watch those videos, thanks Rufus and Neo : )
40,000 signed affidavits were dropped off at Brian Kemp’s office. Here’s the video. This was the response from Brian Kemp…
https://twitter.com/BreannaMorello/status/1691641372120399920
yes he’s a hack, who has to keep the lie going
https://twitter.com/UngaTheGreat/status/1692055708882161746
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/think-of-the-implications-of-publishing
Hawaii’s state utilities commission refused Hawaiian Electric’s requested rate hikes to pay for grid safety upgrades. Lots of time and money were spent on “green energy” initiatives, but practically nothing on grid safety.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/08/so-climate-change-did-cause-the-maui-fire-after-all.php
Recalls my circus days: For a decade or so, I wrote for The Greatest Show On Earth, spending early January at the Tampa fairgrounds where each new edition was assembled. Serious, sweaty work by superior athletes of every hue and tongue. A sensory feast of course, but for some reason this lingers: the sight of several Chinese girls (whose act climaxed with all of them someway riding the same bicycle) on rehearsal break, some doing schoolwork, others standing there casually chatting, one leg wrapped around their necks. A llama butted me in the butt once, and I still can hear, and feel, a lion’s visceral roar shredding Florida’s perfect early-morning winter air. For many years Ringling featured a rather famous, rather infamously randy dwarf in its clown acts. Early on in my time there, so I was told, a smooth Manhattan PR lady had interviewed him a few days before I’d arrived. During it, he growled at her, “I want to ___ you; I’m going to ____ you!” To which she retorted, “You do what you have to do, but if I hear about it, you’re dead.”
Swift justice? Vicious vilifying of the vertically challenged? Or just saucy circus lore.
Maine ~ From comments: If it was a serious crime I’m sure the cops would be all over it but in Maine having more than 4 plants is a misdemeanor and the people actually growing the plants aren’t the Chinese, they’re Central American illegals. The Chinese are just the invisible organizers. They aren’t going to do the grunt work.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/16/exclusive-illegal-chinese-marijuana-grow-operations-taking-over-blue-state-leaked-memo-says/
Cannabis is a warm-season annual, so I guess they can grow it that far north, but only one crop per year.
Lee Also,
Thanks for posting that Naomi Wolf substack piece on a prior thread*. That was a fascinating read. Very interesting. It, unfortunately, degraded in quality and importance starting with the paragraph that begins, “There were two issues, though, on which President Trump misjudged, in my opinion…” but the first half was really good. Really good writing, also. The Gatsby stuff, American industrialism… creative, clever and spot on.
I still think Salena Zito has been the best journalist on reporting on Trump, why he is liked and what most people miss, but Naomi Wolf is figuring it out.
*https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/on-hearing-president-trump-in-person?publication_id=676930&post_id=136073363&isFreemail=true
Re: Stunt partner video
In “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2000), the fourth book of the series, we meet the students from two other wizarding schools. However those schools are not coed like Harry Potter’s school.
One school is all girls, thoroughly enchanting French girls who move with balletic grace. The other is all boys, powerful Russian boys who burst into those furious squatting, stomping and jumping dances.
One can see how hopelessly binary J.K. Rowling is! No wonder she’s in trouble with the trans mob.
Apparently Biden used the pseudonym “Robert L. Peters” in emails when conducting shady dealings with Burisma and such. “Robert L. Peters” is not as colorful as “Carlos Danger” or “Piere Delecto”.
Nonapod. LOL! Thanks.
Heh– The Left Coast and the Southwest is about to get a visit from (wait for it) Hurricane Hilary! Latest predictions from NOAA are here:
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_ep4.shtml?key_messages
Yeah, I know, the hurricane should target The Swamp instead, but you can’t have everything.
Huxley:
As Rowling wrote in “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire”, both Beaubatons (the French school) and Durmstrang (the north European school) were coeducational, just as Hogwarts was. It was the movie producers that decided that Beaubatons should be all graceful girls and Durmstrang should all be rough, tough boys (because they like stereotypes? Because they thought the audience couldn’t handle 3 coed schools at once? I don’t know.)
Anyway, I think JK Rowling should be applauded. In this instance, at least, she was far more egalitarian then Hollywood.
Georgia state senator Colton Moore is bringing impeachment charges against the crooked Fani Willis.
DEI kills:
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2023/08/17/former-obama-foundation-leader-climate-activist-ignored-request-for-water-during-maui-inferno-for-5-hrs-n2162739
Into the volcano, is that how they used to deal with such deadly incompetence?
Probably a tropical storm by the time it hits San Diego, PA Cat. But never fear, there are two fairly promising disturbances in the Atlantic.
Kate–
Since hurricane names alternate between male and female names (no transgender or nonbinary hurricanes just yet), the next female name will begin with a “J.” Are you ready for Hurricane Jill?
Ayuh, well…
http://ripleyporch.blogspot.com/2023/08/harris-quote.html
Re: Harry Potter 4
BJ:
Thanks for explaining that in the book, unlike the movie, the Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang schools are both coed like Hogwarts.
Well, that said, JK Rowling does stick closely to the conventional male-female binary for her characters. No purple-haired androgynous kids playing “Guess my pronouns!”
As far as the French goes, I’m taking a break from the Potter books. I did like that magic wand is translated “la baguette magique” in French.
I enjoyed visualizing Harry and the wizards waving around long thin loaves of French bread, while engaged in epic sorcerer battles.
I’m easily amused.
RE: UFOs—An update
Number 1–
There is a rather detailed and lengthy Senate Amendment by Senator Schumer, Gillibrand and others, titled the “UAP Disclosure Act,” which has been made part of the 2024 NDAA which passed the Senate, and which refers to “non-earth origin” technologies,” to “exotic UAP material,” and to “Non Human Intelligence”; legislation which Schumer would not have co-sponsored unless it had a firm foundation of knowledge behind it. *
Number 2–
Ross Coulthart, the Australian investigative journalist who did the TV interview on NewsNation of AF UFO whistleblower David Grusch, gave a talk in Australia a few days ago, in which he said that he believes what Grusch has said is true because, over the years, he has found confirming information, and also has had independent corroboration of Grusch’ claims from many high level sources who he believes to be credible.
Coulthart also confirmed that there has been an 80-90 year old coverup/disinformation campaign regarding a UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering program, as well as the presence of Non Human Intelligences (NHIs) here on Earth; a NHI presence which he believes may have been here on Earth from the most ancient of times.
Coulthart reiterated what Grusch said in his interview, that these Non Human Intelligences could be of inter-dimensonal origin, rather than just being extraterrestrials from somewhere else in our Galaxy or Universe.
Coulthart also said that UFO phenomena could not be separated from all sorts of other “high strangeness” phenomena, and that they are all of a piece.
Moreover, that there is a “consciousness” component to these UAPs, which may be why it has reportedly been so hard to make any progress in reverse engineering them.**
Coulthart pointed out that Grusch had given eleven and a half hours of testimony—under oath–to the Intelligence Community Inspector General, this backed up by witness testimony—under oath—from people within government who did have first hand knowledge of the crash retrieval and reverse engineering program (called by insiders “The Program”) and presumably of NHIs, and that the Intelligence Agency IG deemed this information both “credible and urgent,” so much so that the IG sent it over to Congress.
Coulthart also pointed out that David Grusch has already given this information—under oath–to both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.
Number 3–
In a recent Q & A White House spokesman, retired Admiral John Kirby, was asked about the claims made by David Grusch, and instead of dismissing them out of hand as nonsense, and untrue, Kirby went into an explanation about how DOD and the White House were taking this matter seriously, were trying to collect information, and didn’t have enough information to come to any conclusions yet.***
* See https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/senate-intelligence-bill-gives-holders-of-non-earth-origin-six-months/
** See https://www.reddit.com/r/UAP/comments/15u1kkv/ross_coulthart_uap_lecture_at_the_victorian_state/
*** See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPjR4OozVZQ
Re: Oliver Anthony, “Rich Men North of Richmond”
The “react” YouTubes have been piling on since the song went viral. I’ve watched several, including some by black rapper types.
–Black Pegasus, “American Rapper FIRST time EVER hearing OLIVER ANTHONY – Rich Men North Of Richmond”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeWWUiWt4xc
It’s damn strange to watch Anthony, a pale Viking with a big red beard, singing old-timey Appalachian music, and these black guys are verging on tears.
I’m not saying all blacks will get “Rich Men North of Richmond” but many sure do.
This is why the left and its minions must do their best to destroy Anthony. I hope he’s ready.
huxley:
Thomas Sowell wouldn’t find it the least bit strange.
See Black Rednecks and White Liberals:
neo:
Meh.
I take Sowell’s and your point that urban blacks and rednecks have some shared cultural history.
Nonetheless in spite of that, urban blacks and white rednecks have had largely hostile relations for the past many decades. Recall Trayvon Martin’s last words characterizing George Zimmerman as a “creepy-ass cracker.”
So I still consider it a strange and surprising development to find blacks reacting positively to Anthony’s song.
I see it far more as a testament to the dire national crisis blacks and whites are experiencing, allowing them to find such commonality, than to historical footnotes.
@ Kate > “Cannabis is a warm-season annual, so I guess they can grow it that far north, but only one crop per year.”
We bought a house in the Denver area, about 10 years ago, which had a cellar. Along one wall was a nicely constructed shelving unit with very large, deep shelves. Along the “ceiling” (underneath the upper floor boards) were several 220 outlets.
We had to redo a lot of electrical, so I asked my electrician what in the world those could have been used for.
“Marijuana grow lights” was his immediate answer.
Who knew that it was such a common accessory of Colorado homes?
We had him take them out, and I painted over the shelves with about 3 coats.
Made a nice storage area.
huxley:
But Sowell’s point is NOT just a historical footnote. Not at all. I read some of what he’s written on the subject as well as hearing him speak on it, and the point is not just an origin story but a commonality story. In other words, there are tremendous cultural similarities that last till this day. It is those similarities that this song taps into.
Re Black Rednecks and White Liberals” and Cracker culture— “the point is not just an origin story but a commonality story.“ INDEED!
I have a young friend from Wisconsin. He turned down Dartmouth to accept attending Rice University in Houston, the best university in Texas and the Southwest (if not the South, too).
This impressive lad weathered Covid with solitary employment, that led to a B2B tech job, and founding his own company, which he then sold when he turned 18. Proudly, he said, “I can pay most of my university education.” Rice offers full rides, so that won’t be needed
His reasoning is stellar. Rice has big and strong ties in commercialised high tech. Dartmouth doesn’t. He’s seriously thought through where his maths and tech operations research interests can take him.
This month he moves into his room in Houston, where he has no previous ties and only visited once.
I’m sending this Northerner a copy of the classic “Cracker Culture,” by Southern historian Grady McWhiney. His introduction to the foreign elements of this East Texas culture which he’ll spend years in, and learn to swim around..
Neo, you are so right to say it ain’t merely origins but continuity and a rich racially shared culture. “Cracker Culture” is one of the awesome self-descriptive titles of American history….up there with “The Alcoholic Republic.” (No, not about Prohibition — but the early Republic and colonies where Americans drank…with every meal.)
and the point is not just an origin story but a commonality story. In other words, there are tremendous cultural similarities that last till this day. It is those similarities that this song taps into.
neo:
I still disagree. To me this is a matter of falsifiability.
If Sowell’s claimed similarities between blacks and rednecks were that important, we would not have waited all this time to see this one extraordinary response by blacks to rednecks in the matter of the “Rich Man” song.
I say our times make the commonality, not Sowell’s historical observation.
Otherwise, one must explain all the occasions there has been no such response between blacks and rednecks. The relationship between the two cultures has been largely one of strong emotional rejection, in spite of Sowell.
Here’s an amazing “Rich Man” remix by a black rapper:
https://twitter.com/TheMarineRapper/status/1690883423382949888
I can’t think of anything comparable in the history of rap.
Likewise, Luke Combs heartfelt cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” in the history of country.
It’s the times.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are East Indian Americans who respond to both songs. Not because of shared cultural history.
It’s the times.
@ TJ > “He turned down Dartmouth to accept attending Rice University in Houston, the best university in Texas and the Southwest (if not the South, too).”
Good choice!
Some call Rice the Harvard of the South; however, when AesopSpouse and I were there in the 1970s, we talked about that other university as the Rice of the North.
Best-selling t-shirt from in those days, from a campus entrepreneur, was a first-person rendition of the usual-to-the-point-of-cliché second-person comment from family & friends on hearing where our students were going to school: “I go to Rice. Gee, I must be smart.”
But not very humble, for the most part.
Houston is not strictly speaking part of the Cracker Culture, nor are the vast majority of students at Rice. Both are too cosmopolitan (literally) and full of Yankees. Although the U was founded specifically for students of Houston and Texas, it has long since outgrown that 19th century parochialism.
The Wikipedia entry is mostly correct, and Rice is probably the only school whose endowment was the subject of a murder trial.
PS to TJ > your friend from Wisconsin might miss the winter snow: while we were there in the 1970s, there was one day out of 6 years with frosty flakes. School basically let out for the event, as at that time a large plurality of students were still from south Texas and had never (or hardly ever) seen the stuff.
Frost and icicles on fences are not unheard of, however, and we always wrapped our outside water pipes during the winter when we lived in the Houston area while raising our kids (got them in Utah during our first jobs after college, then brought them back to the One True State as soon as we could).
You can see what happened in 2021 when Snowmageddon hit the Texians: they didn’t know how to deal.
Nice video on this one. Highlights the necessity of preparing for some kind of emergency, no matter how improbable any particular one might be. The large building near the end is the State Capitol in Austin.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/17/texas-winter-storm-2021-stories/
These pictures were from the Dallas area; the snow was not so deep in Houston — looks like my Denver yard in winter!
https://teresabatey.com/texas-snow-storm-2021/
Personal note: one of our sons had lived in the Boulder area since his college graduation, and moved to the Houston area in (wait for it) — December 2020.
Bad timing.
There have been some developments in the thinking on what went wrong, aside from the immediately obvious. Blame fell on frozen gas lines, resources diverted to wind and solar (obviously useless), and simply the lack of weatherization for deep cold — which has never been needed before
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/texas-2021-blackouts-pipeline-lawsuits-18266638.php