Althouse: At the Sunday Night Cafe...

October 7, 2018

At the Sunday Night Cafe...

... you can talk about anything.

105 comments:

Ken B said...: Did anyone see the photoshop at Insty, about no more Biden? I used to dislike “creepy Uncle Joe” stuff because it’s unfair and bogus. But now I think it’s a good meme precisely for those reasons. To show that unconfirmed accusations are poisonous and stupid. Anyone have thoughts?; 10/7/18, 9:17 PM
David Begley said...: I guess Althouse and Meade didn’t go to the football game. They missed a thing of beauty. Corn is 0-5.; 10/7/18, 9:22 PM
Big Mike said...: My copy of Militant Normals> arrived yesterday. I enjoyed this statement a lot: "Normals is not a synonym for conservative. The Normals tend to be center-right, if you have to place them on a political spectrum, but mostly that's because traditional American values like faith, family, and patriotism have become identified with center-right politics as liberals either stopped defending them or abandoned them altogether."

Apparently we need to include silly things like "presumption of innocence," "due process," and, according to Alexis Grenell, "some other nonsense" in the list of things that Normals believe in and Elites do not (except for themselves).; 10/7/18, 9:27 PM
Sydney said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/7/18, 9:34 PM
Sydney said...: I happened to listen to this podcast on Aquinas's Prayer for the Wise Ordering of One's Life providentially when I needed it the most. You don't have to listen to the podcast. The prayer is published in its entirety at the link. I offer it up in case anyone else may find it helpful.; 10/7/18, 9:36 PM
Kathryn51 said...: I have no idea how my hubby received this link (not sure if anyone else can get there), but he received a "survey" from the New York Times w/the title: "Women, What Is Your Reaction to Kavanaugh’s Confirmation?"

"We are eager to understand how women are viewing this moment."

Yeah, right. Pfffftttt.

But I took the survey and gave them an earful. I'm a mother of boy/girl twins and the one lesson (final question) that I want them to learn from the Kavanaugh hearings is that due process is THE hallmark of a free society.

the "tell" question: "Was I more likely to take action, "such as attending protests"? (What the FUCK??) I asked why they didn't ask about other potential action, such as attending a Trump rally (something that I would never do - I didn't vote for the moron and I turn the TV to mute when he is on).

I realize the NYT doesn't really want to hear from someone like me (lawyer, wife, mother, nominal Republican), but it was satisfying to let them know women are not all lock-step thinkers.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/reader-center/women-reaction-kavanaugh-vote.html; 10/7/18, 9:43 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Hey, Althouse!

Here's what your Lefty fucks of neighbors in Madison are up to:

Link

Apparently, even dead non-combatants are tainted by association by causes the modern Left considers anathema. Thus, even their meager memorials must be erased from history.

These people are Stalinists. Who else but Stalinists seek to erase history to remake it according to the Party Line? I'm sorry, but Stalinists stop when they meet steel, & not before.; 10/7/18, 9:44 PM
WK said...: Encouraged my freshman son at U of Cincinnati to get involved in campus groups and activities. Said he is working the “dialog table” tomorrow for Young Americans for Freedom chapter. First after-Kavanaugh event they are having after pro-Kavanaugh signs torn down. Told him to keep me posted and be careful. Interesting times.; 10/7/18, 9:48 PM
Milwaukie Guy said...: What a great week. Still grinning. In private though.

In Portlandia if you publicly disagree with the party line all your watershed buddies get really bummed and your party invitations take a plunge. Not worth the hassle, they won't listen to anything anyway. Life in the Democratic State. Just like Chicago only with better terrain and way more hip, doncha know.

I have a question for the lefties on this board. I think the tactics of the left are beyond the pale. Based on the collective posts of the Althouse lefties, there is no denunciation of these many steps beyond the line.

So, do you lefties—and I won't namecall because y'all know who you are—think the following things are okay? And, if my side complains, we are "crybabies?"

Throwing out due process, etc.?

Shooting, beating or trying to stab the opposition party?

Harassing members of the opposition party in elevators, restaurants, theaters and doxing their home addresses so demonstrators can scare their children?

Trying to shout down all opposition opinion by campus red guards or encouraging deplatforming through the leftists at Google and Facebook? Labeling it as hate speech?

That your vanguard is the shrieking harpies and Antifa and the MSM?

Enlighten me. Yes or no?

I've heard that in these trumpetous times [h/t] that somewhere around the internet 6,000 hard-core leftists are discussing forming armed struggle cells and how to do it best. It doesn't surprise me because I was in the RCP in the 70s and I could field strip my M-1 carbine blindfolded.

Now, I fear some old white dude, given 6 months to live from his doctors, decides to fuck all this shit and go John Brown. There could even be copycats. Bloody Kansas or Harpers Ferry? I can't imagine the scenario. Maybe they just want to heighten the contradictions, as the Marxists say. Blaze of glory.

I hope the left doesn't push things completely over the top, "firing on Fort Sumter," as it were. A hot civil war would suck.

Yes or no? How should this be played by those of us who abhor the left?; 10/7/18, 9:57 PM
Michael K said...: From a biography of Robespierre.

We have lost the quiet energy of free men. We no longer judge things cooly. We shout like children or lunatics. I simply tremble when I consider how we are behaving, and I ask myself every moment whether we can continue to be free. I cannot sleep at night, for my usual peaceful slumbers are disturbed by dreams of disaster."

Petion.; 10/7/18, 10:00 PM
Birkel said...: 3.7% unemployment.

Average hours worked up 2.6%.
Average hourly wages up 2.8%.
Tax cuts saving of $2,000 on average, using numbers before wages and hours went up.
That means a net of nearly 10% more money in the average hourly worker's paycheck.

Heitkamp is road kill.
McCaskill is mush.
Donnelly is done.
O'Rourke is yesterday's rubbish.
Tester is spending money like crazy and cannot crack 45%.
Nelson, Menendez, Sinema, Bredesen, Manchin all struggling to get to 45%.

Tell me again about the Blue Wave.; 10/7/18, 10:06 PM
wholelottasplainin said...: As Glenn Reynolds and many others have pointed out, millions of American parents considering sending their Bright Young Offspring to Maoist Re-Education Camps masquerading as "universities" will be thinking long and hard about doing so. Why go to a place where you will essentially get a degree in being FUBAR?

The most notorious of those re-education camps , such as Evergreen U, which has lost 70% of its new enrollment, are already bleating to their state legislatures for more subsidies, as alumni stop giving them bequests and can't afford to keep paying the useless, bloated layers of "diversity" and Title IX administrators they have hired.

In five years dozens of low-end diploma factories will fold. "Grievance Studies" isn't a "Major"; it's a white-hot signal to employers that its owner is a walking time-bomb.

So...keep it up, prog fucktards, you are pissing in your own triple lattes.; 10/7/18, 10:06 PM
narciso said...: Another precooked narrative:

https://sethfrantzman.com/2018/10/07/10-questions-about-the-disappearance-of-khashoggi-the-case-deepens/amp/?__twitter_impression=true; 10/7/18, 10:08 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @MG,

I've heard that in these trumpetous times [h/t] that somewhere around the internet 6,000 hard-core leftists are discussing forming armed struggle cells and how to do it best.

You mean like these guys, who were armed & among the antifa guys at Charlottesville?

The problem for the "insurgent" Left is that the armed Right is about 300 million guns ahead of them, & the Right owns the national gun culture to the point that any attempt by outsider Lefties to buy up hordes of guns will promptly get reported to the FBI & BATF. My guess is that the Far Left is well aware of this problem & is seeking weapons from abroad e.g. the Mexican Drug cartels so that they aren't under continuous right-wing surveillance. Right now, this is just conspiracy theory. But don't be surprised if sometime soon the Trump administration FBI/BATF announces a gun-running bust of some Left wing crew.; 10/7/18, 10:08 PM
buwaya said...: Petion the Haitian?; 10/7/18, 10:10 PM
Mr. Majestyk said...: We need a constitutional amendment to limit the size of the Supreme Court to 9. Next time the Democrats have the President and Congress, they will try to pack the Court.; 10/7/18, 10:11 PM
buwaya said...: Ah, no, Petion de Villenueve.; 10/7/18, 10:11 PM
Birkel said...: Sorry, I was wrong above.
Bredesen is bigfooted.
Blackburn is at 50%.

Tennessee ain't flipping.; 10/7/18, 10:16 PM
Birkel said...: The Kavanaugh hearings coincided with a 10% swing amongst Tennessee voters.
And Bredesen is a popular former governor.

If other states see half that move, the Senate could get really interesting.
And no way the House results get too far away from Senate results.

Where was Trump giving a rally next?
And will he be adding a few stops not predicted three weeks ago?

What is it buwaya calls Trump?
A good luck charm of some type.; 10/7/18, 10:22 PM
Ray - SoCal said...: I’m surprised at taking out the confederate war dead marker in Madison. From what I read, sounds wrong. I don’t know enough of the history of when it was put up, are there any plans of a non confederate marker, see a picture of it, etc.

Memorials are one thing, many were put up for other reasons than to mark the dead. The one that was on Hollywood is an example.

Anyway, it’s getting crazier and crazier.

A feet on the ground visit with photos would be great!; 10/7/18, 10:25 PM
Big Mike said...: @Birkel, expect to see Manchin re-elected. He’d have lost if he had not voted to affirm Kavanaugh, but I suspect he saved his seat. I sure hope McSally wins in Arizona; we need someone who could give a one-fingered salute to the Air Farce brass, and make it stick. (That is not a typo.); 10/7/18, 10:30 PM
mockturtle said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/7/18, 10:32 PM
mockturtle said...: Say what you want about Trump, he's the most energetic President in my lifetime. Maybe ever, with the possible exception of TR.; 10/7/18, 10:36 PM
Birkel said...: Maybe, Big Mike. Maybe. (And forgive my using polls that I imagine are still in the driving perceptions phase of the various races.)

But he's having trouble breaking to 50% and that bodes quite ill for an incumbent. Cruz is at 50% now in Texas and will probably net about 56% on election day. I'm guessing.

Manchin may get 51%.

Donnelly cannot get to 45% but does have a libertarian siphoning votes away from the Republican challenger. So he might win with 48% on election day. But I'm guessing he loses with about 46% of the vote.

Frankly, I'll be surprised if a lot of the allegedly close races don't wind up favoring the Republicans at the end. We can expect a lot of "tightening" as the pollsters attempt to save face as election day nears.

Still, the Senate should remain majority Republican next January and many more judges stand to be appointed between now and 2020.; 10/7/18, 10:38 PM
Ray - SoCal said...: Downtown LA is having over a dozen cases of Typhus. The term epidemic is being used.

Pasadena has over 20 this year, it’s usually 1-5 (Angelus national forest backs Into Pasadena).

Frustrating there is no map I can find of where they were reported.

Or even a good count.

Sounds like it’s appearing among homeless, perhaps due to pets.

My gut feel is it’s being downplayed.

I have already decided to avoid San Francisco for a while due to health issues. And San Diego due to hepatitis - food tour sounds so good, but... Good News - SD seems to have solved the issue with vaccinations.; 10/7/18, 10:39 PM
narciso said...: So the polls were woefully off on bolsanaro ceiling, because they took him literally but not seriously, when a country melts down and the debris affects figures on the traditional right and the left, who knows what fills the vacuum; 10/7/18, 10:40 PM
Kathryn51 said...: WK said...
Encouraged my freshman son at U of Cincinnati to get involved in campus groups and activities. Said he is working the “dialog table” tomorrow for Young Americans for Freedom chapter. First after-Kavanaugh event they are having after pro-Kavanaugh signs torn down. Told him to keep me posted and be careful. Interesting times.

Hubby and I are alumni of YAF - back in the Reagan days. Our major "cause" in retirement is Young America's Foundation. We took our kids to the Reagan Ranch when they were in junior high and although it didn't make them into rock-solid conservative activists, it apparently built some sort of shield so that they made their way through college/university unscathed by liberal dogma. I assume you are very proud of your son. Good job!; 10/7/18, 10:40 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/7/18, 10:43 PM
Birkel said...: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/rallies/

I would watch this website to see what the (more sophisticated than my guesses) White House thinks are the best investments of presidential time. And remember that some rallies will be planned to take advantage of media market overlaps.

Richmond, Kentucky next Saturday will get coverage in Tennessee, for example. And it will probably get Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia coverage also. The president is not throwing darts in any event.; 10/7/18, 10:44 PM
Birkel said...: narciso,

What is your opinion of Bolsanaro?

Anybody else have thoughts?; 10/7/18, 10:46 PM
narciso said...: I think he is embodying the desire to bring things under control, he had to break the barriers of propriety because state media discounted him, other center right figures like ailcmin got no traction,; 10/7/18, 10:51 PM
mockturtle said...: Per narciso: Another precooked narrative:

https://sethfrantzman.com/2018/10/07/10-questions-about-the-disappearance-of-khashoggi-the-case-deepens/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

As I understand it, Kashoggi has been in 'self-imposed' exile in the US. Why was he at the Saudi consulate in Turkey and what reason would Saudi intelligence have to off him?; 10/7/18, 10:53 PM
narciso said...: It doesn't make any sense, now the story percolate from middle East eye and al Jazeera affiliate to the major foreign papers then the us dailies, like some of the crazier accounts re Prince talal a year ago.; 10/7/18, 10:57 PM
mockturtle said...: OK, I was just reading on Al Jazeera that he was looking for paperwork required for his marriage. Even so, why would he be murdered?; 10/7/18, 10:58 PM
narciso said...: Now it just so happens he was connected to Prince talal through his former employer al watan, a year a half ago he was at timofeevs valdai club the one papasop was connected with speaking of an alliance with the kingdom and russia.; 10/7/18, 11:04 PM
Etienne said...: Why murder him?

Saudi Arabia is really many tribes that got together and appointed a King. The reason this works well, is the King is benevolent. He makes sure all the tribes share in the bounty, and they all know they must suffer the same wrath.

When you have a muckraker, it's easier for them all if he is dispatched. Of course they are corrupt, and they don't need anyone printing that.; 10/7/18, 11:07 PM
narciso said...: Now consider that turkey and Qatar are in a Pincer movement against Syria, with the kingdom and the other Emirates pulling inn the other direction; 10/7/18, 11:08 PM
Ken B said...: YoungHegelian
Dig them up, put them on trial, burn them. If it was good enough for 5he Inquisition it's good enough for Madison city council.; 10/7/18, 11:11 PM
narciso said...: Now,add to that Prince Salman is tied by blood to the ajmaan tribe one of the three rebellious confederations along with the utaibi and the mutairi against king Abdul azziz.; 10/7/18, 11:11 PM
Big Mike said...: @Birkel, don’t forget the House of Representatives. A 55-45 or 56-44 edge in the Senate is good, but the specter of Speaker Pelosi is upsetting (to say the least). The policies she pushed from January 2007 to January 2011 were disasterous for this country. My own Republicsn Congress Critter (VA10) is probably a goner. I’m sending money to other Virginia races.; 10/7/18, 11:12 PM
wildswan said...: Justice Kavanaugh (how sweet it is) has not been ruined or damaged because he had to be brave - and was. Lawyers are not going to refuse to be judges just because they might have to be brave - the ones who do we are better off without. Think of the soldiers who go overseas and fight and keep ISIS and Al-Qaeda away from here. And some lose an arm or a leg defending us. Are they ruined or are they our defenders to whom we owe more than we can ever pay? And their wives (or husbands) have to raise children alone for months on end; their children have know their Dad (or Mom) is in danger. They have to be brave; they have to survive wounds. It isn't uncommon to have to be brave and to survive wounds of all kinds but for the last few years it was uncommon for our elites to have to be brave. Now a Senator, a Justice, a judge, a conservative student in college, an everyday Republican party operative must run all kinds of risks as if they were all privates in the US Army. I think people will be surprised at how people rise to the challenge. As I often saw in prolife it's very surprising how people rise - when they are quite, quite sure that this isn't politicians talking, when they are quite, quite sure that they personally really do have to get serious.; 10/7/18, 11:15 PM
narciso said...: It's called poisoning the Well, the reputation that he's worked at for 35 years has been damaged, because of some garbage allegation that isn't worth the ink its printed on.; 10/7/18, 11:21 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Ken B,

Dig them up, put them on trial, burn them. If it was good enough for 5he Inquisition it's good enough for Madison city council.

Such post-mortem burnings were rarely performed by the Inquisition when the accused died before a judgement could be rendered. The judgement was then carried out on his recently deceased corpse.

But, Canon Law is more merciful than the modern Left -- one cannot be declared a heretic post-mortem, because the dead guy in question has 1) never been told of his heresy 2) has not been asked to abjure it, & 3) has remain obstinate in his refusal. Thus, figures from Church history such as Origen, who believed some stuff later churchmen took to be heterodox (e.g. the Platonic per-existence of souls), can not properly be called a heretic because in his lifetimes no one among the ecclesiastical authorities ever said "Hey, Ori! You can't believe THAT!".; 10/7/18, 11:35 PM
narciso said...: The world is not as crazy as it seems:

https://nintendowire.com/news/2018/10/06/toysrus-cancels-bankruptcy-auction-brand-to-return-in-some-form-2/; 10/7/18, 11:43 PM
Ken B said...: YH
Alas Origen was declared a heretic by Justinian. And by two church councils.; 10/8/18, 12:22 AM
Narayanan said...: Why not constitutional amendment to give each state one appointment to SC bypass Congress and the President.; 10/8/18, 12:31 AM
Gahrie said...: We need a constitutional amendment to limit the size of the Supreme Court to 9.

Nine is not a magical number. There have been as few as six, and as many as ten Justices up to now. Congress could create new seats, or reduce the current number of seats, with a simple law. Right now I think nine is a good number, but circumstances could change.; 10/8/18, 12:37 AM
Trumpit said...: http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/10/06/donald-trump-blasts-murkowski-not-voting-kavanaugh-ive-done-so-much-alaska

Schlump is such a bastard. He demands loyalty and the infamous Bellamy salute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute; 10/8/18, 12:38 AM
Gahrie said...: Why not constitutional amendment to give each state one appointment to SC bypass Congress and the President.

Originally the Senators were acting on behalf of the states when they acted on nominations. The Progressives fucked that up too. Repeal the 17th.; 10/8/18, 12:39 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Trumpit@12:38 ...Okay, Trumpi, okay... *gives the OK sign*; 10/8/18, 12:43 AM
buwaya said...: But Trump has done a very great deal for Alaska, for Alaskan employment, and indeed for Murkowski's oil-company backers, in finally resolving the decades old ANWR controversy in favor of drilling.

A huge deal. It would have dominated the news for weeks, if this had gone through in the 1980s or 90s. It passed almost without notice last year, amazing how such huge things get done these days while the MSM is otherwise occupied. Granted that fracking has already raised US petroleum output tremendously.; 10/8/18, 1:04 AM
FIDO said...: Back to Christine Fair, Professor at Georgetown University Foreign Service Department. (Coming to a State Department near you...if the Dems ever take the White House again)

Tweet: Look at thus chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist's arrogated entitlement.
All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes. https://t.co/tT7Igu157y
— (((Christine Fair))) (@CChristineFair) September 29, 2018

Unlike Conservatives, while she was shut down for this, if you blink, you missed it. Seems that the Twitter Algorithim means if you are a Dem, you never have to say you are sorry.

But she apologized. She said this:

“What you don’t want to admit is that I am not actually calling for violence. I am making a point about the routine violence perpetrated against women every day and the power structures that protect these perpetrators. Get over it.”

Is this a Jeong-ism or a Book-pology? I'm not sure which.

So obviously the Academics are stuck with a bad choice; not supporting the 'free speech' rights of their professors to call for violence and castration OR deal with a professor who may cut back on donations and certainly can't teach any male students for a few years.

So they swept her under the rug, and when you think rugs, you think Pakistan.

More Tweets:

“When men are raped and then “slut shamed” for their assault. Let me know.”

“When white men are systematically paid less, less likely to be hird, promoted and rewarded for the same productivity…let me know.”

“When white men are systematically paid less, less likely to be hird, promoted and rewarded for the same productivity…let me know.”

“When a white male journalist is mocked by a female president (who sexually assaults men and reviles men who challenge her) who calls him stupid while a chorus of powerful women look on in amusement, let know.”

“AND as bad as white women have it, women of color, LGQBTQI, members of religious minorities (and any combination thereof) have it worse. I wil continue to point out the absurdity of white male privilege. So y’all better get some new diapers.”

But one of them deserves special mockery:

“When men below the age of 44 are more likely to die from domestic homicide than cardiac arrest, let me know.”

Blink blink. The rate of YOUNG PEOPLE dying of cardiac arrest is VERY LOW. The only way kids like that die is by being hit by a car, slipping in the bath tub...or being murdered. And who has the absolute lowest murder rate of ANYONE? Can you say 'white women'? Of course you can.

This is an ACADEMIC?

The Academy is something of a hobby horse for me, but honestly, watching them continue to commit PR seppeku is both entertaining, horrifying, pathetic and sad.

Propaganda is not education. Public support for these fools is dropping. And it is all their fault. They refuse to self police.

So I am not advocating abrogating their free speech rights. I certainly wouldn't mind abrogating their 'Free Money' rights...which is NOT in the Constitution.

And yes, the campus can fire people such as this. If they wanted to.

Being an asshole isn't 'challenging' or 'being relevant'. Maybe someone should educate the academy on that.; 10/8/18, 2:36 AM
readering said...: Nice to peak inside a bubble.; 10/8/18, 2:41 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Just to give an idea of the jaw-dropping bad faith and lower-than-a-snakes-belly journalistic standards of the New Yorker, they print the scurrilus story about a drunken Kavanaugh exposing himself to a female at a college party using a hearsay witness (the witness says that he heard the story from someone who saw it first hand). They then bring on a third hand witness who recalls hearing the hearsay witness tell the story of hearing the story. They build this up by giving the credentials of the witnesses, apparently to prove their probity, forgetting, apparently, that Kavanaugh has similar credentials. After building the story for two paragraphs, in one sentence they reveal that they contacted the primary source an he did not know what the Hell they were talking about.
They then complain that the FBI did not interview the hearsay witness or the double-hearsay witness.

Appold, who won two Fulbright Fellowships, and earned his Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale in 1994, also recalled telling his graduate-school roommate about the incident in 1989 or 1990. That roommate, Michael Wetstone, who is now an architect, confirmed Appold’s account and said, “It stood out in our minds because it was a shocking story of transgression.” Appold said that he initially asked to remain anonymous because he hoped to make contact first with the classmate who, to the best of his recollection, told him about the party and was an eyewitness to the incident. He said that he had not been able to get any response from that person, despite multiple attempts to do so. The New Yorker reached the classmate, but he said that he had no memory of the incident.; 10/8/18, 3:16 AM
Etienne said...: The simple solution, is to move the Supreme Court to Wyoming. Hell, the federal government owns most of Wyoming.

Get the court out of the swamp.

The other thing is, not many paper hangers would want to be judges if they had to live in Wyoming for several months out of the year.; 10/8/18, 3:57 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/8/18, 4:59 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/8/18, 5:00 AM
Ralph L said...: Christine Fair, Professor at Georgetown University

I read at Breitbart(?) that she's been fired by GU.; 10/8/18, 5:19 AM
Paco Wové said...: "I have a question for the lefties on this board."

Just guessing here, I'll bet the answer will be some combination of:

"You people are crazy/stupid/misinformed/lying."

That's assuming you'd get any response at all.

"Nice to peak inside a bubble."

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about just getting insults in return.; 10/8/18, 5:53 AM
FIDO said...: I will wait to hear that from a mainstream source.; 10/8/18, 6:03 AM
Humperdink said...: @Sydney. The Aquinas prayer is a good wake-up prayer, a good prayer to start the day. I just read it this morning.

Reading My Utmost For the Highest (Osawald Chambers) daily is another good one.; 10/8/18, 6:15 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: See, I'll admit, it's really weird how my mind works, but - before Michael K insisted I can't spot a Libertarian - I'm reading Instapundit one day, when Glenn responded to a racial climate change story (!) with a joke (punch line: "BURN MORE COAL"). Now, this was right after I'd just happened to have a conversation with a black radical who'd described blacks, historically, as the fuel being fed into a locomotive called "America", as it barrels ahead, from one issue to another, ignoring our needs - literally burning up our lives - to reach it's own destination.

Hmmm. I liked the serendipity. I like the word "serendipity". Anyway, I thought that was a kinda crazy juxtaposition - all of it kind of mad and mashed-up together like that - but there was also something American, and true in there, that I could work with: The Coal Train.

So there it is. I'm now trying to keep this lunacy "on track". If The Macho Response keeps prevailing as the current zeitgeist, there's a chance our journalism's center of gravity might, one day, shift to something more accommodating. We'll see. That might be part of the goal, yet, I don't know.

The Art Garage will be open in a week or so. I can't say much about it, except it'll be a LOT better lounge than you're gonna find at Amtrak, so bear witness:

Crack's a Creator, Conductor, Composer, next a Curator, AND, And, and - soon - even your "Dining Car" caterer. Black guy, white coat, napkin over his arm. You know the deal.

I did mention, it's really weird how my mind works, right?; 10/8/18, 6:24 AM
Kevin said...: Now, this was right after I'd just happened to have a conversation with a black radical who'd described blacks, historically, as the fuel being fed into a locomotive called "America"

Not sustainable in this political environment. We’ve reached peak black.

We’re shifting to Latin American renewables that arrive every day like sunlight, and using international trade agreements to drill for Asians offshore.; 10/8/18, 6:42 AM
Kevin said...: the "tell" question: "Was I more likely to take action, "such as attending protests"?

They’ll sell that list to the DNC.; 10/8/18, 6:45 AM
Michael K said...: I did mention, it's really weird how my mind works, right?

Yes.

I normally scroll right past your comments but saw my name. What is the matter with you.?; 10/8/18, 6:47 AM
Kevin said...: Say what you want about Trump, he's the most energetic President in my lifetime.

More importantly, is he still taking more ice cream than everyone else?

The symbolists reading the NYT must be supplied their symbolism.; 10/8/18, 6:49 AM
Michael K said...: Blogger buwaya said...
Petion the Haitian?

French Revolution. I think he did end up in Haiti.; 10/8/18, 6:52 AM
Michael K said...: Blogger Ralph L said...
Christine Fair, Professor at Georgetown University

I read at Breitbart(?) that she's been fired by GU.

What is interesting about her is her essay at HuffPo. She really was sexually abused by an uncle who lived with her mother.

She remembers every detail, which is so different from Blasey Ford's vague story.

The woman is still in therapy and the molestation occurred when she was a child.; 10/8/18, 6:54 AM
Fernandinande said...: Aquinas's Prayer for the Wise Ordering of One's Life

"Make me, my God, humble without pretense, "

That's an amazingly egotistical and pretentious "humble brag" if ever there was one. The irony, it burns!; 10/8/18, 6:59 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Kevin said...

"Not sustainable in this political environment. We’ve reached peak black."

Not even. Kanye speaks now and white guys act like Lincoln shaved his beard. And you guys forget: We're just attaining "Firsts" still. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

"We’re shifting to Latin American renewables that arrive every day like sunlight, and using international trade agreements to drill for Asians offshore."

Yeah, there's only one little problem with that theory: They, too, look up to us as something special. I hang with them and they all want to be black. Bill Burr didn't mention them when he joked the Germans were trying to create "Supermen" after we'd already done it. I didn't see one French teen's wall covered in Mexicans and Asians, but I did see a LOT of American blacks - and, sometimes, they didn't even know who they were. They were just cool.

Now go away: I hate white guys always trying to minimize us. It's a historical legacy y'all should try to outgrow,.; 10/8/18, 7:00 AM
Kevin said...: I hate white guys always trying to minimize us.

You need help with reading comprehension.; 10/8/18, 7:07 AM
Jaq said...: I predict one great play will come out of this, kind of along the lines of The Crucible. It will be called The Semiotics of Boof; 10/8/18, 7:10 AM
Michael K said...: a newspaper not the NY Times with a piece on Kavanaugh.

Moderate women voters also find Democratic senators’ utter disregard for the men affected by false claims of sexual assault terrifying. Women watched as Kavanaugh spoke forcefully to defend his name and honor, and in Kavanaugh, women saw their innocent fathers, husbands, brothers, or sons, falsely accused, condemned and left with a reputation irreparably damaged. And in Kavanaugh’s loving wife, young daughters and distraught mother, women saw themselves and their families.

Women also saw the future of a society that puts politics over the principles of fairness and the presumption of innocence. And they saw Democrats leading that charge.

Oh Oh.; 10/8/18, 7:11 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: I watched a documentary on President John Adams last night, and I'm finishing one on President Andrew Jackson now. I see parallels with Adams and myself, and Trump's got many with Jackson.

American roots run deep.; 10/8/18, 7:11 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Kevin said...

"You need help with reading comprehension."

I did say we're still achieving "Firsts" didn't I?; 10/8/18, 7:12 AM
FIDO said...: What is interesting about her is her essay at HuffPo. She really was sexually abused by an uncle who lived with her mother.

She remembers every detail, which is so different from Blasey Ford's vague story.

The woman is still in therapy and the molestation occurred when she was a child.

I read that too and I always had a question for both sides about things like that.

You have MGTOW gents, who got raped in a divorce and have foresworn all women. Period! They NEVER have a good thing to say about women and are vicious and senseless in their accusations at times.

They are characterized by women as 'damaged goods'. Okay, fair, fine, marvelous.

But you keep running into all these Feminist writers. Cynthia somemone who was raped by her Dutch Marxist husband. Christine Fair. Others. People who never healed. Other women HAVE. Maybe we should listen to them instead.

A woman who wants a healthy relationship with a man...why is it assumed that she is going to learn anything useful from a Lesbian or Damaged Goods about how male/female relationships are supposed to go?

That is as senseless as going to a vegetarian looking for a good steak recipe.; 10/8/18, 7:14 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Michael K said...

"She remembers every detail, which is so different from Blasey Ford's vague story."

Look, I'm a foster child, so I've seen all sides of this. I remember everything as it happened - when, where, who, what, all of it - but the women are different: some live a rage that never goes away, while some block shit out to such a degree I find it terrifying.

I have a foster sister, raped by 9 guys, who claims she doesn't remember a thing and, based on her behavior, I can't help but believe her. I can't explain it, except to say the mind does what it will.

Ford could be telling the truth, while Kavanaugh forgot what, for him, was merely a night of roughhousing - I didn't know. But I do know he's not the same kid he was, now, and that should be enough, considering the charge.; 10/8/18, 7:24 AM
FIDO said...: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) challenged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Sunday to name one person from President Donald Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court justices that he finds acceptable.

“This is a list that was compiled in November, but [Trump] actually put it out during the campaign,” Graham told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, as he held up the list. “There are twenty something people on this list; I’m asking Chuck Schumer, name five, name three, name one that would be okay with you.” . . .

“So Chuck, you want someone new? Look at this list and see anybody you agree to, but what you want to do Senator Schumer is to overturn the election. We are not going to let you pick the judges. If you want to pick judges, then you need to win the White House. When Obama won that, I voted for two judges that he picked. So Chuck Schumer, name one person on this list you think is acceptable.”

One might ask that of Ann Althouse as well. I don't think either person will answer for obvious reasons.

And this is GRAHAM? Getting away from McCain has been SO GOOD for him.

Here is the problem for Democrats, noted by Eric Raymond over on Armed and Dangerous (a socially liberal hacker/gun owner)

(Speaking to Democrats post 2016)But your worst problem is less tangible. Trump has popped the preference-falsification bubble. The conservative majority in most of the U.S. (coastal enclaves excepted) now knows it’s a conservative majority. Before the election every pundit in sight pooh-poohed the idea that discouraged conservative voters, believing themselves isolated and powerless, had been sitting out several election cycles. But it turned out to be true, not least where I live in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where mid-state voters nobody knew were there put Trump over the top. Pretty much the same thing happened all through the Rust Belt.

That genie isn’t going to be stuffed back in the bottle. Those voters now know they can deliver the media and the coastal elites a gigantic fuck-you, and Republicans know the populist techniques to mobilize them to do that. Trump’s playbook was not exactly complicated.

Kavanaugh has also engaged a lot of people to rethink their core beliefs about Republicans and Democrats...and not to the Democrats favor.

That Yorkie Left thing again.; 10/8/18, 7:29 AM
Michael K said...: Oh, I agree about Fair but I just thought it was an example of the fact that people don't forget traumatic experiences. Francisco could explain that PTSD, real PTSD, involves ruminating about such details for years. You CAN'T forget.

What we had with Blasey Ford is either a recovered memory, recovered in therapy for another problem, as was so common in the late 80s, or a lie.

I started out thinking it was probably a recovered memory, like one a friend developed while in therapy for alcoholism. She became convinced her father had molested her as a child and the therapist's advice was to pee on her father's grave.

Five years later, when I saw her again, that memory was never mentioned.

Blasey Ford began to look more like a liar, or fabulist if you will, as she kept changing her story.

The pushback has already begun and it will continue.

Sure, there are those who hope his life is ruined, but it isn't. Why? He fought back.

Let that be a lesson to the normal, decent men out there who will not stand up for themselves whenever a woman is involved. I have heard the excuses for years: "I can't stand up to my wife, she might withhold sex. I can't make her mad, she might not love me. I can't fight back against sexual harassment charges that are false because the society is against me." It goes on and on.

Yes, all of this is true. But it doesn't mean that you cannot make the effort to push back against the misandry that is so rampant in our culture.

Finally somebody admits it.; 10/8/18, 7:30 AM
Jaq said...: How many of you have been singled out by Google and written up in Wired?

https://www.wired.com/2017/08/internet-troll-map/

Semi limited hangout: I have a Disqus persona with tens of thousands of likes who often, as cited in the article, compares the Nazis to the communists. That makes you a "toxic troll." Google knows everything worth knowing about all of us and this is how they judge us.; 10/8/18, 7:30 AM
Professional lady said...: Reminder of the day: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Wow, that one made it into the top 10! Not taken very seriously anymore is it? Thanks for the Aquinas prayer - I printed it.; 10/8/18, 7:41 AM
Michael K said...: I am getting annoyed at the comments changes in some blogs. I am not happy with Discus. Powerline has switched and it is no better than Facebook was.; 10/8/18, 7:50 AM
Jaq said...: I was moved to get a paid VPN, a paid Swiss email account (The don't honor US law enforcement requests even), and ditch Chrome for Brave and Google for Duck Duck Go, and next to go, I think will be DirectTV, which seems to report back to Google on my TV watching habits, based on an ad I got recently on my phone based on a TV show I had watched a half hour before.

Still I think that my "Social Credit" score with Google is abysmally low. This is what happens when you give huge power and money to people who have very poor social skills.; 10/8/18, 7:55 AM
rehajm said...: I watched The Boys of '36 on Amazon this weekend, about the Berlin Olympics gold medal University of Washington Rowing Team. I highly recommend. One takeaway I had is all the Hitler salutes- why hasn't another politician successfully exploited a 'hook' like the Nazi salute? Some catchy little gesture- a hand signal, a little dance? People love the ritual, don't they?; 10/8/18, 8:01 AM
Jaq said...: "This is the foundation of how we're going to do things in the future," John Stankey, CEO of AT&T Entertainment Group, told reporters who gathered at New York's Venue 57 for the product launch. He added, "For the first time in our history, we have control of the full stack," explaining that it will use data insights from subscribers to create more targeted advertising capabilities for brands, which will keep its pricing low. - AdWeek; 10/8/18, 8:01 AM
Michael K said...: One problem I've run into is my passwords are saved on Chrome, so when I go back to Safari, which I am using now, they don't appear and I have forgotten some. Ditto for Brave which I also downloaded. I gave up on Google for searches months ago and use Duck Duck Go.

Since I am retired and heavily armed, I don't worry too much about the rest.

I would definitely not use Android.

I had Direct TV when I lived in the mountains and, every time it snowed, I lost signal.

Columbus Day this week and Insty is recommending Morrison's "Admiral of the Ocean Sea," a terrific book. Morrison retraced Columbus route in the 1930s on a sailboat and checked his navigation.

The crazies that are removing grave markers in Madison will be out raising hell about Columbus. I doubt 10% know the story or could find Hispaniola on a map.; 10/8/18, 8:04 AM
Michael K said...: Reflections on Columbus Day

I do not particularly sympathize with the demonization of Columbus Day by the politically correct, although I do not think the injustices suffered by our Siberian-American fellow immigrants should be glossed over. However, I think Columbus Day should be reconsidered as a U.S. holiday for a different reason. I am fundamentally in agreement with the Hispanosphere nationalists on one point: Columbus's voyage was very specifically the initiation of the contact between Spain and Spanish America. Neither the settlement of Brazil nor of English-speaking North America were direct consequences of Columbus's voyages, and would probably have happened had Columbus never returned with the news of his landing.

The Portuguese discovery of Brazil was, after all, the accidental by-product of their ongoing exploration of Africa. The English-speaking world, on the other hand, began its expansion into North America as a consequence of John Cabot's voyage of 1497.

It makes more sense to think of the European encounters with the Americas as three distinct main streams: one was the Spanish movement to the Caribbean, Mexico, Peru, and ultimately other areas, stemming from Columbus's voyage; another was the Portuguese movement to Brazil, which was intimately linked to their explorations of Africa predating Columbus; and the third was the stream of peoples from the British Isles and ultimately elsewhere to North America to found the nations of the North American Anglosphere. These three distinct streams founded the three principal cultural-linguistic communities of the Americas.; 10/8/18, 8:10 AM
FIDO said...: On the plus side: now Kavanaugh will be ruling on whether the Census can ask if a resident is a citizen or not.

Good times.

After the abysmal failure of this character assassination tour, CNN has finally decided to speak nicely about the president.

It seems that they may be trying a Greenhouse Effect on Trump and that Booker piece yesterday is of a piece of that.

Certainly not CRITICIZE the Left, but at least appear to play nice for a while.

Hmph!; 10/8/18, 8:12 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Michael K said...

Oh, I agree about Fair but I just thought it was an example of the fact that people don't forget traumatic experiences. Francisco could explain that PTSD, real PTSD, involves ruminating about such details for years. You CAN'T forget.

Real PTSD results in remembering the attack in extreme detail. It does not necessarily result in remembering events before or after the attack. So not remembering the location of the party, or how she got home, is not in any way inconsistent with a traumatic attack.; 10/8/18, 8:14 AM
Michael K said...: How about the location of the attack ? I don't buy it. Anyway, that is yesterday's news.

Did you read Fair's piece in HuffPo ?; 10/8/18, 8:18 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: I do not particularly sympathize with the demonization of Columbus Day by the politically correct
Not "demonization", "colonization".; 10/8/18, 8:25 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Michael K said...

How about the location of the attack?

She remembers the part of the location that was relevant during the attack: that it happened in an upstairs bedroom. Trauma tends to result in remembering what you were experiencing ( including what you where thinking about ) during the trauma. If, during the attack, she did not think about whose house she was at ( and why would she? Is that what you would be thinking about? ) then it would not be included in what she remembered as part of the traumatic experience.

I'm not saying any of this proves her story true, only that it does not discredit her story. And there is certainly a due process issue in derailing the appointment over a claim that is entirely unsupported and unfalsifiable.; 10/8/18, 8:30 AM
Maillard Reactionary said...: Regarding Dreher's article about the Madison City Council voting "overwhelmingly" to remove the Civil War marker, Dreher writes:

"This is not a statue of a Confederate war hero. It is simply a grave marker noting the names of POWs who died far from home.

There is no longer equality before God of the fallen, not in Madison, Wisconsin. The city council spits on these dead men, who passed away not in combat, but in Union custody."

These people are sick. Well it's not a law of Nature that the Republic must last forever. Sad!; 10/8/18, 8:43 AM
Mr. Majestyk said...: As Gahrie says, nine is not a magical number for the Court. But having nine justices has worked well for the last 149 years, so I doubt we will ever have a real need to change it. The bigger risk comes not from locking ourselves into a nine-member court, as that leaves open the possibility of politically expedient court-packing schemes such as those now being seriously considered by the Left.; 10/8/18, 8:47 AM
mockturtle said...: Humperdink reports: Reading My Utmost For the Highest (Osawald Chambers) daily is another good one.

That would be My Utmost for His Highest, I believe.; 10/8/18, 8:53 AM
Michael K said...: She remembers the part of the location that was relevant during the attack

Not enough. It could have been a dream for all that.

By the way, buwaya, the Petion who was Mayor of Paris after Bailly did not make it to Haiti.

He joined the Girondists and hid but died in France,; 10/8/18, 8:54 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Mr. Majestyk said...

The bigger risk comes not from locking ourselves into a nine-member court, as that leaves open the possibility of politically expedient court-packing schemes such as those now being seriously considered by the Left.

While I hope this doesn't happen, I honestly couldn't blame Democrats for doing this after the Senate didn't even give Garland a vote. That was well within the Republican Senate's constitutional powers. Packing the court would be within the Democrat's powers, if they get control of the House, Senate, an Presidency.; 10/8/18, 8:57 AM
mockturtle said...: From The Telegraph: "The former Chinese head of Interpol, who went missing last month, was accused of accepting bribes on Monday, becoming the latest top official to fall into President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption dragnet."

The purge is on.; 10/8/18, 9:17 AM
Mr. Majestyk said...: "While I hope this doesn't happen, I honestly couldn't blame Democrats for doing this after the Senate didn't even give Garland a vote. That was well within the Republican Senate's constitutional powers. Packing the court would be within the Democrat's powers, if they get control of the House, Senate, an Presidency."

I think packing the Court would be worse for the Court long-term than not giving one nominee a hearing until after an upcoming presidential election.; 10/8/18, 9:23 AM
FIDO said...: If the midterms are a slaughter for the Democrats on the House and Senate side, that might be enough of a 'Come to Gaia' moment for them to seriously rethink their path.

But I don't think they've gotten all the crazy out of their system yet.; 10/8/18, 9:30 AM
Yancey Ward said...: The Democrats will pack the court the first chance they get. I predict that 100 years from now, the court will have more than 50 members.; 10/8/18, 9:37 AM
JAORE said...: The other thing is, not many paper hangers would want to be judges if they had to live in Wyoming for several months out of the year.

Bet we'd get a change to First Monday in June....; 10/8/18, 9:39 AM
FIDO said...: Remember the lesson of Poland. Any government is not a suicide pact.

But first the Democrats will need to win elections.

They are suffering under the delusion that the majority of America has heard their messages and not understood them, because they are stupid.

They refuse to countenance the idea that Americans heard their message...and rejected it.

Because that would require self reflection and only Booker has shown even a smidgeon of that.; 10/8/18, 9:41 AM
Michael K said...: I honestly couldn't blame Democrats for doing this after the Senate didn't even give Garland a vote.

Why ? The Senate is not obliged to take up a nomination and a presidential election year is a good reason not to do so.

Obama made that nomination as a strategic ploy. He was telling Republicans that Hillary would name a worse nominee and this was a chance to get a leftist majority by threatening a worse one. That was the Scalia replacement which would have put a leftist majority in place. The four lefties always vote left. There is no leftist "swing vote."Hillary lost the election.

Surprise ! Hillary lost the election. At least Putin and Erdogan won their fixed elections.; 10/8/18, 12:13 PM
gahrie said...: I honestly couldn't blame Democrats for doing this after the Senate didn't even give Garland a vote.

What happened to Garland was neither unique nor unusual. 12 of 44 failed nominations to the Supreme Court failed because the Senate simply refused to act on them.; 10/8/18, 1:36 PM