Althouse: "When I was a kid — and my parents are hippies — we lived in San Francisco... and so I always thought of liberals as being people who were... open-minded... not wanting to silence people, letting people speak."

December 20, 2019

"When I was a kid — and my parents are hippies — we lived in San Francisco... and so I always thought of liberals as being people who were... open-minded... not wanting to silence people, letting people speak."

"They're all about just letting people be who they are, not trying to enforce, like, rigid patterns of behavior and thought on people. But that's not the case anymore..."

The part I'm quoting begins around 2:00, but I've left the beginning on, with some funny stuff about the similarity between Boris Johnson and Trump.

101 comments:

Francisco D said...: I am trying to teach my college stepson that the campus activists and professors are not liberals but Marxist totalitarians.

His mom is a liberal and I am a liberal in recovery. It's something totally different.; 12/20/19, 12:19 PM
mccullough said...: Liberals were for free speech when they were a minority without power.

Free Speech was a means to an end for them.

We are now living in their end vision.

Slow Joe Rogan; 12/20/19, 12:20 PM
mccullough said...: The campus activists and professors are useful idiots.

Cut off the head of the snake.; 12/20/19, 12:21 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Woke Leftists have supplanted the Hippie Liberals.

Heck, the Hippies were basically right about sex, drugs and rockNroll! They just need to bathe more frequently:); 12/20/19, 12:23 PM
readering said...: I come here to enforce rigid patterns of behavior.; 12/20/19, 12:24 PM
Nonapod said...: There's an unfortunate pull towards authoritarianism in some people who believe themselves to truly be "open minded".

If a person or group of people disagree with you, it can be irksome. You might wish that they would change their position. You might hope that you or someone else would persuade them to come over to your side. But when all that fails, you might wish that some authority would silence them to remove what you view as their negative influence.

But I often wonder if these people ever ask themselves a simple question: If your argument is so clearly right, righteous, and defensible, why do you need to silence your opposition? Could it be that your argument isn't as strong as you believe it to be?; 12/20/19, 12:27 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/20/19, 12:28 PM
mockturtle said...: As a former hippie myself I can state with conviction that it was the 'straights' who rejected us, not vice versa. Francisco D is right: The Left of today is made up of identity politics and totalitarianism.; 12/20/19, 12:31 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Vegetable rights and peace.; 12/20/19, 12:32 PM
mockturtle said...: Heck, the Hippies were basically right about sex, drugs and rockNroll! They just need to bathe more frequently:)

We were right about the Vietnam War, too. :-(; 12/20/19, 12:32 PM
chuck said...: Yeah, yeah. Liberals are feeling their power slip away. The idea that their power is synonymous with the country is a trumped up conceit to justify their privilege.; 12/20/19, 12:35 PM
Jason said...: Scratch a liberal, you'll find a fascist.

Every time.; 12/20/19, 12:36 PM
AllenS said...: I've learned that liberals are hypocrites.; 12/20/19, 12:39 PM
tim in vermont said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/20/19, 12:41 PM
Lawrence Person said...: This is not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.

If you are a liberal who hasn't bought on to the whole Social Justice Warrior woke agenda (victimhood identity politics, tranny rights, etc.), then you are the target. Not conservatives, not Trump supporters, you. The first and most important goal is to use those tactics (mobbing, callouts, etc.) to enforce in-group conformity on the left. This is why every single Democratic presidential candidate has to sound exactly the same on the tranny agenda, open borders, abortion, etc. You must conform to the Party, or you must be destroyed.; 12/20/19, 12:41 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: @Mock,

"We were right about the Vietnam War, too. :-("

We could debate that, my friend. I know a lotta Vietnamese refugees who can attest to what the Commies did to their country.

Can we at least stipulate to the sex and rocknroll? (There were pros and cons with the drugs)

Far out, man!; 12/20/19, 12:41 PM
Caligula said...: "Liberals were for free speech when they were a minority without power. Free Speech was a means to an end for them."

So, free speech is like a train: you take it until you reach your destination. And then you get off.; 12/20/19, 12:41 PM
tim in vermont said...: "readering said...
I come here to enforce rigid patterns of behavior.”

You think you are being ironic, I bet. Well more to try to enforce rigid patterns of thought.; 12/20/19, 12:41 PM
Chris-2-4 said...: “Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under the omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis; 12/20/19, 12:43 PM
Drago said...: readering: "I come here to enforce rigid patterns of behavior."

The ONLY reason you don't is because you can't.

In every single instance where lefties gain control, they ALWAYS move to shut down all other thought.

In. Every. Single. Instance.

In every single place.

Without exception.; 12/20/19, 12:46 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear
Some flowers in your hair

If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet
Some gentle people there

For those who come
To San Francisco
Summertime
Will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people
With flowers in their hair

Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco ((Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" (1967); 12/20/19, 12:46 PM
Mark said...: "But that's not the case anymore..."

It never was the case.; 12/20/19, 12:48 PM
Sebastian said...: "They're all about just letting people be who they are, not trying to enforce, like, rigid patterns of behavior and thought on people. But that's not the case anymore..."

I'm sure there were some nice hippies back then, but it never was the case for progressives. They just didn't have the cultural hegemony they have achieved in the MSM and higher ed. Coercion backed by the guillotine has been the prog MO since 1789, with results varying on the basis of the amount of power they had.; 12/20/19, 12:48 PM
gspencer said...: The left will NOT leave you alone.

The descriptor I give myself is that of a common sense constitutionalist fearing government yet recognizing that some government is necessary, who basically wants the happiness that comes with freedom FROM government, and who subscribes to the leave-me-alone wisdom of Brandeis as expressed in Olmstead v. US (1928),

“The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man’s spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred against the government, the right to be let alone—the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.”; 12/20/19, 12:49 PM
MadisonMan said...: I am always a little distracted by Joe Rogan's bald head and the padding on his headset to prevent irritation. I find it hard to argue against his viewpoints though.; 12/20/19, 12:51 PM
mockturtle said...: B.A.G.: The sex and drugs were out of hand but the basic freedom of the individual was foundational. The Vietnam war was unwinnable from the beginning and was a colossal waste of lives and resources. My brother was there and became an anti-war protester when he returned. Many of his friends were killed. I also have had a good many Vietnamese friends who were granted asylum in Seattle after the war. We were right to grant asylum and could have done it before the war and saved a good deal of bloodshed. I'm not categorically anti-war but am against those that can't be won, like our adventures in the Middle East.; 12/20/19, 12:51 PM
mockturtle said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/20/19, 12:51 PM
readering said...: It works subliminally.; 12/20/19, 12:51 PM
Temujin said...: Well...that was refreshing. I forgot what it sounds like to have a conversation, not necessarily agreeing with each other, but nonetheless, having a conversation. Listening. Responding. Listening again.

I didn't know who it was with Joe Rogan but found that it's Iliza Shlesinger. I've heard her schtick on comedy radio and she's funny. I like her even more now.; 12/20/19, 12:52 PM
readering said...: It works subliminally on Drago and others.; 12/20/19, 12:52 PM
tim in vermont said...: Sending a man to jail for 16 years for burning an LGBT flag, when SCOTUS has declared flag burning to be speech, seems like a like tranny.... oops, I left out the first y, I mean tyranny.; 12/20/19, 12:54 PM
n.n said...: Libertarianism is organic. Liberalism is divergent. Progressivism is monotonic. Conservativism is moderating. Principles matter.; 12/20/19, 12:59 PM
rcocean said...: As Susan Sontag once said:

"They don't need free speech in the USSR, they have socialism"; 12/20/19, 12:59 PM
tim in vermont said...: The hippies would call today’s liberals “squares” for not being up on things, like, you know, the circle game.

U.S. Military Academy@WestPoint_USMA

29m
The U.S. Military Academy announced today it has concluded an internal investigation of the cadets who displayed hand gestures during a broadcast of ESPN College GameDay at the Army-Navy game Dec. 14
The investigating officer concluded that the cadets were playing a common game, popular among teenagers today, known as the “circle game” and the intent was not associated with ideologies or movements that are contrary to the Army values; 12/20/19, 12:59 PM
n.n said...: Can we at least stipulate to the sex and rocknroll? (There were pros and cons with the drugs)

There were pros and cons with sex, too. Some notable ones, I'll leave for another thread. Rock and roll... well, some music was more rock than roll, but that's true in every genre. And the drugs... that's harsh, man.; 12/20/19, 1:05 PM
Kevin said...: The motto of the Left is, "How dare you...."

Perhaps Joe Rogan is finally waking up.; 12/20/19, 1:07 PM
Kevin said...: I love how Iliza is vilified for having someone in her family who is pro-Trump.

Suddenly her entire gene pool is suspect and people aren't sure they want to be around HER.

Maybe they could just make her wear a yellow star on her clothing so others won't be similarly surprised.; 12/20/19, 1:09 PM
Xmas said...: That's Iliza Shlesinger. She's pretty funny, though her comedy is aimed more at...girls getting drunk at a bachelorette party. It's weird seeing her so dressed down without makeup. On stage, she's usually super well done.

(In case anyone thinks this is sexist, I'd compare this to something like seeing Tom Selleck without a mustache.); 12/20/19, 1:10 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I am always a little distracted by Joe Rogan's bald head and the padding on his headset to prevent irritation. I find it hard to argue against his viewpoints though."

It's basically a podcast, so don't look. Listen.

I just use the clips to embed, but it's made to be listened too and makes great listening.; 12/20/19, 1:12 PM
rehajm said...: She's pretty funny, though her comedy is aimed more at...girls getting drunk at a bachelorette party.

I like her comedy but she sometimes speaks in a pitch and cadence only the sorority can hear.; 12/20/19, 1:15 PM
Gcraw said...: I was a hippy too, and I can assure you that was definitely not the case. Most hippies I knew towed the party line and were very intolerant of any other opinion.; 12/20/19, 1:15 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Well...that was refreshing. I forgot what it sounds like to have a conversation, not necessarily agreeing with each other, but nonetheless, having a conversation. Listening. Responding. Listening again."

Yes, at the Joe Rogan "Experience" entails talking like that for hours. It's so nice to listen to. There's some edge to it and it can get wild, but they don't talk over each other at all, and it's always warm and unstressful, even when they get excited and intense.

"I didn't know who it was with Joe Rogan but found that it's Iliza Shlesinger. I've heard her schtick on comedy radio and she's funny. I like her even more now."

I didn't know either, but I've spent a while looking at her clips on YouTube. She's really good. She was the first female to win the TV talent contest "Last Comic Standing."; 12/20/19, 1:16 PM
mockturtle said...: Babylon Bee had a cute article this morning about a new football rule where the goalposts keep getting moved, as they do with the SJWs. There is no appeasing their lust for dictatorship. Do they have to invade Poland for us to get a clue?; 12/20/19, 1:18 PM
Nonapod said...: To me, the essence of being open minded is simply a willingness to be proven wrong. The older you get, the more set your thought patterns become, the more difficult it can be to admit that you could be wrong it gets. Even to yourself, let alone other people.

It's one of the reasons that most people seem to have their political affiliations set in stone past about the age of 25 or so. I'm always a little impressed when someone is able to change their political party affiliations later in life. It suggests to me someone who is still willing to learn, to admit that they could be wrong, and to correct their mistake. Most people seem like they never change.; 12/20/19, 1:20 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: @aunty Trump,

The U.S. Military Academy announced today it has concluded an internal investigation of the cadets who displayed hand gestures during a broadcast of ESPN College GameDay at the Army-Navy game Dec. 14. The investigating officer concluded that the cadets were playing a common game, popular among teenagers today, known as the “circle game” and the intent was not associated with ideologies or movements that are contrary to the Army values.

OK, Boomer! (oops...........); 12/20/19, 1:26 PM
chuck said...: >> Perhaps Joe Rogan is finally waking up. <<

Two future conservatives was my thought. I don't think Rogan is there yet, but if Dos (Three Soldiers) Passos could do it, so can Rogan.; 12/20/19, 1:27 PM
M Jordan said...: “If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear
Some flowers in your hair”

2019 version:

“If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to bring
A pooper-scooper thing ...“; 12/20/19, 1:28 PM
M Jordan said...: “If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear
Some flowers in your hair”

2019 version:

“If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to bring
A pooper-scooper thing ...“; 12/20/19, 1:29 PM
Michael K said...: Blogger rcocean said...

As Susan Sontag once said:

"They don't need free speech in the USSR, they have socialism"

She also said:

“Imagine, if you will, someone who read only Reader’s Digest between 1950 and 1970, and someone in the same period who read only The Nation or The New Statesman. Which reader would have been better informed about the realities of Communism? The answer, I think, should give us pause. Can it be that our enemies were right?”

Susan Sontag; 12/20/19, 1:29 PM
Dave Begley said...: On a Creighton basketball message board - in the OT section - I'm constantly attacked because I'm a conservative. There is no freedom of speech on CAGW, Trump etc. Amazon removed all 31 of my book reviews and banned me forever from reviewing books because I satirically suggested that the USAF should bomb coal plants in China and India in order to stop carbon dioxide emissions. If the fate of the Earth is on the line, shouldn't we do that?

The Progs are today's Fascists.; 12/20/19, 1:32 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: DO MY OWN THING! One of my favorite parts of No Safe Spaces is the Berkeley Riots AGAINST free speech. Having lived through the Free Speech Movement's gyrations, I found it maddening. Still awaiting 21st century Kristallnacht.; 12/20/19, 1:42 PM
n.n said...: Shlesinger is pretty and lively. Lively and pretty. A natural. Lovely.; 12/20/19, 1:53 PM
Earnest Prole said...: I’ve lived in the reddest and bluest parts of this country, and can say without hesitation that blue minds are less capable of entertaining opposing thoughts.; 12/20/19, 2:04 PM
Sal said...: "The far right and the far left..."

If it wasn't for the behavior of the far left, they wouldn't be having that conversation in the first place. It's just the far left.; 12/20/19, 2:06 PM
Achilles said...: readering said...
It works subliminally.

You think you are clever.

You are not.

You support the impeachment of Trump. What crimes has Trump committed?

You opposed the impeachment of Clinton. He was a known rapist and was disbarred for committing perjury in a sexual assault case.

You support open borders.

You support infanticide.

You support the violence against us by your Antifa/BLM allies.

You support Obama's spying on political opponents. You support the Hillary/Obama administration working with at least 5 foreign intelligence agencies to spy on and undermine the Trump campaign and administration.

You never speak out against these things. Because you support them.

You are a terrible person.; 12/20/19, 2:14 PM
Bilwick said...: Liberals also believed in limited government and a free market. Those days went out with John Locke.; 12/20/19, 2:17 PM
gerry said...: Heck, the Hippies were basically right about sex, drugs and rockNroll!

Hmmmm. Was that assertion ironic?

Casual sex results: AIDS and the disease's epidemic. Large numbers of the new sexual mores practitioners resulted in development of antibiotic-resistant "conventional" venereal diseases. Promiscuity multiplied divorce rates and catalyzed destruction of the two-parent family.

Drug use results: addiction, disease, homelessness, death. Yeah. Good times.

Rock 'n Roll results: debatable.; 12/20/19, 2:23 PM
Ralph L said...: I come here to enforce rigid patterns of behavior.

Roger, me rigid.; 12/20/19, 2:30 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: Sex -- aids, STD and out of wedlock births
Drugs -- addiction and crimes
Vietnam -- debatable either way
Rock n roll-- no negatives but it was a flash in the pan.

Baby boomers are like Obama. Lots of talk but no real legacy.; 12/20/19, 2:41 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: I've spent a while looking at her clips on YouTube.

Me too. She's got an amazing rack!; 12/20/19, 2:47 PM
n.n said...: Iliza Shlesinger... In December 2017, it was reported the comedian was sued by a man who was denied admission to one of her girls-only shows.[30] The initial complaint was dismissed and then refiled as a class action suit.[31]
- wikipedia.org

We live in interesting times.; 12/20/19, 3:02 PM
AllenS said...: mockturtle, with all due respects. In WWII we were unable to end the war with Japan in the conventional way, because Japan was never going to surrender to us, and we knew of the massive amount of casualties the US troops would take if we invaded the country, so we nuked them instead. We could have "won" the wars in Korea and Vietnam also, had we nuked them, but somehow that is now out of the question. The Korea and Vietnam wars were our feeble attempt of which we sustained a large number of casualties to stop communism. Our inability to stop communism killed millions of people.; 12/20/19, 3:04 PM
tim maguire said...: I made it 53 seconds (stopped when she referenced Hitler). Rogan is entertaining and he has a lot of good observations, but he also talks out his ass and contradicts himself an awful lot.; 12/20/19, 3:15 PM
jnseward said...: I was a hippie in San Francisco in the 60s, and lived on a commune in the 70s. The hippies were just as arrogant, intolerant, and authoritarian then as the woke are now.; 12/20/19, 3:19 PM
Curious George said...: "I didn't know either, but I've spent a while looking at her clips on YouTube. She's really good."

She's close to awful. It's always the same ole woe is me woman crap. You want funny, Nikki Glaser.; 12/20/19, 3:25 PM
readering said...: Imagine being Achilles and walking around averting his eyes from all the terrible people around him.; 12/20/19, 3:32 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/20/19, 3:45 PM
Browndog said...: Nothing has changed.

These same hippies became university professors, teaching the same communism to your children as they believed in back then.; 12/20/19, 3:47 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/20/19, 3:50 PM
mockturtle said...: AllenS asserts: Our inability to stop communism killed millions of people.

Trying to destroy communism by ill-advised [in the most literal sense] military operations is never going to work.; 12/20/19, 3:58 PM
mockturtle said...: And neither will we destroy Islamic jihad in the ME by military means. To attempt it is to play into their hands.; 12/20/19, 4:01 PM
mockturtle said...: If we want to put our military to good use we should put them on our southern border. Just yesterday the BP here intercepted enough fentanyl to kill 180K people. And it was brought in by a teenaged girl. We have been facing an invasion for years and no one seems to want to stop it.; 12/20/19, 4:03 PM
FullMoon said...: Can't find the statistics, is it the boomers, or is it the hippies shitting and shooting up on the sidewalks of the big cities? Or, the HippyBoomers?; 12/20/19, 4:04 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: The Progs are today's Fascists.

They were yesterday's too.; 12/20/19, 4:27 PM
Paul said...: Hitler would have anyone who disagreed shot.
Stalin would have anyone who disagreed shot.
Mao would have anyone who disagreed shot.
Castro would have anyone who disagreed shot.
Pol Pot would just have anyone who looked like they might disagree clubbed to death.

But would Regan do that? Bush? Trump?

So why has the left gone so far and become so intolerant?
Could it be their arguments are so... worthless they know they cannot even show their ideas are worthy? And they are worried other ideas might supplant theirs?

Hence they are becoming the new Stalin, Mao, Castro... just like that Greta Thunberg they want to put them ‘against the wall’....; 12/20/19, 4:41 PM
narciso said...: the left was always like that, the labour party, specially in the 80s were a soviet catspaw,

https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2019/12/analysis-how-the-us-arrived-at-this-critical-crossroads-in-afghanistan.php; 12/20/19, 5:12 PM
Howard said...: Allen S is just jealous. He lost his War while me and Drago helped win the Cold War where we battled Ivan via proxies and out spent them until communism died in Russia.; 12/20/19, 5:14 PM
narciso said...: in 1984, which was likely the height of the cold war, the dem candidates (Cranston, hart, Jackson, Mondale) were having a cow over two of those proxies, Nicaragua and el Salvador) and they were entirely in support of the nuclear freeze, so go stuff yourself howard,; 12/20/19, 5:36 PM
Howard said...: Narciso: loads you take yourself and this blog way way way too seriously. Just FYI I was joking. I don't believe military service during the height of the Cold War ended the Cold War it was American capitalism that the Soviet Union could not keep up with. Of course people like you love to embrace the death squads and the drug running in Central America as a continuation of the banana wars; 12/20/19, 5:45 PM
narciso said...: the day after's subtext (was the pershing deployment was what led to nuclear war) of course Andropov, whose galoshes were soaked in blood was never considered at fault, because like strobe Talbott and other grandees told us, he was a fan of jazz,; 12/20/19, 5:57 PM
Kirk Parker said...: mockturtle @ 12:31pm,

Really?? I seem to remember a fair amount of mutual rejection.; 12/20/19, 6:02 PM
Michael K said...: Of course people like you love to embrace the death squads and the drug running in Central America as a continuation of the banana wars

Howard, why be an asshole ? I was agreeing with you until then.; 12/20/19, 6:10 PM
walter said...: Xmas said... It's weird seeing her so dressed down without makeup.
--
Her "war paint"; 12/20/19, 6:28 PM
Howard said...: Now you've hurt my feelings Mike; 12/20/19, 6:29 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: I enjoy Howard. As far as countering opinions go, he often has a sense of fun with it that others don't seem to be able to pull off.

Sometimes I feel he glides by on insult auto-pilot, but the Left doesn't give him much to work with.

In fact, I'm not sure how 'left' he is; he seems to play himself as more of a thorn in the side of the deplorables, but I believe he sees the craziness on the left, too -- but they are more like 'family', and with family, you roll with the shit.

I bet, in his secret moments, he agrees with us more than he will admit, but is afraid of the baggage he believes comes with the territory.

If he made the mental switch of reading pro-Trump opinions as 'I want the freedom to be left the fuck alone' he might get more understanding out of it.

Myself, I simply don't want to be part of a 20th-century-style enforced social experiment on the nature of man as decided by people who are fucking crazy.

And I might indeed be wrong about Howard. Maybe I am just hoping there are still people with whom I don't agree that I could still picture splitting a pitcher of beer with.

No fucking artisanal beer, though. Beer flavors shouldn't be akin to 70's Massengail feminine products.

I am Laslo.; 12/20/19, 6:51 PM
walter said...: You haven't lived till you've had a That's Not Funny Sour Ale.; 12/20/19, 7:08 PM
whitney said...: Tree meet fruit; 12/20/19, 7:09 PM
effinayright said...: Laslo said:

No fucking artisanal beer, though. Beer flavors shouldn't be akin to 70's Massengail feminine products
*****************

Not even the flavored douche marketed as "Cupid's Quiver"?; 12/20/19, 7:12 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Schlesinger is “really into the environment, and plastic, and stuff like that”, and is no doubt a true intellectual who believes science, praise Gaia!; 12/20/19, 7:28 PM
RichardJohnson said...: Howard
Of course people like you love to embrace the death squads and the drug running in Central America as a continuation of the banana wars.

Unfortunately in El Salvador, the choice wasn't between death squads and the Boy Scouts. The choice was between thugs and thugs. The FMLN had a tendency to select its leaders by subtraction- by internal assassination. Bullets, not ballots, for choosing their leaders. Consider how Roque Dalton (first cousin, first removed of Linda Ronstadt, BTW), Ana María/Mélida Anaya Montes, and Salvador Cayetano Carpio. All three were FMLN leaders who lost their lives in internal power struggles. Right wing death squads didn't kill them- FMLN factions killed them.

The Sandinistas were, from the beginning, unabashed supporters of Soviet imperialism. Carlos Fonseca, one of the three founders of the FSLN, attended a youth conference in Moscow in 1957. In his pamphlet Un nicaragüense en Moscú, readily downloaded in Spanish but not in English, Fonsaeca wrote that there was freedom of religion in the Soviet Union and that the Soviets prevented "criminal fascists" from taking power in Hungary in 1956. In March 1980, Sandinista comandantes took a trip to Moscow, where they signed a joint proclamation with the USSR.
With FSLN coman- dantes Tomas Borge, Henry Ruiz, and Humberto Ortega, Hassan attended the March 1980 signing of the party-to-party agreement between the FSLN and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow. Signed less than 3 months after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the joint public statement read in part: "The Soviet Union and Nicaragua resolutely condemn the campaign that the imperialist and reactionary forces have launched of building up international tension in connection with the events of Afghanistan, a campaign aimed at subverting the inalienable right of the people of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and other peoples of the world to follow the path of progressive transformation."

That joint-proclamation is a rather good example of endorsing Soviet imperialism.

If you wish to define Central America in ignorant snarks, feel free to do so.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Biographies/Cadre; 12/20/19, 7:33 PM
Howard said...: Cheers, Laslo; 12/20/19, 7:56 PM
Howard said...: Richard: and Daniel Ortega remains President of Nicaragua and a Soviet agent is IMPOTUS.; 12/20/19, 8:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Rogan's looking pretty poorly.; 12/20/19, 8:23 PM
Rabel said...: "Maybe I am just hoping there are still people with whom I don't agree that I could still picture splitting a pitcher of beer with."

The guy who made the 5:14 post isn't anyone I'd want to split a beer with.; 12/20/19, 8:35 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: I spend a lot of time in Seattle. I hear far worse.

A few weeks ago there I was having a cigarette when a young guy came up and demanded one. Upon hearing 'no', he began swinging a significant stick of wood in my face, trying to intimidate me. He didn't keep his eye on the ball, though, and I grabbed it and froze him until he let go, embarrassed by an old guy in front of his buddies.

I cut more slack on the Internets.

I am Laslo.; 12/20/19, 8:45 PM
Narr said...: The Prof links to Rogan a lot but he's less entertaining than SNL for my ten minutes; the young comedienne got on my nerves pretty quickly; others have said she can look real good but I haven't checked. (Yeah, I rank younger women on sex appeal, among other factors; always have, always will.) The worst thing about their conversation is that any of it has to be said in the first place.

The American effort in Vietnam was unwise and ultimately self-defeating. But we seem to be prone to that sort of thing.

Narr
As for hippiedom, that was a necessary phase, like farting; 12/20/19, 9:10 PM
Sprezzatura said...: “I just use the clips to embed, but it's made to be listened too and makes great listening.”

JRE is made for video and audio. Your statement claiming otherwise is funny. Though not surprising. Ok.

Anywho, a couple of years ago I found a website that sells signed books re Shlesinger (and many others). So I ordered a bunch of books. They were to be given to some gals that I know. At the time I did, and still do, realize this was a lame Xmas gift. More self centric than empathetic. Anyanywho, the person I tasked w/ distribution probably ignored my directive re the mail. Hence didn’t send any of the books.

Or, she did send them, and the reason none of the seven gals commented to me re the books was cause they were classier than me. So they held back from acting on their impulses. Which would have been to tell me I whiffed the gift.

FTR, I also had valuable stuff sent with the books. And, I did hear back appreciation re that stuff.

P.S. On that website re signed books, I also got a signed copy of Condi Rice’s book. Re that book, I never heard anything from the dude who was supposed to get the Rice thingy. Maybe, my staff didn’t send that either. I never heard back re that gift. But, I did hear re the other stuff that dude (father-of-a-bro-in-law) got.

Maybe I should stop buying books for folks. Seems like folks appreciate the cars more.

I dunno.

P.P.S.

I thought the point at 2:40 was the real winner. Not that that could be understood around here. Ok.; 12/20/19, 10:55 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: I've been telling you for years:

They are very-much something else now.; 12/21/19, 6:12 AM
Sydney said...: I've had two recent experiences of old hippies being in your face recently. It was, of all places, in two different bible studies at our church. In both cases the old hippy took exception to something another person in the group said, and instead of objecting politely or asking questions to clarify their meaning, the person raised their voice and got aggressive - one in a rage. In both cases the old hippy leaped to assumptions that no one else connected to the target's presentation. It was very uncomfortable and nonproductive. I felt like the two people who behaved this way were more used to interacting on social media than in person. The thing is, it did shut down discussion because everyone else was too polite to respond in kind. Why are old hippies so full of hate?; 12/21/19, 6:40 AM
Craig Howard said...: "They don't need free speech in the USSR, they have socialism"

I saw a meme this morning: "They don't have to riot against global warming in China, they're already communist."; 12/21/19, 10:21 AM
Bilwick said...: "Of course people like you love to embrace the death squads . . . " The story of the modern Left. Whenever I read the Democide figures, I often wonder how many people does the State have to murder before "liberals" wake up and think, "Hey, you know this statism idea may not be as good as I thought it would be. . . ."; 12/21/19, 1:48 PM