Writes Niela Orr in "The Waffle House Brawl Belongs in a Museum/In video after viral video, fast-food employees keep being forced to punch above their weight. You can find the disquieting energy of these clips in classic art, too" (NYT).
And here's Edward Hopper's "Automat" (cited in the article along with the more famous "Nighthawks"):The craziest Waffle House fight in Austin TX straight up WWE match😂 pic.twitter.com/njEusM6SfR
— Wallstreet_Ray (@rbaylor_74) December 22, 2022
This gets my "MSM reports what's in social media" tag. We NYT readers might think it's too lowly to go straight to Twitter/YouTube/TikTok and watch things like the the Waffle House melée unmediated by elevated prose — haunting insomniac aesthetic... labor and racial binaries... existential darkness... an essential American estrangement... noirish alienation... jaundiced light....
I'm not the kind of cheap riffraff that's hypnotized by short videos on small screens. I'm a reader of profound thoughts. I would never go to the Waffle House in the middle of the night. I go to the museum in daytime. But I do want to feel that I care about the alienated, noirish people on the other side of the labor and racial binary.
I am a New York Times reader.
Posts
90 comments:
And some think we're not a loving nation.
"Now the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, “Jump right in”
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
An’ like a fool I mixed them
An’ it strangled up my mind
An’ now people just get uglier
An’ I have no sense of time"
"I care about the alienated, noirish people on the other side of the labor and racial binary.
I am a New York Times reader."
Nailed it.
Front-end server lady who caught the chair mid-air is legendary. Instantly meme worthy, and she has an upper-cut that any father would be proud of. You know what they say, if you've made into anime, you've made it big timeI.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/waffle-house-wendy-waffle-house-chair-catch
Also, "they contain something awkward about labor and racial binaries, and even those shot in daylight have a kind of existential darkness". You can say that again.
If I am one of the employees in these jobs in these locations, I have a baseball bat and large knife with me at all times, at a minimum. You and your friends want to come across the counter to assault me, expect to be bleeding within seconds.
I go to the museum in daytime.
It will start happening in museums in the daytime too.
Civilization exists because we all agree (at the core) to behave by certain norms.
It's wrong to kill someone just to get what you want.
It's wrong to hit someone because that can lead to someone being killed.
It's wrong to yell at someone because that can lead to someone being hit.
The video demonstrates all 3 with the eventual assault with a deadly weapon (on camera) at the 1:42 mark.
Once we as a society don't agree a cascade happens.
There's that saying about weak men creating hard times.
One of my favorite Heinlein quotes is at play here: "An armed society is a polite society".
Sub-moronic Convergence.
The NYT writer also worked "in medias res" into the story for its sophisticated readers. I live above the IHOP-Waffle House line. We in the northeast are too civilized to throw a chair at an IHOP line cook at 3 AM.
I was wondering what all of those allusions on Twitter were to Waffle House being some kind of fight club.
Hold the waffle, hold the butter
Make some room for brain-dead nutters
When they’re done, clean up the clutter
Greet the new day
You read the beginning of the story about "a woman," "customers." Then you watch the video. Then you get, "Sometimes there are racialized undertones, with Black workers defending themselves against white customers." Then you say, yeah, that's just what my lying eyes told me about the WH brawl.
Fast food employees are having to punch above their weight because some people have been eating at the Waffle House way too much and it shows.
And to also leave an educational post.
Great Art Explained - Night Hawks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKIbT-4UFaE
The only thing haunting is the consistency of how much this happens with black people in food establishments and at drive thrus. I do not know why and most people do not know why this is a very common and regular occurrence. It's like a mystery or something.
>>"The Waffle House Brawl Belongs in a Museum<<
The Waffle House brawl belongs in Jane Goodall's notebook.
I'm not the kind of cheap riffraff that's hypnotized by short videos on small screens. I'm a reader of profound thoughts. I would never go to the Waffle House in the middle of the night. I go to the museum in daytime. But I do want to feel that I care about the alienated, noirish people on the other side of the labor and racial binary.
Spot on!
So if I go to Starbucks and sit in an armchair, silently sipping, late at night after work, it is just the same as if I went into Starbucks and threw chairs at the servers? What if I threw chairs while wearing a MAGA hat? What if it was a BLM hat? What if I changed hats halfway through and was filming for TikTok? Which would be the most alienated? ChatGPT, what say you?
Fatherless, undisciplined black kids courtesy of white liberal guilt.
When the apocalypse comes you better have more than debate skills. Same goes before the apocalypse when the shit hits the fan.
But it must be a sign of equality when women are the instigators and main participants in late-night brawls, and the men are the "can't we all just get along and eat our waffles" peacemakers.
Black women fighting and throwing chairs. What else is new ?
Austin. University town. State capital. Outpost of weirdness.
Austin = Madison?
Where is the closest Waffle House? That blonde girl behind the counter asks and gives no quarter. I suspect that she has worked hard her whole life. Non-urban America is full of people like her.
God bless the USA.
The unseen narrator:
"Bro, I just want my waffles."
Barack Obama:
“Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”
How much difference between this WH and the other WH?
It may more closely bring to mind Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'.
I love Waffle House and eat there most every chance I get. Not exactly Haute Cuisine but their eggs and hash browns are to die for.
I've eaten at Waffle Houses at all hours of day and night (3 eggs over easy, hb smthered, covered and diced, raisin toast with apple butter. A waffle too if I am hungry) I've never seen any rowdiness. Not saying that it does not happen but I think Waffle House is, like Walmart, a business that a certain class of people love to hate.
My only objection, and this seems to have changed in recent years, is that no matter how empty, they will not let me sit in a booth by myself. Fine when full. I'll sit at the counter. But I do like to spread out a bit and much prefer a booth.
I find them well run, the staff courteous and since I can see the entire operation, I know it is clean.
Now I'm making myself hungry.
John Henry
"I am a New York Times reader."
Could AI have written this simple but actually multi-layered statement? Yes and no. Even if so produced, could Althouse readers have read it the same way?
These type of videos are everywhere now. Brawls, shoplifting, armed robberies and shooting caught on surveillance videos.
But we're not actually allowed to talk about what we see in the videos. You just watch it, no what is happening, and then move along. But... I wouldn't go to a Waffle House down South at 2am. Nor to a George Webb in Milwaukee.
I wonder how many of these people (including here) commenting on Waffle House have ever eaten in a Waffle House?
They should try one.
MUCH better coffee than Starbucks. Or even Dunkin Donuts.
I've been eating in Waffle Houses all over for 40 years. Never found one with bad service (except when they are slammed on a Sunday morning. Even then it is still courteous, just slow) or unclean.
John Henry
One petty annoyance about Waffle House:
The bottom of the check is perforated to tear off for a receipt. I usually pay with credit card but I like to collect blank receipt stubs. I have a drawer full in case I lose or forget to get one if I pay cash. One chicago restaurant used to provide blank receipts to all diners as a matter of course. Just in case.
In WH they will not let you take the blank receipt. You have to let them fill it in or they will not let you have it. I know, I have tried a couple of times.
John Henry
And now for something completely different.
The great, lamented Anthony Bourdain (RIP) eats at Waffle House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bct8stbZafI
Another blog links to similar antisocial (this behavior repeats often) events he calls the “progressive retail experience”, demonstrating that this, right here, is an uncomfortable, routine occurrence.
Please to remember, it’s something-something bad to notice.
Think about what matters to you in for life, and where you are socio-economically.
Do you really care so much about a waffle, or a cheeseburger at a fast food restaurant that you would get into a fight? What's sad in America is this is a real level of what some people hang their pride on, and are willing to fight to protect. "I said I wanted Onion Rings not Fries goddammit!"
It's why the inner city crime rates are out of control. When you have nothing to lose, a fast food order becomes something to lose.
Funny thing is this type of stuff doesn't happen at Chik-Fil-A. Obviously they're not open at midnight...or Sundays. White liberals hate Chik-Fil-A. Black Democrats love it, and so do white MAGA Republicans. Intersectionality at its finest.
The one on Capital Drive and 124th Street in Brookfield, WI is always busy. 50/50 mix of black people driving west from Milwaukee, and white people coming from the east from the suburbs. Everybody is there for the kick ass food and good service. It's almost like it's the way the world should be.
And White liberals are missing out because the corporate franchise is owned by Christians. Every Ivory Tower White Liberal in America should be required to go for a late night meal at a Waffle House in Atlanta or Burger King in Milwaukee after midnight. They might learn something.
I want to know how it started. Lots of people outside filming can barely believe what they're seeing, so it's not obvious to them that whatever happened should have led to this violence.
"But I do want to feel that I care about the alienated, noirish people on the other side of the labor and racial binary."
Well, if you want to care, rather than merely feel, the you should realize that this is the result of generations of Democratic policies. Would not have happened 60 years ago. The black customers would have had too much respect for themselves.
I LOVE how the person filming even got the help wanted ad in the window. Waffle House should made an ad out of this video.
Waffle House is as close as Pendleton IN, 200 miles from my Lincoln Park location.
The Hoosier State brings us the best of South and North, as well as Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, James Dean, James Whitcomb Riley, Steve McQueen, Anne Baxter, Twyla Tharp, Axl Rose, Jay Cutler, Karen McDougal, Pete Buttigeig, Earl Butz, and Dan Quayle.
"One of my favorite Heinlein quotes is at play here: 'An armed society is a polite society.'"
Life here and now in the USA refutes Heinlein's facile axiom.
"The Hoosier State brings us the best of South and North, as well as Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, James Dean, James Whitcomb Riley, Steve McQueen, Anne Baxter, Twyla Tharp, Axl Rose, Jay Cutler, Karen McDougal, Pete Buttigeig, Earl Butz, and Dan Quayle."
And Dave Letterman. And Meade. And ME!
Ask any cop: The roaches come out at night.
Oh god, "quintessential" in the first sentence. So journalisticky.
I can't go on. Or I'll read it later.
@ALP
"I LOVE how the person filming even got the help wanted ad in the window. Waffle House should made an ad out of this video."
OMG yes! Do you have any idea how awesome an ad that would be?
Do you have cat-like reflexes? Did you spend your prime years cultivating your inner Qi in the mountains of Shaolin when other kids were out partying? Have you ever dreamed of honing your skills in hand-to-hand urban combat against multiple opponents in preparation for your career in the Octagon? WELL BRAVE AND FEARLESS WARRIOR, YOU SHOULD APPLY TO WAFFLE-HOUSE TODAY! BATTLE WITH THE BEST! COMPETITIVE COMPENSATION AND A CATASTROPHIC HEALTH-CARE COVERAGE PLAN THAT MAY LEAVE YOU DISABLED BUT SURVIVING LIKE THE CHAMPION YOU ARE! Employees also receive a discount on our high-protein, athletic diet!
It would rate right up there with commercials like the Bud Light Swear Jara and the Tabasco Mosquito. Something like that would even make me consider applying to Waffle House.
"The only thing haunting is the consistency of how much this happens with black people in food establishments and at drive thrus. I do not know why and most people do not know why this is a very common and regular occurrence. It's like a mystery or something."
How "consistent" and "common and regular" are such occurrences? Do you have any statistics?
of course, There's a word, to describe people like that.. But Althouse won't let it be used,
cause the owner of this blog (Google.corp) won't let her.
i Love waffle house. But i've never been at one for the 2am zoo.
personally, i like them about 4:30am or so.. To late for bar, to early for breakfast crowds.
Frequently, just me; the server, and the cook. And, if i ask nice, they usually let me sit in a booth
I want to know how it started.
Halie (Wendy) tells what happened. She says she's been blacklisted from working at any Waffle House.
Brings to mind PJ O'Rourke's description of chaos: "Like monkey's at a salad bar."
Shouting Thomas
You are correct about the fatherhood problem and black boys.
Not applicable here, though since the perps are all young women as far as I can tell. I think your point about fathers applies to them too, though.
Growing up being routinely called a bitch and a whore (ho) certainly doesn't help either.
Waffle House employees are actually well armed. Stacks of skillets to wallop perps with. A pitcher of hot oil on the grill, pots of hot coffee.
Make this kind of assault hurt and they will stop happening.
John Henry
Robert Cook said, "How "consistent" and "common and regular" are such occurrences? Do you have any statistics?"
My sources are Vidmax and Worldstarhiphop. I've yet to see a fast food fight involving just white people. I'm sure they happen, but you'd think there'd be more video, because the amount of video of black people doing this could fill the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
news from Other (non Wafflehouse) war zones..
Now that The Ukraine, is openly losing (losing So BAD, that that even they can't deny it);
All the talk is about how, NOW we Need to have them in NATO, so that the conflict goes nuclear.
Kissinger says didn't want Ukraine to join NATO fearing a war, but that's an 'appropriate outcome' now
Got That? WAR, between NATO and russia.. is an 'appropriate outcome' Now.
They are LITERALLY calling for nuclear war, nuclear combat toe to toe with the Roosskies.
Well, I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones. But, That's What they're calling for now.
Don't these people Realize? That your commie has no regard for human life. Not even his own?
They say it's about 'two movies'. I'm seeing Dr Strangelove, what are You seeing? The Guns of August?
Robert Cook,
I too would want some stats. I suspect these kinds of attacks are fairly rare. But they get well distributed so they look common.
They may or may not be.
John Henry
Robert Cook,
I too would want some stats. I suspect these kinds of attacks are fairly rare. But they get well distributed so they look common.
They may or may not be.
John Henry
Robert Cook said...
How "consistent" and "common and regular" are such occurrences? Do you have any statistics?
The denial is strong with this one.
And...it is a HUGE part of the reason these communities and neighborhoods will continue to spiral downward while crime and violence skyrocket. Robert doesn't deny his lying eyes, he covers them to protect his moral superiority. It has NOTHING to do with being open minded, or concerned about minorities suffering in these neighborhoods and being harmed in these violent incidents.
If you can't identify a problem, you can't truthfully identify it's root cause (which is NOT skin color), and you cannot eliminate the root cause correct the problem.
People like Robert are representative of the reason liberal power centers like Madison, WI do nothing, nor care to do anything, in regards to Milwaukee's rapid inner city deterioration. Minorities in Milwaukee continue to suffer. And Madison continues to thrive in its liberal, white, Ivory Tower, fueled by their pretend compassion on the suffering of minority communities. Robert is not alone.
But, as I stated above, we are not allowed to talk about what we see. Robert proves my point.
From this thread I really like...
"hell naw if the waffle house employee Perfect Parries your projectile pack it up lmfao"
and
"Mr. president a second chair has been thrown in the Waffle House"
and
"the counter at Waffle House is to protect the customers"
also
"you would have a better chance at fighting an entire prison yard than throwing hands with the one white chick working the Waffle House night shift"
The Hoosier State brings us the best of South and North, as well as Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, James Dean, James Whitcomb Riley, Steve McQueen, Anne Baxter, Twyla Tharp, Axl Rose, Jay Cutler, Karen McDougal, Pete Buttigeig, Earl Butz, and Dan Quayle.
And Larry Bird and Michael Jackson. And the wife! Makes my kids half Hoosiers.
I guess Cook has never heard of Chuck E Cheese.
"My sources are Vidmax and Worldstarhiphop. I've yet to see a fast food fight involving just white people. I'm sure they happen, but you'd think there'd be more video, because the amount of video of black people doing this could fill the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor."
Your statement does not even rise to the level of anecdotal evidence, which is not evidence. Your claim is less than no evidence.
Gusty Winds' comment is...pretty gusty!
For all your pontificating, you didn't provide any sort of evidence or stats to support the claim this sort of restaurant rioting (among black people) is "consistent" and "common and regular."
I just asked if there were data to support the claim of the frequency of such behavior; I do doubt it is as commonplace as asserted here or that it marks ordinary behavior among black people dining out, but I don't claim to know it is not and I did not make such an assertion, as I do not have contrary data to hand. I simply asked for evidence to support the claim. (I might be sadly surprised!) However, without evidence to support the claim, it's just knee-jerk racism...which is unfortunately "consistent" and "common and regular."
Now I need to see a painting of a Waffle House fight in the style of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" `
Blogger John henry said...
Robert Cook,
I too would want some stats. I suspect these kinds of attacks are fairly rare. But they get well distributed so they look common.
Milwaukee had 214 homicides in 2022. Up 120% in three years. But, considering it's a city of 569,000, it still "fairly rare". There's only a 0.000376 chance you'll get murdered in Milwaukee or a 37 per 100,000 chance. MUCH LOWER if you're a white liberal. Comforting isn't it Mr. Henry? Still "fairly rare", right?
Let's call it the John Henry and Robert Cook club. These two can easily access inner city minority crime statistics, and figure out the socio-economic and psychological reasons these communities have rising murder rates, violent crime, drug usage and deaths, poverty, lack of ownership, low test scores and graduation rates...that lead to more frequent restaurant brawls and other worse conditions.
Define "fairly rare" John Henry...triple dog dare ya. "Fairly Rare" in relation to what??? The amount of total Waffles or burgers sold??
When the speed and accuracy of a $10 late night meal deal at a fast food joint becomes a point of pride, there's not much else to lose. Pride is all you have left, and you're struggling to keep it. It's not about race, get it???
But we're not allowed to truthfully talk about which race in America suffers the most, because the John Henry's and Robert Cook's fly in with the "IT'S STILL FARILY RARE!" bullshit. Who's got restaurant brawl statistics? Buehler????
These people will NEVER escape poverty and violence as long as Madison, WI, John Henry, and Robert Cook are their best sympathetic hope.
Keep in Mind.. That, According To Robert Cook; Robert Cook doesn't drink or do drugs, or go out late at night, or Even live in New York (according to Robert Cook, he lives in some suburb in florida or vermont or such).
BUT! According To Robert Cook; Robert Cook is The ULTIMATE EXPERT on these things, because he once read Das Kapitol or something that Explained it ALL.
Kinda Makes You Wonder.. IF Robert Cook had to get a job working at a city Wafflehouse, (or, a deli in the Bronx);
Would his knowledge base change?
Gusty,
As I said, I don't know how common these incidents are. You say common based on a few videos that get passed around.
By the same logic I could say never since I've never personally observed it.
The truth is somewhere in between. You apparently have no idea where in between but don't seem to want to admit it.
I have no idea either but I'm happy to admit it.
All I am asking is some stats on how common. Not city violent crime. We all agree that's high. We are talking specifically about violent incidents in fast food places.
How many, gusty? A dozen a year? A hundred? A thousand? You made the claim. Back it up.
John Henry
Also gusty, what have you done to better the lives of black Americans?
I supported and continue to support donald trump. By cutting competition for jobs by illegal aliens, by growing the economy he did a hell of a lot to better their lives.
John Henry
Also gusty, what have you done to better the lives of black Americans?
I supported and continue to support donald trump. By cutting competition for jobs by illegal aliens, by growing the economy he did a hell of a lot to better their lives.
John Henry
Forgot to define "fairly rare" for you.
I'd say 100 incidents a year such as the video would qualify. Nationwide.
So how many is it? More? Fewer?
John Henry
Robert Cook said, "Your statement does not even rise to the level of anecdotal evidence, which is not evidence. Your claim is less than no evidence."
Well I guess nothing less than primary research at 2am at a waffle house in North St. Louis would satisfy you. When do you leave?
I volunteer to organize and Althouse commentor experimental field trip to any late-night Milwaukee inner city Wendy’s or Burger King. We can’t go to the Burger King in the Capitol Heights neighborhood (5120 W. Capitol Dr.) because the Milwaukee City Council didn’t renew the license in 2022 because of the violence, weapons, and a murder there of a 16-year-old employee…even though these incidences according to Mr. Henry and Mr. Cook are fairly rare.
There is still a Burger King open at 5812 W. Lisbon in Milwaukee. That’s the Lenox Heights neighborhood bordering Sherman Park. Exciting!!! That would be quite an adventure a couple of vans full of white people any time after 7pm. We can pre-party at the Butler Inn at 124th and Hampton. We’re safe there…but only like 25 blocks west from culture shock.
We drink until 10pm and go to Burger King. I’ll be a little more than lit than everyone else. John “Fairly Rare” Henry and Robert “Show Me the Statistics” Cook put in the first two orders. When their order arrives after like half-hour, they both complain to the staff. “I ordered my Whopper with no tomatoes”…”I paid for extra bacon on my double cheeseburger”. Fix it now or we’re not paying!!
Odds are, nothing will happen and you can live to write home about it. Statistics are on our side, and any potential violence or being robbed at gunpoint is “fairly rare”. If anything does go down, just tell them you’re a liberal and voted for Biden. You can point at me and say “that’s the racist Trump voter you want!!! He lives in Waukesha County!!!”
Mr. Cook?? Mr. Henry?? You dudes in?? I’ll even buy the beers and the burgers…and I know my way around Milwaukee quite well. I’ll ride shotgun and be navigator; somebody else will have to drive. I’ll be pounding beers and smoking cigarettes soaking in all the entertainment. Some entertainment is worth risking your life.
Blogger Robert Cook said...
Gusty Winds' comment is...pretty gusty!
For all your pontificating, you didn't provide any sort of evidence or stats to support the claim this sort of restaurant rioting (among black people) is "consistent" and "common and regular."
As far as I'm concerned you just proved my point. 100% vindicated. The evidence and stats are EVERYWHERE as to why these things happen and why these communities suffer. Statistics you are too lazy to look up yourself and analyze, or statistics you really don't care about.
Your rhetorical approach is simply something to hide behind.
I live in a town that's about 40% Hispanic. Using the word "Latinx" is equivalent to saying, "I don't know any Hispanic people."
Life here and now in the USA refutes Heinlein's facile axiom.
TBF, all axioms are pretty facile, aren't they?
What Heinlein was saying was that when everyone is armed, and trained, disciplined, and law-abiding (these traits too are axiomatic in his universes) (and he and his last and longest wife Virginia were ex-military and very proud of that fact), it behooves everyone to be polite. I think you would have to admit that it isn't NRA members (armed, trained, disciplined, and law-abiding people, that is) who are perpetrating the terrible violence in our cities. And in the small towns it isn't happening at any kind of rate relative to the cities.
Criminals will do what criminals do. They can sometimes be deterred by the law-abiding, if the law-abiding have the physical means to do so. Better would be to keep them from becoming criminals in the first place, but we're not allowed to discuss the breakdown of the traditional nuclear family or the civilizing effect of traditional family-involving Judeo-Christian (and other, but not all) religious observance.
I got punched in the face through the McDonald's drive thru window when I was 19. I called a woman "ma'am" (I called every woman "ma'am") and, as she was hitting me twice, she explained that she believed I was mocking her. I got two black eyes.
The police, when they arrived, said I should have hit her back.
The woman was white, as am I, and obviously unstable (as I am not); the neighborhood was rough.
[shudder] I just watched the video. How utterly horrible.
How this different from my McDonald's experience, referenced above: the attackers were attackerSSS and just kept coming, escalating as they went. The woman who attacked me, mentally ill as she was, limited herself to two punches and stormed away.
Oh, and of course the crowd. Bunch of ghouls.
Blogger John henry said...
You made the claim. Back it up...
One, I didn't make the claim, but I am defending it based on other inner city statistics we all know are real. Why did the Milwaukee City Council not renew the business license of the Burger King in Capitol Heights in 2022? Because of violence, robberies, and a murder. "But that's only ONE Burger King, in One Bad neighborhood! Got anymore??"
In the Greater Milwaukee area, why do you think Mayfair and Southridge Malls are dying? It's not just Amazon. Why do you think the actually CLOSED the Northridge Mall in 2003? That's pre-Amazon. It has been open since 1972.
I shouldn't be arguing this anyway. My bad. At this point it seems unsolvable. We can't even commonly agree on the existence of a problem or a root cause. That itself creates a sense of hopelessness, which is why we see videos like this one.
Jamie, reminds me of the old joke "What do you tell a man with 2 black eyes?"
Nothing, he's already been told twice"
John Henry
Blogger John henry said...
Also gusty, what have you done to better the lives of black Americans?
Like every Ivory Tower White Liberal...not much frankly. But unlike White Liberals I don't believe I've exploited them.
However my career is in manufacturing and most of the inner city minorities I have hired, trained and worked with are not the highest paid in the companies. That's just being honest, but I dig the ditches with them.
I've hired them, coached them, fought for raises and fair treatment in my manufacturing career. And without going into career detail, I have lost two jobs, and a lot of $$$ going to bat for them and first generation Hispanics against mid-level white managers (not all male) that were using them as operational scape goats.
One was refusing HR's request to "investigate" and accuse them blanketly of theft because somebody's camera in the office went missing during my my second shift. Turned out to be a white girl from the office. Oh and within that job I refused HR's request to tell black employees to turn off rap music at their machine stations for "inappropriate lyrics" as long as the white guys were allowed to play Metallica. I said all radios go, or they all play freely. I'm not regulating content.
They got mad at me in a meeting because I pointed out that the black women in the inspection department liked Marvin Gaye and I heard "Let's Get it On" play every day. Was that appropriate? People don't like it when you point out their inconsistencies. I'm sure I have many.
I've been privileged to sign off on employment verification documents for car loans and one first mortgage. That was always cool.
And I had a 35-year-old shipping guy in my office for about two hours crying. His 22 year old brother had just been sentenced to 25 years in prison for popping a cop in the ass in Wauwatosa after stealing a car and fleeing on foot. Cop survived thank God.
But...I'm willing to take you to the Burger King at 5800 West Hampton. Black people like me. They can tell I've got Rhythm.
Life here and now in the USA refutes Heinlein's facile axiom.
You're wrong. The waffle house employees weren't allowed to be armed. There was no consequence for the customers throwing chairs. (Note I'm not arguing for the employees to be armed, I'm arguing that there need to be consequences).
The waffle house was not an armed society. Heinlein's point is that the arming has to be public and equal among the popuace. There has to be a reasonable expectation that force of arms will be used against you for escalation of force. With that expectation there is no escalation of force. Polite society. The converse (arming only part of the society) leads to tyranny. The absence of politeness.
Use a mob movie as an illustration. There is violence, but the participants are always absolutely careful to try and be respectful as possible. Because they know there are real consequences for their actions.
"According To Robert Cook; Robert Cook is The ULTIMATE EXPERT on these things, because he once read Das Kapitol or something that Explained it ALL."
WRONG! I've never read DAS KAPITAL (or any of Marx's writings).
I see GUSTY WINDS continues to wax gusty (and windy) with his harrumphing fact- and evidence-free perorations.
As someone said one time:
"Your rhetorical approach is simply something to hide behind."
I have"gut" stats. And they say, "Avoid any significant concentrations of black people, anywhere, after dark.
The Hoosier State brings us the best of South and North, as well as Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, James Dean, James Whitcomb Riley, Steve McQueen, Anne Baxter, Twyla Tharp, Axl Rose, Jay Cutler, Karen McDougal, Pete Buttigeig, Earl Butz, and Dan Quayle.
How did you fail to mention Kurt Vonnegut?
OK, I will fix it sweetie.
And my wife.
Maybe it's the twitter template feeding this stuff to me, but I've seen a lot of videos of impromtu fights recently, and with few exception, the aggressors are young women. We still (mostly) have a culture in which boys are taught "you don't hit a girl." I'm afraid that culture has taught girls "you can punch and hit without fear of retaliation (except from other girls)." I think Jordan Peterson has a riff on this. It's not going to end until a lot of girls and young women have been physically punished in these kinds of brawls.
the things the NYT's has to do to get people interested in Edward Hopper's Paintings! Perhaps that's what the whitney museum should do, next to each great painting (assuming they decided to actually show any) put TV with an appropriate Youtube fight/murder/screaming match/etc.
Then write a little ART criticism tying the two together.
Maybe the masses will discover great art again.
Thanks to marybeth at 11:29am for posting the Tucker Carlson interview of the young lady who swatted away the chair. She claims that she got written up by the manager for throwing a sugar container. Christ, banks give the tellers a day off and a bouquet of roses when they get robbed.... She has a go-fund me page that's already topped five grand so maybe she'll come out ahead.....That swatting away of the chair was an impressive move like something you'd see in a Bond movie. Someone from the WWF should be in contact with her. She's a born scrapper, and I bet people would pay to see and cheer her on.
Well, beyond Waffle House, the Whitney Hopper show is packed and it's been on for several months now. The museum grossly oversells tickets and on a weekend it is hard to move around in there. There is little chance of seeing the whole show because the hassle wears you out.
Even with the crowds, they seem to be selling tickets to walk-ups, too.
Twenty-five, 35 years ago, would Hopper have been this ecstatically received? My sense is that he used to be considered an interesting exception. Perhaps a Pre-Photo Realist? His best paintings were made during the Abstract Expressionist phase.
Seeing so many together had a surprising effect on this viewer. The alienation theme was submerged. Hopper loved all the detail. And it wasn't all bleak. He didn't mind green grass and pretty skies, on occasion. The people were just people. He didn't have use for a crowd of them. In the larger context of the show, the paintings seemed friendlier than I was expecting. Urban life can be lonely. But the Hopper world was not innately awful, not automatically depressing or despairing. Some of that gets read into an individual painting. Such was my impression.
He lived on Washington Square his whole adult life. Not the stuff of urban angst.
I was born in Austin but have not been there since. A visit back was on the bucket list, but it doesn't appear I missed anything. It's just another American shithole now.
If Obama had a daughter...
The Times video clip obscures the black assailants beating the girl and only shows the girl deflecting the chair: it also hides the black person throwing it.
Robert Cook: in addition to this editing out of the black assailants, it is grotesque that the Times exclusively states in the article that black people are frequently the victims, then edits this video to not show the truth: a small white woman is attacked repeatedly by a large, unruly mob of black people, several of whom laugh and videotape the assault instead of helping her or calling the police. And then she gets punished by Waffle House, for what? Not taking a chair to the skull?
And then they call it art? What kind of sick, perverted, lying scumbags would see this violent attack this way? Would lie about the truth of crime and race and who is the victim of this race mob? You. And the New York Times. The video is like a lynching postcard. And you are one of the racist mob who would treasure such a sickening thing.
To be clear, both black and white co-workers first try to fight off the all-black offenders.
The black offenders target the small white girl. Beating her brutally.
Ann, you really ought to show the Times' racially sanitized video clip for comparison. What they do to propagandize it is evil. Pure evil.
Dear Racist Lilly: no, you just let child molesters go free constantly and shove people onto subway tracks and beat old people in the streets, you prejudiced little anonymouse nonentity.
You're not a dog. Don't insult dogs that way. Sweetie.
I also watched another video, the one the slim white female cook made telling her story. It's a long, detailed video, somewhat rambling in rough language. To summarize, her story is that she worked at WH a number of years, moving up from waitress. That night the place was very busy and they were short-staffed, so they had blocked off some seating. She was struggling to keep up at the grill. The group involved in the fight came in and sat in the blocked-off area, she asked them to move, they refused, then they insisted on having their order taken and food cooked before other orders already in line, and she argued with them. I believe the rest is apparent on the long restaurant video - you see the group going especially after the cook, their un-sober behavior, the fight going on and escalating, plus the ghoulish, larger group watching and filming, entertained. The cook says Waffle House always treated her right, and she was a good employee, but now she is black listed and can't get work at another WH.
Denny's is just a Waffle House for people who can't fight.
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