‘Serious Work’

Posted on | April 12, 2015 | 26 Comments

In May 1862, Gen. Richard Taylor’s brigade of Louisiana troops was assigned to the command of Gen. Stonewall Jackson, whose taciturn nature and Calvinist theology were closely related phenomena.

Taylor’s brigade made a long and rapid march to join Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, covering 26 miles on the day they reached their camp near Conrad’s Store. Taylor went to report to Jackson, finding him seated on a rail fence. Taylor recounted the conversation in his memoirs:

A low gentle voice inquired the road and distance marched that day.
Taylor: “Keezleton road, six-and-twenty miles.”
Jackson: “You seem to have no stragglers.”
Taylor: “Never allow straggling.”
Jackson: “You must teach my people; they straggle badly.”

Just then, one of the regimental bands in Taylor’s brigade struck up a waltz, and the cheerful Louisiana troops commenced to dance, as was their habit. Jackson had been sucking on a lemon and paused to remark: “Thoughtless fellows for serious work.”

However “thoughtless” they may have been, when it came time for the “serious work” of fighting, those Louisiana fellows were fearless. They sustained some of the heaviest casualties in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Their high spirits in camp — “Laissez les bons temps rouler!” — were an expression of the high morale they showed on the battlefield.

This is to remind you that, as much as we joke about “political correctness,” the Culture War is quite real and quite serious, and our antagonists are unscrupulous monsters whose shameless dishonesty is exceeded only by their sadistic cruelty. Every day, they strive to destroy all opposition:

Dr. Mark Gilfillan, professor of Jewish History in Northern Ireland’s Ulster University, has raised the ire of local liberals and is being investigated by the university, even though his contract with the university has already expired. This investigation arose because he has recently criticized homosexuality on Facebook.
Lesbian Rachel Kane was arguing with a Christian friend of his about a Christian baker refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay wedding, which turned into a debate on homoeroticism in general, and when Gilfillan brought in statistics and hard evidence, Kane took screencaps and sent them to various homosexual activist groups and Ulster University officials.
Transsexual activist Dr. Eve Jeffrey, a lecturer in Theater Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, and journalist Deborah McAleese, who has previous been called “Northern Ireland’s worst journalist” have further sought to amplify the scandal.

You can read the whole thing. Especially notice the point at which Jeffrey e-mailed Gilfillan to gloat: “Congratulations: You are now unemployable.”

This is how it is now in higher education: No one can be permitted to criticize the LGBT movement. Period.

So, yes, we can laugh — we must maintain a spirit of cheerful courage — but remember this is serious work.

(Hat-tip: @SeverEnergia on Twitter.)

Category: Culture, Education, Gays, Sex Trouble

Comments

26 Responses to “‘Serious Work’”

Dianna Deeley
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:24 pm

I just now pointed out to some friends that, if they choose to value identity politics over individual liberty, I wish them mercy from whatever god they honor, for those who manipulate them will show them none.
RS
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:25 pm

In academe, event tenure is no longer sacrosanct. The gloating will undoubtedly cease in the future when the SJW zombies finish with the anti-LGBT types. They’ll move on to their next set of victims in short order.
Adobe_Walls
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:28 pm

Indeed they will turn on their allies when they’re not pure enough.
Jeanette Victoria
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:32 pm

Who would have thought that buggery was something anyone would defend?
robertstacymccain
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:36 pm

“Of the 16 original commissars in the Bolshevik regime, nine were executed during Stalin’s 1937-38 purge and another, Trotsky, was assassinated by one of Stalin’s agents in 1940.”

it’s always safer to be an enemy of totalitarians than to be a supporter of totalitarians.
Terry_Jim
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:38 pm

In their heart of hearts,
beneath their thin, prickly skin,
every Progressive is a wannabe boxcar stuffer.
Zohydro
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:49 pm

+1 for use of the word, “buggery”!
concern00
April 12th, 2015 @ 9:56 pm

It is truly laughable when one thinks about it, how otherwise ordinary folk will go out of their way to endorse sodomy.
PistolsForPandas
April 12th, 2015 @ 10:01 pm

Me, I’m just waiting for a reliable prenatal test for homosexuality to be developed. When gay fetuses start getting aborted en masse because they’re gay, the war between SJWs and the abortion-on-demand-for-any-reason-whatsoever crowd is going to make Ragnarok look like one of Jiminy Cricket’s farts.
OccupyDisqus
April 12th, 2015 @ 10:23 pm

Jazz Hands!
K-Bob
April 12th, 2015 @ 10:30 pm

But enough of Hillary’s staffers.
K-Bob
April 12th, 2015 @ 10:31 pm

You had a great start on a verse there.
K-Bob
April 12th, 2015 @ 10:39 pm

Man, crazy is in the news a lot this week. The left is not going quietly into the gentle night. It’s going to be like burying the cat (Mrs. Premise joke).

O/T – If anyone wants to see my take on all of the NRA speeches, I did a breakdown of each speech in the comments on the thread with all of the main speeches over at Scoop’s (I usually don’t put up links to the site, so I avoid spamming the threads here, but it’s scrolled off the front page, you can find it here.)

It’s only useful because I pulled quotes and stuff.

I’d say the mood at the NRA convention was more upbeat, so that should help with the conclusion Stacy makes, above.
Adobe_Walls
April 12th, 2015 @ 10:48 pm

I doubt that’s possible.
K-Bob
April 12th, 2015 @ 10:54 pm

Pat Condell is responding to the same sort of things Stacy wrote about here. He’s got a “how to” guide for new members of the progressive activists out there. The finish is bang on.
RichFader
April 13th, 2015 @ 2:00 am

In particular, one would think the government hated competition.
texlovera
April 13th, 2015 @ 6:25 am

Although I agree that it would be interesting, I doubt it will ever happen. There is no “gay” gene to find.

Being gay was always a choice. Gays in the 60s & 70s were adamant about that. Then, when it served their purposes to claim “victimhood”, they started saying it was “genetics”. Now that they have supposedly “mainstreamed”, they’re back to it being a “choice”.

Typical leftist evolution…
Jeanette Victoria
April 13th, 2015 @ 6:26 am

As I ave always said they eat their own
texlovera
April 13th, 2015 @ 6:27 am

I often wonder how the Civil War would have turned out if Jackson hadn’t been accidentally killed by friendly fire. He was a helluva General, but the South was always at a disadvantage once the North really geared up their machine…

PS-

I come from a City where Davis, Jackson and Lee have schools named after them. It’s good to grow up in the South…
JeffersonSpinningInGrave
April 13th, 2015 @ 10:05 am

I agree that current science suggests there is no single gay gene, and probably no combination of genes that predetermines sexual preference. Though, genes probably do contribute to tendencies.

In twin studies, if one identical twin (with virtually identical genes) is gay, the other twin has about a 1/3 chance of being gay (result averaged across many such studies). So it’s certainly not like eye color. However, identical twins have a much higher level of agreement than do fraternal twins (or regular siblings), so the result implies that genes play some role.

Sexual orientation is likely to be a complex interaction between genes and environment, like most other complex phenotypes. So, the way in which parents raise children could very well tip the scale one way or another for many people.
JeffersonSpinningInGrave
April 13th, 2015 @ 10:16 am

Jokes are a way to keep the spirits up, and an expression of morale. But ridicule is also a potent weapon in it’s own right. Alinsky understood this well, and the left has used ridicule to great effect. It also explains why leftists have absolutely no sense of humor when mockery is directed toward them.

Mock them well, mock them often, and mock them right to their smug farking faces. Just like pouring salt on a slug.
Quartermaster
April 13th, 2015 @ 10:24 am

The south was at a disadvantage from the start. It just took awhile to get rid of the incompetents in line for command.
I wonder if Gettysburg might not have had a different outcome if Jackson had been present. OTOH, if Lee had listened to Longstreet and slid east to a position where he could threaten DC, Philadelphia and Baltimore, dug in, then received Meade, the outcome would have been different, and probably for the war as well.
JeffersonSpinningInGrave
April 13th, 2015 @ 10:27 am

“It’s going to be like burying the cat.”

I like that. Though I think of it more like trying to get rid of a cockroach infestation. Shine the light on an area, and they all scurry back into the cracks. But as soon as the spotlight moves on, they scurry right back out. You can even fumigate the whole house, but they will just creep back in later.

The USA is suffering from it’s fourth major surge of progressivism. It’s been happening every 20-40 years (Wilson, FDR, LBJ, now Obama). They breed in the walls (public schools and universities), and they just keep coming back.
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April 13th, 2015 @ 1:22 pm

[…] ‘Serious Work’ […]
Mike G.
April 13th, 2015 @ 4:56 pm

Cockroach infestation…reminds me of back in the day when I was on the cusp, living in a 4 story flophouse in Atlanta. Turn the light on and watch the ceiling go from brown and black to white. Fumigate the damn things and they’d invade up stairs, down stairs and right and left. Good for about a month before you’d have to do it again…good times!
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April 19th, 2015 @ 3:58 pm

[…] “Serious Work” In May 1862, Gen. Richard Taylor’s brigade of Louisiana troops was assigned to the command of Gen. Stonewall Jackson, whose taciturn nature and Calvinist theology were closely related phenomena. […]