The Romance of Radicalism

Posted on | May 21, 2023 | Comments Off on The Romance of Radicalism

East Berlin honors Karl Liebnecht and Rosa Luxemburg, 1988

Because I am a history buff, the YouTube algorithm shows me all kinds of stuff — the history of Carthage, the Anglo-Saxon invasion of post-Roman Britain, the Stuart dynasty, etc. — about obscure topics that would be boring to most people, and which even most history buffs might not care much about. Usually I watch videos like these on my phone at bedtime and fall asleep during them, which can make for interesting dreams, narrated by some guy blabbering on about Cannae or whatever.

Saturday night, I watched (or rather, fell asleep watching) a series of videos about the 1918 German revolution. which is something I dare say 99% of Americans know nothing about. The Bolshevik Revolution was not the only Communist uprising in Europe at that time. There was also the short-lived reign of Bela Kun in Hungary and various failed revolutionary attempts in Germany, including the brief Communist coup in Bavaria in April-May 1919. Anyway, so I fell asleep watching this thing about the German revolution of 1918, and when I woke up early Sunday, I took a brief look at the third part of the series, “The Violent End of the German Revolution.” As is my wont, I became curious about who was producing this material, which was of a particular political theme, i.e., neo-Communism. As might be expected, most neo-Communists are young, and thus have no useful memory of what Soviet-era Communism actually was, or how difficult it was for the West to win the Cold War. Unless you lived through the 1960s and ’70s, a time when it seemed that Communism was ascendant, you have little appreciation of the heroic qualities that manifested themselves in the Reagan Revolution.

Neo-Communists, generally influenced by older leftists who were objectively pro-Soviet during the Cold War, refuse to accept the verdict of 20th-century history, and wish to believe that Communism can exist without producing the kind of totalitarian horrors it produced in Russia, China, Cambodia and elsewhere. It seemingly does not occur to them that the evils of 20th-century Communist regimes were not accidental, but rather that Communism always must, by its very nature, result in brutal dictatorship and widespread misery. To quote myself:

Five years after the Bolshevik Revolution, Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises predicted that the Soviet project was doomed to fail. In his classic work Socialism, Mises explained that the attempt to replace the market system with central economic planning could not succeed, because the planners could not possibly have the information necessary to make all the decisions which, in a market economy, are made by individuals whose needs and desires are reflected in prices: “The problem of economic calculation is the fundamental problem of Socialism.”
“Everything brought forward in favour of Socialism during the last hundred years,” Mises wrote in 1922, “in thousands of writings and speeches, all the blood which has been spilt by the supporters of Socialism, cannot make Socialism workable. … Socialist writers may continue to publish books about the decay of Capitalism and the coming of the socialist millennium; they may paint the evils of Capitalism in lurid colours and contrast with them an enticing picture of the blessings of a socialist society; their writings may continue to impress the thoughtless — but all this cannot alter the fate of the socialist idea.”
Undeterred by Mises’ criticism, the Soviet Union spent the next seven decades proving his prediction correct. By the time the Communist utopia collapsed in bankruptcy and disgrace, it seemed that everyone with two eyes and a brain understood the lesson: The Marxist-Leninist project was a complete failure and, as historians documented in The Black Book of Communism, tens of millions of people had died for this mistake, deliberately starved or slaughtered by totalitarian Communist governments. . . .

What Mises was saying was that Communism is doomed to failure simply because its basic economic idea is wrong. There is no feasible alternative to the market economy, and the sooner everyone accepts this truth, the happier they will be. Whether your own individual fortune within the market economy may be judged a success or a failure, while certainly a matter of great interest to you personally, is irrelevant to the larger truth that a society organized on the basis of economic liberty ultimately produces greater prosperity and, as is said, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

It should not be necessary for me to elaborate this explanation much further. Anyone can read Mises’ Socialism or Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom or any of another dozen books I could recommend, and come to the same conclusion. I have nothing original to say on the subject, and can only lament that so few people seem to be interested in understanding why economic freedom is so essential. The real point is that neo-Communists are willing to ignore not only the nightmare reality of what Communist regimes inflicted upon their subjects in the 20th century, but also ignore the work of Mises, et al., in explaining why it was all doomed from the start. Instead, as Mises said a century ago, these latter-day Bolshevik wannabes continue to “paint the evils of Capitalism in lurid colours,” as if such critiques suffice to justify their radicalism and their fanciful dreams of life in a Marxist utopia.

Which brings me to Jonas Ceika, who has more than 200,000 subscribers on the YouTube channel where I saw his videos about the German revolution of 1918. There seems to be zero biographical material about Ceika except what he’s published himself. He is a philosophy student in Norway whose first YouTube efforts were Marxist analyses of pop culture (e.g., Shrek in 2017), but who really hit the big time in 2018 with a video titled, “Jordan Peterson doesn’t understand postmodernism.” See, this is the way lefties gain clout online, by attacking popular figures on the right, and Ceika’s attack on Peterson has gained more than 900,000 views. What Ceika’s audience wants to believe is that Peterson has been “debunked” — refuted, exposed as a fraud — and I’m sure this video suffices to convince people who don’t like Peterson that they are justified in their dislike. In other words, Ceika targets his audience’s susceptibility for confirmation bias.

Well, if you’re foolish enough to believe in Communism, you’re likely to believe anything, and Ceika has built an audience of the naïve and gullible, for whom his version of the failed German revolution is perhaps definitive — The True History™ — and this is unfortunate in many ways. Ceika wants his audience to believe that it was a bad thing that Liebnecht and Luxembourg failed to bring about a Soviet Germany in 1918, that the radical faction of German socialists were the heroes of this particular drama, and that the Left in Germany was guiltless in the subsequent rise of Hitler. But by their rejection of electoral democracy, attempting to seize power by armed uprising in mimicry of what the Bolsheviks had done in Russia, the German Communists legitimized revolutionary violence, an example which Hitler and his associates subsequently imitated for their own purposes. There were many factors involved in the rise of Hitler, of course, but the radicalism the German Left was certainly an important part of the formula for national catastrophe.

By the way, for some reason, Ceika doesn’t want his photograph to appear anywhere online, but he was willing to do a video interview from which I was able to grab this image. You’re welcome.

Is there a famine in Norway? A meth epidemic? It’s a cheap shot to mock Ceika’s emaciated appearance, I suppose, and so I’ll instead return to mocking his politics. He exhibits a tendency to think of people categorically, using bourgeois as an epithet for anything he considers bad, as for example the moderate democratic socialists in early 20th-century Germany, and speaking of “the masses” when describing those whom Communists aspired to lead to revolution. Ceika uses the phrase “class consciousness” without irony when speaking of workers who supported Communism, as if it were self-evident that their interests would be best served by a Marxist-Leninist revolution.

Perhaps there are many youth who’ve had the privilege of growing up in the post-Soviet world who share Ceika’s romantic view of Rosa Luxemburg and other Communist revolutionaries, much like all those idiot American college kids wearing Che Guevara T-shirts and voting for Bernie Sanders. The reality of what Communism was — a formula for tyranny and mass murder — is ignored so as to enable these young dreamers to imagine what they wish Communism could have been, and perhaps what their hoped-for future revolution will bring into being.

All of which brings us to the final irony of this wannabe revolutionary: Ceica’s book How to Philosophize with a Hammer and Sickle: Nietzsche and Marx for the 21st-Century Left was published a couple years ago by Penguin Random House, part of the $30-billion media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Yes, he’s on the payroll of the hated bourgeoisie.

Category: Economics, History

Math Teacher Goes Berserk

Posted on | May 20, 2023 | Comments Off on Math Teacher Goes Berserk

Just a typical day in a Wisconsin school:

Brenda Poulos remembers working in Kenosha last Friday when she received a series of texts from her son.
“I know he’s not supposed to use his phone in school, so the fact that he texted me was already, something’s up right,” Poulos said. “He said, ‘Mom, something’s going on at school. They fired our teacher and something bad is going on.”
Poulos’ son, Ethan, is a seventh-grade student at John Long Elementary. He told WISN 12 News he was in math class on Friday [May 12] when his teacher became upset and started making threats after discovering a swastika drawn in a notebook.
“Five seconds later, he went on this ramble about how this was a disgrace to his people and how he wanted to scorch Earth on us and how he was apparently going to cause pain on all our families,” Ethan said. “How he’d send his daughter to our house with a baseball bat and that he had 17 guns and he wasn’t afraid to use them.”
“I was scared. I had never heard a teacher say that to me or any kids before,” Ethan said.
According to a criminal complaint filed Monday afternoon in Ozaukee County Circuit Court, David Schroeder, 46, of Grafton, was charged with terrorist threats — create risk of causing result.
According to Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay, the school never contacted law enforcement. Lindsay said police only became involved more than an hour after the incident, when parents contacted police saying they were concerned their children weren’t safe with Schroeder in the community and with admitted access to guns. After police arrived at the school, the entire class was sent home early.
“It was chaos. There were a lot of kids in office area, panicked parents coming to get their kids,” said Sgt. Sean Fuerstenberg with the Grafton Police Department.
Police said they contacted Schroeder, who voluntarily turned himself in and was arrested on Friday.
In court Monday, the prosecutor said he was particularly concerned that Schroeder mentioned that he had a number of firearms.
Judge Paul Malloy, who is presiding over the case, did not take Schroeder’s actions lightly.
“The time when somebody can blow off steam and have a meltdown, that bird has flown a long time ago,” Malloy said.
According to the complaint, Schroeder told the students that he was Jewish, that “all Jews have guns and that he had 17 guns in his basement and that he would ‘F’ them up.”
Schroeder bonded out of jail on Tuesday. As a condition of his bail, he was ordered to first turn over any dangerous weapons to the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office.
The principal indicated to police that Schroeder was already under investigation for “other concerning or inappropriate behavior towards students,” and the school district had already determined his contract would not be renewed for next year.

In other words, this guy had been a known problem before he went berserk in the classroom. And just by the way, if drawing swastikas in your notebook was some kind of human-rights violation, basically every kid in my childhood schools would have been under investigation. Our fathers’ generation had fought World War II, which was a subject of lots of TV shows (e.g., Combat!) and movies (e.g., The Longest Day) that we watched as kids, so we were fairly saturated with that stuff about fighting the “Krauts” (as the Germans were habitually referred to in the G.I. slang dialogue of those old movies). Because a swastika is a simple thing to draw (as opposed to say, a Stuka dive bomber or a Tiger tank), basically every schoolboy drew them, in notebooks, on desks, etc. It had no deeper meaning in our minds. Certainly the boys who drew swastikas — and I mean, literally every boy did, back in the 1960s and ’70s — did not intend it as signifying support for totalitarianism, or sympathy toward Germany, least of all Jew-hating. It was like drawing Batman (another favorite schoolboy doodle) or hot rods, just stuff that boys did, without any political intent. But that was long ago, in what may now be viewed as a Golden Age of political incorrectness, when a popular comedy on TV was Hogan Heroes, with the Nazis played for laughs.

(By the way, I’m sure every guy my age grew up assembling models of various WWII tanks and planes. You could order a Tiger tank model kit or a Stuka bomber kit via Amazon, but you’ll also need to order some Testors paint and glue. DO NOT SNIFF THE GLUE! Because I have to tell you kids everything . . .)

Category: Education, Wisconsin

In The Mailbox: 05.19.23 (Punditocracy Edition)

Posted on | May 19, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.19.23 (Punditocracy Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual deadlines for the usual weekend posts; will most likely have time for these after a couple grueling days of travel. For that matter, since time is tight today, this is a condensed version of the usual linkagery.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

“But no mean tweets!”

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #2082
357 Magnum: How ESG Scores Have Put Anheuser-Busch In A Box,
EBL: Durham and Democrat Corruption, Biden’s Former Non-Binary Atomic Boy Sam Brinton Arrested Again, Pete Buttigieg loves his Electric Mustang, and Fire Shifty Schiff
Twitchy: Point & Laugh With Us At Adam Kinzinger & Others Triggered by Black Guy With Gun, Sleepy Joe’s Deficit Reduction Brag Hits Community Notes Iceberg & Sinks, and Richard Grenell Straight Up Ends Eric Swalwell For Calling Him”Neo-Nazi”
Louder With Crowder: Bud Light’s news desperate attempt to win back customers? Rip off pro-America competitor Yuengling, Johnny Depp gets 7-minute standing ovation for movie comeback, then rips into Hollywood and the media, and NYPD calls bullplop that Harry and Meghan almost got Princess Diana’d by paparazzi in New York City
Vox Popoli: Even, I Can’t, A Tale of Two Conans, Clown World Incoherence, Death of a Patriot, and Even Christians Boom
According To Hoyt: Kith And Kin, also, All is Kittens
Monster Hunter Nation: Swag Shop Opening Q2 2023
Stoic Observations: A Letter To Gabriel Reyes,
Gab News: The Most Abused Verse In The Bible,

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Take your traditionalism and stick it where the sun don’t shine, Fr Ripperger attacks Sedevacantists, and Greasy Pole #28 – The AI episode
American Conservative: Soros Wins Big in Pittsburgh, also, The Trans Mind-Virus Is Mutating
American Greatness: ‘Bad Guys Have Begun Running Parts of the Government’: FBI Whistleblowers Testify Before House Weaponization Committee
American Power: Civil War at CNN as “Journalist” Christina Amanapour Attacks CEO Chris Licht for Daring to ‘Platform’ the Front-Runner for the Republican Nomination for President — My Conclusion: Licht is a Dead Man Walking
American Thinker: The Cataclysm to Come
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News, Animal’s Daily Lying Liars That Lie News, and Rule Five Ninth Annual Commencement Speech Friday
Babalu Blog: ‘Your paradise, my prison’, Hungry and elderly pro-Castro dictatorship Cuban who collapsed on the street has died, Cuba’s Prime Minister blames ‘private’ farming cooperatives for severe food crisis, and Cuban dictatorship rolls out red carpet for Russian investors
BattleSwarm: Followup: Austin Homeless Industrial Complex Graft Scheme Thwarted (For Once), also, Texas 88th Legislative Session: Tracking and Anti-Tracking
Behind The Black: Starship prototype #25 is rolled to launchpad for static fire engine tests, ULA’s first Vulcan rocket returns to assembly building after fueling tests, Today’s blacklisted American: 12-year-old sent home from school twice for understanding the 1st amendment better than his teachers, and Pushback: Arizona drops trespassing charges against student for handing out the Constitution at Arizona State U
Cafe Hayek: The Super Market
CDR Salamander: EU’s Pacific Balk, If Public Opinion Isn’t Stopping Europe, and Fullbore Friday
Chicago Boyz: When Midwesterners Collide—A Challenge to Bill Quick
Da Tech Guy: Sowing Meet Reaping Under the Fedora, It’s “Tell me a Dem in a Red State is up for Re-Election without Telling me” or It’s “Token Vote” Time, and Joe Biden is planning on running the entire US economy with nothing but unicorn farts and pixie dust
Don Surber: The Left’s Spin On Durham, Beating The Woke, and Ukraine Took Our Eye Off The Threat
First Street Journal: A major loss for ‘progressives’?, also, Killadelphia: The city is losing population, and not just to murder!
The Geller Report: “The FBI Will Crush You. This Government Will Crush You and Your Family”
Glenn Reynolds: Reflections On A Death, And Life On The Final Frontier
Hogewash: Nothing to See Here. Move Along, When Woke Backfires, The Middle Star in the Sword, All Your Kids Are Belong To Us, and Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Hollywood In Toto: Is This Why Cancel Culture Is (Finally) Coming for Howard Stern?
The Lid: Durham Report Exposes The REAL ‘Threat To Democracy’, also, Jerusalem Day: Muslim And Christian Scripture Agree: The Temple Mount Is JEWISH Holy Site
Nebraska Energy Observer: SYTTENDE MAI! and a few other things, also, When it all
Power Line: Joe Biden, apostle of love, Julio goes for the Gold(man), and Thoughts from the ammo line
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Intention & Its Privilege, also, Truth & Consequences
The Political Hat: A Contrast In The Treatment Of Farmers: Texas vs. The Netherlands, also, Killing In The Name Of Welfare: Killing The Poor; Killing The Homeless; Killing The Mentally Ill
This Ain’t Hell: More retiree fun, Valor Friday, Reservist Returns to Find Squatter in Her Home, and Indiana Army veteran convicted of murder, despite partially blaming PTSD
Transterrestrial Musings: Mark Hopkins, “Causal” Speech, and It’s A Big Universe
Victory Girls: George Santos Dodges a Bullet in the House, FBI Intimidation Against Pro-Life Activists, Again, and Political Imprisonment Of Dianne Feinstein
Weasel Zippers: Dem Rep. Cori Bush Introduces Resolution Demanding $14 Trillion In Reparations, Biden Says It’s “Disappointing” Republicans Won’t Discuss Raising Taxes On The American People, Former AOC Aide Now Leader of The New York Communist Party, and WZ QUARTERLY DONATION DRIVE
Mark Steyn: Nothing Is Certain But Debt and Durham, also, Darkness and Light

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 05.16.23

Posted on | May 17, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Noelle Dunphy and Rudy Giuliani, also, Schmitts Gay
Twitchy: Trump Accuser E. Jean Carroll’s Resurfaced Social Media Posts Shred Her Credibility, also, Jonah Goldberg Whines About Being Reminded He’d Rather Trust Comey Than Trump
Louder With Crowder: Jiujitsu black belt takes down dude who attacked 7-11 employee, livestreams entire ordeal for our amusement
Vox Popoli: The Treason Interview, The Failure of Modern Science, Spirit in the Material World, Hide Mode Activated, and Arktoons Wants You

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Yes, the Homeless Are More Violent
American Greatness: Six More NYC School Gyms to House Illegal Aliens, also, Federal Judge Threatens to Hold DHS in Contempt Over Suspected Noncompliance With Temporary Restraining Order
American Power: Schizophrenic Woman Arrested After Physically Attacking People on Chicago’s Northside, also, The U.S. Censorship and Laundering Complex
American Thinker: Bill Barr Goes after Trump Again
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Urban Renewal News
Babalu Blog: The Biden administration has betrayed the Cuban people, Purchasing power of Cuban salaries reduced by half in past 2 years, will continue shrinking dramatically, Cuban dictatorship responds to increase in protests with an increase in violence, and Reports from Cuba: One million tourists at the expense of our hunger
Baldilocks: On Christian Busybodies, also, Book Advance Campaign
BattleSwarm: Austin City Council Wants To Hand Millions In Graft To The Homeless Industrial Complex, also, Death Star Update – Preemption Bill Closer To Passage
Behind The Black: Private company developing concept for resurrecting Spitzer Space Telescope, Rocket Lab completes Photon transport spacecraft for Varda’s private returnable space capsule, Italy awards $256 million contract for testing in-orbit robotic satellite servicing, China’s Long March 3B puts another GPS-type satellite into orbit, and Surprise! The mainstream press still refuses to admit there was never any evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians
Cafe Hayek: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Busting Depression myths”, also, The Supermarket
CDR Salamander: We Were Lied To – No, We’re Lying To Each Other
Da Tech Guy: Schlichter Nails it in one Sentence: Lords and Serfs, A billion-dollar boondoggle, and Durham and Rubbing Your Face in it
Don Surber: Guns? We Need To Control Democrats
First Street Journal: This is the kind of thing that ‘progressives’ just don’t understand, also, The left just don’t understand economics
Gates Of Vienna: The Only Good Thing About the BBC is They’re Bad Liars, Rob Roos – Stop the Agenda 2030 Utopia, Filthy Multicultural Scum, An Allahu Akhbar Moment in Mornas, and Stenographers to the Apocalypse
The Geller Report: The FBI is the Most Dangerous Domestic Terror Organization in America
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, also, A Planetary Nebula and a Foreground Star
Hollywood In Toto: ‘Margaret’ Film Teams with Dylan Mulvaney for Paid Partnership, How Hollywood Made Russian Collusion Hoax a Million Times Worse, and Joe Rogan on Miller Lite Ad: ‘I Hate Identity Politics’
The Lid: US Soldier Caught Helping illegals Through Fence Into Texas
Legal Insurrection: Medaille University to Close at the End of August, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, Appointed Despite Unhinged Rant, To Resign After Ethics Probe, WHO School Guidance Tells Kids Aged Four and Below to ‘Explore Gender Identities’, Anti-Capitalist Coffee Shop in Toronto Closes After One Year, and Netflix’s “Cleopatra” Is an Actium-Level Entertainment Disaster
Nebraska Energy Observer: “Stand up.”
Outkick: ESPN Can No Longer Build Stars, So It Bought One, USC Quarterback Makes Degree-Less Stetson Bennett Look Silly By Graduating With Honors In 2.5 Years, Stephen Jackson Says Suns Fired Monty Williams So They Could ‘Go Find A White Coach’, Kim Petras, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover Model, Is A Biological Male, Deion Sanders Shows Off Outrageously Large New Truck, and Becky Hammon Suspended By WNBA For Mistreating Pregnant Player Dearica Hamby, Offering Impermissible Benefits
Power Line: Fox News declined to comment, Senate Democrats, Not Exactly Firing on All Cylinders, Will There Be Any Media Accountability?, and Down With Uber! And Doctors, Too!
Protein Wisdom Reborn: The Identity Politics Of Beer
Shark Tank: DeSantis Combats Biden Border Crisis, Sends Police & National Guard To Southern Border
Shot In The Dark: All That Is Needed Is That You Keep Sending Money, also, Music History
STUMP: Did New Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Inherit The Worst City Pensions in the Country?
The Political Hat: Leviathan’s Parents
This Ain’t Hell: Space Force Commander Is Not Happy
Transterrestrial Musings: News Only To Vegans, Reversing Aging, and “Libertarian Elites” On Voter Ignorance
Victory Girls: IRS Whistleblower And Team Axed From Hunter Biden Probe
Volokh Conspiracy: Minnesota Court Upholds Injunction Against Signs Reporting Neighbor’s Son Committed Sex Crime Against Homeowner’s Daughter
Watts Up With That: The King’s Climate Predictions, Media Ignore Delhi’s Coldest May Since 1901, and Obama Longs for the Days When Establishment Media Set the National Agenda
Weasel Zippers: Poll: Two-Thirds of Americans Say Journalists Are Mostly Advocates, Not Unbiased, Chuck Todd Suggests GOP More to Blame for Border Crisis Than Biden, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Moves To Impeach FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Flashback: Dem Rep. Adam Schiff Calls Fake Russia Collusion Hoax “Beyond Watergate”
The Federalist: In A Healthy Democracy, John Brennan Would Already Be In Prison, The ‘Queen Of Mommy Bloggers’ Left Us A Cautionary Tale About The Need For Community, Companies Like Target Are Teaching Kids To Hate And Brutalize Their Bodies, Tuberville Is Right To Hold The Line Against The Pentagon’s Taxpayer-Funded Abortions, The Durham Report Leaves No Doubt: The FBI Is A Mortal Threat To Democracy, and If Texas’ House Speaker Wants Secure And Honest Elections, He Should Help Pass This Bill Banning Ranked-Choice Voting
Mark Steyn: Non-Stop Number Ones

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 05.15.23

Posted on | May 16, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.15.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Tomorrow and Thursday are travel days, Wednesday I’ll be at the National Security Site most of the day, and Friday looks to be busy as well, so blogging may be sporadic.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: What If You Called 911 And Noone Came To Help?
EBL: Support Daniel Penny, also, Vintage Beer Ads
Twitchy: DeSantis’ Press Secretary Conducts Masterclass In Trolling Drive-By Media, WaPo/NYT 2018 Pulitzers Aging Like Milk In The Summer Sun, and Salon Claims Situation In Florida Clearly A Threat To Democracy
Louder With Crowder: A herd of “Karens” stampede out of comedy club after comedian’s hilarious Dylan Mulvaney joke, Megyn Kelly lays down challenge to Hollywood actress Charlize Theron – “Come F*** Me UP”, and Beverly Hills steakhouse degenerates into all-out brawl, and the screaming is hilarious
Vox Popoli: Not the Next Ukraine, Like the Lambada, Only Math, Corporate Cancer Code Red, and Elon Musk Lied to You
Gab News: A Dangerous Precedent For Free Speech
Stoic Observations: Fear Itself

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Against a Dystopian Farm-Free Future, Mask-Wearers Are Poisoning Themselves, and The Ratcatcher
American Greatness: In Scathing Report, Durham Finds FBI Had No ‘Actual Evidence of Collusion’ to Justify Crossfire Hurricane Investigation, Time for Republicans to Confront January 6 Lead Prosecutor, and Supporters Raise $1.8M for Daniel Penny’s Legal Defense Fund
American Power: The Impending Thermidor Reaction in Jacobin America, Lisa Kennedy Montgomery on the Fall of MTV News, and Seattle Halts Mail Delivery to Southside
American Thinker: 2024: The End of Elections — or of Election Fraud?, The Counterattack of Reason, and Trump Takes a Hammer to the Carefully Maintained Delusions Inside the Left-Wing Bubble
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Cuban Catholic priest Alberto Reyes: ‘The moment has come for all of us for a transition’, Cuban-American entrepreneur in cahoots with dictatorship begins exporting vehicles to Cuba, King Raul’s daughter and fake president’s wife lead gay pride conga line in Cuba, and Nothing to celebrate on Mother’s Day for the mothers of Cuba’s political prisoners
Baldilocks: Obsession, The Scattered (Part One), and The Scattered (Part Two)
BattleSwarm: How California Destroyed Its Middle Class, also, China’s Targeted Espionage Continues Apace
Behind The Black: Intuitive Machines’ first mission to land on Moon delayed, SpaceX launches another 56 Starlink satellites into orbit, Another study suggests Saturn’s rings are young, much younger than the planet, Stratolaunch’s giant airplane Roc successfully completes first drop test of payload, and Today’s blacklisted American: Father gets fired immediately after speaking at school board against queer agenda
Cafe Hayek: Beware of “Common Good Capitalism”, On Wartime and Postwar Prosperity, and Rather than Issue ‘Baby Bonds’
CDR Salamander: About That Commission On The Future Of The Navy
Chicago Boyz: Educational Credentialism Strikes Again
Da Tech Guy: The Three Questions I Would Like Answered by a Potential DeSantis Campaign, How about the military stay out of housing?, “Where’s the Fat People?”, and A “local” story that needs to go national: Chicago cop murdered because girlfriend of accused killer needed money for a barbecue
Dana Loesch: I Put The Basket In The Water And God Was Faithful As Always, also, The Durham Report Makes It Official
Don Surber: Highlights of the Week, The Polish Plumber For The Win,
First Street Journal: ‘Progressives’ against common sense and reality, also, What about the right to a speedy trial?
Gates Of Vienna: Everybody Gets to Stay, Culture-Enriching Rape in the Hospital at Nanterre, Saman’s Dad Gets to Stay in Pakistan, and Women Attacked, Violated, Disempowered, and Silenced Under Sharia
The Geller Report: The Threat Behind Biden’s Latest Lie About the ‘White Supremacist Terror Threat’, Court Blocks Biden Admin Policy of Releasing Illegal Immigrants Into US Without Court Dates, and Fox News Sued for Defamation by Biden’s “Who Do I F*ck To Be Famous & Powerful” Former Disinformation Chief
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Black Holes 101, You Keep Using That Word, Pan and Zoom, and Some Unindicted Coconspirators React
Hollywood In Toto: Never Woke Enough: Emma Watson Grilled Over Brad Pitt Praise, TheWrap Plays Dumb on Death of Movie Comedies, Why Jamie Foxx’s Medical Mystery Matters, and Why Chappelle’s ‘Batman’ Crack Will Leave a Mark
The Lid: PRESSTITUTES: Twelve Biden Scandals The Media Refuses To Talk About
Legal Insurrection: University of Chicago Reportedly Not Honoring Committment to Viewpoint Diversity, DeSantis Defunds “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” Bureaucracies in Florida Public Universities, Word “Family” Unacceptable To Radical San Francisco Berniecrats, a Right-Wing “Common Dog Whistle”, USDA Wants to Ban Chocolate Milk From Schools Due to Added Sugar, High School Students in Kansas City Want Teacher Fired for Criticizing DEI Policies and Preferred Pronouns, and University of Colorado Researchers Find ‘High-Potency Marijuana is Associated With Psychosis’
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, The Ascension of Our Lord, and The Wrong Side of History
Outkick: Kwame Brown Destroys Ja Morant After Gun Incident, Calls Grizzlies Star ‘NBA Dumb Boy’, ESPN’s Mike Wilbon Bans Ja Morant Shoes For Son: ‘Our Money … Is Not Going Toward That’, Joel Embiid’s Questionable NBA MVP Win Over Nikola Jokic Looks Even Worse After 76ers Bounced From Playoffs, ABC/ESPN Shows Barstool Founder Dave Portnoy During Celtics/Sixers Game 7, Twitter Goes Bonkers, Bryce Harper Snaps At Rockies Reliever, Leading to Bench-Clearing Spat, and Nebraska Pole Vaulter Jess Gardner Goes Viral For Third Nipple
Power Line: Displaced by illegals, Heap Big Trouble For Fauxcahontas?, Planned Parenthood vs. The Supreme Court, and Durham Report Rips FBI
Shark Tank: DeSantis – GOP Has Developed “Culture Of Losing”
Shot In The Dark: A Couple Of Bucks In The Proverbial Tip Jar, Leave No Man Behind, and Politics In Minneapolis
STUMP: Video: U.S. Mortality Trends 2020-2022 part 7: Other Physiological Causes of Death
The Political Hat: All Your Electricity Are Belong To California
This Ain’t Hell: Homeless veterans booted from hotels in advance of illegal aliens in New York, That time when the US Military destroyed Russian Wagner Mercenaries in Syria, Steven Spainhouer, Dallas mall witness and Army vet, and I’m here all week- tip the Vending Machines!
Transterrestrial Musings: Nuclear Fusion, The Anglosphere, An Indefensible Federal Gun Law, and Emergent Properties Of AI
Victory Girls: Poll Gets Hidden When Trans Activists Don’t Like The Answers, Auschwitz and Ice Cream Don’t Mix, and Rick Perry For President – Eye Rolls All Around
Volokh Conspiracy: A Flawed Attack on “Libertarian Elitism” About Voter Ignorance
Watts Up With That: Archbishop Blames Climate Change For Illegal Immigrants, Roald Amundsen tried and failed to tame a polar bear cub in 1920, Lomborg: ‘Organic agriculture’ could optimistically support 4.7 billion people – ‘Industrial agriculture’ could optimistically support 12 billion – Current global population is 8 billion, and Ferrari Rejects Green Pressure to Phase Out Internal Combustion Engines
Weasel Zippers: Biden At Howard University Says “Most Dangerous Terrorist Threat To Our Homeland Is White Supremacy”, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Says It’s “Sad” When Governors Take Action On Border Security, and Biden Retreats To Delaware Beach Home For Weekend As Border Crisis Rages
The Federalist: BOMBSHELL: Obama Admin Had No ‘Actual Evidence’ Of Collusion By Trump When It Launched Crossfire Hurricane Investigation, Mass Murderers’ Motives Matter To The Media Except When They Target Christians, The Left’s 2020 ‘Fake Electors’ Narrative Is Fake News, Corporate Russia-Collusion Hoaxers Dismiss Bombshell Durham Report Exposing Media Disinformation Campaign, Senate Republicans Demand Biden Forfeit Info Over His Attempt To Federally Interfere In U.S. Elections, and 10 Years Later, Would Gosnell’s ‘House Of Horrors’ Be The Norm In Post-Roe America?
Mark Steyn: You Don’t Own Me – Burt Lancaster and Ossie Davis in The Scalphunters, Tal Bachman – Two Centuries of Rugby, and Steyn vs Ofcom – It’s on!

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Category: Linkagery

I, For One, Welcome Our New Anti-White Racist Asian Academic Overlords

Posted on | May 15, 2023 | Comments Off on I, For One, Welcome Our New Anti-White Racist Asian Academic Overlords

University of Virginia Professor Sylvia Chong

Professor Reynolds called attention to this story, which puts me in something of a dilemma: Do I really want to be against racism?

Having long ago earned my dot on the SPLC “hate map,” there’s a certain reputational risk if I were to complain too loudly about racism, because I’ve carefully staked out a position in defense of what I consider a basic liberty — your constitutional Right to Hate.

Understand that I am not pro-hate, per se. But if the First Amendment means anything, it means that the government cannot engage in coercion in matters of personal opinion. Our freedom of religion, for example, means that I am required to tolerate beliefs that I consider 100% wrong — Mormonism, for example. It is probably unnecessary for me to go into detail about just how wrong Mormonism is, but the point is I can’t prevent them from promulgating their errors and, if this tolerance must be extended to the deluded followers of that preposterous fraud Joseph Smith, then why make a fuss about the followers of Louis Farrakhan?

As an American, you are free to hate whoever you want, which means that I can’t stop Professor Sylvia Chong from hating crackers like me:

UVA prof casts doubt
on White and Asian people dating
A University of Virginia professor recently warned students about relationships between White and Asian people.
During a talk entitled “COVID-19: The Asian American Experience” sponsored by the University of Virginia’s Kappa Delta Phi and Sigma Psi Zeta sororities, professor Sylvia Chong discussed anti-Asian racism in the era of COVID-19, as student newspaper The Cavalier Daily reports.
Chong referred to an earlier talk at the University of Virginia that referenced the Page Act of 1875 — a bill which limited the migration of Chinese women into the United States.
“Even for white feminists, Asian American femininity is often something they contrast themselves against,” Chong commented to the university newspaper. “Perhaps they don’t always say this about Asian Americans, but they certainly denigrate and exoticize Asian women abroad as victims of their patriarchal societies, victims of capitalism, victims of poverty and war.”
Among other topics, Chong discussed the recent Atlanta spa shooting, in which several Asian-American women were murdered.
“How can we be Asian American females and access… the features of other forms of femininity such as sexual agency at the same time that we also then protect our rights against exploitation?” Chong asked students.
However, Chong moved onto the event’s implications for University of Virginia students’ interracial relationships — particularly, the relationships between White males and Asian females.
Chong reportedly referenced former “Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin’s appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” during which he expressed excitement about having mixed-race babies with partner Brenda Song.
“It’s going to be adorable — a bunch of Sean Lennons running around the house, that’s what I’m looking for,” Culkin told Rogan.
“I’m not trying to [denigrate] anyone’s relationships, but how do you know that you’re in a relationship for who you are, rather than what someone imagines you to be?” asserted Chong in response. “Are you seeing me? Are you seeing the shadow of the Page Act? Are you seeing Miss Saigon with the college degree?”

Well, that’s rather tame stuff. Professor Chong seems to have been referencing “Yellow Fever” fetishism — the whole Geisha girl fantasy, the mystery of the exotic Orient kind of thing — and so what? You expect me, an SPLC-certified “white supremacist,” to be offended by this?

Nope, not gonna get worked up about that. On the other hand, something left out of that story, but reported by the UVA student paper:

One student asked Chong about her thoughts on whether the University is adequately supporting the APIDA [Asian Pacific Islander Desi American] community. In response, Chong announced that she would be part of a group going to talk to University President Jim Ryan on this issue. Her hope is to hire more professors specialized in Asian American studies, as she is one of five professors affiliated with the APAS program.
“I wish that race were not so tokenized so that people thought if you have one, you have enough,” she said. “I never think that hiring these kinds of professors is at the expense of other minorities — I think it should be at the expense of the majority.”

NOW HOLD THE F**K UP THERE, LADY!

What you are saying is that university hiring is, and should be, done on a basis of racial quotas and that, in order to increase the quota of Asians in this zero-sum game, you’re going to eliminate jobs for white people.

Why in the world is everybody trying to make a thing about what Professor Chong said about interracial dating when — right there in the same story — you’ve got her telling the blunt truth about what “diversity” actually means on university campuses? See, this is where the line needs to be drawn. Instead of getting upset about someone saying something that could be interpreted as “racist” — who cares? not me — what we should be focusing on is the actual injustice of quota hiring, especially when such regimes are instituted and operated by government entities like state universities. The weird thing about Professor Chong’s remark is that Asian students are actually the ones being harmed most by racial quotas at elite universities, where “diversity” turns out to be merely a code word for favoritism toward black and Hispanic students. It seems she thinks she can deflect anti-Asian bias by encouraging other minorities to blame whitey, which is why she’s ax-grinding about an 1875 law that most people never heard of: “Oh, please don’t hate us for getting higher SAT scores — we’re victims of historic injustice, too!”

No, ma’am. Don’t think you can play that game as if we’re too dumb to see what you’re doing. Either the university is a meritocracy, or it’s not, and if you think you can split the difference, using wedge tactics to divide and conquer, you’re apt to learn a hard lesson about consequences. When that big Wheel o’ Karma turns, don’t come crying to me.

(Do I have to explain the Kent Brockman joke in the headline?)

Category: Education, Racism

Rule 5 Sunday: Late Night With IJN Atago

Posted on | May 15, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Best heavy cruiser waifu can into space! My favorite Azur Lane heavy cruiser gets a 21st century update in Japan Space Agency (JAXA) costume. Well, an adapted version.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #2076, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Understanding Crime Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Girls With Guns, MAGA – Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face, CNN, The Greatest Commercial Ever, Maiwenn & Jeanne DuBarry, Trump & Kaitlan Collins Spar, At Midnight, Elle McPherson At Sixty, The Last Ship, Vera Lynn, and Coronation Kate

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Sara Thornton, Tucker for President!, Fish Pic Friday – Bikini Angler, This is the Night, Koalas Succumbing to Venereal Disease, The Wednesday Wetness, Very Worried, Tuesday Tanlines, The Monday Morning Stimulus, A Sunday Assortment, Palm Sunday, Sewage Spill Closes Cambridge Oyster Grounds and Intel Letter Made as Biden Debate Point

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S. For May 12

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Toward Compliant Towers

Posted on | May 14, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Toward Compliant Towers

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I’ve been a fan of the British electronic musician yclept Conelrad for some time, and for a while I was downloading his Conelcast podcasts on the regular. I can’t say I was too surprised that he’s taking a break from Conelcast, but as you can see from the link to his Patreon, he’s throwing a sizable bone to his fans and holding out hope for something bigger and better in he future.

In other news, the draft in Da Tech Guy’s 1971 league is next Saturday, and fortunately for me I’ll be in the Washington area. Among other things, this means I won’t have to get up at the hideous hour of 0800 to slam coffee and draft in a semi-catatonic state, but it also means several months of Ted Williams and Washington Senators memes incoming as you get to suffer through the 1971 season with me. Here’s hoping this season will be better.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.