The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: 09.12.22

Posted on | September 12, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 09.12.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

SOTD: Sabaton – Winged Hussars

Silicon Valley delenda est.
OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: How Old Do You Have To Be To Defend Yourself?
EBL: Father Mychal Judge, What is the strategy?, , King Charles and his Consort, and Charge of the Winged Hussars
Twitchy: Taylor Lorenz asks Libs Of TikTok for help, also, Keith Olbermann Big Mad At NYT’s Maggie Haberman
Louder With Crowder: Gay Floridian Speaks Out Against LGBTWTFBBQ Indoctrination In Public Schools, also, Man impersonating a police officer pulls over off-duty police officer
Vox Popoli: Patreon Fires Security Team, China is Next, The Emergency Continues, and The EU Lost
Stoic Observations: Abuse Of The Infinite

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Mushroom Hunters
American Conservative: The Corporate Culture War Against America
American Greatness: America Delira, also, Republicans Attempt to Crack Down on Mail-in Voting Ahead of Midterms
American Power:  Policies Pushing Electric Vehicles Show Why Few People Want One, Ukraine Takes Its Counteroffensive All the Way to the Russian Border, and Our Elites Desperately Want Us to Hate Our Fellow Americans, We Absolutely Have to Resist
American Thinker: The DoJ Argues that the Intelligence Community Overrides the Judiciary, Electoral Fraud Goes Mainstream, and The FBI’s Apex Bureaucracy Is Dangerous
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Cuban dictatorship deploying children as informants for the State, In addition to practicing apartheid, Spanish hotel chains in Cuba serve as agents of repression, Communist Cuba has purchased $152 million of chicken from the U.S., and Reports from Cuba: Rice waste used to stretched rationed bread dough in Sancti Spiritus
BattleSwarm: Holy Crap, Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory is Huge, also, Breaking: Ukraine Retakes Izyum
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches 34 Starlink satellites plus commercial satellite for AST Mobile, Blue Origin suborbital flight aborted during ascent, Defense to help Commerce create its own ability to track orbital objects, and The Ukraine’s big victory this past week was no accident 
Cafe Hayek: On Intellectuals and the ‘China Shock’
CDR Salamander: Looking West to the Taiwan Strait, with Dean Cheng, also, 21-years
Chicago Boyz: 9/11 and the Attrition Mill
Da Tech Guy: Five King Chuck (Charles III) Thoughts Under the Fedora, Why LGBT voters should be prolife, and 9/11 vs 12/7
Don Surber: Sonia Sotomayor, conservative hero?, Looks like the FBI wants another raid, and The ‘Trump indictment nears’ game
First Street Journal: Is justice a matter of color in Lexington? Part 2, also, Another dead in the Philadelphia Badlands
Gates Of Vienna: The Philadelphia Address, No Demonstrating Without Permission!, The Unvaccinated Should Just Die!, and Blood and Horror
The Geller Report: Americans Spent More on Taxes in 2021 Than on Food, Clothing and Health Care Combined, also, 400 Doctors and Professionals Declare International MEDICAL CRISIS Due to Covid Vaccine Injuries and Deaths
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, You Can’t See This From Here, 21 Years Ago Today As Seen From the International Space Station, and Overlapping Galaxies
Hollywood In Toto: Dumb and Dumber Director: We’re F***ing Starving for R-Rated Comedies, Meta Storytelling – Inspired or Just Lazy?, and Confess, Fletch Can’t Conjure Chevy Chase’s Iconic Laughs
The Lid: Was In Manhattan 9/11/01, The Sights And Smells Are Still Fresh In My Mind, also, Negotiating Plea Deal With 9-11 Conspirators To Take Death Penalty Off the Table
Legal Insurrection: Chancellor of Syracuse University Considering Revoking Rudy Giuliani’s Honorary Degree, Oregon Gov. Signs Law Allowing Students to Graduate Without Proving They Can Write or do Math, NY Times Hit Piece On Hasidic Education Published On Eve Of NY Regents Vote To Undermine All Religious Schools, and The Radical Left Has Taken Over Many of Our Historic Foundations and Museums
Nebraska Energy Observer: Change is good 1, also, Stand and Never Yield!
Outkick: Nick Saban Goes Nuts As Alabama Players Show ‘Horns Down’ After Barely Beating Texas, Unsuspecting Referee Gets Bulldozed As Sad Notre Dame Fans Mourn $1.25 Million Upset Loss To Marshall, App State Shocks No. 6 Texas A&M And College Football World, Again, 75% Of Desmond Howard’s Laughable Playoff Picks Already Have A Loss, and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Says Texas Too ‘Patriotic’ For Cowboys To Sign Colin Kaepernick
Power Line: Down With Electric Vehicles!, The Vile Jayapal, and “The border is secure”
Shark Tank: Crist Compares Himself To Jesus In Campaign Speech
Shot In The Dark: Energieschock, also, Polled
STUMP: World Suicide Prevention Day: U.S. Suicide Trend Update 1999-2021
The Political Hat: Twenty-One Years Ago Today – NEVER FORGET, also, Children’s Hospital Promotes Intersectional Gender Ideology And BDSM Sex Toys For Minors
This Ain’t Hell: Lawmakers who supported booting healthy servicemembers lobby DoD to allow HIV+ recruits, MG Patrick Brady jumps out of a perfectly good airplane at age 85, Afghan crew attempts to fly Black Hawk, they crash, and Personnel issues
Transterrestrial Musings: Thoughts On Human Progress, Twenty-One Years On, Blue Origin, and The Intelligence Community
Victory Girls: Guest Opinion: Sarah A. Hoyt – The Dividing Line, Credit Card Companies Capitulate To Anti-Gun Lobby, and Tinder Generation Can’t Find Love
Volokh Conspiracy: A Stroll Through The Times Square Gun Free Zone, also, Do the Supreme Court’s Low Approval Ratings Show it is Undergoing a “Legitimacy Crisis”?
Watts Up With That: BRICS Starts Sidestepping the Tragedy of Western Energy Policy, also, OUTED: Climate Industrial Complex: Emails Show ‘Urgent’ Media Role in ‘Climate Disinformation’ & Hill Hearings
Weasel Zippers: Biden Jets Away On Another Weekend Vacation To Delaware; He Has Spent 40% Of Presidency On Vacation, Kamala Harris: “Imagine If We Lost Our Democrat Majority In The Congress”,  John Fetterman Is The Perpetual Scarf Wearing Beta-Male You Wish You Didn’t Know, and Tucker Carlson Confirms 30+ Trump Supporters And Insiders Raided/Subpoenaed By FBI In One Single Day
The Federalist: Vulnerable Nevada Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto Attacks Charitable Women’s Care Centers, Cruz: GOP Will Win Senate, And Unraveling Biden’s Assault On Religion Will Be First Priority, Bombshell: DOJ Conceals Records About Biden’s Use Of Federal Agencies To Influence Elections, and GOP Sues North Carolina Elections Board For Allegedly Breaking Mail-In Balloting, Election Observer Laws 
Mark Steyn: Her Majesty’s Public Private Life: The Queen Onscreen in The Queen, Live Around the Planet: Sunday September 11th, and The Final Straw

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Category: Linkagery

‘That Wretched Woman’

Posted on | September 12, 2022 | Comments Off on ‘That Wretched Woman’

This was certainly not the only ghoulish hate expressed by the Left after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, but is perhaps the most interesting. What “genocide” was Uju Anya blaming on Her Majesty? This was the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70, when the southwestern part of the country sought to secede as “Biafra.” The main causes of this war were (a) conflicts between ethnic groups and (b) control of Nigeria’s oil wealth.

Why blame the Queen? It was under her rule that Nigeria, formerly a British colony, was granted independence in 1960 and, obviously, the British had an interest in the success of the Nigerian government. So the attempt to divide the country by the secession of “Biafra,” was something Britain opposed. Interestingly enough, the Soviet Union also supported Nigeria in this war, while Biafra was supported by France and the Chinese Communists. There is no doubt that the civilian population of Biafra suffered severely — more than half a million died — from the famine that accompanied the war, but genocide? Some scholars have questioned whether that term should be applied to Biafra.

As in all civil wars, including our own, those who inaugurated the conflict in Nigeria must be held responsible for the consequences. The idea that Nigeria, having only recently gained its independence, should just let “Biafra” go in peace — well, my Confederate ancestors thought the Yankees should have done the same, but they didn’t, did they? Having read the Hood-Sherman correspondence after the fall of Atlanta, I cannot say Sherman was wrong: “Talk thus to the marines, but not to me.”

In assessing what Anya calls Britain’s “bloodthirsty throne,” we must compare the rule of Britain in Nigeria to other European colonial powers. Was Britain’s influence in Nigeria worse that the influence of the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French, the Dutch, etc., in their respective colonies? Is Nigeria worse off today than Angola and Mozambique, colonized by Portugal? Or what about the legacy of Belgium in the Congo, or the Italians in Somalia? Scapegoating the Queen for what happened in “Biafra” more than a half-century ago strikes me as evidence of Professor Anya’s unbalanced mind. That she is employed by Carnegie-Mellon University (cost of attendance $78,140 a year, including room and board) speaks volumes of the decay of our academic institutions.




 

Category: Great Britain, Nigeria

Rule 5 Sunday: IJN Musashi

Posted on | September 12, 2022 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: IJN Musashi

— compiled by Wombat-socho

In Western culture, women are objectified; in Japanese culture, objects are feminized. – Anonymous

Task Force 38 waits for thee, Musashi…

And so we get games like Girls Frontline (pistols, rifles, and other guns drawn as feminine combat robots) and Azur Lane, in which shipgirls modeled on World War 2 warships fight each other and the alien Sirens. Having read entirely too much Morison as a young ‘un. I find the Azur Lane fandom’s excitement over the impending release of Musashi, following her little sister Shinano, to be somewhat amusing, since in real life they were poorly built and almost useless except as magnets for Navy dive bombers & torpedo bombers. Ah, well; if nothing else, one can appreciate their fluffy tails and enormous honkers.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1834, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

EBL: MAGA Queen Elizabeth RIP, Immanence, A Good Year, Claire Foy, Frances Ha, Ukrainian Honey Traps, Uncharted, Apex, Sydney Sweeney, Dual, and Kari Lake.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Lauren Mcgeachen – Cutest Troll Ever, Fish Pic Friday – Jessie Lynn, About Time, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Just in Time for Your Labor Day BBQ, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Irish Pole Dancer Axes Canadian Competition, Biden’s Red Rant Revisited and Red Wave Revived?, Palm Sunday, Edible Windmills?, and Are Blue Cats to Blame for Climbing Crab Costs?

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts




Category: Rule 5

‘Fake News’ Media: Lying by Omission

Posted on | September 11, 2022 | Comments Off on ‘Fake News’ Media: Lying by Omission

A national disgrace:

The arrest of a Democratic public official in Las Vegas for allegedly murdering a journalist shocked the nation, but news networks went out of their way to bury his party affiliation.
Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the death of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German, who was fatally stabbed in front of his home on [Sept. 3].
German’s reporting had exposed scandals that plagued Telles, including a hostile work environment and an extramarital affair with a staffer, which was followed by his re-election defeat during a Democratic primary held in June. . . .
While the liberal networks covered German’s horrific murder, they strangely omitted to tell viewers that Telles is a Democrat during Wednesday and Thursday’s coverage.While the liberal networks covered German’s horrific murder, they strangely omitted to tell viewers that Telles is a Democrat during Wednesday and Thursday’s coverage.
ABC’s “Good Morning America” introduced Telles as a “local politician” and later described him as a “Las Vegas county official.”
“CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil teased about the “elected official” who was swept up in the murder investigation.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann went on to describe Clark County’s public administrator as “a man named Robert Telles” and said police executed a search warrant “at the elected official’s home.” . . .
Similarly, NBC News correspondent Erin McLaughlin referred to Telles as simply a “local government official” who “lost a primary race in June” during an on-air report on “Today.” . . .
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Willie Geist reported on the “public official” and how police “arrested a man named Robert Telles.”

Try to imagine what the media would be saying if a Republican had murdered a journalist. Do you think the national media would blandly describe him as just a “local official” without any mention of his party affiliation? As bad as this is, however, it got even worse when the local sheriff — Joe Lombardo, a Republican who is running for governor of Nevada — held a press conference to discuss the arrest of Telles:

A Democrat politician in Nevada is accused of fatally stabbing an investigative journalist last week over a series of stories on official misconduct that likely sank the incumbent-turned-defendant’s summer bid for re-election. The local press, however, found a way to pin the blame on former President Donald Trump. . . .
“Sheriff, you said the murder of a journalist is especially troubling. Now is probably not the time to talk politics,” the unnamed female reporter began.
“So why are we talking politics?” Lombardo interrupted.
The reporter continued with her political question.
“Do you condemn former President Trump’s normalization of violence against journalists?” she asked.
“No, I think this [is] probably inappropriate to speculate on that or opine on that,” Lombardo said. “It needs to be stated and noted that it is troublesome because it is a journalist… When people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important that we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately.”

By the way, the “unnamed female reporter” has been identified as Dana Gentry, who works for Nevada Current, a website that is part of States Newsroom, funded by a “liberal dark-money group.” (Hint, hint.)




 

Category: Media Bias, Nevada

FMJRA 2.0: Let The Robot Do The Suffering

Posted on | September 11, 2022 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Let The Robot Do The Suffering

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Well, it’s been another miserable week at RFK; we took one out of three from Pete’s Pilots and another one of three from the Red Sox, both behind Juan Marichal. The other four games were the usual frustrating combination of blowouts and games that looked close on paper but really weren’t. At this point, I’m just going to set the team to play on autopilot, because this was supposed to be fun, and it is anything but right now. Did I mention that Larry Dierker managed to get himself suspended for nine games, which means I now have only three decent starting pitchers? Plus, a study of my roster and the picks I’m going to get next season (whether it’ll be 1971 or 1973 is still up in the air) leads me to believe next season is going to be equally miserable. So I think I might save myself the Dynasty Baseball fees and just quit after this season.

Aside from that, it was a pretty good week. Picked up Klaus Schulze’s Dune, which is inspired by the Frank Herbert novel of the same name, of which Schulze was quite fond. It’s pretty good. 

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

The Symbolism of Philadelphia
First Street Journal
The Universal Spectator
Okrahead
Patriots’ Soapbox
Citrix News
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Grifters Gonna Grift: Lawsuit Accuses BLM Leader of Swindling $10 Million
The Mad Irishman
The Pirate’s Cove
Moonbattery
EBL
357 Magnum

Suspect In Memphis Woman’s Murder Began His Criminal Career at Age 11
The DaleyGator
Okrahead
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 09.06.22
Okrahead
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Employees Shocked as Lesbian Vegan Doughnut Shop Goes Out of Business
The DaleyGator
Battleswarm
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 09.09.22
Okrahead
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

FMJRA 2.0: Blessed Silence
A View From The Beach
EBL

Memphis Police Charge Suspect With Kidnapping Billionaire Heiress
First Street Journal
EBL

Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Sydney Sweeney
The DaleyGator
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL

One Suspect Dead, His Brother Still at Large in Saskatchewan Stabbings
Okrahead
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 09.06.22 (Evening Edition)
Okrahead
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

White House ‘Targeted Me by Name,’ Says Feminist Vaccine Skeptic Naomi Wolf
The DaleyGator
Okrahead
EBL
357 Magnum

R.I.P., Queen Elizabeth II
EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.08.22 (Afternoon Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Can the Patriots Exceed Expectations?
EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.08.22 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Ukraine: Better Late Than Never
EBL
357 Magnum

Top linkers for the week ending September 9:

  1.  EBL (17)
  2.  357 Magnum (12)
  3.  (tied) A View From The Beach, Okrahead, & Proof Positive (7)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Ukraine Update: Smashing Success?

Posted on | September 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Ukraine Update: Smashing Success?

When I posted Friday evening about the push toward Kupiansk (“Ukraine: Better Late Than Never”), I was determined to err on the side of caution, not to be taken in by overly optimistic claims, but overnight saw more reports that indicate Ukraine has achieved a truly stunning breakthrough. Now, it seems confirmed that advance elements of the Ukrainian force — motorized scouting parties, at least — have reached the Oskil River south of Kupiansk, wrecked one of the bridges over the river, and pushed 40 miles down the west bank toward Horokhovatka, which is just 17 miles northeast of Izyum. If all of these reports are true, it would mean that about 10,000 Russian troops reported to be at or around Izyum are in danger of being cut off and forced to surrender.

Even more than that, it is also being reported that, farther east, Ukrainian forces have crossed the Seversky Donets river and attacked the Russians at Lyman which, if true, would indicate a collapse of Russian forces on a much wider front. Even if the Russians can regroup, fall back to a defensible line and stabilize the situation, their losses in manpower and matériel are likely to be substantial, to say nothing of the damage to their morale, which was already pretty bad. All of this I say while still striving to err on the side of caution, but others are less cautious. For example, Mark Sumner at DailyKos says, “It’s unclear so far if there is any place that Russia has really dug in their heels and put up a solid resistance”:

What’s obvious is that in this location at least, Russia’s line was exactly one village deep. Once Ukrainian forces were able to either capture or bypass locations like Balakliya and Verbivka they were running loose in Russia’s backfield. With a few exceptions, the small Russian forces they’ve encountered have seemed to have one thought on their mind: which way to run. And even when Ukrainian troops did meet some resistance, as at Shevchenkove and Hrushivka, they seem to have cleared away those obstacles in a matter of hours, not days.
What’s obvious is that in this location at least, Russia’s line was exactly one village deep. Once Ukrainian forces were able to either capture or bypass locations like Balakliya and Verbivka they were running loose in Russia’s backfield. With a few exceptions, the small Russian forces they’ve encountered have seemed to have one thought on their mind: which way to run. And even when Ukrainian troops did meet some resistance, as at Shevchenkove and Hrushivka, they seem to have cleared away those obstacles in a matter of hours, not days.

Really, this reminds me of the Battle of Five Forks in 1865 where, once Grant’s army had broken the Confederate line west of Petersburg, everything collapsed, beginning the desperate retreat that ended eight days later with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. What is happening appears to be more than merely local, tactical success; rather, it looks like Ukraine has scored a strategic victory.




 

Category: Military, Russia, Ukraine

About the ‘Rings of Power’

Posted on | September 10, 2022 | Comments Off on About the ‘Rings of Power’

There is nothing I despise more than journalistic bandwagons, where everybody is writing about the same thing. Nearly all the greatest pleasures of my career came from going out alone in pursuit of stories that nobody else was covering. Like, in early 2011, I was the only national reporter covering Herman Cain’s campaign, and I could walk right up to him (or “Smoking Man” Mark Block) and just start talking. By October, after a few debates, Herman zoomed to the top of the GOP field, and I was merely another drone in the journalistic swarm, which took all the fun out of it. My instinct is always to find the unreported angle or the offbeat story (e.g., “Employees Shocked as Lesbian Vegan Doughnut Shop Goes Out of Business“) that nobody else has noticed. Therefore, the very last thing I want to do is to become the ten-thousandth conservative pundit to trash the new Amazon prequel series, The Rings of Power.

Alas, my mind was troubled Friday evening, and in seeking something to distract me from my troubles, I clicked over to Vox Day where he quoted “The Woke Pundit” in satirical praise of this travesty:

White males, your time is up. This not a world of men. It is a world of women.
The Rings of Power is not just a television production, but a message to the world that racism is over. Future generations will look back and say this was the defining moment where everything changed.

You get the satire, eh? Blackwashed and gender-swapped and, almost certainly, gay romances planned for the future episodes. A masterpiece of diversity and inclusion, which is probably destined to disappear into obscurity as an overpriced failure, watched only by purple-haired neurotic non-binary weirdos living in their mothers’ basements.

“Amazon bought the television rights for The Lord of the Rings for US$250 million in November 2017, making a five-season production commitment worth at least US$1 billion. This would make it the most expensive television series ever made.”
— Wikipedia

It is to TV what the Hindenburg was to air travel, and words simply cannot express how much I don’t care about it. “Racist backlash”? Something would have to be important enough for me to care about it before I could ever bother to “backlash” against it. Because here’s the thing: I never watched the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, either.

In 1974, when I was a sophomore at Douglas County (Ga.) High School, our English teacher assigned The Hobbit as class reading. And I liked it OK. A few years later, I had a redheaded girlfriend in Kennesaw who convinced me to read the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I liked that OK, too. But I never became what you’d call a Tolkien “fan,” because those people were geeks and nerds, the kind of pathetic dweebs who spent their weekends doing Society for Creative Anachronism stuff at the Renaissance Faire, or playing games that involved 10-sided dice.

Let me spell it out for you: L-O-S-E-R-S.

The whole world of science fiction and medieval fantasy falls into that category, as far as I’m concerned. Juvenile games and make-believe stories — what kind of creep cares about that stuff as a grown-up?

What’s with this Peter Pan Syndrome in our culture? Why are so many allegedly intelligent adults (most of whom don’t have children) obsessing over movies made for audiences of 13-year-olds? Or have these puerile entertainments become like Halloween, formerly a one-night holiday where kids dressed up and got sweet treats, but now transformed into a month-long Season of Ghoulish Horror with adults spending big money to decorate their homes like Haunted Mansions?

People need to grow up, for crying out loud. I’m reminded of the Nostalgia Collectible Bubble of the 1990s. A bunch of Baby Boomers reached their 40s, found themselves with upper-middle-class incomes, and decided to spend it all on baseball cards, comic books and toys from their Eisenhower-era childhoods, telling themselves that their silly collections were actually “investments.” Yeah, your Lone Ranger lunchbox is just like buying artworks at a Sothesby’s auction.

Is the analogy to this Tolkien obsession clear enough? Amazon paid way too much for this new “prequel” travesty, apparently believing there was a ready-made audience of 30-somethings who, having flocked to the local multiplex to watch the original Lord of the Rings movie trilogy as middle-schoolers, are now going to stream the New Tolkien Thing at home, no matter how different the New Thing is from the original. And if the target audience doesn’t buy it? Amazon will end up like that idiot who paid $75 for an old Lone Ranger lunchbox in 1994, thinking it was a valuable “investment” but now discovers it’s worth maybe $50 on Ebay.

My hunch is that Amazon has miscalculated. See, nostalgia only works as a selling point if what you’re selling matches the childhood memory, and the selling-point of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy was its evocation of ancient English folklore — wizards and elves and so forth. That the cultural context of Tolkien’s books was specifically English, and therefore white, was not “racist” except in the kind of weird retroactive worldview of activist types who think every statue should be toppled and every college campus building renamed for the sake of “social justice.”

Amazon probably saw how the Star Wars prequel/sequel spinoffs had been updated with “diversity” and thought, Hey, we can do the same thing with Tolkien, but isn’t it obvious why this won’t work? Even if you thought it worthwhile, as a matter of artistic expression (or political activism), to add “diversity” to Tolkien, in doing so you instantly lose that Ye Olden Days vibe, which was a big part of its original appeal. Furthermore, consider these two points:

  1. The 12-year-olds who were most fascinated with Lord of the Rings circa 2003 were mainly . . . white, weren’t they? Why would anyone imagine that a Tolkien “prequel” series might have broader appeal to People of Color, simply by changing the complexions of the actors? Or why think this product will have a greater appeal to women, simply by substituting women for men in leading roles?
  2. If people want “diversity” in entertainment, they can find that everywhere nowadays. It’s become ubiquitous, and therefore, ordinary. Where’s the actual evidence that making an extra effort toward “diversity” in movies or TV shows actually produces more profit, let alone that it adds any real artistic value?

Well, here I’ve spent more than a thousand words on a subject that I don’t actually care about, and which I think nobody else really cares about, except L-O-S-E-R-S. You’ve wasted your life playing childish games and collecting comic books, and now you want me to get excited about some stupid TV show about Wizards and Elves? Buddy, I’m not a 15-year-old anymore and this ain’t sophomore English class.

Stop expecting the rest of us to care about your adolescent obsessions. Besides, aren’t you falling behind on your Halloween decorating project? Run along, and don’t bother us adults with your silliness anymore.




 

Category: Movies

In The Mailbox: 09.09.22

Posted on | September 10, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 09.09.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Hey kids, what time is it? It’s time for the Based Fall Book Sale! It’s your opportunity to pick up some quality reading from authors who don’t hate you, and who would like the opportunity to entertain you instead of preaching at you! Dozens of books are available for free or cheap, including my own short story collection.
It’s also time for the weekly reminder that the usual deadlines are in effect for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: A Good Guy With A Gun Stopped A Bad Guy
EBL: Claire Foy in The Crown, also, Bernard Shaw, RIP
Twitchy: Breeders – Thou Shalt Not Joke! also, Sen. Cortez Masto’s Bragging About Cracking Down On Crisis Pregnancy Centers Goes So Very Wrong
Louder With Crowder: 160 people arrested in Florida during human trafficking sting, includes teachers and Disney employees
Vox Popoli: Remember, Hope is a Virtue, A Comprehensive Failure, and Excess Death in Switzerland
According To Hoyt: Things Fall Apart, also, Winning The Dragon
Monster Hunter Nation: WriterDojo S3 E9: Supporter Spectacular (Round VI)

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Overturn New York Times v. Sullivan
American Greatness: Los Angeles Homeless Population Jumps to Over 69,000, Biden Department of Interior Continues Renaming Historic Federal Lands, and UK Announces it Will No Longer Offer COVID Jabs to Children Under 12
American Power: King Charles’ Television Address to the World
American Thinker: Enough Already: Release the J6 Political Prisoners
Animal Magnetism: Vacation Totty V 
Babalu Blog: Repression in Cuba during August was as brutal as on July 11, 2021, Is Castroism finally falling apart?, and Cuban dictatorship declares official mourning period for Queen Elizabeth, eagerly licks boots of new King Charles III
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm for September 9
Behind The Black: NASA wants to launch SLS in September; needs range safety office waiver to do it, FCC proposes new regulation requiring satellites to be de-orbited five years after mission end, SpaceX successfully test fires all six engines on Starship prototype #24, and Today’s blacklisted American: Fox blacklists news reporter for not getting jab
Cafe Hayek: Schumpeter Would Not Be Surprised
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Five “The Queen is Dead” Thoughts Under the Fedora
Don Surber: Putin as Coldfinger, also, Oberlin continues its slander
First Street Journal:  Oh, the poor dears! Homosexual males are whining that they can’t go to their orgies because of monkeypox!, also, You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!
Gates Of Vienna: Michael Stürzenberger Sentenced to Six Months in Prison
The Geller Report: Don’t Believe The Hype About Democrats in the Mid-Terms
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, How Will We Know If DART Worked?, A Spiral of Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, and What’s Your Reputation Worth?
Hollywood In Toto: Podcast Movement’s Apology to Ben Shapiro Reeks of Desperation
The Lid: Bad News For The Climate Change Bug Eating Activists
Legal Insurrection: Carnegie Mellon University Issues Statement After Prof Tweets Vile Message About Queen Elizabeth, Vulnerable Democrats Distancing Themselves From Biden’s MAGA Speech, Will a Rail Strike be the “Black Swan” of the 2022 Midterm Election?, and Justice Sotomayor Stays NY State Court Order Forcing Yeshiva University To Recognize “Pride Alliance” Club
Nebraska Energy Observer: The Queen is Dead
Outkick: BYU Investigation Finds No Evidence Of Fans Hurling Racial Slurs At Duke’s Rachel Richardson, BYU-Duke Volleyball Racism Allegations Fall Apart, But Don’t Expect Apologies From Mike Freeman Or Rest Of Woke Media Mob, MLB To Officially Adopt Pitch Clock, Defensive Shift Limits, and Tennessee Fans Take Over Pirates’ PNC Park With BOOMING Chants Ahead Of Volunteers’ Game Against Pitt
Power Line: Student Loan Forgiveness As Class Warfare, Thoughts from the ammo line, and If You’re Going to San Francisco
Shark Tank: Bilirakis Blames Democrats’ Reckless Spending For Poor Economy
Shot In The Dark: Just Take My Money, also, Trigger Warning
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday: The Young
This Ain’t Hell: Clown who just wanted to learn to “kill n****s” thrown out, MN governor accused of Stolen Valor, and Valor Friday
Transterrestrial Musings: About Those North Korean Rockets, The Situation In Europe, Occasional Cortex’s Biggest Problem, and The End Game In Ukraine
Victory Girls: Oberlin College Finally Stops Fighting Judgment, also, Gorsuch: SCOTUS Leak Report Coming Soon
Volokh Conspiracy: The Dormant Commerce Clause and Internet User Protections
Watts Up With That: Wall Street Journal Exposes Gov. Newsom & California’s High-Cost Energy and Reliability Debacle
Weasel Zippers: Queen Elizabeth II Died Yesterday So Naturally Leftists Had GOOD Reactions To That, A Democrat Politician Murdered A Journalist In Nevada And Somehow That’s Trump’s Fault, Biden Tries To Claim “America Is Back” Despite Recession And Skyrocketing Prices, and Joe Biden Versus The Teleprompter
The Federalist: GOP’s Unifying Midterm Strategy Should Treat Democrats’ Green Agenda As Culture War, Alaska’s Ranked-Choice Voting Scheme Was A Plot To Save Murkowski, But It Also Doomed Palin, A Democrat Politician Is Accused Of Killing A Journalist. Reporter Blames Trump, and Democrats Aren’t ‘Divisive,’ They’re Desperate
Mark Steyn: Still Stands That Ancient Sacrifice..?

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