My Kingdom For A Haircut
June 01, 2020
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For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last thirteen years, in close to 3,000 posts and over 100,000 comments, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start - in particular, the end-of-year summaries, which convey the fullest flavour of what it is we do. A sort of blog concentrate. If you like what you find there… well, there’s lots more of that.
If you can, do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.
As always, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company. Also, open thread.
Yesterday was illustrative. You could watch the events in Minneapolis etc. to see what Democrats do, or you could watch the event at Cape Canaveral to see what Americans do.
Posted by: fnord | June 01, 2020 at 00:15
Nothing says sincere, grassroots like "Subcontract the Protest!"
Posted by: Darleen | June 01, 2020 at 01:35
You could watch the events in Minneapolis etc. to see what Democrats do, or you could watch the event at Cape Canaveral to see what Americans do.
Agreed. Democrats are not Americans.
Posted by: pst314 | June 01, 2020 at 01:48
Nothing says sincere, grassroots like "Subcontract the Protest!"
It's interesting that "Unassailable Authenticity" comes only when your top priority is ensuring "all actions will appear genuine to media and public observers.
Posted by: Steve E | June 01, 2020 at 03:11
Trying to wrap my head around this.
Plus, this is attorney Urooj Rahman (Fordham Univ - $54,000/yr tuition)
She had stuffed the bottle with tissue paper. (oh dear lord)
AND she wears an Arafat keffiyeh while holding a Bud Light bottle. A ignorant, privileged Jewhater with no taste in beer.
"Loser" just doesn't seem to be an adequate word here.
Posted by: Darleen | June 01, 2020 at 03:16
Life comes at you fast, eh?
https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange/status/1267141837686538241
Posted by: JuliaM | June 01, 2020 at 06:10
Tip jar hit.
Posted by: dw | June 01, 2020 at 06:21
Life comes at you fast, eh?
Wow. Lefty 'principles' right there.
Posted by: dw | June 01, 2020 at 06:42
Morning, all.
Tip jar hit.
Bless you, sir. May you never have trouble finding replacement laces for your favourite pair of shoes.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 06:50
Lefty ‘principles’ right there.
The non-reciprocal tendency of woke posturing has been noted from time to time. It’s a staple of modern leftism.
You could almost think of wokeness as not so much a political inclination, but a belatedly rationalised parenting failure. I mean, if, as adults, your offspring still struggle with the idea of principles being reciprocal, pretty much by definition, then something’s gone awry.
And then we end up with things like this. In which making confoundingly perverse choices, which are both self-destructive and entail the repeated and habitual violation of others, including your own children, and doing it over and over again, is framed as a kind of default virtue – a state deserving not of opprobrium, but of indulgence and double standards. Provided, of course, the victims, and the next victims, and the ones after that, aren’t you.
See also Clive Stafford Smith, here.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 07:29
Ping!
Posted by: Liz | June 01, 2020 at 08:07
Ping!
Bless you, madam. May you be spared the infinite shame of blocking a friend’s toilet.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 08:11
LOL. Er thanks...
Posted by: Liz | June 01, 2020 at 08:13
Token of appreciation sent, David. :-)
Posted by: Alice | June 01, 2020 at 09:25
Token of appreciation sent, David. :-)
Bless you, madam. May your enemies know the infinite shame of blocking a friend’s toilet.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 09:32
This from Smalldeadanimals - apparently the mob has had it with the agitators:
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1267250164277764097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1267264512589131776&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smalldeadanimals.com%2F
Oh and, Ping!
Posted by: Y. Knott | June 01, 2020 at 09:32
Oh and, Ping!
Bless you, sir. May you be spared the impropriety of a friend announcing that, while you were on the phone, they have used, and blocked, your toilet.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 09:35
'We are a progressive newspaper'
https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1267085577419186178
Posted by: [+] | June 01, 2020 at 10:42
‘We are a progressive newspaper’
This, posted in reply, caught my eye:
You have to laugh, grimly, at the woke conceit that mobs, exulting in feral violence, sociopathy and the ability to terrify, are somehow known for being discerning in what it is they’re smashing or setting on fire.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 11:12
Ping!
Posted by: sH2 | June 01, 2020 at 12:39
Bar bill sorted. And one for yourself, barkeep.
Posted by: sk60 | June 01, 2020 at 12:41
Ping!
Bar bill sorted. And one for yourself, barkeep.
Bless you, sirs. May your pillowcases always be cool to the touch.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 12:46
If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me and I’ll poke about in the spam filter.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 12:53
More of this.
https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/1267365555125788672
Posted by: John D | June 01, 2020 at 13:01
Just a heads up for you folks over in Blighty.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | June 01, 2020 at 13:12
Just pinged across a small token of appreciation. And in other news, she's a professor, naturally:
https://twitter.com/indyfromspace/status/1267271817439346689
Posted by: Captain Nemo | June 01, 2020 at 13:18
Just pinged across a small token of appreciation.
Bless you, sir. May you never know the horror of being served an undercooked nut roast.
And in other news, she’s a professor, naturally
Pronouns, every time.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 13:25
May you never know the horror of being served an undercooked nut roast.
Or a nut roast full stop.
Posted by: Mags | June 01, 2020 at 13:27
Pinged.
Posted by: Mags | June 01, 2020 at 13:28
*chucks quids in tip jar*
Posted by: Jacob | June 01, 2020 at 13:28
"are somehow known for being discerning in what it is they’re smashing or setting on fire"
- or as a farmer might put it, "What, did ya' think the bull won't trample you 'cause you're a vegan?"
Posted by: Y. Knott | June 01, 2020 at 13:32
a.k.a. "I don't want there to be ANY consequences for my actions. NONE!"
Posted by: Y. Knott | June 01, 2020 at 13:35
Pinged.
*chucks quids in tip jar*
Bless you, madam, and sir. May any visit to Poundland, or its equivalent overseas, be purely ironic.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 13:36
Or a nut roast full stop.
I don’t mind one occasionally, though I tend to beef them up, as it were, with an egg, tomato puree, and some grated cheese.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 13:38
Authorities say Rahman, 31, tossed a bottle filled with gasoline through a broken window
Seems to me that holding a molotov cocktail is grounds to be shot without warning.
Posted by: pst314 | June 01, 2020 at 13:54
Urooj Rahman
Funny how names like that keep turning up in acts of terrorism.
Posted by: pst314 | June 01, 2020 at 14:00
The word protest is an inexcusable euphemism.
By which, I mean a lie.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 14:26
By which, I mean a lie.
Our speech is violence. Their violence is speech.
Posted by: pst314 | June 01, 2020 at 14:40
*kerching*
Posted by: Em | June 01, 2020 at 14:59
*kerching*
Bless you, madam. May your cleaning products be fragrant, but unobtrusively so.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 15:05
[ Wheels out tray of unhappy grey pastries. ]
Tuck in.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 15:27
Interracial brick distribution. Because apparently that’s a thing now.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 16:26
Interracial brick distribution. Because apparently that’s a thing now.
What the f*ck is wrong with these people?
Posted by: svh | June 01, 2020 at 18:13
What the f*ck is wrong with these people?
A lack of normal consequences?
[ Points in general direction of blog archives. ]
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 18:20
Thanks to all who’ve chipped in so far, including all those much too shy to say hello, or who’ve subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon links. It’s what keeps this place here and is much appreciated.
Posted by: David | June 01, 2020 at 19:00
Interracial brick distribution. Because apparently that’s a thing now.
The other night at work I commented to a coworker about Pauline Pearce and the 2011 London riots.
He found the history to be utterly apt.
Posted by: Hal | June 01, 2020 at 19:06
[ Wheels out tray of unhappy grey pastries. ]
. . . . . 'k, do we want to ask what the henchlesbians were doing to 'em to make them unhappy??
Posted by: Hal | June 01, 2020 at 19:09
Hmmm. Chinese language spam calls are moving with the times.
The one I just got specifically mentioned the CDC, so the general threat being offered would have been claims about C-19 . . .
Posted by: Hal | June 01, 2020 at 19:37
Fascinating . . . . Typepad apparently has a visceral dislike of Snopes.
Try instead:----------------------------------------------------
What the f*ck is wrong with these people?
A lack of normal consequences?
[ Points in general direction of blog archives. ]
John Cleese is claimed to have been commenting on C-19 . . .
. . . but while the variations are entertaining, [ See www.snopes.com/fact-check/terrorist-threat-alert ] Snopes states otherwise.
-----------------------------------------------------
---What Snopes is commenting on, where the current edition switches "Covid" for "terrorist":
Posted by: Hal | June 01, 2020 at 21:28
Ostentatious piety not, it turns out, an effective amulet.
Whodathunk, eh?
Morning, all.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 07:00
Tip jar hit. For all the laughs and head shaking. :-)
Posted by: mlrosty | June 02, 2020 at 07:49
For all the laughs and head shaking. :-)
Thirteen bloody years of it. It tests a person’s sanity.
[ Eye-twitching intensifies. ]
And bless you, sir. May you enjoy at least one clear view of the Milky Way rolling across the night sky.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 08:03
What the f*ck is wrong with these people?
It tests a person’s sanity.
Whiskey. Neat.
I'll pass on the complimentary pastry.
Keep the change and have one for yourself.
Posted by: Nikw211 | June 02, 2020 at 08:53
Keep the change and have one for yourself.
Bless you, sir. After buying a new kettle, may you not learn that it emits three soft beeps at the same time each evening, even when not in use, for reasons that defy mortal fathoming and which are not explained anywhere in the manual.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 08:59
What the f*ck is wrong with these people?
Today’s words are social justice.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 09:01
As so often, the Babylon Bee captures the flavour of things.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 09:07
End-stage wokeness.
Via Julia.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 11:53
Okay, so here's what's happening:
Looters flagged down the Police because armed store owners stopped them from looting their store. What?
Also I just tinkled in your receptacle. You're welcome.
Posted by: Jonathan | June 02, 2020 at 12:42
Also, a wine recommendation for you: this is really nice on a hot day.
Posted by: Jonathan | June 02, 2020 at 12:59
Also I just tinkled in your receptacle. You’re welcome.
Bless you, sir. May you never be obliged to read, then re-read, a kettle manual.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 12:59
this is really nice on a hot day.
I don’t drink rosé, just full-bodied reds, but I’ll add it to the list of things that will buy me the adoration of my beloved sisters-in-law. For whom, no wine is unappealing.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 13:06
End-stage wokeness.
*throws up in mouth*
Posted by: Mags | June 02, 2020 at 13:08
*throws up in mouth*
I keep having to remind myself that the ostensible basis of this hysteria is a meth-and-fentanyl-addled thug, a career thief and burglar, a practitioner of home invasion, who targeted women and beat them at gunpoint.
Not an obvious martyr, or a great loss to human flourishing. But then, as we’ve seen, wokeness is deranging.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 13:17
Horrifying to see ostensibly intelligent people on Facebook (including my sister), in the UK, doing that awful slavish, “post a picture of a black square” shit. What on earth do they believe they’re doing? Are they literally accepting the structuralist nonsense that all white people everywhere are responsible for the actions of the US police?
When I first started reading this blog I occasionally thought it was bad for me because it gave me a false impression of the world. I thought that it collected the worst examples of wokeness and presented it as normality, when most people couldn’t care less.
Today I’m just astounded at how easily the hard left persuades people who think of themselves as quite normal to take their approved line. The Marxist dictum that “all oppression is structural” is just swallowed wholesale. An individual incident, grouped with other incidents, and ignoring still more incidents that don’t fit the argument, is the occasion not simply for disgust, or for practical suggestions for police reform, but for unexamined diatribes against western civilisation.
We’re not talking impressionable students here. These are educated adults with real jobs.
We’re lost.
Posted by: Charlie Suet | June 02, 2020 at 13:42
When I first started reading this blog I occasionally thought it was bad for me
I should put that in the brochure. As testimonials go, it’s a real humdinger.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 13:46
I don’t drink rosé, just full-bodied reds,
Ok, so the Rose isn't good enough (rolls eyes), might I suggest this
Posted by: Jonathan | June 02, 2020 at 13:58
Ok, so the Rose isn't good enough (rolls eyes), might I suggest this
That’s better. :-)
This is one of my favourites, and these two are inexpensive and quite drinkable.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 14:13
my beloved sisters-in-law. For whom, no wine is unappealing.
Meow.
Posted by: Min | June 02, 2020 at 15:31
Also ping! :-)
Posted by: Min | June 02, 2020 at 15:32
We’re lost.
I came to that conclusion long ago. At this point the only way out is Chile or Venezuela, and the helicopter option looks less likely every day.
Posted by: Daniel Ream | June 02, 2020 at 15:38
Meow.
Frankly, they’d gargle jam if they thought there was a chance the fruit were fermenting.
I say that with love, of course.
Also ping!
Bless you, madam. May you never grill a thing only to realise, much too late, that you’re actually supposed to bake it.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 15:45
“You’d better lock your door.”
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 17:39
“You’d better lock your door.”
Thick and entitled is not a good way to go through life.
Posted by: Joan | June 02, 2020 at 20:10
Thick and entitled is not a good way to go through life.
It’s the moral inversion of a spoiled child. A dumb malevolence. And all they bring to the world is vanity and spite.
Posted by: David | June 02, 2020 at 20:23
I really, really want to like the guy and I'll certainly always respect his craft, but the effort required to cheer for Lewis Hamilton while ignoring his NPC politics has become too much for me to bear.
He joins Harrison Ford, John Cusack, most of Monty Python, Jimmy Kimmel [ spits ] and several others in my own little graveyard of entertainers whom I enjoyed despite their actual personalities, but now despise with gusto.
Come to think of it, this year has marked the biggest loss of respect for friends and family I - and I suspect many others - have ever had, and by a wide margin. What an absolute disaster of a year for my faith in humanity and we're not even to the US Pres elections yet!
(At least this barge still floats. Ker-deebly-doo forthcoming once I exchange some .223 ballpoint for pieces of farthing or whatever you islanders use.)
Posted by: Sam | June 02, 2020 at 21:27
Thick and entitled is not a good way to go through life.
For those whose direction these useful idiots are ultimately following that is not a bug, but a feature. Were they not so disordered, and so unlikely to ever be otherwise, they wouldn’t be nearly so easy to use.
Posted by: Squires | June 02, 2020 at 22:04
Sam, Lewis Hamilton is vile. When he bleats about 'our' people he doesn't have the likes of you or me in mind - or anyone resembling the woman who bore and raised him, come to that. None of this should surprise anyone who's been around the block a few times.
Posted by: Trevor | June 02, 2020 at 23:27
At this point the only way out is Chile or Venezuela, and the helicopter option looks less likely every day.
Oh, don't worry about it. Two parallel realities note why.
---As well as the basic background reality.
Parallel A:
Come [ any round of helicopters/Duh Revolution ], you can be assured that any NPC calling for throwing people from a chopper can indeed get thrown from one . . .
Parallel B:
Choppers aren't an issue, anyway: For any NPC who signals piety by calling for choppers, whether guillotine or helicopter, the Tokarev has always been a cheaper and more efficient alternative, and is entirely equally established for signalling such a mindset.
---Even if it as obsolete as someone calling for such a solution, ya wanna show off---while certainly only showing off anyway---by carrying around a single Tokarev, or an entire Huey?
Posted by: Hal | June 02, 2020 at 23:33
Frankly, they’d gargle jam if they thought there was a chance the fruit were fermenting.
Posted by: Hal | June 02, 2020 at 23:45
He joins... several others in my own little graveyard of entertainers whom I enjoyed despite their actual personalities, but now despise with gusto.
I know the feeling. A few years ago on this site I wrote the following:
When it comes to art and artists, I think one has to accept that many artists will not share the politics you do. And so one has to separate who they are, from what they do. Even when it's the case that they're arseholes. Richard Wagner's politics were truly appalling, but we'd be all the poorer without his operas. I think Vanessa Redgrave's politics border on insanity, but she is an exceptionally gifted actress, and I do enjoy watching many of the films she's made over the years.
Since then, although I still broadly feel this way, I increasingly agree with you that there are some entertainers who've become unbearable because of their pompous political pronouncements, and I no longer wish to watch things they're in. Partly because I've stopped seeing the characters those people are playing, and partly because I have no desire to remunerate those who view me with increasing contempt. There remain plenty of actors who I will happily watch despite their opinions - Vanessa Redgrave remains one of them, as does David Mitchell (although his frequent collaborator Robert Webb is one of those who've become tiresome) - because (in Mitchell's case) they haven't completely alienated me yet or (in Redgrave's) they're talented enough that I still see the character.
Posted by: Captain Nemo | June 03, 2020 at 00:33
And ping!
(Sorry, I thought GBPs were more--I will pick a better number next time.)
Posted by: Pooklord | June 03, 2020 at 02:49
The teakettle has taken a vow of silence, but the rice cooker plays “Twinkle Twinkle “ or “Edelweiss “ when the rice 🍚 is done.
Posted by: Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat | June 03, 2020 at 04:50
pieces of farthing or whatever you islanders use
Sorry, I thought GBPs were more
Until decimalisation in 1971, our only currency was bags of hair retrieved from plugholes.
And ping!
Bless you, sir. May you know the pleasures of a butter-drenched crumpet - grilled, obviously, and not, God help us, microwaved - as discussed during the Great Crumpet Debate of May 2018.
Posted by: David | June 03, 2020 at 06:41
Partly because I’ve stopped seeing the characters those people are playing, and partly because I have no desire to remunerate those who view me with increasing contempt.
Quite. As I said in the same thread,
I’m not very consistent on this point and I don’t avoid certain actors or directors on principle. I don’t keep a blacklist. It’s more a reaction to a cloud of negative associations. A loss of charisma, as it were. And it has to be said, it’s becoming more of an issue.
Posted by: David | June 03, 2020 at 07:02
A bumper collection of, er, social justice.
But hey, you mustn’t call it looting. Apparently, that would be racist.
Posted by: David | June 03, 2020 at 07:45
But hey, you mustn’t call it looting.
"undocumented shopping"
Posted by: dw | June 03, 2020 at 09:25
Today I’m just astounded at how easily the hard left persuades people who think of themselves as quite normal to take their approved line.
This has just been posted to Facebook by a former colleague- it emanates from Antifa USA's FB page. The man in question is in late middle age and is a member of one of the professions.
Under normal circumstances I just ignore this kind of facile, morally absurd bollocks, but I couldn't refrain from commenting, something along the lines of: "One of the major differences between SHAEF and Antifa is that the former encouraged using force of arms to enter civilian business premises to eradicate or eject the sniper/artillery spotter/MG42 crew who would be hiding therein, not to acquire a plasma TV or a new pair of trainers (sneakers) free of charge".
Posted by: Lancastrian Oik | June 03, 2020 at 09:34
And once again, Laurie Penny wants a world without consequences.
Presumably, those of whom Laurie approves should be allowed to burn things and smash things and hurt people with impunity.
Because she cares so very much.
Posted by: David | June 03, 2020 at 09:46
One of the major differences between SHAEF and Antifa...
Also that the vast majority of Allied soldiers held views which would have got them labelled a Nazi had they been around today to express them.
Posted by: Jonathan | June 03, 2020 at 09:48
I don't think this headline implies quite what you think it does.
Richmond man caught cannibalizing 90-year-old grandmother, police say
Igor
Posted by: Hal | June 03, 2020 at 11:06
The woke neurosis, part 13,042.
It’s like something out of Quatermass.
Posted by: David | June 03, 2020 at 11:37
We're on your side!
Lol
via Steve Sailer
Posted by: Jonathan | June 03, 2020 at 12:39
We’re on your side!
Perhaps it’s just me, but it feels like one of those symbolic moments, the ones that neatly capture a much broader phenomenon.
Also, from the replies,
And so forth.
Posted by: David | June 03, 2020 at 13:53
The woke neurosis, part 13,042.
There’s nothing wrong with that image that any one of the GAU series weapons couldn’t solve.
Posted by: Squires | June 03, 2020 at 14:37
Yet more evidence (if it were needed) that those in charge of our civilisational inheritance don't much care for it:
https://twitter.com/FlintDibble/status/1267866249280851971
Posted by: Captain Nemo | June 03, 2020 at 15:36
I’m not very consistent on this point and I don’t avoid certain actors or directors on principle. I don’t keep a blacklist. It’s more a reaction to a cloud of negative associations. A loss of charisma, as it were. And it has to be said, it’s becoming more of an issue.
Indeed. Like you, I don't have an active "I refuse to watch films/TV/Sports starring X or directed by Y" blacklist (with the possible exception of Ken Loach) but I'm starting to head in that direction. It's increasingly difficult to avoid.
Posted by: Captain Nemo | June 03, 2020 at 16:02
We’re on your side!
Best to know what that side is before declaring for it.
Posted by: Steve E | June 03, 2020 at 16:08
Insert quote about feeding crocodiles here.
Posted by: Darleen | June 03, 2020 at 16:43
Best to know what that side is before declaring for it.
Caravans of cars full of looters — it’s not something East Bay police see every day
Posted by: Hal | June 03, 2020 at 16:45
TFW you get to see your friends again after lockdown is eased:
https://twitter.com/V_actually/status/1267488681415315458
Posted by: Jonathan | June 03, 2020 at 16:52