My Kingdom For A Haircut

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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. 

Comments

[H]

Insert quote about feeding crocodiles here.

"Some people just want to watch the word burn" Alfred Pennyworth.

[David]

It’s increasingly difficult to avoid.

It’s now sufficiently irritating that I’m leaning towards the old-fashioned belief that when in public actors should stick to doing the job – which is to pretend, and possibly jump around, while looking photogenic.

[Jonathan]

Just found another Good'un for you!

Really nice with pork chops.....

[David]

Really nice with pork chops.....

I’m guessing you’re doing this research selflessly, purely for me, right?

“Darling, I’m not sure David will like this one. Open the other bottle, would you? No, the other other one, behind the empties..”

[Jonathan]

I’m guessing you’re doing this research selflessly, purely for me, right?

I don't enjoy it you know - every mouthful is pure torture!

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

It’s increasingly difficult to avoid.

A major part of my irritation about actors who "speak out" comes from the knowledge that these people, by definition are paid liars. It's their job.

Combine that with the knowledge that the vast majority of them display little intelligence behind what they're saying, that they're in essence parroting other peoples' thoughts while concluding that their position is the only one true position -- see Penn, Sean, support for dictators and Waters, Roger, anti-semite -- and I pray for the Monty Python foot to come down on them.

[Jen]

Stars Bail Out Protesters, Silent on Helping Victims

https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/stars-fund-protesters-not-victims/

[Alan G]

Great blog. Have a bottle on me, mein host.

[David]

Have a bottle on me, mein host.

Bless you, sir. May you know the joy, expressed via a yelp of excitement in the middle of an M&S Food Hall, of your hairdresser calling to book you in for a cut after three bloody months.

[Clam]

'Somewhat related', as our host would say.

https://spectator.us/destroy-civilization-riots-universities-tenured-radicals/

[pst314]

The Faces of Antifa--another thug with creepy tattoos:
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/06/02/timothy-odonnell-wearing-joker-mask-charged-with-torching-chicago-police-car-during-weekends-protest-violence/

[WTP]

A major part of my irritation about actors who "speak out" comes from the knowledge that these people, by definition are paid liars.

I may have mentioned this is the same thread that David referenced on page one but I have long suspected that many, many actors are good at what they do because they are, for whatever reason be it childhood trauma, mild mental disorder, kicked in the head by a mule, empty shells of human beings. They have some reason they can't be themselves or never fully resolved who they are. They are still in a childlike state of role play that normal people grow out of. Not all but many.

I also note that I've been referenced on this thread twice. Once directly and secondly, alas it was I who was the genesis of the Great Crumpet Debate of 2018. I am humbled. No, really. I am also way past due on my Guild of Evil dues but promise to make up for them once income flow is returned. Thanks for this place though. It keeps me (barely) sane....I think.

[Adam]

I was amused by a comment on another website this morning:

Is it riot season already? I've still got my Covid decorations up!

[Adam]

I am old enough to remember the Civil Rights movement and the lead-up to it. My mother was active in desegregating housing in our town in the 1950s and even won some sort of award for her work. We - meaning everyone I knew - were taught about the evils of slavery, the cruelty of the post-civil war reconstruction period, lynchings, the KKK, Jim Crow, the mistreatment of Native Americans, etc. We were scolded severely to NEVER use the "n word" and to regard others of any race first as fellow humans. We were making progress in "race relations": The Civil Rights Act, and its numerous amendments and follow-on bills were all paving the way toward greater freedom and equality. We marched, we protested. This right up through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s... Somewhere around 2008 the US even elected a Black man as President. Remember? There was great celebration and joy. It was in all the papers and on TV.

Now all of a sudden everything is awful. There has been no progress since 1619. Hate is everywhere and 'systemic'. People of Color are oppressed everywhere every day by White Supremacy. And it is getting worse by the day. The only solution is to burn it all down and start everything over again... This time we'll get it right once the yipo are put in their place. Have YOU taken the pledge?

[PiperPaul]

The Italicans have invaded again.

[Hal]

Test, test . . .

[Hal]

'K, now what've we got . . . .

[Hal]

Fine.

This has five more of that neon decoration over the bar.

Either this works or David will have to flush the system once he gets up, in an estimated five or six hours . . . .

[Hal]

'K, that's fixed.

Drinks are on Adam for the next few hours, as penance.

I'll have a large beer mug filled with the house version of Collins Mix and a bit of crushed ice . . .

[Squires]

Have YOU taken the pledge?

“Monkey pushes button, monkey gets a peanut.”

Forbidden speech precedes compelled speech in the conditioning of man into a trained monkey.

[Daniel Ream]

the old-fashioned belief that when in public actors should stick to doing the job

Studios used to have conduct clauses and generally kept their actors on a tight leash because actors pissing off the public meant less money at the box office. There's a theory that the expansion of the foreign entertainment markets to a size larger than the US domestic market, plus the rest of world's general antipathy towards Americans, creates a powerful incentive for Hollywood to pump out constant anti-American propaganda in their films.

If that's true things aren't likely to get better, because boycotting the studios and the actors won't do anything. They've already written off the domestic market.

[David]

For fixing the italics overflow, Hal wins a prize.

[ Slides heavily-used roll-on deodorant along bar. ]

You may want to blow the hairs off it.

[David]

Studios used to have conduct clauses and generally kept their actors on a tight leash because actors pissing off the public meant less money at the box office.

It is remarkable just how readily, and gleefully, actors, directors and producers will publicly alienate, even insult, large parts of their own customer base. The posturing by Alex Kurtman and Patrick Stewart regarding Trump voters, for instance. It rather suggests a combination of colossal vanity and a social environment that’s weirdly homogeneous. Or if you prefer, conformist.

[Hal]

[ Slides heavily-used roll-on deodorant along bar. ]

Hmmm. I'm still working on my industrial grade lemonade.

But I did notice the sausage roll was looking awfully interested, so I'll feed the sausage roll the deodorant.

[John Lewis]

Apropos of nothing - Sweep sings Bohemian Rhapsody:-

https://youtu.be/GVkdCV6F3sw

[David]

Welcome to London.

[Jonathan]

Welcome to London.

Just beat me to it! File under 'Things which were entirely predictable to any sane person.'

[David]

“One only signals when one has something to hide.”

Sounds about right.

[Paul]

Have sent some cash encouragement your way.

[David]

Have sent some cash encouragement your way.

Bless you, sir. When playing Hades’ Star, may your battleships be resilient and your croids mined successfully.

[Adam]

New words: Design Justice / Spatial Injustice

"..For nearly every injustice in the world, there is an architecture that has been planned and designed to perpetuate it. That’s a key principle of the Design Justice movement, upon which I base my practice. Design Justice seeks to dismantle the privilege and power structures that use architecture as a tool of oppression and sees it as an opportunity to envision radically just spaces centered on the liberation of disinherited communities...

…Redesign our design training and licensing efforts to reflect the history of spatial injustice and build new measures to ground our work in service of liberating spaces.

The design profession has a role to play in the short- and long-term outcomes of justice, and we would be wise to revisit our past to find direction. We must act swiftly and sustain our efforts to reconstitute our profession as a co-conspirator to justice...."

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2020/06/george-floyd-protest-urban-design-history-racism-architecture/612622/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[Jonathan]

James O'Keefe and Project Veritas infiltrate Antifa. Turns out they're not simply 'peaceful protesters' as the media told us.

via Brittany Sellner

[Squires]

New words

This of course applies only to structures in Western nations, right? I mean good heavens if they were to even attempt to “dismantle” the whatsit mojo of Dubai, or some old Ottoman emperor’s seraglio, I just wouldn’t know what to do with myself.

[David]

New words: Design Justice / Spatial Injustice

For some reason, the word leeches popped into my head.

[Horace Dunn]

Welcome to London

It's revealing that the reporters in the studio are immediately making excuses for the thugs attacking their colleagues. It just goes to show, they tell us, how emotions are running high.

Letting everyone know how terribly woke you are: Priority 1.
Showing concern for your colleagues who have come close to having their heads smashed in by thugs: Priority 2.

I wonder why it is that people have begun to say that the mainstream media is actually part of the problem.

[David]

I wonder why it is that people have begun to say that the mainstream media is actually part of the problem.

It occurs to me that society will always have a generous supply of thugs, degenerates and outright sociopaths – they will always have to be recognised and dealt with. A functional society can generally cope with this. But we also have a mainstream media that in significant part, along with much of our educational establishment, appears determined to inhibit and deflect any such inclination. Our social immune system, as it were, has apparently been compromised.

[ Added: ]

And so, the kinds of predatory, vindictive, pathological behaviour that one would expect to be discouraged and have corrective consequences are often excused, grotesquely minimised, or actively rewarded and thereby encouraged. Usually in the name of “social justice.”

[ Added: ]

And likewise, our glittering celebrities, the ones who consider themselves woke and therefore glorious, raise bail money for thugs, arsonists, looters, rioters and assorted sociopaths, rather than for the victims of that sociopathic behaviour.

As a measure of the times, and of wokeness in particular, it’s quite… interesting.

[Hal]

Frankly, they’d gargle jam if they thought there was a chance the fruit were fermenting.

Oh, Right, in that case, This vintage should have 'em cheering at the thought of you!

[Hal]

It occurs to me that society will always have a generous supply of thugs, degenerates and outright sociopaths –

The overall axioms are rather established . . . And another set of observations also comes to mind . . .

A solution would be to just not play, where when demands get made of going with some identity of the moment, chime in by asking just what is there to do---rather than merely emptily chanting along . . .

[Governor Squid]

Stop using AMI to determine “affordability” in our communities. Instead, root the distribution of resources in a measure that reflects the extraction of generational wealth from black communities.

Generational wealth? You gotta be kidding me!

The problem isn't wealth being extracted from black communities, it's a lack of wealth generated in the first place. The biggest hurdle to generational wealth in black communities is a lack of stable families that can generate such wealth and hand it down to the next generation. It's hard to inherit your father's shop when you have only the vaguest notion of who your father is, or to finance a new business when nobody in your family has ever opened a savings account.

That's not going to change as long as we pretend that everything would be peachy if your great-grandfather hadn't been denied a business license or bank financing ages ago. Yes, it was a setback and a stain on your city's history, but it's hardly the primary factor today.

[Governor Squid]

Given this community's appreciation of the arts, I thought this vignette might be of interest. (Via the inestimable Iowahawk, who observes "Maybe looting an art gallery actually is itself art.")

The good news is that we've found a market for these artworks. The bad news is that we've established a dollar value that people are willing to pay.

[Joan]

It's hard to inherit your father's shop when you have only the vaguest notion of who your father is, or to finance a new business when nobody in your family has ever opened a savings account.

That.

[Daniel Ream]

That's not going to change as long as we pretend that everything would be peachy if your great-grandfather hadn't been denied a business license or bank financing ages ago.

My grandfather mowed lawns all his life as a non-unionized city park groundskeeper because No Irish Need Apply.

My father is a civil engineer.

I'm a software engineer.

Each of us has doubled our previous generation's earning power because we worked our asses off and chose not to live down to the stereotypes. So in time, the stereotypes changed.

[David]

because we worked our asses off and chose not to live down to the stereotypes. So in time, the stereotypes changed.

That.

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

Hal, those were fascinating essays. The garden gnome essay had me in suspense wondering "which category do I fit in?"

My wife likes to collect garden junk, as in, actual junk such as a bicycle frame. She does it because she loves it, and she doesn't care what anyone else (including myself) thinks. This puts her square in category four.

vows to shut up in the future about her taste in decoration

[Sam]

It's very easy to get caught up in What We're Supposed To Talk About Right Now, but please don't neglect noticing what we're not talking about as a result, and who most benefits from the absence of discussion.

Reminder: Peacefully holding a communist government accountable for the pandemic it caused? Still racist.
Violently holding an entire race of people responsible for one death? Totally not racist. Anti-racist in fact. Absolutely not the kind of thing that starts two world wars.

— Offensive in the Abstract (@DrRandomercam) June 4, 2020

[Darleen]

New words: Design Justice / Spatial Injustice

Detangle our contractual relationships with power and capital to better serve neighborhoods and communities from a position of service and not from a place of extraction, freeing ourselves from the fee-for-service model and building power through black and brown development of the built environment.

THERE's the tell. Don't pay us based on hiring us cuz talent/merit, pay us a guaranteed salary and we'll decide what designs you'll get.

[WTP]

Reminder: Peacefully holding a communist government accountable for the pandemic it caused?

True, but point of clarification, they're not communist. They're fascist. Change my mind.

[Mike]

Ephemera?

[David]

Morning, all.

Ephemera?

Not this week, alas. I’m taking a couple of days off to restore my natural lustre and vivacious disposition. Think of it as a long weekend or bank holiday. For me, I mean.

[ Drapes suspiciously discoloured bunting above bar. ]

That’s better. Positively jolly.

[Daniel Ream]

Positively jolly.

This place is the real-life Callahan's, and I say that without irony or sarcasm.

[David]

This place is the real-life Callahan’s,

Is that a good thing?

[David]

I’m not entirely sure what it is that’s happening here.

Via Julia.

[Hal]

This place is the real-life Callahan’s,

Is that a good thing?

Time Travelers Strictly Cash.

[Hal]

I’m not entirely sure what it is that’s happening here.

. . . . . . Collect the set?

[Hal]

I’m taking a couple of days off to restore my natural lustre and vivacious disposition.

. . . suspiciously discoloured bunting . . .

[Hal]

This puts her square in category four. . . . taste in decoration

Quite.

[Hal]

Ephemera?

Not this week, alas.

The Spock is the superego. Lord Vetinari has an Annoying Background Event. London Below is a Dark World. Suzie Shooter, a/k/a Shotgun Suzie, a/k/a Oh Christ, It's Her, Run is an Action Girl. And each is one of these.

[Ant]

"Ping!"

[David]

“Ping!”

Bless you, sir. May your local butcher be an old-school burly Yorkshireman who refers to you as “duck.”

[Hal]

Two eyes or death.

[Darleen]

Dear lord, tell me this isn't really a thing.

[Steve E]

I’m not entirely sure what it is that’s happening here.

Outtake from Animal House?

[David]

Dear lord, tell me this isn’t really a thing.

We live in deranging times.

[Sam]

We humans are funny creatures. For instance, our trust in doctors and medical staff is seemingly endless, but we largely distrust police. Except...

That's 2013 CDC stats on the US, but is fairly representative of most modern years. 250 times more likely to die from a medical oopsie than by people carrying guns and knowing they won't face consequences for using them?

[Sam]

OK, I admit I can't embed images. Apologies:

https://imgur.com/rOnQqfr

[CavScoutCoastie]

I usually lurk in the dark corner at the wobbly table under the burned out light near the gents but I’m always entertained by the conversation. Thanks David. Oh and ping.

[David]

Oh and ping.

Bless you, sir. Should flies find their way in through a wide-open window, may they find their way out with great promptness and little fuss.

Oh, and while you’re there, a quick once round with the can of Oust. We must think of the ladies.

[Darleen]

And we're only at the halfway mark of 2020

[David]

And we’re only at the halfway mark of 2020

Blimey. Is there some ancient prophesy I don’t know about?

[pst314]

We humans are funny creatures. For instance, our trust in doctors and medical staff is seemingly endless, but we largely distrust police. Except...

The purported distrust of police is largely a pretense: Did you see the recent video of looters calling the police to report armed resistance to looting?

[Darleen]

Another nominee for the Karens' Hall of Fame.

[Daniel Ream]

Dear lord, tell me this isn't really a thing.

It is, but it's also another 4chan op.

[Nikw211]

Another nominee for the Karens' Hall of Fame.

Yet another example in a long line of examples of how patriarchal society disempowers women, robbing them of their voices, and ... Wait ... that can't be right.

[ Frowns at newly installed 'feminism' app on phone ]

Must need an update or something ...

[jones]

a while longer...

Are you considering leaving us?

[David]

Are you considering leaving us?

Not planning on it, no. Though this establishment does have overheads, chiefly my time, and hence the quarterly fundraisers.

[David]

It is, but it’s also another 4chan op.

Repent of thine pallor!

[David]

Currently doing the rounds, some inadvertent symbolism.

[Min]

But we also have a mainstream media that in significant part, along with much of our educational establishment, appears determined to inhibit and deflect any such inclination. Our social immune system, as it were, has apparently been compromised.

"The New York Times last night caved to protests from its own writers to apologize for publishing a conservative opinion piece by a ranking Republican senator"

https://jonathanturley.org/2020/06/05/mea-culpa-new-york-times-caves-to-protests-and-apologizes-for-posting-conservative-opinion/

[Min]

"Elite New York professors celebrate the destruction of their city

Arlene Davila, a professor at NYU and founding director of the Latinx Project, believes that looting, theft, and destruction are all part of this essential tapestry of protest.

She writes, 'Anyone surprised that protests include looting of luxury stores in Soho & elsewhere doesn't know the 1st thing about racial capitalism & luxury consumption. Racial exploitation is at the root of consumer capitalism built on the commodification of black bodies through slavery.'"

https://thepostmillennial.com/new-york-professors-celebrate-the-destruction-of-their-city

[David]

The New York Times last night caved to protests from its own writers to apologize for publishing a conservative opinion piece

The words “did not meet our standards” actually made me laugh.

[David]

Arlene Davila, a professor at NYU and founding director of the Latinx Project, believes that looting, theft, and destruction are all part of this essential tapestry of protest.

One can only hope that Professor Davila returns home one evening to find it a chosen target of ‘protest’, i.e., robbed of anything valuable and merrily on fire. Or would that somehow be unfair?

[ Added: ]

Professor Davila’s reasoning, such as it is, seems to be, “I am unhappy, therefore I am obviously entitled to smash whatever I choose, terrorise whomever I choose, however arbitrarily, and to destroy the hopes and livelihoods of countless random people.” Because, magic words, social justice.

Again, it’s remarkable just how often leftism is functionally indistinguishable from sociopathy.

[Fred the Fourth]

Ok. I'm going to regret this, but.
That "influencer girl". What inadvertent symbolism ( that's no doubt absolutely effing obvious) did I miss? I mean, she's a deeply shallow attention whore leech, but what else?
Also, the comments in the Twitter thread refer to giving her a Pepsi, to make the scene more perfect.
Someone want to enlighten me (i.e. darken my morning) by explaining that bit of pop culture?
Yours Regretfully,
M. theFourth

[Fred the Fourth]

I'm trying out changing my ethnicity from English/Welsh, to French.
I mean, why the hell not?
M. theFourth

[Steve E]

Someone want to enlighten me (i.e. darken my morning) by explaining that bit of pop culture?

Probably because of this.

[David]

Arlene Davila, a professor at NYU and founding director of the Latinx Project, believes that looting, theft, and destruction are all part of this essential tapestry of protest.

I think we’ll give that one a post of its own.

[Steve E]

Sorry, to honour your wishes I meant to address you as Monsieur Frédéric le Quatrième.

Any relation to Frédéric le Grand?

[Chester Draws]

Frédéric Quatrième, no "le". Like Louis Seize.

Frederick IV of Palatine was "the Righteous". Mind you, he was "righteous" because he was in charge of killing Catholics, and he drank himself to death.

[Steve E]

Like Louis Seize.

Then I suppose it should be Frédéric Quatre to strictly follow form.

A female friend of mine went to Paris on a French exhange trip in high school. One night at dinner she was offered more of the main course and she excused herself by saying "No merci, je suis plein," thinking she was saying "no thanks, I'm full." She didn't realize that in idiomatic french what she had said was "No thanks, I'm pregnant." Her hosts had a good laugh and explained what she had said.