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Via Andy Ngo, an offer you can’t refuse:

Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker. 

Comments

[Mags]

"Burn..."

[ComputerLabRat]

Yeah - Pantifa will protect me. Pull the other one, it has got bells on.

They wouldn't even protect me if I had 100 times the melanin in my skin. David Dorn and Secoreia Turner can attest to how well "It's only property" antifa and BLM "protect" people.

[David]

“Burn...”

The icing on the cake, really. Not entirely unrelated.

[svh]

"Professor launches 'Fascism Watch' to spy on Trump supporters who are 'planning an insurrection'"

https://www.thecollegefix.com/professor-launches-fascism-watch-to-spy-on-trump-supporters-who-are-planning-an-insurrection/

(Lefties project.)

[Burnsie]

"Antifa will protect you."

Yes, these people:

https://www.wethegoverned.com/they-want-to-hurt-us-but-first-defund-the-police-meet-antifa/

I'm not convinced.

[aelfheld]

Nice little culture you got here. Be a shame if something happened to it.

Protection, Antifa style.

[Squires]

As always when dealing with the deceptive mentality, what needs to be asked is, “What didn’t they say?”

In this case they did not specify what Antifa would protect us from.

Here are a few possibilities:
Peace
Quiet
Freedom of thought
Property rights
Sobriety

[cayleygraph2015]

That's the supplemental insurance company that ran those commercials with the duck several years back, right?

[WTP]

No cayley, you're thinking of the musicians' copyrights organization.

[cayleygraph2015]

Right, the ASPCA.

[Frank Black]

Yeah, but who will protect you from Antifa?

[Alex DeWynter]

Might they not protect me out of all I own?

[pst314]

Might they not protect me out of all I own?

You will be liberated.

[David]

Heh.

[David]

Also:

September: Compact nuclear fusion reactor ‘very likely’ to work.

December: Compact nuclear fusion reactor ‘won’t stop’ working.

January 2021: All quiet and well in the Sol binary star system.

Rather brightened my day, that.

[Richard Cranium]

Rather brightened my day, that.

Golf clap.

[David]

Golf clap.

[ Taps forehead. ]

It’s all non-stop cunning and brilliance round here, you know.

[JuliaM]

I came to get the take on last night’s debate. The press here in the UK seem to think it was a walkover for Biden.

[Hal]

"I get called a fat t**t every time I walk past," Nichols complained.

[David]

I came to get the take on last night’s debate.

Didn’t watch. Couldn’t muster much enthusiasm.

[Karl]

University "intellectuals" consider the possibility that since people enjoy watching college football "college football might help get us through these uncharacteristically difficult times.

Oh oh. Reverse ferret.
University "intellectuals" apologise unreservedly for "being caught in an ignorant racist moment", clarify that "Black men ... are conditioned by society and structural racism in ways that lure them into athletics", that in fact "football -- like COVID-19 -- places Black bodies at disproportional risk", and commit to a "long process of antiracist learning" by "unlearningandrelearningbylistening,reading,dialoguing,reflectingandwritingasameansforincreasingmyawarenessandknowledgeaboutsystemicracismandtheexperiencesofpeopleofcolorandpeoplewhoholdmarginalizedidentitiesdifferentfrommyown".

And still people claim it's like some sort of cult!

[WTP]

It was the train train wreck one could expect from Trump v Biden. I gave up 3/4 through. The only news being that either we have made huge (yuuuge?) progress in dementia treatments or the stories of Biden's mental health situation are bizarrely misrepresented. The whole thing was just another clown show in the continuing context of the decline and fall of Western Civilization.

[Karl]

the take on last night's debate

Despite the fact that I find Trump's presidential performance to be surprisingly un-bad, I've no more interest in listening to his political bullshit than any other electioneering shit-weasel.

Wake me up when Biden's aneurism pops.

[WTP]

I was extremely disappointed that Trump did not congratulate Biden on his Nobel Peace Prize nomination from one of y'alls labor party politicians. I think he's off his game.

[Daniel Ream]

2020: A portal for carnivorous trans-dimensional demons with diamond-polymer skin.

I'm not worried.

[Daniel Ream]

"football -- like COVID-19 -- places Black bodies at disproportional risk"

Nobody tell him about the NHL.

[Jonathan]

Call Antifa about a burglary and these two rock up:

via Andy Ngo

[David]

football -- like COVID-19 -- places Black bodies at disproportional risk,

Like so many of his equally woke peers, Mr Mayhew seems keen to erase the agency of people with skin browner than his own. As if they should always and everywhere be seen as kind of flotsam, and therefore exempt from certain routine norms. As if they weren’t entirely human.

[Karl]

Like so many of his equally woke peers

Well, credit where credit's due he has uncovered The White Man™s secret racist plan to undermine blacks by luring them into playing playing professional football where they will be lauded, féted, admired and lavished with ludicrous amounts of money so that...

Oh hold on, what was our secret plan again?

[David]

Oh hold on, what was our secret plan again?

Sorry, I can’t hear you over the deafening throb of our prototype fusion reactor.

Hm. It’s getting a little warm.

I think we may need to put a damp towel over it.

[pst314]

Nobody tell him about the NHL.

Football is racist because so many players are black.
Hockey is racist because so few players are black.
I am racist because I noticed this.

[Karl]

I think we may need to put a damp towel over it.

I'll write this experiment up as "Mostly Successful" shall I?

[David]

Football is racist because so many players are black.
Hockey is racist because so few players are black.
I am racist because I noticed this.

That does seem to be the gist of it.

I’ll write this experiment up as “Mostly Successful” shall I?

I don’t wish to alarm anyone, but we may need a bigger, damper towel.

[tolkein]

Sorry, I can’t hear you over the deafening throb of our prototype fusion reactor.

Hm. It’s getting a little warm.

I think we may need to put a damp towel over it.

Been reading the user guides to operating the Chernobyl reactors again, have we?

[tolkein]

The Guardian seems to think that Trump won, as it's all outrage over The Donald, rather than gloating/triumphal about Biden's performance.

[Hal]

I'll just leave this here.

[Hal]

First world problem.

[David]

[ Quietly fixes avalanche of italics. ]

[Daniel Ream]

I'll write this experiment up as "Mostly Successful" shall I?

This was a triumph
I'm making a note here - HUGE SUCCESS

[Daniel Ream]

Oh hold on, what was our secret plan again?

IIRC, something like two-thirds of NFL players are bankrupt within ten years of leaving the NFL.

[Daniel Ream]

No, it's much worse than that.

It's almost as if taking poorly educated nineteen-year-olds and giving them astronomical amounts of money for four years while quietly sweeping their antisocial behaviour under the carpet isn't a good idea.

[David]

[ Searches Amazon for ‘towel’ and ‘gamma rays’. ]

[Hal]

[ Searches Amazon for ‘towel’ and ‘gamma rays’. ]

Mr. & Mrs. Sasquatch Towels

Or, if you prefer,

Hulk Towels

[Karl]

No, it's much worse than that.

That doesn't seem like so much a secret plan as the inevitable result of putting malevolent fuckwits in charge of education.

[asiaseen]

First world problem

Well, that story took a lot of effort. Was it peer-reviewed as well?

Reporting by Geert De Clercq, Tangi Salaun and Laurence Frost. Additional reporting by Sarah White, Dominique Vidalon, Blandine Henault, Jean-Michel Belot, Michel Rose, Gus Trompiz, Caroline Pailliez, Lucien Libert, Christian Lowe, Matthieu Protard, and Gwenaelle Barzic; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Gareth Jones, Timothy Heritage and Nick Macfie

[asiaseen]

Mr & Mrs Sasquatch Towels

And for that finishing touch to your body that will make you the envy of all your friends, use the recommended:

Hybrid V07 Optical Select High-Gloss Spray Sealant & Quick Detail Spray

[Steve E]

I think we may need to put a damp towel over it.

My Ukrainian baba would just rub a little bacon grease on it from a used sour cream container that she kept in the back of the fridge. It fixed everything.

[Megaera]

Steve E.: My great-grandmother, a truly formidable female, used to keep her bacon grease in a tin on the stove. She had no faith in refrigeration, but then she grew up in the era of the actual ice box, stocked by a burly man who brought the ice blocks, covered in burlap, from his horse-drawn wagon. Alas, bacon grease can't fix quite everything, or I'd be slathering it on 24/7.

[David]

[ Reactor throb intensifies. ]

[Megaera]

[Checking Ventusky for current wind directions from UK. Rereading Book of Revelations.]

Bit of bacon grease, David?

[David]

Bit of bacon grease, David?

The towels don’t seem to be working.

[David]

In my defence, it’s hard to get a towel that can withstand both daily use and a 100 million degrees Kelvin.

Not in blue, anyway.

[ComputerLabRat]

In my defence, it’s hard to get a towel that can withstand both daily use and a 100 million degrees Kelvin.

Why do I get the feeling I should be looking for that er...guidebook with Don't Panic on the cover?

[Steve E]

Not in blue, anyway.

Do they have Williams Sonoma in the UK? They're a little expensive but they carry everything in the way of specialty items.

This is bright blue and is good to 95-million kelvin, but might do in a pinch.

My wife has dish towels that are 25 years old and still look good.

[Burnsie]

Why do I get the feeling I should be looking for that er...guidebook with Don't Panic on the cover?

Best look for the original Ukrainian version: Не панікуйте. I'm sure David has it tucked away somewhere. Maybe under a wobbly table.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

“People like me are endangered and now they want to make me extinct.”

I think we have heard this before, what now ? First they came for the dwarves...

This view tends to be stronger in the US, where there is, says Joe Stramondo, a professor of philosophy at San Diego State University and a disability rights activist, “a more robust dwarf culture and identity...We recognise our situation as being one of oppression, and of being subjected to stigma as being the main source of our difficulty in the world. When you have that community, that sounding board, you’re going to have more pushback to a drug like this.”

Prevent kids from developing major medical problems later in life, or a more robust dwarf culture. Tough choice for Teh Party of Science!™. Oh well, I think the obvious thing is those of us over 6 feet (1.83€) can always identify as little people, or what ever the PC term du jour is.

[PiperPaul]

Here's something interesting:

Increasing percentage of American political funding from those who didn’t earn the money?

https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2020/09/30/increasing-percentage-of-american-political-funding-from-those-who-didnt-earn-the-money/

[Ted S, Catskill Mtns, NY, USA]

[ Reactor throb intensifies. ]

Are you certain it's your reactor that's throbbing?

[pst314]

I think we have heard this before, what now ? First they came for the dwarves...

The first variation on this lunacy that I encountered had to do with deafness. (Or was it blindness? It's so hard to keep all these delusions straight.) It wasn't a disability to be cured but a blessed differentness. A cure would be genocide. So when we see a baby's eyes light up upon hearing for the first time, this is false consciousness: the baby does not yet realize that it's just been oppressed.

[David]

We recognise our situation as being one of oppression, and of being subjected to stigma as being the main source of our difficulty in the world.

As we’ve noted before, there’s a lot of displacement and denial among disabled activists – not least those in academia’s Clown Quarter. Apparently, we’re expected to believe that Professor Stramondo, quoted above, doesn’t resent being born a dwarf, and has never been particularly unhappy about his size and vulnerability, or the various issues and health problems that his condition entails, from difficulty walking and getting dressed, to arthritis and spinal damage.

Instead, we’re expected to believe that the professor is oppressed, but only by “stigma,” and, it seems, by the possibility of a cure, which could spare others the same misfortune.

[David]

We recognise our situation as being one of oppression, and of being subjected to stigma as being the main source of our difficulty in the world.

Presumably, by the same logic, the professor would feel less oppressed if the rest of us would only desire to be disabled in seriously life-altering ways, like right-thinking people should, and actively want our children to be disabled too, just like him. Then everything would be fine. All tickety-boo.

Again, it’s like the “audism” horseshit, linked above, in which activists displace the aggravations of deafness onto people with functional hearing, such that they, not deafness itself, are construed as the sole cause of disadvantage and isolation. And so, the rest of us are denounced as disdainful, oppressive and “violent,” not because of any actual violence, you understand, but simply because we can hear. As mental contortion goes, it’s quite the high-wire act.

As I said a while ago, I have a niece who was born with a hearing problem, successfully corrected with an implant, and a father-in-law who relies on a hearing aid. So far as I can recall, I haven’t ever felt “superior” to either of them on grounds that my hearing works better than theirs. And both seem immensely grateful for the devices that allow them to enjoy music, family gossip and questionable gameshows.

But then neither of them is woke.

[ComputerLabRat]

But then neither of them is woke.

Aye, there's the rub.

Makes all the difference, it does.

[David]

Aye, there’s the rub.

I suppose the thing is, it’s easier to direct long-term resentment at other people rather than abstractions or impersonal things. A disability, for instance. I mean, you can only rail against the universe, or circumstance or whatever, for so long. People, on the other hand, you can resent for a lifetime. So rather than admitting that being disabled isn’t generally a hoot and is best avoided, so far as one can, any disaffection is steered towards other people, regardless of how considerate or otherwise they may be. And so, a preference for not being disabled is construed, ludicrously, as “oppression” and “violence,” and a basis for woke chastisement.

[pst314]

And so, a preference for not being disabled is construed, ludicrously, as “oppression” and “violence,” and a basis for woke chastisement.

It takes a lot of rhetorical sleight-of-hand to claim that being deaf or blind or morbidly obese is not a disability. Recently a severely autistic jerk insisted that being unable to perceive and empathize with others' emotions was not a disability and that we should all celebrate him in the name of "neurodiversity", even or especially because of how he had verbally abused various people.

[Karl]

I see our favourite royal clown couple are back lecturing the British peasantry on their intrinsic racism and privilege.

The ginger prick opines “You know, when you go in to a shop with your children and you only see white dolls, do you even think: ‘That’s weird, there is not a black doll there?’"
I'm assuming he's talking about the Buckingham Palace gift shop, but I'm sure there used to be black dolls in there. They were called golliwogs. They got banned for being racist.

[John]

pst

Your mention of deafness being considered a blessing puts me in mind of the film Children of a Lesser God and the performance of Marlee Matlin. Somewhat ironically her blessing severely limited her subsequent career and the inevitable transition to “activist” followed. In that one role though she was gorgeous.

[[+]]

Don't call riots 'riots'.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/10/01/the-ap-stylebook-now-doesnt-want-a-riot-to-be-called-a-riot-n993223

[David]

Don’t call riots ‘riots’.

“Please stop noticing reality, citizens.”

[Adam]

Mr President, will you denounce white supremacy?

Yes. I denounce it.

Why are you hedging? You didn’t denounce white supremacy. You said you denounced “it”.

I have emphatically and specifically denounced white supremacy.

That was in the past. We are talking today.

I denounce white supremacy.

With respect, you are only saying that because we asked.

[sH2]

Don’t call riots ‘riots’.

Enemy. Of. The. People.

[Karl]

I denounce white supremacy.

Mister Trump, will you now unequivocally denounce the Proud Boys as a racist, white supremacist, ethno-nationalist, murderous, rapist, Russian-funded terror organisation entirely responsible for all of the current sickening levels of shooting, looting and arson in our predominantly Democrat-run inner cities?

News at Nine: Bombshell! President Trump refuses to denounce white supremacists.

[Karl]

Speaking of which: New York Times chief outlines coverage shift: From Trump-Russia to Trump racism

"We built our newsroom to cover one story, and we did it truly well," Baquet said. "Now we have to regroup, and shift resources and emphasis to take on a different story."

Manufacturing all the news that's fit to print. One story at a time!

[a different james]

And both seem immensely grateful for the devices that allow them to enjoy music, family gossip and questionable gameshows

My father's side of the family suffers from a form of progressive deafness which becomes noticeable in childhood and eventually becomes profound. Among his aunts, uncles and cousins (and, I presume, the generations preceding them) there was plenty of depression and alcoholism linked, no doubt, to the isolation of deafness.

My father, his brother and two of my siblings have cochlear implants which have transformed their lives. In another 5 to 10 years I suspect that my expensive hearing aids will no longer suffice and I will also get a cochlear implant.

The advances in medical and hearing aid technology are the blessing- not deafness.

[Concerned Citizen]

I offer these Aphorisms for an Antifa Age:

"Riots" is white-naming the act of POCs reclaiming their Being.

One man's riots is another mans rights!

NFL football is the white masters' way of diverting Black bodies from claiming their rights! The slow-motion riot of a football game substitutes for taking to the streets, and benumbs the masses through alcohol, fatty and sugary snacks, and TV.

The only vote that counts is a Molotov cocktail hurled into a voting booth!

Now you do some....

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I may be biased, but I am just not getting a "Ride of the Valkyries" vibe here.

[Hal]

I may be biased, but I am just not getting a "Ride of the Valkyries" vibe here.

. . . . . "Professional" Wrestling fans.

[fnord]

I see our favourite royal clown couple are back lecturing the British peasantry on their intrinsic racism and privilege.

Having experienced batting 0 for 2, going forward it would behoove the Royals to stay the f**k away from American divorcées

[Daniel Ream]

That doesn't seem like so much a secret plan as the inevitable result of putting malevolent fuckwits in charge of education.

Well, the problem of athletes being enrolled in non-courses so they don't accidentally flunk out has been going on for decades. And I don't think it's so much the universities, as we tend to have similar problems here in Canada where NHL athletes are drafted straight out of high school and tend to have similar trajectories, although they tend to do slightly better in the long run.

The first variation on this lunacy that I encountered had to do with deafness.

Deaf culture is a huge thing. Deaf parents have refused to have their born-deaf children fitted with inexpensive implants because of it. The teen drama/insulting agitprop show Switched At Birth[1] was based on it.

[1] Despite what you might think, the show was not about the two female leads having been accidentally being switched at birth in the hospital but rather about deaf culture, growing up deaf, and how deaf people are just like everyone else except hotter and smarter. Yes, Marlee Matlin was in it.

[asiaseen]

it would behoove the Royals to stay the f**k away from American divorcées
Stick with the German/Danish/Greek options

[Alex DeWynter]

Deaf culture is a huge thing. Deaf parents have refused to have their born-deaf children fitted with inexpensive implants because of it. The teen drama/insulting agitprop show Switched At Birth[1] was based on it.

I vaguely recall one of the Law & Order spinoffs (I think) having an episode with that premise, too.

MOPE (Most Oppressed People Evah) dwarves can take it up with Brad Williams.