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Another quick thought on left and right
I think it's important that we realize that both of these ideas have both positive and negative aspects. It's important that we do NOT harden these tendencies into tribal division as we are doing now - it's important that each side recognize the positive aspects of the opposition - and the negative aspects of their own side.
So what are they? Off the cuff, the left is, at it's best, the champion of the oppressed, the vanguard of positive change, the people that are making the world better. But it's also envy. It's refusing to believe that anyone could be richer than me without doing something wrong. It's creating the oppressed so that you can be their champion, it can tend too easily not just to tribalism, but to a particularly virulent and harmful form of tribalism - the assumption of moral superiority which so easily escalates to dehumanization and thence to mass murder. Look at the Soviet Union after the fall. It's change for the sake of change, it's that idea that somehow burning down the system that keeps food in the mouth and roof over the head of so many of your fellow humans is actually going to improve their lot. It won't.
And the right? At it's best, it is indeed the champions of civilization, the willingness to stand up and strap on your gear and go face the barbarian at the gate. But it's also greed. It's taking the easy choice of acceding to tradition, as if you were helpless before it - but only when doing so benefits you financially. At it's worst, it too veers into tribalism, to nationalism and racism and every form of jingoism - and with those things the same tendency to dehumanize, to excuse murder, war, genocide.
When we divide into right and left, we lose. We need to do the opposite. We need a middle ground, not in terms of a compromise, but of selecting the best qualities of each.
SALUTE: John Sununu
Camerota asked Sununu about the Washington Post’s report that the president personally rejected plans for a White House statement to honor McCain.
“That was printed in the Washington Post,” Sununu said. “And I have to be honest with you, I don’t give much credence to what I read –”
Camerota interjected — noting that CNN confirmed the information.
“We also have that reporting,” she said.
Sununu scoffed at this.
“Yeah, well, same thing applies, Alisyn.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/08/27/cnns-sununu-torches-cnns-camerota-for-trying-to-turn-mccain-tribute-into-a-trump-bashing-event-n2513452
I remember Sununu from years past. I never liked him, or disliked him. He seemed like the average politcian - probably dirty, but not terribly dirty. He did stuff that needed to be done, and no one really had to take notice of him, I guess.
Today, I have to salute him. He says that WaPo lacks credibility - as well as CNN. WAY TO GO JOHN!!!
I'm about sick of CNN. At work, they've recently put television in the break room. I don't know why - I guess they have their reasons. I spend VERY little time in the break room, but I'm finding that it's too much time. All I have to do is walk through, and I hear disgusting crap, all tilted far left. Trump this, Trump that, and "Did you hear what Trump did now?" FFS, it's tiresome. (Is this the first "resistance" in history to bore the opposition to tears?)
This skank, Camerota, was purpotedly there to talk about McCain. I never thought highly of McCain, but that's beside the point. The purpose of the interview is to honor the dead guy. Camerota, instead, insists on stabbing at Trump. She dirties the name of the dead guy, to win points against Trump. "We have excellent reporters". Bullshit. You stupid bitch, reporters REPORT THE NEWS!! They don't insist on shaping the news, or creating the news, or even telling you what the news means. Just report the news!!
Sununu definitely got the better of this skanky wannabe.
Zombie Conservatives
The Guardian and the BBC report that last year the Conservative Party in the UK received twice as much money in donations from dead people than from living members. The Labour Party received almost £10M more in donations, mostly from living members. The Conservative Party had a membership of 124 000 (living) and Labour 564 443.
lardass leathernecks
So, uhhh, fat soldiers and sailors? Yeah, it's always been a thing. One service or another gets a little lax, and suddenly, you got a bunch of fatties waddling around the base, or wherever. This isn't much of a problem in wartime, but peacetime can be terrible. Dude's 5 ft 9 inches, and weighs 320 pounds, and just can't keep up. Life is like that. But, the military can't afford to ignore the problem.
So, my Navy has always had problems with weight. A guy could eventually be discharged for medical reasons if he was too heavy, but it would take awhile. I understand that in the early 90's, a lot of housecleaning was done in the Navy, and they got pretty serious about lard asses. You might have 18 years in, and less than two years from retirement - but if you didn't lose the weight, you got booted.
The Air Force probably has a worse history with overweight than the Navy. Coasties probably about the same as the Navy. Army? REMF's might get away with having a pair of asses in tow, not so much Rangers and such.
Today? FFS, the USMC is having weight problems!
PDF addressing the problem here: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/MCO%206110.3A.pdf?ver=2017-01-04-071352-610
Russian Times article covers it: https://www.rt.com/usa/436525-marine-corps-obesity-diet/
No more burgers or beer? The fitness-obsessed US Marine Corps is rolling out a color-coded food labeling scheme in a bid to trim the fat and fight the growing problem of its members being classified as overweight or obese.
Obesity is widespread in the US, and not even the military elite is safe. A 2017 Army report classified 17 percent of soldiers as ‘obese,’ and the problem is rearing its ugly head even in the USMC, which has the strictest physical fitness requirements of all military branches.
Keen to avoid the Devil Dogs from becoming unfit and blubbery, USMC leadership is starting the fight against obesity at the chow halls, reported Military.com.
Marines eating on base will now tuck into a menu designed to provide clean energy and better fuel their mental and physical needs. The offerings were inspired by the food served to elite college athletes, Force Fitness Division director Colonel Stephen Armes told Military.com.
Lean protein like bison meatloaf and mahi-mahi steaks will be offered at mealtimes, and grab-and go snacks will consist of yogurts, cheese, eggs, trail mix, and vegetarian options. Marines looking to grab a quick and dirty snack will now have to walk further: junk food options will be placed at the back of the chow hall, past all the healthier offerings.
If that walk of shame doesn’t discourage Private Pudge from unhealthy snacking, the Corps hopes that its new color coding system will. The healthiest foods will be labeled green, or “eat as much as you want,” while yellow labels will advise troops to “eat with caution.” Red labels will be attached to the worst junk food, with Marines advised to “go minimal.”
Similar changes are being made in other branches. The Army operates its own labeling system to help soldiers make informed choices, while the Navy cut out all fried foods and soda on its ships in 2014.
The Marine Corps still holds the honor of being the fittest branch of the military. Yet, according to a 2016 report, over 4,800 Marines are technically overweight. However, Marines who tip the scales can opt to be measured by their body fat percentage instead, as the standard Body Mass Index (BMI) scale unfairly considers some muscular marines ‘overweight.’
As small as the Corps’ obesity problem may be, for a force that calls itself the home of “The Few, the Proud, the Brave,” it is still a problem, and one that leadership hopes they can head off in the kitchen.
"Incorporating the basic nutrition principles will build a foundation for mission readiness, cognitive performance as well as endurance performance," college nutritionist Nikki Jupe told MIlitary.com. "Using different nutritional strategies [can also help] prepare for deployment."
What amazes me is, our entire nation pretty much eats trash. Why doesn't the military just take unilateral action, and ban junk food? Ban processed foods containing sugars and salts. Ban all those chips. Then, the rest of us should follow suit.
A few generations ago, there were people who led sedentary lives, but didn't blow up to blimp size. They ate less, of course, but they ate HEALTHY!!
Walk through your local grocery, and look at what is on offer. All processed stuff. The food I grew up on is simply no longer available. Need an example? Beef liver. A couple months ago, I decided that I wanted liver and onions when I got home. Stopped at a store - no liver. Stopped at another, no liver. Stopped at a THIRD grocery store. Hmmm. Liver, sort of. It wasn't in the butcher section, where I expected it. I found some liver vacuum packed, already processed by some industrial farm.
It gets harder and harder to find "real food" without added sugar, added salt, dairy products contaminated with antibiotics and growth hormones. And, chicken. Blechh.
So, today, we have lardass leathernecks.
We're doing something seriously wrong in this country.
Left and right is wrong, but why is that important?
There are decent arguments in both directions. Left and right, imperfect and imprecise as they are, are not complete nonsense. Realizing that is relatively new for me, and you could say that's the reason for the entry itself. For decades, I thought "this is complete nonsense" and I was mystified that it got traction. Just goes to prove how powerful control of the media/education/military/industrial/government complex is... well no. Not entirely.
There's something deeper here. As inaccurate as left and right are, they are accurate at a level, a particular level that is, shall we say, very close to the gut?
But it's not really an ideological or political divide this corresponds to, it's a *psychological* divide. The left is more psychologically open, to both good and bad influences, the right more suspicious of both sorts of outside influence.
So there is some truth to it, and some rational reason for people to cling to it.
But it's still, essentially, nuts. You need a minimum of two dimensions to make the slightest sense of politics *qua politics*. Right and left, as commonly presented here in the USA, conflates separate poles that have nothing to do with each other. Left is "liberal" but liberal has been a dirty word since they crucified Carter (pbuphn.) And the actual left has virtually no one left that's actually noticeably liberal in any way. Right is 'conservative' but conservative is not the opposite of liberal; and the right-wing party hasn't been noticeably more conservative than the left-wing party in decades anyway.
So let's set 2 dimensions, that means 4 poles. Liberal is the opposite of authoritarian, conservative is the opposite of radical. I know, not a new thought, Nolan will sue me, but at least my labels are correct. What we actually have is two extremely authoritarian parties, one slightly radical and the other extremely radical. There are no liberals, nor conservatives, allowed space on the field at all.
Trump is currently the closest thing that is permitted to exist, per the mainstream media. And they're outraged that he exists. He's not very liberal at all, but there's only maybe 3 or 4 congresscritters to his 'left' in the classical sense in all of Washington!
He's not very conservative either, though I'd think about twice that many congresscritters could flank him there.
As there are ~550 congresscritters, this is a very depressing statistic for a conservative, or a liberal, let alone someone like myself who is tending towards both positions.
And why is this all important? Because as long as they can focus on this artificial division, between ostensibly 'liberal' progressives (whose actual positions range from radical liberal to radical authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter) and ostensibly 'conservative' fascists (whose actual position, in my terms, would range from conservative liberal to conservative authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter *in leadership* but not necessarily in the rank and file) the authentic liberal positions are systematically marginalized and made invisible.
The game is to keep the liberals split, with conservative liberals in one party and radical liberals in the other party - while both parties remain safely under control of authoritarians.
And this is why it's important. Because if there is any alternative to dystopia, it must be for the conservative liberals and the radical liberals to unite and overthrow our common oppressors - the authoritarians, the authoritarian mind, and all that resembles it.
We can't do that while we're busy dividing up into right-tribe and left-tribe. We can't do that while we're smacking each other in the head with bike-locks to impress our particular oppressors and curry favor with our tribe.
We can't be human beings while we are slaves to these distorted images of tribes that never really existed to begin with.
Tikkum Olam ("Mend the world"), all of you.
Especially you, Ethanol ;)
-Arik Yehuda (the Lion of Judah.)
Vacation II: Electric Boogaloo
I'm off for another week of lake visiting tomorrow afternoon Central. Camping with female companionship this time. I expect there to be more sex but less fishing than the last trip. So, mixed bag.
Start picking your interim targets of blame now to avoid the rush. If all else fails, try the ~blame command on IRC.
Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented
Millennial Couple Bikes Through ISIS Territory to Prove ‘Humans Are Kind’ and Gets Killed
"Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans."
An idealistic young American couple was killed in an Islamic State-claimed terrorist attack last month while on a cycling trip around the world.
Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, who were both in their late 20s, last year quit their office jobs in Washington, DC, to embark on the journey. Austin, a vegan who worked for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Geoghegan, a vegetarian who worked in the Georgetown University admissions office, decided that they're were wasting their lives working.
"I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige,” Austin wrote on his blog before he quit. “I’ve missed too many sunsets while my back was turned. Too many thunderstorms went unwatched, too many gentle breezes unnoticed.”
Read more here: https://www.pluralist.com/posts/1824-millennial-couple-bikes-through-isis-territory-to-prove-humans-are-kind-and-gets-killed
The couple's "joint blog" here: http://www.simplycycling.org/
Perhaps these two should have gone to Sunday School more often, where they might have learned the Lord's Prayer.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherfucker in the valley!
Oh well - rest in pieces, you dumb fucks!
However, Austin and Geoghegan's dream trip came to a tragic and gruesome end when they got to Tajikistan, a country with a known terrorist presence. They were riding their bikes through the country on July 29 when a car rammed them, according to CBS News. Five men got out of the car and stabbed the couple to death along with two other cyclists, one from Switzerland and the other from the Netherlands.
Two days later, ISIS released a video showing the same men sitting in front of the black ISIS flag. They looked at the camera and vowed to kill "disbelievers," according to The New York Times.
Some conservatives have framed the tragedy as a cautionary tale about not just the perils of travel but also naivete in general. In their telling, an overly generous understanding of human nature is behind much of today's progressive movement, including calls to radically scale back immigration enforcement and policing and support for socialism.
Some liberals, for their part, might view Austin and Geoghegan as martyrs in the struggle for a better world, or simply as unfortunate.
Coverage varies with other news outlets:
https://iotwreport.com/wapo-asks-if-murdered-pollyanna-millennial-couple-were-naive/
https://www.app.com/story/news/world/2018/08/08/jay-austin-lauren-geoghegan-isis-tajikistan-simply-cycling/935093002/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/world/asia/islamic-state-tajikistan-bike-attack.html
Charles Darwin isn't commenting on this story.
In our America love wins
Mrs Turgid and I went for a holiday in the USA this year. I've never been before, but she has, since she has an aunt who lives in Portland, Oregon.
Since we were going to the USA, I decided that we really must visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the way, so we flew from London to Orlando via Dublin. The most stressful part of the trip was Dublin airport. You have to collect your boarding pass for the second leg of the flight in the airport and they're pretty laid back at the desk in spite of schedules and deadlines. Then you have to go through US immigration. That wouldn't be so bad if you hadn't waited an age to get your boarding pass.
I was lucky and got selected for extra security. Oh boy, did I get security. Luckily the fellow doing it was very jolly and Mrs Turgid remarked that he was now on more intimate terms with me than she was.
The immigration officer was very efficient and being an idiot and tired and flustered I forgot what day I was leaving the USA which did not impress him very much. When going to the USA the immigration officers are mostly interested in how and when you will be leaving the USA. Remember that to make your immigration experience as painless and quick as possible.
On the flight, as we landed I got an interesting earworm, "Living With a Hernia" by Weird Al. The first song on the radio in the taxi on the way from the airport to the hotel in Orlando was "Living In America!" Spooky?
The Kennedy Space Center was the coolest thing I have ever seen and I saw two alligators. We had lunch with an astronaut! That was a very pleasant surprise that Mrs Turgid had arranged. We saw space shuttle Atlantis and we did weep. We also had a long bus tour of the site, including many launch pads. We saw the VAB and pads 39A and 39B. I also noticed a building which said on the side "Home of the X37-B." The tour guide didn't mention that.
After the tours we wandered round until we saw the Saturn V. Now I can die a happy man.
After three nights in Orlando (which was very hot and humid, but with plentiful and cheap food) we went via Atlanta to Portland, Oregon to stay with auntie and her husband. Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest, is beautiful. On the plane we saw Mount Hood, Mt Ranier and Mt St Helens.
Portland is a lovely place, and Oregon is full of Pentiums such as Willamette, Yamhill, Deschutes, you name it. They also make lots of very excellent wine and beer. There are lagers, wheat beers, amber ales, stouts, porters... and they all taste of something good. The food's great too. I made the mistake of ordering side orders in the pub. There was enough to feed a family of four.
We went to the beach at Lincoln City for a few nights. I put my feet in the Pacific Ocean and it was cold (Scotland cold).
On the way back from Lincoln City we stopped at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where I saw the Spruce Goose, an SR-71B, X-15, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo 16, V1, V2, Goddard's rocket, all kinds of weird helicopters...
We drove along the Columbia river, went to Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood, went to Multnomah Falls, went into Washington State etc.
Mrs Turgid and I also went to Seattle by train for a couple of nights. I know people like to berate American trains, but by modern British standards they are sheer luxury.
Seattle is pretty cool. We stayed in a hotel near the Space Needle and very close by was a pub called the Teku Tavern which had hundreds of kinds of excellent beers and ciders. We went on a tour about the old town called Beneath the Streets. We also found a really cool shop called Utilikilts which is a gentlemen's outfitters specialising in kilts for the physically active and strident working man. Unfortunately I did not have enough money left to buy a Utilikilt, having just bought a laptop. They don't seem to have invented the Buiness Kilt yet. I think I might send them an email.
We didn't go up the Space Needle, but we went up the Smith Tower, which made me seasick and I had to take a pint of ale to steady my nerves.
There was also a long-haired dude wearing a bandana driving a Pontiac Firebird with the roof off, with tiger skin seat covers and loud music.
Conclusion: American beer is good, American food is not too bad if you choose wisely, the weather's hot, sometimes hot and humid, and no one tried to shoot me. And they went to the Moon, in peace, for all mankind.
As they say in Portland, Oregon, "In our America love wins."
No Shit, Sherlock
The brilliant motherfuckers over at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany have gotten their science on and done up a paper stating in part that crazy bitches are better in the sack. Thanks a bunch there, folks. Think you could do up a study on whether guys like to look at boobs next?
The State of the White Supremacist Movement
When you hold a widely publicized ahead of time rally for your cause in DC and less than fifty people show up, your movement not only doesn't exist but is repugnant to the American people. You could get more than fifty people to show up to just do the Thriller dance and go home. Must really butthurt the poor progtards who've been trying like hell to gin up fear of white supremacists.
