Archive for 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS:

DECLINE IS A CHOICE: Man Dresses as ISIS Fighter, Crosses Border Unchallenged Between Denmark and Germany.

Entirely unrelated: France’s National Front Finds Support Among Millennials.

Sébastien Faustini’s decision to skip the firework display at the beach not only potentially saved his life — it steered his politics toward the far right.

The soft-spoken 18-year-old stayed home with his cousin and watched the Bastille Day display on TV, instead of heading to the Nice promenade as they’d planned on July 14.

A truck was driven into the crowd that night, killing 86 people.

“We could have been there,” said Faustini, who is now forced to pass by the scene of attack daily on his way to university. “Every day that hits me.”

Three weeks ago, he joined France’s far-right National Front.

“Certain media organizations stigmatize members of the National Front calling them fascists, insults that have nothing to do with the party’s program,” Faustini told NBC News.

Faustini is far from alone. Many millennials are embracing the National Front — which boasts a founder who had been fined repeatedly for racism and anti-Semitism. They say recent terrorist attacks across Europe and high unemployment levels validate their personal views and the party’s anti-immigration stance.

It’s easier for the political class to blame fascist “outside agitators” than their own weakness, corruption, and incompetence. But those are the real problems.

HOW A TV SITCOM TRIGGERED THE DOWNFALL OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: “I want to discuss a popular TV show my wife and I have been binge-watching on Netflix. It’s the story of a family man, a man of science, a genius who fell in with the wrong crowd. He slowly descends into madness and desperation, lead by his own egotism. With one mishap after another, he becomes a monster. I’m talking, of course, about Friends and its tragic hero, Ross Geller. You may see it as a comedy, but I cannot laugh with you.”

YOUR YULE LOG VIDEO:

Okay, this is from a few years ago, but I enjoyed the whole Island Christmas thing!

UPDATE: Is this rampant hyper-masculinity appropriate for Christmas? Sorry if you’re offended by all the testosterone!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

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WAS THE BLACK DEATH BAD FOR EUROPE? Was Barack Obama Bad for Democrats? “His legacy regrettably includes the more than 1,000 Democrats who lost their elections during his two terms. Republicans now have total control in half of America’s states.” Note that the takeaway lesson — which Republicans should encourage — is that Obama just didn’t go left enough, loudly enough.

IT WOULD BE EASIER AND MORE TO THE POINT TO LIST WHAT DOESN’T OFFEND FEMINISTS: Why Holidays Offend Feminists.