THEY CAN HAVE MY HOWITZER WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD ARMORED CHASSIS: Direct Hit! WaPo Shoots Down Biden’s Cannon Misfire.
Archive for 2021
June 28, 2021
ABOUT THOSE EVS WE BRIBED YOU INTO BUYING…: With Its Power Grid Under Pressure, California Asks Residents to Avoid Charging Electric Vehicles.
RETURN TO NORMALCY: As COVID-19 rules ease, common colds rebound across U.S.
As I’ve mentioned in regard to the idea of a “universal” flu vaccine, our immune system probably needs regular challenges to keep it functioning properly.
FLASHBACK: Let’s Hold On to the Throwaway Society.
Disposable products aren’t merely more convenient than the alternative; they’re also safer, particularly during a pandemic but also at any other time. And they have other virtues: the throwaway society is healthier, cleaner, more economical, less wasteful, less environmentally damaging—and yes, more “sustainable” than the green vision of utopia.
These are not new truths, even if it took the Covid-19 pandemic to reveal them again. The throwaway age began because of public-health campaigns a century ago to control the spread of pathogens. Disposable products were celebrated for decades for promoting hygiene and saving everyone time and money. It wasn’t until the 1970s that they became symbols of decadent excess, and then only because of economic and ecological fallacies repeated so often that they became conventional wisdom.
If you’re guided by history or “the science,” it’s clear that agonizing over what goes into the trash is not a universal moral imperative — and it’s not exactly a sign of spiritual enlightenment, either.
FLASHBACK: Danny Casolaro was found dead in a hotel bathtub at the Sheraton hotel in August 1991 — the official verdict was suicide. “At the time of his death, he was investigating a sprawling criminal conspiracy he labelled ‘The Octopus’. . . . Casolaro’s starting point for his investigation was a real criminal case — a wide-ranging Washington scandal involving allegations that the US Government had stolen software company Inslaw’s PROMIS program and added illegal back doors in order to spy on foreign governments.”
IT’S COME TO THIS: Dungeons and Dragons goes woke.
Accusations of racism have long haunted the fantasy realm, dating back to the days of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien. Critics claim Tolkien’s physiology of orcs as barbaric and murderous creatures was designed to reflect people of color, primarily blacks, negatively. The same thoughts made their way to the doorsteps of D&D. In June 2020, as racial riots upended the country following the death of George Floyd, D&D’s publisher Wizard of the Coast released a statement entitled ‘Diversity and Dungeons & Dragons.’ The company denounced D&D’s alleged history of racism stemming from its characterization of orcs and drow races (also known as ‘dark elves’).
‘Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game — orcs and drow being two of the prime examples — have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated,’ the statement reads. ‘That’s just not right, and it’s not something we believe in. Despite our conscious efforts to the contrary, we have allowed some of those old descriptions to reappear in the game. We recognize that to live our values, we have to do an even better job in handling these issues. If we make mistakes, our priority is to make things right.’ The company vowed to offer new descriptions and rewrite the rules for races in future guidebooks.
Wizards of the Coast assumed control of D&D in 1997 and is far removed from the leadership which reigned during the ‘Satanic Panic.’ A new disclaimer on the D&D store reads:
‘We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today…Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.’
While many in the online media sphere welcomed the reforms with open arms, veterans and newer players have concerns.
Why not just avoid the controversy all together, and stick with the sci-fi RPG Traveller? Who wants to be in a smelly old woke dungeon when you can be centuries in the future in a faster-than-light spacecraft?
IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN EVENTUALLY: Politifact Gets One Right (On The Second Amendment).
JIM TREACHER: Asians Don’t Find James Corden Funny Either.
The harmful Late Late Show segment in question, “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts,” involves asking celebrities embarrassing questions and making them either answer or eat something gross. Basically “Truth or Dare,” except a fat limey gets paid millions of dollars a year for it. The repugnant dishes used as punishment have included Asian delicacies like balut (bird embryos), chicken feet, and thousand-year-old eggs.
This is a big no-no, of course, ever since the Chinese Communist Party lied to the world about the global pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China. Now, anything that any Asian person doesn’t like is racism, and if you don’t care, that means you want old Chinese ladies to get beaten up.1 So now an Asian-American activist named Kim Saira has complained about Corden, and he’s promising not to mock any more nauseating foods that might offend an Asian person.
My reaction to this is threefold:
- What a bunch of whiners
- Another woke A-hole gets targeted by his own tribe
- Anything that inconveniences James Corden can’t be all bad
This sort of crybullying has become fashionable ever since the 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu, which was made by an Indian-American “comedian” to complain about a character on The Simpsons that hurt his feelings. That dork used identity politics to get what he wanted, and so did this dork. Except Ms. Saira didn’t even need to make a documentary called The Problem with Shamu.2
You know what would happen to me, a white-ass white man, if I moved to India or China or the Philippines or anywhere else in the world where I’m an ethnic minority? People would make fun of me for the way I talk, the things I like to eat, and every other aspect of my culture.
And you know what? That’s fine! That’s just life. It always has been and always will be, every day, all over the world. Why cry about it like a big baby?
In 2021 America, the answer is simple: Because crying like a big baby gets you what you want. Victimhood is currency, and everybody’s greedy as hell.
Plus some thoughts on another crybully, Olympic athlete Gwen Berry, representing America, but also having a “look at me!” meltdown over “the Star Spangled Banner.”
Or as America’s Newspaper of Record puts it: Athlete So Oppressed By America That She’s Representing America In The Olympics. “Nike has applauded Berry’s bravery and has offered her a $327 million endorsement deal and her own line of Uyghur-made clothing.”
THE FRUITS OF PROGRESSIVISM: New York’s Times Square Looks More Like a Free-Fire Zone Everyday After U.S. Marine Is Shot.
WHERE SOLAR POWER MAKES SENSE: Astronauts unfurl 60-foot-long space station solar array.
HE PLAYS BOTH KINDS — COUNTRY AND WESTERN: CNN’s Brian Stelter Says Balanced News Comes From The East AND West Coasts. “That Americans even need to discuss the idea of ‘balanced’ news in America is part of the serious problem with American media. News outlets are proudly un-balanced. They market themselves that way. They revel in it. For CNN’s Brian Stelter, ‘balanced’ news involves reading newspapers from Washington DC and Los Angeles, CA.”
CRISIS BY DESIGN: Poll: 80% Of Americans Feel Border Is A ‘Serious Crisis,’ Want Trump’s Policies Returned. Americans Feel That Biden Has Created A Massive Crisis At The U.S. Border With Mexico And Most Of Them Want Trump’s Policies Restored.
Earlier:
● Jared Bernstein, member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors: “One thing we learned in the 1990s was that a surefire way to reconnect the fortunes of working people at all skill levels, immigrant and native-born alike, to the growing economy is to let the job market tighten up. A tight job market pressures employers to boost wage offers to get and keep the workers they need. One equally surefire way to sort-circuit this useful dynamic is to turn on the immigrant spigot every time some group’s wages go up.”
● Former Trump administration senior adviser Stephen Miller: Biden’s Immigration Plan Would “Erase America’s Nationhood.”
● “Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser. Labour threw open Britain’s borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a ‘truly multicultural’ country, a former Government adviser has revealed.”
● Tom Cotton’s Response to Kamala Harris’ Border Failures Should Be the Default for All Republicans: “‘You know, Laura, Kamala Harris didn’t have to go all the way to Guatemala and Mexico to find the root causes of this border crisis because they’re not there,’ Cotton told Fox News host Laura Ingraham earlier this week. ‘The root causes are in the White House.’ He further explained that it ‘happened on January 20th when Joe Biden took office, and he essentially opened our borders, reversing very effective policies that had our borders under control.’”
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: The Left Is in Panic Mode Over Losing Voters of Color.
Plus:
- From the mouths of brainwashed babes
- Bush-China Foundation heaps prestige on Chinese spy target
- Welcome to America 2050 and/or Albania 1984
So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST:
● Shot:
A leaked draft report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints the starkest picture yet of the accelerating danger caused by human use of coal, oil, and gas. It warns of coming unlivable heat waves, widespread hunger and drought, rising sea levels and extinction. To understand the report’s warnings, William Brangham turns to atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayoe.
Judy Woodruff: A leaked draft report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints the starkest picture yet of the real and accelerating danger caused by humans’ use of coal, oil, and gas.
William Brangham has the latest.
William Brangham: That’s right, Judy.
This is a draft report, so it may still change. And it was obtained by the AFP, the Agence France-Presse., even so, the report says the threat from climate change is real, it’s here, and it’s getting worse.
It lays out a myriad of impacts, unlivable heat waves, widespread hunger and drought, rising sea levels that will force millions from their homes, and the extinction of many species.
For a U.N. agency, the draft language is blunt, saying — quote — “The worst is yet to come, affecting our children’s and grandchildren’s lives much more than our own.”
—“A leaked UN report warns ‘worst is yet to come’ on climate change. Here’s how you can help,” NPR, Wednesday.
● Chaser:
In the late 1980s the U.N. was already claiming the world had only a decade to solve global warming or face the consequences.
The San Jose Mercury News reported on June 30, 1989 that a “senior environmental official at the United Nations, Noel Brown, says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if global warming is not reversed by the year 2000.”
That prediction didn’t come true 15 years ago, and the U.N. is sounding the same alarm today.
—“25 Years Of Predicting The Global Warming ‘Tipping Point,’” Michael Bastach, the Daily Caller, May 4, 2015.
(Classical reference in headline.)
OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE RUN BY A CABAL OF THEIR ENEMIES: National Archives Says Capitol Rotunda Is Example Of ‘Structural Racism.’
VICTORIA TAFT: Portland’s Antifa-Loving and Police-Hating DA Vies for ‘Worst Prosecutor of the Year’ Award With His Latest Move. “That’s right, the cop is being investigated and may face charges, but the perp will not face any charges for the same incident.”
CRISIS BY DESIGN: Blackouts Loom in California as Electricity Prices Are ‘Absolutely Exploding.’ “Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California: soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability—and both trends bode ill for the state’s low- and middle-income consumers.”
THE DEMAND FOR WHITE SUPREMACY IN TODAY’S AMERICA FAR EXCEEDS THE SUPPLY: Princeton U. to host vigil over ‘noose’ nobody knows anything about. “Several weeks ago at Penn State, two black university professors reported a ‘noose’ in the backyard of their home which they said was placed there ‘deliberately’ to ‘harass them.’ It turned out to be part of their neighbor’s swing set.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U of Oklahoma staff workshop teaches professors how to censor students’ ‘problematic’ views without repercussions.
I don’t understand how a state as red as Oklahoma can have such an obsessively woke state university with so few repercussions.
DEFUND THE POLICE, DISARM THE VICTIMS, POTAYTO, POTAHTO: ‘Defund the police’ led to a crime surge, and Biden’s answer is to blame gun owners?