YOU DON’T SAY: Top Chinese scientist says don’t rule out lab leak. “In a possible sign that the Chinese government may have taken the lab leak theory more seriously than its official statements suggest, Prof Gao also tells the BBC some kind of formal investigation into the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was carried out.”
Archive for 2023
May 30, 2023
BRENDAN O’NEILL: Trans activists will picket the Oxford Union tonight but a counter-cultural revolution has now begun on our campuses against wokery.
Well, when you realize that “woke” just means “crazy, vicious, and stupid,” — and it does.
Related:
You lie and smear, assuming you'll live out your days as a hanging judge and never find yourself in the dock. No cultural moment lasts forever. Yesterday's fanatics realise they joined the wrong mob. Populist movements shrivel and fall apart. Robespierre ended on the guillotine. pic.twitter.com/mlQhd22s2i
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 30, 2023
THE NEW YORKER COVERS THE ‘GATHERING OF THOUGHT CRIMINALS.’ In a sane country, such a gathering would not exist. As it is, I know a bunch of them myself (and work with two of them). Yikes. I guess I should note for the record here that I am not suicidal and do not have any information that would lead to the arrest and convic—
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: U.S. Government Now Confiscating Private Legal Fund Donations to Jan. 6 Defendants.
21ST CENTURY QUESTIONS: Are Woo Non-Responders Defective?
ELECTIONS HAVE CONSQUENCES: Game Over For Turkey As Net Reserves Turn Negative, Morgan Stanley Sees Lira Collapsing. “While the endgame here is clear to all, few are willing to say it out loud for fear of retaliation by the Erdogan regime.”
SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Why Taylor Swift is the new Grateful Dead—and what it means for the future of live entertainment.
After seeing the scene, with thousands of fans setting up camp outside the arena to take in the show, it struck me that there are a number of striking similarities between Swift’s brand and that of one of my favorite bands, The Grateful Dead, including their struggles with ticket scalpers, which could lead to big changes in the future of the live-entertainment business and how it is structured.
On the surface, the two bands couldn’t be more different. Swift is a gifted artist who performs very personal songs for legions of young female fans in a series of highly choreographed set pieces with dazzling outfits; while the Dead, for most of their career, were a bunch of grizzled old, bearded guys who were perfectly content playing songs about cowboys, hustlers, and murdering men, dressed in T-shirts and jeans and barely moving on stage.
But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find some surprising similarities. Artistically, in their early years, both the Dead and Swift drew on similar musical roots in country and bluegrass but then evolved and wove other strains into their musical tapestries, including folk, blues, pop, and psychedelia. Both artists are not only musical innovators, but also singer-songwriters who despite covering vastly different territory are lyrical geniuses who have developed a canon of classic songs. While Swift writes or co-writes all her songs, the Dead wrote by small committee with most of their ditties penned by Jerry Garcia and lyricist extraordinaire Robert Hunter.
Both grew over time into incredibly successful commercial acts with cult followings. Believe it or not, after the Dead released their hit album In the Dark in 1987 and grew their fanbase, they were actually the highest-grossing musical act for two years in the early 1990s. Swift continues to top the album charts, and her latest Eras Tour with its 44-songs setlist, is expected to smash current records and be the highest-grossing tour of all time.
I saw a Taylor Swift sticker on a Cadillac. A little voice inside my head said, “Don’t look back, you can never look back.”
DEMOCRATS GAG CONGRESSWOMEN IN KINKY NEW BILLBOARDS: Who knew that the ‘D’ in ‘BDSM’ was for ‘Democrat?’
Democrats are rolling out a novel strategy heading into 2024: kinky ads featuring Republicans.
Cockburn, whose stance is pro-kink and anti-shame, came across new billboards that House Democrats are launching against Congresswomen Jen Kiggans and Michelle Steel. The two trailblazing women are depicted gagged, next to a bare-faced Donald Trump. The ads argue that the women were silent when former President Trump said he wanted to defund federal law enforcement.
Kiggans won her seat in 2022, two years after Trump left the White House, while Steel won hers in 2020, so overlapped with him for all of two weeks. The ads suggest that the main strategy Democrats have to retake the House is rehashing the anti-Trump messaging that was effective… when Trump was actually president. But hey, Democrats have been using the same campaign tactics for almost a decade now — why change it up?
Why is the Democratic Party such a cesspit of misogyny?
LINCOLN BROWN: Stores, Stores Everywhere, and Not a Place to Shop. “Either more stores are betting on their ESG scores over consumer traffic or people are just getting more attuned to the prevalence of the new normal not only in society but also in retail. Shoppers can add Kohl’s to the list of entities where they would never be caught dead, right behind Bud Light, the Dodgers, and Target.”
HEIGHT DISCRIMINATION IS REAL: Leg-lengthening surgeries are a growing trend among men.
IS THIS REALLY AN IMPROVEMENT? Why Teens Are Drinking Much Less. “Parties used to enable young people to expand their social circle, meet potential romantic partners, or take an existing friendship to a romantic or sexual level. Now adolescents can expand their social circle, meet potential romantic partners and try on a more flirtatious and confident persona – all without leaving the house.”
CHINA: China’s Fading Recovery Reveals Deeper Economic Struggles.
China’s era of rapid growth is over. Its recovery from zero-Covid is stalling. And now the country is facing deep, structural problems in its economy.
The outlook was better just a few months ago, after Beijing lifted its draconian Covid-19 controls, setting off a flurry of spending as people ate out and splurged on travel.
But as the sugar high of the reopening wears off, underlying problems in China’s economy that have been building for years are reasserting themselves.
The property boom and government overinvestment that fueled growth for more than a decade have ended. Enormous debts are crippling households and local governments. Some families, worried about the future, are hoarding cash.
Plus: “Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s crackdowns on private enterprise have discouraged risk-taking.”
So much for innovating their way out…
THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Barrington (RI) Memorial Day Parade Restored To Veterans Group Ousted After Objecting to BLM Flag Flying Over Veterans Memorial.
DAVID THOMPSON: New Niche Indignation.
You see, if friends come over for a pleasant evening and they don’t immediately consider you a potential mugger of women, or rapist of women, this is oppressive, “invalidating,” and “transphobic.” Such that it feels like “a punch in the gut.” It’s perhaps not the most obvious basis for invoking the unfairness of the world and one’s own endless suffering, but hey. In this competition, contrivance equals bonus points.
Quite what the author’s partner makes of this news – that in order to avoid being “transphobic,” she must consider her transgender lover a potential rapist – is, alas, not divulged.
The Weimar Republic called, and said that 2023 might want to slow down a bit and look for the brake pedal on its way to the apocalypse.
LIGHTNING DEAL: Flat Plug Power Strip, Ultra Thin Flat Extension Cord. #CommissionEarned
IT ADDS A LOT OF DEBT AND NOT MUCH SAVINGS: Is the Debt Deal Destined for Death?
As Jim Treacher likes to say:
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Tulsi Gabbard: The Democratic Party is tearing us apart.
COLORADO: Liz Cheney booed at commencement speech.
Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney was booed and protested as she gave a commencement speech Sunday at her alma mater Colorado College — even though she condemned her GOP colleagues in her address.
While she received some applause and support, a contingent of students booed her and turned their chairs around so their backs faced her during her speech, apparently because the former Wyoming congresswoman is Republican, according to news reports.
“When Cheney was introduced — mostly to applause — about half the graduates turned their chairs 180 degrees and sat with their backs to the former Wyoming congresswoman for the entirety of her speech,” the Gazette reported.
The Daily Mail reported Cheney was booed by some grads despite the fact that she was a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump.
It’s almost as though she couldn’t buy new friends by turning her back on her old ones.
“THE LITTLE MERMAID”: What the Media Isn’t Telling You About the Film’s Box Office Performance.
HOW ALUMNI CAN HELP IN THE BATTLE AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED DEI-ISM. Your alma mater needs you! (So do your kids and grandkids, if college is not to be bald-faced indoctrination.)
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UMich botanical garden employs DEI manager, hosts ‘confronting racism’ training.