SO I FINISHED THE P.T. Deutermann WWII novels and now I’ve moved on to his Scorpion in the Sea. All really entertaining stuff and I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of him sooner.
Archive for 2022
August 21, 2022
OPEN THREAD: Enjoy each other’s company.
HE REALLY WAS WEARING THAT SKIRT AWFULLY SHORT: The American Conservative denounces Salman Rushdie, complains that his book was ‘deliberately insulting to Islam.’
JULIE BURCHILL: Cultural appropriation has killed modern music.
ZE Records was started up in New York City in 1978 by Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban, Zilkha a 24-year-old entrepreneur (his father, an Iraqi-Jewish immigrant to Britain, was Mothercare) and Esteban a 27-year-old French artist, mentored by the legendary John Cale, and the boyfriend of a young Anna Wintour. This combination of dirty cash tangling with both avant-garde and haute couture would add up to an awful lot of well-bred young Americans pretending to be French – and a lot of brilliant music, a fearless fusion of punk and disco. Their best acts were ‘Was (Not Was)’, Cristina Monet (the Zelda Fitzgerald of pop) and Suicide (with the most terrifying music ever recorded, Nick Hornby writing of ‘Frankie Teardrop’ that you would listen to it ‘only once’). You’d never heard anything like ZE – but you knew you’d been waiting all your life to listen to it.
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ZE closed in 1984 – it was only active for six years, which makes its reach all the more remarkable. Suicide’s icy genius now soundtracks a perfume ad; Cristina died of Covid. Many on the left now espouse ideas of cultural purity that would shock the Aryan Brotherhood. And if you Google ‘Ze’ you’ll find the likes of this on dictionary.com:
‘pronoun (occasionally used with a singular indefinite pronoun or singular noun antecedent in place of the definite masculine he or the definite feminine she): “My friend didn’t want to go to the party, but ze ended up having a great time!”’
Did ze, though? What was the music like? Did ze approve, or should ze have had a trigger warning before Fonda Rae started singing ‘Touch Me’? Was it so beautiful and bad that it made ze sad? Never mind – in five years’ time, pronouns will have gone the way of the antimacassar. But the magnificent music of the mutant disco will play on forever.
We’ve descended into some sort of bizarre hell-world in which Gwen Stefani is a voice of sanity: Gwen Stefani Is Right: Cultural Appreciation Is Not Cultural Appropriation.
An obsession with cultural appropriation also reveals the deep unseriousness of self-proclaimed “anti-racists.” The modern left, with its influence in boardrooms and newsrooms and classrooms, takes every opportunity to lecture weary Americans about the enduring evil of whiteness and of white supremacy.
While their racially charged screeds are almost always unfounded, within their rhetoric is a message that threatens to cultivate white pride where it didn’t exist before. By reinforcing the idea that cultural appreciation is cultural appropriation and therefore racist, woke warriors encourage white people to insulate themselves from the cultures and experiences of others and fully embrace tribalism wherein race is a focal point.
“Most critics of cultural appropriation, coming from the far left, also fear the rise of white supremacy,” wrote Julian Adorney here at The Federalist in 2018. “But the best way to combat white supremacy is to encourage people of all races, whites included, to borrow at will from other cultures — as drawing more lines between races and cordoning off the exploration of other cultures is wholly contradictory to the end goal of creating a harmonious, diverse, and pluralist society.”
Americans who take pride in the melting-pot nature of this grand experiment would likely agree with Adorney, as does Stefani. “If we didn’t buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn’t have so much beauty, you know?” she said. “We learn from each other, we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more.”
Take a tip from Stefani. Don’t let the race-baiters bully you into giving up cultural appreciation.
Related: “As Richard Fernandez tweeted: ‘The elites lost their mojo by becoming absurd. It happened on the road between cultural appropriation and transgender bathrooms.’ It was fatal: ‘People believe from instinct. The Roman gods became ridiculous when the Roman emperors did. PC is the equivalent of Caligula’s horse.’”
MANCHIN GETS THE “CLIMATE BILL” LAST LAUGH: “The climate measure President Joe Biden signed Tuesday bypasses the administration’s concerns about emissions and guarantees new drilling opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. The legislation was crafted to secure backing from a top recipient of oil and gas donations, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and was shaped in part by industry lobbyists.”
Plus: “The most amusing part of this story is perhaps not the underlying news about new oil and gas leases, but the language the AP reporter chose to employ. After the CBO report came out, along with multiple analyses from economists, they’ve basically given up on calling the recent legislation the ‘Inflation Reduction Act.’ In the title of the article, they simply call it the ‘climate bill.’ They then go on to call it the ‘climate measure.’ You have to dig down to the third paragraph before they bother mentioning the actual name of the bill as it was crafted.”
So they’ve basically admitted that as an inflation bill it’s not one, and now it turns out that as a climate bill it’s not one either. But as a graft bill it’s still tops, so everybody goes home pretty happy. But it’s a Democratic bill, so don’t expect the Associated Press to note that.
21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Digital Clones Of Deceased Loved Ones Chat With Mourners At Own Funerals.
The rest of the essay is an attack on presentism in recent Supreme Court decisions written by Justice Thomas and Justice Alito. Perhaps [James H. Sweet] thought that by ending with an attack on conservatives on the Supreme Court readers would be willing to overlook his criticism of the 1619 Project. But he was clearly wrong about that. I’d prefer to show you some of the tweets reacting to the essay but many of the primary sources (so to speak) have been hidden away by people protecting their tweets. So here’s a description of what happened from economist Phillip W. Magness at the American Institute for Economic Research. It’s worth noting that Magness has been a frequent critic of the 1619 Project.
Within moments of his column appearing online, all hell broke loose on Twitter.
Incensed at even the mildest suggestion that politicization is undermining the integrity of historical scholarship, the activist wing of the history profession showed up on the AHA’s thread and began demanding Sweet’s cancellation. Cate Denial, a professor of history at Knox College, led the charge with a widely-retweeted thread calling on colleagues to bombard the AHA’s Executive Board with emails protesting Sweet’s column. “We cannot let this fizzle,” she declared before posting a list of about 20 email addresses.
Other activist historians joined in, flooding the thread with profanity-laced attacks on Sweet’s race and gender as well as calls for his resignation over a disliked opinion column. The responses were almost universally devoid of any substance. None challenged Sweet’s argument in any meaningful way. It was sufficient enough for him to have harbored the “wrong” thoughts – to have questioned the scholarly rigor of activism-infused historical writing, and to have criticized the 1619 Project in even the mildest terms…
Other activist historians such as the New School’s Claire Potter retorted that the 1619 Project was indeed scholarly history, insisting that “big chunks of it are written by professional, award-winning historians.” Sweet was therefore in the wrong to call it journalism, or to question its scholarly accuracy. Potter’s claims are deeply misleading. Only two of the 1619 Project’s twelve feature essays were written by historians, and neither of them are specialists in the crucial period between 1776-1865, when slavery was at its peak. The controversial parts of the 1619 Project were all written by opinion journalists such as Hannah-Jones, or non-experts writing well outside of their own competencies such as Matthew Desmond.
Read the whole thing, and note that “Nikole Hannah Jones herself has previously stated [in a series of since-deleted but screenshot tweets] that the 1619 Project was about journalism and narrative, not history. In other words, she has admitted this was exactly the sort of exercise in ‘presentism’ Sweet was saying it was in his essay: ‘The project spoke to the political moment, but I never thought of it primarily as a work of history.’”
Live look at Sweet writing the usual groveling apology to the outrage mob:
Steve Hayward notes that the American Historical Association has locked down its Twitter account, adding that Henry Ford was right, “History Is Bunk After All.”
LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES: Footage shows man released by judge fatally beat senior citizen in Seattle: cops. “A Seattle man released from jail in July after allegedly threatening to kill a transit cop now faces murder charges over an unprovoked, caught-on-tape fatal assault on a senior citizen. Video allegedly shows Aaron Fulk, 48, strike 66-year-old Rodney Peterman with a metal pole in broad daylight Aug. 2 at Pike Street and Third Avenue, according to KOMO News. Fulk kept striking Peterman after the older man collapsed unconscious, fracturing his skull, according to police. . . . A judge there opted to release him despite prosecutors’ request he be held on $10,000 bail, KOMO News said.”
STEVE GREEN SMILES: Japan wants young adults to drink more to save alcohol industry.
LATEST STUPID CLAIM: Milk is Racist.
THOUGHTS ON THE ATLANTIC’S ABSURD ATTACK ON THE ROSARY AS an extremist weapon.
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: High ESG Scores Foreshadow Economic Decline. “Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka’s dalliance with ESG has been a clarion call to the world. Following its president’s resignation, the South Asian nation is basically on the verge of collapse. . . . Sri Lanka was praised as a model ESG candidate for committing to carbon neutrality by 2050 and halving its nitrogen use. Today, it’s experiencing 54.6% runaway inflation. The aforementioned Ghana, the Netherlands, and Sri Lanka case studies prove ESG policies have ruinous effects on political stability, economic growth, and inflation rates. And these won’t be the last countries with high scores to experience turmoil.”
BRIAN STELTER’S FINAL DELUSIONAL RANT SHOWS WHY HE GOT THE BOOT:
Curtis Houck of NewsBusters took the bullet for all of us and waded into the dreck.
“We’re barely five minutes into the final Reliable Sources and the arrogance and hatred for conservatives that “the truth is not neutral” with Stelter and Carl Bernstein is flowing. They’ve already shown why it’s being canceled.”
“Second segment for Brian Stelter’s final show — the risk to the lives of journalists and how dangerous it is to be one in America because of the far-right. Ah, yes. Being a journalist in America is JUST like reporting in China, Myanmar, North Korea, and Russia!” Houck said.
Criticizing and mocking bad CNN hosts isn’t threatening or putting their lives at risk.
But Stelter would like to present the illusion that he’s some kind of mystical knight fight for “democracy” against the evil Donald Trump. That’s not just false, it’s delusional–and it surely isn’t journalism.
“CNN’s Brian Stelter decries outside criticism of journalism as a “poisonous cloud” that’s spread throughout the country and around the world. He adds he’s “proud” to have worked at a network when they knew they had to fight and attack Trump,” Houck explained.
So, it’s wrong to criticize journalism? Wasn’t that what Stelter’s show was supposed to be about? Of course, that’s why he’s gone because his show wasn’t that; it devolved into a constant attack on Fox News and Trump. But it was sort of hilarious as he talked about why the media didn’t cover the important stories that should be covered. Then he and Carl Bernstein immediately went back to the narrative about “democracy” being in danger from authoritarianism (translation: to them, that means Trump).
Some authoritarianism is better than others, of course:
Bernstein was born in February 1944, the son of a radical labor union lawyer and activist mother. Both his parents were secret members of the Communist Party USA.
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“A case can be made that [Bernstein] should have disclosed the conflict of interest he brought to his Watergate exposes,” wrote New York media consultant Sidney Goldberg in 2003. “After all, he was brought up as a Nixon hater and readers might have been told that his family regarded Nixon as vile, as an enemy.”
Bernstein’s animus for Nixon is beyond dispute. He has written that anti-Communists such as Nixon and Joseph McCarthy unleashed a “reign of terror” in America. Yet he has always maintained that his motivation in pursuing Nixon was purely journalistic.
Bernstein also has said that growing up under the influence of his parents’ Communist values “has informed my beliefs about what is important.” Apart from his parents, one of Bernstein’s most admired role models is the radical journalist I.F. Stone.
Bernstein left the Washington Post at the end of 1976 to pursue other career opportunities. He worked for a time as ABC Bureau Chief in Washington, D.C. and later as its correspondent. In 1992, Bernstein was quoted as saying: “The lowest form of popular culture — lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives — has overrun real journalism,” he has said. “Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
Physician, heal thyself.
WRITING COHERENTLY IS RACIST: One might well come away with that conclusion, according to Liberty Unyielding’s Hans Bader, who examined how competently colleges are teaching students to write these days. At the University of Maryland Baltimore’s Writing Center, he found this (and much more in the same rotten vein) in a course description:
“We know that writing is way more than words on the page or the arrangement of grammatical units,” the “About Us” description reads. “We approach our work with writers with an anti-racist lens.”
They aren’t kidding, as is clear from the essay questions applicants are required to answer, including “one entitled ‘Justice & Equity.’ “As you can see in our mission statement, we express commitment to interrogating racism and white supremacy and injustice broadly,’ the application reads. ‘How would you want your work as a consultant to contribute to and expand your personal, scholarly, and professional work related to justice and equity?’ Applicants are asked to respond in 250-400 words.”
“FACT-CHECKERS” ARE JUST PROPAGANDISTS: Fact Checking the Fact Checkers: AP’s Hit Piece on ‘2000 Mules’ is Full of Holes.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:
Shot: The Baltimore City Council eliminated $22 million from the police budget. What does that look like?
—The Baltimore Sun, June 17th, 2020.
Chaser: Baltimore On Pace For Possible Record Murders As Local NAACP Asks Governor To Deploy National Guard.
—ZeroHedge, today.
READER FAVORITE: National Geographic Road Atlas 2022. #CommissionEarned
GUT UND HART, DEUTSCHLAND: German economy minister rules out keeping nuclear plants running to save gas.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck ruled out on Sunday extending the lifespan of the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants in order to save gas, saying it would save at most 2 percent of gas use.
These savings were not sufficient to be worth reopening the debate about the exit from nuclear energy given the consensus on the topic, he said during a discussion with citizens at the government’s open-door day.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel initiated legislation to halt the use of nuclear power by the end of this year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 with a majority of voters in favour. But attitudes are shifting amid fears of an energy crisis this winter following a decline in Russian gas deliveries – with the three-way coalition itself divided on the matter. read more
“It is the wrong decision given the little we would save,” said Habeck, a member of the Greens party, which has it roots in the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s and 80s.
Related: Nord Stream 1 pipeline to shut for three days in latest fuel blow to Europe.
LETTUCE, THAT STUFF WILL KILL YOU: Wendy’s pulls lettuce from sandwiches amid E. coli outbreak.
JON GABRIEL: Out-of-touch politicians ask, ‘Is it me?’ then blame voters for their loss.
Though it had been predicted for months, Rep. Liz Cheney’s loss to Harriet Hageman dominated politics this week, in Wyoming and beyond.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain warned that the outcome proved “the American people are going to have to fight for their democracy.” CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota doubled-down, asking of Wyoming voters, “What does that mean for our democracy?”
It seems the problem with our democracy is that citizens keep voting for people the Beltway doesn’t like. Both Democratic pols and Never Trump Republicans condemned the Cowboy State rabble.
It reminds me of Principal Skinner from “The Simpsons,” asking “Am I out of touch?” before quickly deciding, “No, it’s the children who are wrong.”
Read the whole thing.
Related: Liz Cheney rips into Republican voters, leadership as ‘very sick’ after landslide primary loss.
Not surprisingly, the feeling is mutual among Republican voters.
WAR ON THE DEPLORABLES:
Judge Ho also addressed a broader issue, that transcends the specifics of this case. Historically, conservatives have tended to favor the cause of corporations over the plight of employees. But in recent years, that trend has reversed as corporations have focused less on shareholder value and more on progressive politics. We are starting to see conservatives seek to use the power of the state to constrain companies that trample on traditional values. Sambrano is an illustration of that new dynamic: a corporation forced its employees to get vaccinated, while diminishing those who sought religious exemptions. (And, with some hindsight, we now know that the two-dose vaccines without a booster shot provided scant protection.)
This will turn around.