Welcome to the weekend edition of The Mark Steyn Show, and a very sleepy show, including the systemic racism of sleep, the sizeist disrespect of sleep, Mark's Sleepy Time Gal of the Week, and a sonnet to sleep, plus black beans and roast beef, the Washington Redskins and the Texarkana Twins, and from lockdown to looting to landslide.
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So all lives don't matter - in particular, the lives of those who say they do.
As it becomes more violent, this is where cancel culture leads: to the killing of lesser human beings, met with majoritarian silence. History repeats even when it's reset to Year Zero, as Mark noted.
Resetting to Year Zero probably makes history more likely than not to repeat. Maoism refuses to die, despite its unspeakable past. When Pol Pot launched Year Zero in Cambodia, the Great Leap Forward was in the past, by not much more than a decade, with its more than forty million victims, and the Cultural Revolution was just about over, too, but the Khmer Rouge tried the same things, all over again, except with even more intensely murderous fervour. It's that leftist mantra on steroids: "Communism does work, but they've never tried it right before."
Just about the same time as Pol Pot commenced his reign of inhuman terror, Abimael Guzmán decided that Maoism was the way to go for Peru, as well. Guzmán was a professor of philosophy and his earliest collaborators were also from academic circles. By the time sendero luminoso really got going, the horrors of both China and Cambodia were already known, at least to the extent that the idea of following their example would inevitably lead to hideous carnage. About thirty thousand Peruvians and some foreigners lost their lives through Guzmán's attempt to make reality out of what he had dreamt in a university office in Ayacucho, but we have to assume that that is a fraction of the blood-letting which would have followed a victory for his murderous insurgency (and it came horribly close).
Today, we face a cultural revolution, which, even more than the Chinese version, would struggle to explain what it was trying to achieve. Some people today look back at Mao, the Killing Fields and Peru's terror war and, incredibly, don't dislike what they see. The others, products of our shattered education systems, have no idea who Mao was, or what the Killing Fields were and they don't know where the shining path will lead, but they blindly follow it, anyway.
I unintentionally divided mankind into two equally deluded factions. Those factions exist, but the vast majority of us do not belong in either. I really will have to get the hang of this whole "English" thing, sometime.
At what point will the SJWs decide that, since, in their own minds, they get to define whiteness (Let me count the ways), anybody actually volunteering the fact that he or she is white will be accused of culturally appropriating?
We note that Associate Professor Patricia Simon has been "Coordinator for Musical Theater" at MarymountManhattan (sic) College for the last 29 years. Apparently not long enough for the Woke students of MMC.
BTW, in the past, an "Associate Professorship" implied that tenure had been granted. [For non-academicians, it is an "Assistant Professor" who lives under the "up or out" rule: publish, publish, publish, get good student evaluations, serve on pointless faculty committees, toady to the senior faculty, maybe find donors, etc. The rank of "Associate Professor" is the "up" side of this process.]
However, we also note that Assoc. Prof. Simon only holds an M.F.A., but not a doctoral degree. Ol' TexReb doesn't know much about the academic culture of MMC, but the MMC faculty appears to have a number of FUDs on the faculty. Having only a Master's degree among a FUD-heavy faculty is sometimes like sitting in Club Coach and being served pretzels and a cup of 7Up while loose chickens and pigs run up and down the aisle. Meanwhile all the FUDs are in First Class, swilling down champagne and gobbling sirloins or fresh salmon.
So the question is this: Mark seems to think that Assoc. Prof. Simon may well get canned. But if she has tenure, can she be fired? And then my own question: If she is fired, how long will it take her to discover how useless her degrees are in the Current Woke Culture?
"Those who have followed FIRE's work in recent years know there is no shortage of cases in which faculty find themselves facing possible investigation, removed from teaching, or even facing loss of tenure and termination, for repeating racial slurs in a relevant academic context."
That is from "FIRE agains calls on UCLA to defend academic freedom - this time for professor under fire for reading from MLK," at thefire-dot-org. The article does not make clear whether the professor under discussion, Lt Col W Ajax Peris, had tenure. The professor's unforgivable sin was to quote lines written by Martin Luther King, lines which included a word now considered taboo (it rhymes with "bigger").
The article links to another from thefire, concerning Gordon Klein, teaching at UCLA for thirty-nine years, now suspended. If Professor Simon felt hard done by with two thousand signatures demanding her head, Prof Klein is facing ten times as many, almost all, no doubt, people who had never heard of him five minutes ago and who will simply add their names to any bit of virtue-signalling. Again, the article does not indicate that Prof Klein had tenure, but, if, after nearly four decades in the faculty, UCLA was continuing to deny it to him, he's probably the one who should be launching a petition.
The thing is: I don't think it lends any protection, once the mob is out to get you. In that sense, tenure is a bit like Charles I invoking the divine right of kings. Here's another headline from thefire:
"On April 3, professor Diane Klein received notice that the University of La Verne — the southern California school where she has taught law for over 15 years — was moving to strip her of tenure."
University administrators consume a very big part of college funding, these days, and they are not about to sacrifice their positions for mere faculty. If a bunch of undergraduate airheads, or virtual hooligans on antisocial media, demand the head of some obscure professor, the presidents and deans and all the rest can be guaranteed to give in, every time, rather as Charles I himself did in the case of the Earl of Strafford, in fact. It didn't save Charles.
"The thing is: I don't think it [tenure] lends any protection, once the mob is out to get you."
Exactly right. A case in point is Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (leftist professors-in-exile): their physical safety on campus could not be guaranteed, and Evergreen College administrators were glad to see the back of them. It turned out that administrators had acceded to - and effectively colluded with - the mob's demand for their removal (as seen in video recordings of meetings with the student body).
Yes, I remember those videos and I remember thinking at the time, "Hasn't anyone in American academia heard of the Cultural Revolution?"
Mark's comments regarding the vast amounts of time the West wastes on rubbish like Black Power Naps rather than maintaining our focus on significant issues, and his reference to Communist China surpassing us while we circle the drain brought to mind something my father wrote to his mother on April 26th, 1945, from Germany at the end of 6 months of combat in the ETO and 4 days before Hitler's suicide:
"We have said so often that Hitler is the main power behind this war and that he and his few high-ranking Nazis are the sole persons to bear the blame and that the German people as a whole are innocent. That is a lot of rubbish. Mr. Average Citizen in any country where there is or has been a semblance of a democratic government holds so much power in his hands that if he knew the full extent he might become frightened. It is he, most of all, who is guilty of such a war as this. True, Hitler is an ace war criminal and is so guilty of crimes that no punishment here on earth can ever clear him. Yet how did he gain power but by initiating each new act toward his goal with these Mr. Average Citizens sitting sleepily by with their fingers loosely toying with the great power in their hands and not recognizing its sterling value. They permitted it to happen so theirs is also the blame to bear. Every person in Germany must bear the guilt of the war, even the old ones who are too tired to think of political problems and the young ones who know not the meaning.
"Do you see the meaning? What do the people in our United States do with the great power that lies in their hands? Many men this world over are dying for the right to vote and many, many more at home can not trouble themselves to walk two blocks to the polls or walk to their car which will carry them there. They sit idly by thinking of sensual pleasures that last but a moment while things that will affect them a lifetime are being decided, things that might affect them unfavorably unless they use five minutes to think and a few more to raise an arm against it that the effect might be favorable. Momentous things are coming in view soon and they merit consideration of every person who claims citizenship in our United States of America. May they not be guilty of ruining our chances of a lasting world peace because they failed to use a power they possess and were ignorant of."
Breathing a sigh of relief here...I was apparently "pre-cancelled" the minute I cast my vote for Mr. Trump in 2016. Whew, another thing I don't have to worry about.
Mark, once the lever to the commode is pushed, pulled, or activated and civilization is circling the drain "self-moronizing", has science figured out how to "unflush" the commode?
Please allow me a point of personal privilege and attempt to solve the offensive racist Washington Redskins name dilemma. I would recommend a name change to the Washington Euthanasiasts. What my proposal lacks in alliteration it gains in illiteracy. In keeping with the colors of the current logo, I imagine a new circular logo outlined in white and yellow. Inside the circle are five yellow stars on a maroon background. One of the stars is larger than the other four and is offset to the left representing the US capital. The other four smaller stars are arranged in an arc and offset to the right representing the four branches of government; the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy. However, maybe the large star should be the bureaucracy?
The pros of this change are that it will honor, at a minimum, the following progressive entities:
*The House of Representatives, Planned Parenthood, and Black Li_es Matter co-operative.
*The Cuomo contingent of like minded governors who are desperately trying to solve the overcrowding problem in their state's nursing homes.
*The CCP. What entity is better for a euthanasiast to emulate? Think of the potential expansion of the NFL and its Washington D.C. franchise fan base with the entirety of communist youths in Asia purchasing Washington Euthanasiasts paraphernalia. Think of all the Covid 19 jerseys that could be sold. The increase in revenue could be billions! Take a knee Xi!
The only con I can think of is that our euthanasia of our unborn, our elderly, our economy, our culture and civilization is truly not painless.
I have to admit that Mark has topped my claim of identifying as a "black trans-sexual hermaphrodite lesbian" with his discovery of the idiot "woke intersection" freaks. I wonder how Oompah-Loompahs would stack up in their snowflake pecking order?.
Being born to an HIV-positive teenage mother apparently has real intersectional cachet, though presumably it's not as oppressive (ie. impressive) as being born to an HIV-positive father... because men can have babies too!
"The Life of Brian" came out when I was still at school and there was a cinema up the road and round the corner from there. A Roman Catholic picket line of Liverpudlian ladies requested people not to go in to see the film, on the grounds that it was blasphemous.
Nowadays, it must be the character played by Eric Idle, who wants to be known as Loretta and to have a baby, who attracts the hellfire, but from totally different quarters.
Indeed.
Late replies to comments this week.
PS. "A Roman Catholic picket line" could be from a Monty Python script.
Mark, I would like to thank you for expanding my vocabulary and introducing me to the word wanker. The Washington Redskins are looking for a new team name and I recommend they adopt the name Wankers. This term not only fits the team, but also grasps the essence of the entire city. Let's hear it for the Washington Wankers.
Mark replies:
Well, it works for the fight song, too, Garth: "Hail to the Wankers! Hail wankery!"
Garth, that is by far the best renaming suggestion yet!!!
What I find doubly moronic about all these cancellations is why these people don't fight back. Dozing during a Zoom class is not an offense that deserves getting fired. Why doesn't Ms. Simon sue the college for her own real life damage to her career. She's finished because of this. Who wants to hire any professor caught sleeping on the job these days! Total bankruptcy into obliteration will teach the snowflakes to think before they demand an administration takes drastic action on a professor they believe is offensive. This cancellation program could end tomorrow if more cancelled people stood up and fought back tooth and nail. What happened to the old saw about getting knocked down, and getting back up and fighting even harder?
People spraying over BLM murals in several locations. Heard it on the radio today. It's a start.
It sure is a good start! The local school board voted to change the name of our local OÑate HS. Ooh, that Don Juan was bad man black. We had one conservative on the board who I voted for last November. The conservatives in town were thrilled to get her elected. First time in decades. I called her a couple days before the vote presentation which was blacked out even though I was told it would be televised.
I told her the quote that Mark cited to us about change not being necessary so not changing being necessary and maybe I didn't say it just the right way or in the correct order of phrasing because she voted to change the name! She was the deciding vote. 75% of the public voted not to change the name at this time. Talk about useless conservatives!
I closed my case by telling her that we should never cave to the mob. It did me a fat lot of good that conversation. I contacted her to see what changed between our conversation and her vote which was the deciding vote. She has not answered my messages. The name change will cost $200,000 but that means closer to $400K. If they choose a name with "O" it will be less.
I think they could call it "O'Gnat Tay High School," and deem it a thumb in the school board's eye! The school happens to be in dire need of new computers for the students. The Left has the ability to stack the deck even when we get a conservative to represent us. They will relentlessly chop off the voters hands and feet for their wrong headed thinking every time. Yes, JC, we need to keep getting up and fighting back.
I certainly hope David Horowitz is right. The only trouble seems to be that he is predicting the election outcome from the position of a person who believes that sanity will always prevail. We may be on the brink here. The explanation of a razor close election I think coincides with Mark's analysis of the mindset of the woke. How can you kill an entirely innocent person gleefully? How can you dance on her grave in the face of her family? How can you vote for a party that labors ceaselessly to promote chaos, destruction, and death and blame it entirely on one man as a strategy for victory? In a sane world how absurd would this be? The spectrum of wokeness has become very broad. You have those for whom holding the Orange Man in contempt is only evidence of their insatiable narcissism in the form of virtue signaling. Then you progress along the scale until you get to those whose hatred and malevolence are white hot and for whom the Trumps must become, literally, the Romanovs. At no point along this spectrum does critical thinking, self-reflection, historical perspective, honesty, and attachment to godly morality exist. How many people have bought the Jacobin fantasy of human reason detached from Divine truth? Will next January 20th see electric tumbrils rolling in parade down Constitution Avenue? I hope we're not as close to that as it may seem.
Great show, Mark, which cheered me up. I especially liked the song about the roast beef of Old England, which I'll think of as I walk past the statue of Sir Robert Peel, still standing proudly in the centre of Bury; defended, I believe, by the veterans of the Lancashire Fusiliers when under threat.
Two days ago, I had a dentist appointment and finally saw what Lake Street looked like after the riots. Lots of graffiti and murals on boarded up businesses. All the same talk of unity, justice for Floyd, f cops and even one that targeted whiteness and how "America is Canceled". They ruined the street that they ask unity for. The Walgreens that was four blocks away has a station that you can get your medicine at. I never felt soo disheartened that they say it's not a crime to be black yet they go out and allow this to happen. How can anyone feel their pain when they dish it out on those who didn't cause it. But then again, to them, maybe they saw us as the reason this all went down and have no problem destroying it all.
Not to toot my own horn--blast it more like--but I saw this coming. Professor Simon was merely engaging in "unconscious bias training" during the Zoom call. It was but ten days ago, as Mark chronicled in his "Serenade to Stupidity", that we learned such a thing was, you know, a thing. And already it is a bad thing, a cancel-able thing. I guess ten days is a long time in year zero.
My comment on the subject was that unconsciousness was the only state to endure the ghastly procedure. A steady drip of Lagavulin (or your preferred palliative) ought to numb the senses just enough to make the cruelest reeducation bearable. Looks like I was right, and Professor Simon paid the price. Sorry 'bout that.
The real racists talk about themselves not as individuals but as a race. Systematic racism does exist and it's all thanks to the creators of it: The Democrat Party. There's systematic racism in BLM, ANTIFA, big tech, Hollywood, woke billionaires, academia, and so on and so forth. On Dan Bongino's prior podcast he brought up a Le gal In sur rec tion piece where The National Museum of African American History and Culture has a chart on "whiteness" and one of them is "the emphasis on scientific method". Is this where we get "settled science" from? Science that is considered "proven" not though lab tests or experiments but through think tanks that ensure that 2 + 2 = 5?
Mark,
How do you find the line in refusing to participate in cancel culture? It's easy enough not to watch sports, and you make a point of refusing to live in the Apple podcast ghetto, but what about the countless retailers and manufacturers who have sworn to send millions to racist BLM and supporting organizations?
Are you aware of Visa, Paypal, and others literally deplatforming individual human beings out of financial existence because they support free speech (Gab's creator and others)?
How do we draw any kind of line that is not merely designated by convenience?
Thanks,
Shawn
Hi Shawn,
Well... it's OK if the line is drawn by convenience - at least we're drawing a line and helping those who are not giving in to the mob.
We've gone to the websites of the retailers we use and looked under "Newsroom." or sometimes "A Message From Our CEO". If we specifically see a "support BLM" or "the ACLU" or "the Southern Poverty Law Center", or "fighting systemic racism", etc. we don't buy from those companies anymore and let them know why. You'll find other companies support traditional charities and we continue to shop from them. Generally, the more local the company, the more support for local, non-leftist charities. So we use a smaller bank, a smaller hardware store, local eateries, etc. even if it's more expensive. But our favorite local cafe had a BLM sign in the window so we won't go there any more.
I've also gotten more active in our local politics, speaking at "citizen's forums" when the City Counsel starts passing virtue signalling resolutions. (I'm retired so I can't be "cancelled.") We gathered signatures for a petition to the NH Governor supporting our police and sent a copy to our Mayor and the Chief of Police. (They need our morale support - how'd you like to be a policeman in this environment?)
We donate to people and causes we support.
Small gestures, sure, but something. Maybe you're doing these things - I don't mean to state the obvious.
The cruel comments posted on social media pertaining to the murder of the young woman in Indiana, who apparently deserved death for uttering a 'heretical' statement, should not be a surprise to anyone. I can remember Mark writing a while back on the subject of the 'realm of manners' and how the values that govern that realm, especially constraint, duty to others, a sense of what constitutes good form and what does not, were in serious retreat. I think it is safe to say they are gone now as those commenters, perfectly happy using their own names to dance upon the grave of a young mother, amply demonstrate.
On a happier note, it was wonderful to hear the beautifully clear voice of Julie Andrews singing 'Stay Awake', one of the best songs in 'Mary Poppins', apart from 'Feed The Birds', 'Let's Go Fly a Kite', 'Spoonful of Sugar', 'Jolly Holiday' and all the rest! Even 'Sister Suffragette' isn't too bad.
They're all what they hate. They call Trump Hitler yet they say the same anti-Semitic talk that Hitler says. I think it's safe to say that they are the Fourth Reich. Just as Hitler wanted to create a utopia for his master race, the Marxists wish to do the same thing, demonizing whites, Christians, and Jews for ruining their lives at birth.
Very true: Broken people unmoored from the concepts of human dignity and decency are virtually impossible to fix. Also very telling that to the best of my knowledge Facebook has not deleted the accounts of all those ghouls for as blatant a TOS violation as can possibly done, and in effect have de facto endorsed it.
Did some follow-up research. Griffith Stadium was named after Clark C. Griffith, A Senators manager and administrator. The name was just a coincidence.
Mark, This may be coincidence but before RFK stadium was built the Redskins played at Griffith Stadium, which was located near Howard University in Washington. It was also home of the Senators. Is it possible that Marshall owned that stadium as well and named it after Corinne?
I couldn't find a connection but it makes sense. Maybe an old-time Washingtonian may know.
If the NFL isn't less popular than college football now it will be soon. Once a bastion of confident young manhood the NFL is full of uber sensitive players kneeling for the anthem because they're getting paid 19 million dollars a year to play a ball game and they're feeling oppressed.
It gets old quickly.
Hey Mark,
On a personal note, were you ever edited by someone named Florin?
Why not call the DC NFL team the Washington Whingeing Wankers? Or they could go for one of your super heroes, which would be totally inoffensive, the Washington Franchise Men.
I loved the show today right down to the songs coming out of the Victrola horn.
I know the World doesn't care much for American Football but since Mark has uncharacteristically breached the topic, I have a movie suggestion for this weekend's house arrest that you might like: Black Sunday (1977) directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Robert Shaw* and Marte Keller. It's a a good thriller based on a Palestinian terrorist attack on the Super Bowl championship game played January 1976 in the Miami Orange Bowl stadium. Remember the PLO before Al Quaeda and ISIS?
I won't go over the plot to avoid spoilers but one of the things to watch is the real time footage of the Super Bowl game. Look at the stadium, the buses the teams get off of, the lack of money apparent in the game at the time. The NFL was really just taking off to become the opulent league it is today (some might say spoiled.) One of the teams is the Dallas Cowboys that Mark mentioned in his commentary. Non-Americans can compare the production values and coverage of the game and the stadium facilities with those of the major sports in your country.
The film is really impressive in that they got the cooperation of the NFL at all, but especially with a plot like this. Also note the participation of the Goodyear Rubber Company and their blimps. It would be simply unthinkable for a corporation to do this today.
Anyway, it's good movie to watch and a very interesting time capsule. The terrorist plot is scary and so realistic that you don't want to dwell on it too long.
*Trimmer's rule of casting is when you need an All-American hero you try to find an Australian and then work your way through the Commonwealth until you find one. In this case it is a Brit. (Canadians are the last stop before, in desperation, you cast an American.)
I remember the film, Walt, and it's ripe for a remake. With just a few alterations, if I may.
First, there's barely been an Arab terrorist in Hollywood for the last thirty years. "Flight 93", sure, and "Munich"--but I bet Spielberg seriously considered altering the record to make the the Black September Olympic butchers Albanian. So, in our reboot, I suggest making the plotters vaguely far-right. Proud Boy types, if domestic; Hungarian nationalists, if foreign (Albanian having been overdone). Also, out with Dallas. Too Texan, too masculine. How about the Seattle Seahawks? Against...let's see...we need a team in the AFC from another hopelessly failed city...of course! The Baltimore Ravens. Their team emblems are birds, so we should be safe. (Check with Audubon just to be sure?) Both teams have black quarterbacks, I now realize, so our terrorists are definitely domestic. How about a cabal really scary and easily demonized--Young Republicans?
You're right that Goodyear wouldn't get near a project like this, WT, but tell me how this sounds: the Goya Blimp. (The My Pillow Airship, maybe?) Of course, the stadium will be empty, which would seem to detract from the threat, but teams are going to pipe in the noise of a SRO crowd through the loudspeakers. With some creative camera angles and sound-mixing, we won't leave a spine untingled.
I know what you're thinking, WT: whom to cast? I like your idea of drawing from the Commonwealth, but Oz is running a bit dry, don't you think? Mel and Russell are a bit long in the tooth, and anyway Mel is, well, Mel. Danny Craig is looking for something more cerebral after 007, so he's out. If I may, WT, today's ideal action hero is more metrosexual than muscular. He's better at making a macchiato than a martini. But sticking with your talent pool, how about someone north of the border, as pretty as a young Johnny and as soft as a young Leo? Justin. Trudeau or Bieber, makes no difference.
Anyhow, these are just ideas, Walt. We can hire a screenwriter to flesh it out with character, plot, motivation--all that good stuff. Lemme know your thoughts. I see BIG box office potential.
I also recommend "Black Sunday." Bruce Dern as the psycho patsy. One of the most exciting and dizzying endings I've ever seen.
With regard to Pro Football, still deciding whether or not I'm finished with it. I have been watching since the famous Colts-Giants championship game in 1958. Tough decision.
How about changing the name of the Washington football team to the "Red Guards" as in Mao's China. It would follow the changing of the names to better match the community. The defensive line nickname could be "the gang of four". Maybe sign Kaepernick, by the way, in Minnesota Dennis Green was known for taking a knee long before you.
I have been having trouble falling asleep. Caitlin Gagnon would you please put your idiotic yapping online, it might help me fall sleep.
Another great show. I always enjoy hearing a little Julie Andrews; that's the closest any of you will have to experiencing life with my wife. :-)
Thank you, Mark, for the bit of history regarding the Redskins. I didn't know any of that. I know you are not a fan of American sports, but I can say, the politicization of sports is truly sickening to me, and incredibly disappointing. I'm a Pittsburgher through and through - born here 53 years ago, returned after spending time away for college and brief stint in NYC. I was born at the right time, sports-wise; in my life, we've seen 6 Super Bowl championships, 5 Stanley Cups and 2 World Series titles. It is quite simply impossible to overstate the impact of sports in our region. It's a source of true pride and community. It makes me sick to see the scumbags who have no concept of community, who seek only to destroy, tear people apart by politicizing everything.
That's the sort of thinking that leads to the nihilism inherent in the things Mark shared about the young woman who had the temerity to say Blue Lives Matter when her stepfather was killed, and the urge to cancel a professor for possibly dozing off during a zoom meeting. These people are sick sick sick sick sick. They are the very reason 100+ million people were killed by their own governments last century.
I find myself in an odd position. I'm as optimistic and positive as anyone I've ever met in my 53 years, yet I find myself thinking horrible things about people and our country and world. It's disquieting for me. And it truly worries me for the future and the world we are leaving to our children.
Best of luck to you all. I hope you're not as down as I am. Well, down isn't really the right word. I love my friends and family immeasurably, and look at my 16 year old son's friends and classmates and think there's still a chance for the world. But I'm no longer as certain of that as I once was.
The parents of the children born 100 years ago didn't plan to have their sons storm ashore on beaches around the world. The War to End All Wars was just over and people wanted to get back on with their lives. They raised their kids to be good, hard working, strong and have lives better than their own. So stay optimistic. Even if the world goes to hell, we Mark Steyn Clubbers are all above average and we are going to do well.
Thanks for the thoughts, I will redouble my efforts to remain strong and happy. :-)
I commend you, sir on the unique ode to roast beef, certainly a staple here on the edge of the Great Plains. Three million denizens of Montana, however, are organizing a boycott of your broadcast for BLM (Bovine Lives Matter). Hail fellow well met! Thanks as always for a fine selection. Time for a nap!
So Representative Ocasio-Cortez has actually not been asleep all this time? So that stuff has been coming from a conscious human mind?
Nah. Can't be. She's asleep, just dreaming.
Obviously a descendant of Cortez the Killer, Conquistador. Spanish privilege. She should be summarily cancelled.
Hang around: she will be. All a matter of time.
Quondam vice-president Biden would be on the menu as we speak if he were still fresh enough to eat.
One can only wonder at the depth of brainwashing required to bring about what is happening. While we were laughing at the snowflake generation, we failed to realise what monsters they are.
I get this feeling, I really do. But I will simply say, most of them, 90+%, aren't monsters, they're just people, admittedly a bit ignorant about the world. And they're being brainwashed by more ignorant people, who are led by the true monsters.
When I talk about any of this with anyone willing to listen, I ask simple questions. Does what someone is saying make sense to you? Do you see or have you experienced systemic racism in your life? Do you think you're racist? Do you know any police officers? Do they seem racist to you?
Most of them are indeed snowflakes, and many of us bear the responsibility for that, as we're not raising a group of kids willing to storm the beaches of Normandy. But who wants to raise a child like that? I sure don't. I can't even watch Saving Private Ryan with my son because it nauseates me to think about eh millions who've died in the history of the world due to the sort of tyrants who continue to lust after power even today.
I think our job is to connect the Omars and AOCs of the world to the Pol Pots and Castros.
Perhaps it is time to go to the UN and demand all politicians wear body cams and broadcast 24/7 over the internet so we know who and what they are doing. The technology exists it is time to use it.
good idea
One day, snowflakes, the next day, killer avalanche!
I call them "acid raindrops", Gareth.
D in Minneapolis: Kudos, I think you have tapped into infinite supply of political pornography! You may have a cure for insomnia. I was wondering if Minneapolis has been cancelled yet to Mogadishu Cusub?
It does stagger the imagination Gareth. Conservatives have a grand old time dismissing these crackpot ideas. 'Snowflakes' never was an accurate description of these campus radicals. Watch how they react when a conservatives is allowed to lecture at their school - they are neither timid or weak in response. Now they control Antifa and 'Black Lives Matter'. Monsters indeed.
I love this idea. I have not been a supporter of the surveillance state, but I'm willing to make an exception in this case.
I think you would have had to be a bit doolally to go and make a film in Mexico in 1920. The Mexican Civil War only finally ended that year and the violence, did not, in fact, stop, as Pancho Villa found out the hard way, a few years later. Having said that, Mexico did develop its own movie-making industry and I strongly suspect that some images passed off as photographs from the war years are actually stills from the films.
Well, I'd never thought of it this way before, but "Kubla Khan" is overdue for cancellation. Not only did Coleridge show off his white privilege by claiming to have had the idea in a dream (yeah, take that, sleepless woke people), but he was culturally appropriating like mad. It's not just the Khan, who was not averse to a bit of appropriation himself, but Coleridge got an Abyssinian maid into the poem, too. I trust there's a statue of him for the high priests and priestess of Wokeness to pull down... Oh, waddayaknow: there's one in Watchet, Somerset, and the local MP has wondered aloud about how it's still standing. Since he's not in favour of vandalising it, he might have been better advised to keep that particular thought to himself. The townsfolk of Ottery St Mary, Devon, Coleridge's place of birth, are also trying to put up a statue of him, but the Wuhan Flu keeps getting in the way. Did the angry spirit of Kubla Khan belatedly put an oriental curse on the poet?
I suppose my daily constitutional afternoon kip will be labeled cultural appropriation now? How about if I remove my hoop earrings while I nap?
On your opening segment, a few more "Sleep" songs come to mind -- "dream" songs would be infinite:
While My Lady Sleeps (by Bronislaw Kaper)
Bless You, My Little Sleepy Head (Matt Dennis)
Sleep, Come on and Take Me (Joe Young and Boyd Bunch)
Sleepy Time Gal (Joseph Alden and Raymond Egan)
Tonight I Shall Sleep With a Smile on My Face (Duke Ellington)
Five more songs aren't quite as good a fit, unless we add (1) a second sleeper, (2) a bee circling her head, (3) sleepwalking (or a steel guitar), (4) a southern address, or (5) choral backing
(1) Two Sleepy People (Hoagy Carmichael & Frank Loesser)
(2) A Sleepin' Bee (Truman capote and Harold Arlen, from House of Flowers)
(3) Sleep Walk (a hit for Santo & Johnny in 1959)
(4) When it's Sleepy Time Down South, Louis Armstrong's theme from 1931
(4) Sleep, Sleep, Sleep (Earl Lebeig) made famous by Fred Waring's chorus
Dream (Everly Brothers)
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
Dreams I'll Never See (Allman Brothers)
Dream Weaver (Gary Wright)
...endless possibilities...
River of Dreams (Billy Joel)
Dreamland (Joni Mitchell)
I've been justly accused of being a pessimist but I'll reverse course here and point out a clear path to a 2nd term if the Republican party can somehow grow a spine. Start with four simple facts 1) Americans overwhelmingly support their police regardless of the endless swill from the media. 2) BLM is NOT popular with the masses. 3) Border security is still a big winner. 4) There is little support outside of the media for the Green New Deal. Biden is trapped as was Hillary by the crazies running the party and can't tack back to the center. Force Biden to defend these positions - they are a millstone around his neck - keep it there and be
relentless and yes - fight like a Democrat. Act as if you truly believe in these bedrock principles and perhaps we can delay "Twilight's Last Gleaming" for another four years.
One more item - inner city blacks are desperate for police protection and have been betrayed by the democratic party and our media and especially by 'Black Lives Matter'. They have no voice today. For heaven's sake fight for them!! Trump for sure will so back him up for once and I'm speaking here to congressional Republicans. Man up!
Only the future of America is on the line in Nov.
Hear, hear! Pass this one on.
Professor Simon should not have apologized. The professor should have launched a counterattack demanding the student be expelled for her insensitivity to the professor's age and possible eye fatigue health issue. That prof could change her pronouns too to add new categories to her victimhoodnessness (that has to be a word with the two nesses now with all this bull in society.)
"A four hundred pound guy with moobs you can hammock off...". What rough beast has Steyn conjured?
Hang a hammock off, as I'm sure you heard. And can never forget.
Amusedly merging that image with the one I have of Elaine Page singing 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' in a white ball gown. Have you seen Little Britain? Bubbles in the ski shop in Klosters? That kind of thing.
Having hung a hammock or two, with those thick steel screw-hooks into trees or rafters, my nipples wince at the thought. No piercings or tattoos here...