Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 11, 2019 7:31:01 GMT -8
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Post by timothylane on Oct 11, 2019 9:35:13 GMT -8
Good points all of them. I wonder how different other Western bureaucracies and gendarmerid -- and the military -- are from the French. The Fort Hood shooting is a good reminder that this could just as easily happen here . . . because it already has. And no doubt will again sometime. Given the Somali population in St. Paul, MN and the Palestinian population in Dearborn, MI, how much would you trust either police force to protect you from jihadist terror?
In discussing Syria, I keep wondering: Bad as it is to abandon the Kurds and let the Turds go after them, what can our tiny force really do against an official NATO ally within whose territory we maintain an airbase? And when can we ever go home?
Many years ago, Buckley was having a conversation (perhaps on Firing Line) with his dovish friend Al Lowenstein. The latter noted that Buckley wanted to fight and win in Vietnam, and may even have thought that a reasonable idea. The problem, he pointed out, was: "Unfortunately, the people you're supporting want to fight the war and lose." Technically speaking, it would probably be more accurate to say that they didn't care if they won, but that was close enough for government work.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 11, 2019 10:20:47 GMT -8
Yeah, as Schlichter noted:
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Post by timothylane on Oct 11, 2019 10:29:31 GMT -8
As far as I know, PKK is located entirely in Turdey, though they may use Kurdish territories elsewhere as sanctuaries. I gather that the US does assist Sultan Erdogan against them. But that area is like the Balkans -- full of tribal groups (some of them sectarian, some of ethnic) that hate each other.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 11, 2019 11:10:00 GMT -8
Here’s another Reality Culture article: The Transgender Craze: WTF?This guy is not afraid to speak the words which must not be spoken: This is a fad caught from YouTube stars and others. And… There are at least two immediate aspects of this (beyond the power of Leftist mind-bullying and persistent propaganda): 1) Kids looking for attention or to be "special." 2) Kids looking for love in all the wrong places. Regarding point number two, although I found the comment at least slightly namby-pamby, it did seem to be honest and I think did outline one aspect of this: |
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Post by timothylane on Oct 11, 2019 11:43:54 GMT -8
This is one reason why one should be caution about basing policy on what children say. There have always been tomboys, and they would grow up to become normal women. Now, many of them (if they have the wrong schools or parents) suddenly decide they're really men. If left to grow out of it they probably will, though it may be harder and more painful and take longer than it would were it not for the propaganda in favor of sexual dysphoria.
But sometimes they're drugged to be "become" men (who have a vagina, uterus, and ovaries instead of a penis, scrotum, and testes) -- or even worse, they have their female genitalia removed, which without being able to add male genitalia is merely spaying them. And then, eventually, most will probably wish they had those parts back. Too bad they can't sue the dysphorics who propagandized them for this medical malpractice.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 12, 2019 18:04:15 GMT -8
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Post by timothylane on Oct 12, 2019 18:38:58 GMT -8
I haven't watched any TV series newer than about a quarter century ago. I obviously haven't missed anything. There have been few new movies I've seen, but at least there I've wanted to see some of them someday.
Fortunately, just as there are oldies stations that play the sort of music I like, there are channels that show the sort of movies and TV shows I like.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 13, 2019 9:08:06 GMT -8
No, you haven’t. The author noted in the comments section how Turner Classic Movies was a godsend…especially for old Westerns.
I think the author is spot-on and don’t wish to one-up him. He wrote it. It got published. Good on him. But we were talking about this phenomena at least 10 years ago. Probably 20.
Certainly I was pestering all who would bother to listen to me that 40 years ago the Oscars was a crock, basing decisions not on the worthiness of the movie but on its political content.
Glad to hear the Emmys ratings are down 30%. I see a site like Reviews-and-Things as a place to help connect people to good content — and not just to bitch about how the culture is going to hell.
Yes, it is going to hell. But here’s a map for exploring the catacombs that still exist.
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Post by timothylane on Oct 13, 2019 9:21:00 GMT -8
MeTV shows a lot of Westerns (old TV series) 6 days a week, starting at 1 p.m. on weekdays and something like 9 a.m. on Saturdays. This includes Gunsmoke at 1 followed by Bonanza. They also do The Twilight Zone 6 days a week -- at midnight and 12:30 a.m. on Sundays, and at 12:30 a.m. on weekdays (when it's preceded by Perry Mason, which is also shown at 9 a.m.). Alfred Hitchcock Presents comes on after that -- 2 episodes a night, 6 days a week. But that's a bit late even for me, though I occasionally watch one anyway. Their schedule can be found at metv.com.
Grit TV also has a lot of old Westerns, both TV shows and movies.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 14, 2019 10:21:47 GMT -8
Speaking of Reality Culture, I found this article instructive by not being instructive: The Origins of the Transgender Movement. Read it and tell me if you are any more enlightened than you had been. However, one comment there was just a pearl: One may agree or disagree about how much of this ground should have been ceded. But this commenter (fryet) is touching on reality here. |
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 14, 2019 10:45:47 GMT -8
One of the big reasons the conservative movement has rolled over on moral issues is that it let the immoral libertarians worm their way into it, thus the movement became a hollow shell standing for little except materialist economy theory. The monumental stupidity, or more likely dishonesty, of the libertarian movement is a bane on any society. Contrary to what these scoundrels claim, any society must have an established and common set of values to thrive and survive. And such values are more complicated than "don't steal other people's stuff and don't hurt others."
The ancient Greeks were simply great at coming up with all sorts of different ideas and arguments to support just about every possible position on the moral, political and intellectual spectra. Strangely, (not) these geniuses continually argued about ideas and were constantly at each other's throats. Phillip the Macedonian must have laughed his ass off as he conquered them.
It is a simple lesson of history that fractured societies eventually fall to united polities of one sort or another.
I just read the article and thought it poorly written and did little or nothing to clarify the origins of this latest deviancy. If this women is the best that NRO can do to explain and push back against deviancy, then the cause is lost.
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Post by timothylane on Oct 14, 2019 10:46:01 GMT -8
That one arguer has a point, though I don't think conservatives in general have yet surrendered on sexual dysphoria, and many haven't really surrendered on homosexual marriage. But the problem is figuring out where to pick your fights. There comes a point when, right or wrong, you've lost. Just like Carthage.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 14, 2019 16:01:17 GMT -8
That’s a pretty good analysis, Mr. Kung.
First off, that was a horribly-written article. The author had one chore given her acceptance of every one of the gender-bending tenets of the Left except one: What makes children so special that they should be given special protection?
We used to have intuitive strong feelings about homosexuality, that it “Just wasn’t right.” That was eroded. So the logical question is: Why should we assume that any stated “no go” zone isn’t merely a function, as that astute poster said, of the current culture’s view of morality?
I’m not asking for an in-depth philosophical and logical rooting. For the most part, right and wrong are being determined by the current culture’s view of morality. And this is not arrived at by deep philosophical musings.
So even if I were to make a case against pedophilia, for example, that’s not the process that is shaping our morality. Parents aren’t dressing up their little boys as girls and parading them in front of gay men just because I, or someone else, didn’t make a good enough argument against that.
I’ll leave this musing opened-ended. I’m honest enough to say that I don’t have the answers. If any logical statement I make is irrelevant and everything is just a function of mass-will, then I must will the other way — and not write these useless pseudo-thought pieces as Madeleine Kearns has done. I either get in the face of the transgender movement or I cede the public space and thus the public morality to them. Either fight or shut the fuck up, basically, to state it bluntly.
One father beating the hell out of some perv who is leering at his kid is pertinent action. But nobody wants to do that. Instead, it’s all talk talk talk. This is a battle going to the squeaky wheels and our side has very few activists. Such as they are, they are mostly talking-heads who make a career out of talking about it but not doing anything about it.
Give Islam and the Left some credit. They are not afraid to take action that can move the masses, if only by intimidating them. The “right” is just too damn polite to do anything but count how many angels can dance on the head of a pin with binoculars from their ivory towers.
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Post by timothylane on Oct 14, 2019 16:31:18 GMT -8
This is where Daniel Patrick Moynihan's "defining deviancy down" comes from. When there is no sense of abstract morality, then every surrender to libertine pleasures make the next step easier. Why, for example, if homosexuality (including homosexual marriage) is a legal right, should there be anything against bestiality, pedophilia, or polygamy? What argument can there be, as long as neither party refuses (and maybe even if they do)?
Note that even as leftists denounce the Catholic lavender mafia and their shenanigans, many (including Botox Nan, the Wicked Witch of the West) support NAMBLA and join their parades. All of these perversions will eventually become libertinist dogma. At some point, support for some atrocity reaches a critical mass on the left, and then it quickly becomes accepted by all, and indeed demanded. And at some point after that, GOP Beltway Bandits and bicoastal RINOs will decide to agree with the left. Then, at some point, SCOTUS ill decide that what was once atrocious and illegal (being grossly immoral) is now a right guaranteed by the Constitution despite making no mention of anythng of the sort. The precise sequence can vary slightly.
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 14, 2019 18:37:06 GMT -8
No doubt we had these feelings for a number of reasons. First, homosexuality is clearly non-functional as regards continuation of the species so by biological definition it is deviant behavior. Second, I believe there is little doubt that homosexuality is the manifestation of noxious narcissism, thus is deviant behavior from a psychological standpoint.
Deviant behavior should not be promoted.
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 14, 2019 18:53:58 GMT -8
From a libertarian point of view, old Ed Gein's nocturnal visits to cemeteries and his concurrent mining activities must be seen as a way for someone to live out his libertarian dreams. After all, Gein wasn't hurting anyone by body-snatching, and in fact was doing some positive economic good by making various useful items from the skin of corpses. Think how wasteful it would have been just to leave those bodies moldering in their tombs.
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Post by timothylane on Oct 14, 2019 20:04:43 GMT -8
Gein was the inspiration for Norman Bates and Psycho. Bloch read about the case, thought about someone living that sort of double life, and the rest is literary history. There's no actual resemblance in the cases, though.
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 14, 2019 20:09:49 GMT -8
Gein was crazier than Norman.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 15, 2019 7:52:36 GMT -8
That is certainly how this is playing out, Timothy.
The pillars of the Left might be:
• Sexual libertinism
• Feminism
• Atheism
Some might throw in “equality” but I see that purely as a smokescreen for the other motivations. If the Left wanted “equality” so damn much then Seattle’s “homeless” would be living in posh apartments paid for by the billions from the tech companies. That is an entirely easy goal that could be achieved within a few months.
Sexual libertinism and atheism go hand-in-hand. There shalt be no religious authority over one’s personal choices. Because man (men) have historically (and probably for good reason) been the authority of law, feminism is the means to undermine that. Homosexuality (also consistent with all points above) undermines men’s authority as well. What could be more pleasing to man-hating feminists then to turn men into de facto women?
Overthrowing the established order is the guiding principle to the extent that can be a principle. We are noticing already the inevitable internecine wars between the various sexual “freak” groups as the established order of one (say, old-style lesbians) is somehow pronounced as old and oppressive by the new-style sexual “freak” group of the day.
But I still say the key component is feminism. It has caused men to accept “equality” of women to mean that they have no voice, that they must acquiesce to what the most ball-busting women out there want. Men have ceded the public space to the feminist screed and simply play by its rules. They basically serve now at the pleasure of women.
That is the true source for the lack of “Vitamin N” (no) being applied to this silliness. Why aren’t the fathers of the daughters who are losing sports competitions to boys who declare themselves as girls not organized and vocal about this abuse? Why do they stay silently on the sidelines when such egregious nonsense takes place?
Because they have been emasculated. Women now hold the social power for saying what is right and wrong in this regard. This doubles the problem because men (like it or not, ladies, this is true) are the more likely ones to have clear and logical boundaries for such things — reasons, that is, rather than groupthink or emotions.
So take out men, take out any kind of wisdom-of-the-ages, and any notion of restraint on one’s appetites, and how can anyone actually make an argument that any excess (especially a sexual excess) will not soon be accepted?
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