Friday, November 30, 2018

The Enduring Miracle of the U.S. Constitution

Charles Krauthammer's posthumous book is coming out on December 4th.

At Amazon, The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors.

And at the Washington Post, "This column is excerpted from Charles Krauthammer’s forthcoming posthumous book, “The Point of It All.” The book and column were edited by his son, Daniel Krauthammer":


In October 1981, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated, the networks ran over to Cairo and began covering the events all day and all night. The only thing I remember of all that coverage was a news anchor bringing in a Middle East expert and saying, “We’ve just looked at the Egyptian constitution, and our researchers tell us that the next in line for the presidency is the speaker of the parliament.” The Middle East expert burst out laughing. “Nobody in Egypt has read the constitution in 30 years,” he said. “No one knows it exists. And no one cares what’s in it.” Then he prompted, “Who’s the leader of the military?” The anchor answered, “Hosni Mubarak,” and the expert said, “He’s your next president.”

Two things struck me about that. First, how naive we are about what constitutions are and what they mean around the world. And the second thing, the reason for the first, is how much reverence we have — in the United States and very few other countries — for this document.

Many things are miraculous about the U.S. Constitution. The first is that, somehow, on this edge of the civilized world two and a half centuries ago, there could have been a collection of such political geniuses as to have actually written it.

The second miracle is the substance of it — the way that the founders, drawing from Locke and Montesquieu and the Greeks, created an extraordinary political apparatus that to this day still works and that has worked with incredible success for nearly a quarter of a millennium.

But the third miracle, and the one that I think we appreciate the least, is the fact of the reverence that we have for it. This reverence is so deeply ingrained that we don’t even see it; we just think it’s in the air that we breathe. But it is extraordinarily rare. It exists in only a handful of countries. For almost all of the world, it is completely alien.

Consider the oath of office that we take for granted. Whenever we bestow upon anyone the authority to wield the power of the state over free citizens, we make them swear to protect not the people, not the nation, not the flag, but the Constitution of the United States. A piece of paper. Of course, it stands for the pillars of the American experiment itself: the ideas, the structures, the philosophy that define a limited government with enumerated powers, whose mission is to preserve liberty and individual rights.

This is a gift — that we intrinsically have this sense of reverence for the Constitution. And it’s important to remember that it is a gift from the past. It is not something that we can in any way credit to ourselves. If anything, recent generations have allowed that kind of reverence to diminish, to bleed away over the decades, as we try — as it were — to adapt constitutionalism to modernity.

What’s so remarkable is that constitutions are highly reactionary documents. The very essence of a constitution is to constrain the enthusiasms of a future that one cannot even see. In America, constitutionalism demands that even the most distant progeny swear allegiance to a past embodied in a document written in the late 1780s. If “tradition . . . is the democracy of the dead,” as G.K. Chesterton had it, then constitutionalism — which is ancient wisdom rendered into legal code — is the tyranny of the dead, the ultimate reach of the past into the future.

And in America, it succeeded...
More.

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How Many Times Can You Justify the Murder of Jews before CNN Fires You?

At FrontPage Magazine, "Marc Lamont Hill’s Years of Anti-Semitism Finally Catch Up to Him."


Vita Sidorkina Nails the Perfect Shot (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:



Katie Pavlich: James Comey Negotiating His Subpoena is 'Absurd' (VIDEO)

I just love Ms. Katie.

She's so smart and beautiful.

Watch:



Road Rage

I had two road rage incidents this week. Two women rolled down their windows and cursed me out, one on Wednesday on the way home from work and one on Thursday morning on the way to work.

The first woman was in the merging lane to the Culver Drive off ramp in Irvine (there's construction, so the merging side is next to the regular four southbound freeway lanes). I thought she was slowing to get on the freeway, not off. The lane was moving slowly so when I rolled up next to her she started honking her horn like crazy. I had the right of way and continued rolling forward, and once she merged in behind me she continued to beep her horn like a maniac and then followed me, to chase me down as I made my way over to the University Park library. As I went to park my car, she pulled up to the side and blocked my u-turn, and called me a "fucking asshole." I didn't say anything and proceeded to park. She rolled up to me again as I was getting out of my car and continued to berate me, saying, "You're so rude. You knew exactly what you were doing." She's right. I did. I was following my right of way and ignoring her hysterical horn honking. I think she was having a bad day. She drove off after that without further incident.

Yesterday morning, at like 6:40am, as I was getting off the 405 north in Long Beach, onto Lakewood Boulevard where it travels through the tunnel under the Long Beach Airport, I notice a car speeding like the devil attempting to make a dangerous pass ahead, where the light was red. I actually sped up, so not to be caught and cut off by this lady. She pulled up next to me, attempting to pull ahead and drove me into the right hand lane, which would be to turn right at Spring Street. She then rolls down her window and flips me off, saying "Fuck you!" Again, I just looked at her. She continued to berate me and I told her she was speeding. She said some other things which I don't recall, but instead of returning the profanity I just repeated to her "You're not a good person" about five times. When the light turned green, I put my hand out the window and merged back onto Lakewood Boulevard north, driving normally. And wouldn't you know it, here comes the road rage lady going about 90 miles an hour to squeeze by me and the cars just ahead.

I should be a more careful driver I guess. And I should ignore entitled women blaring their horns or driving at excessive speed like bats out of hell. I normally drive at the speed limit on the way to and from work, because there's a lot of highway patrol cars, and I don't want to get cited.

In any case, live and learn. I need to take it less personal and be even nicer than I am. We all could be nicer. And both of these women this week had some serious psychological issues, so playing road rage with folks like that could be dangerous and obviously not worth it.

In any case, at the Chicago Tribune, "As road rage rises, experts give reasons for behavior, tips for staying cool":
The guy who is blowing his horn and purposely trying to cut you off in traffic could be someone with intermittent explosive disorder, who can blow up at minor provocations, according to psychologists.

He could be someone who has an overdeveloped sense of individual rights, with a rigid, territorial style of thinking. Or he could just be tired and ending a bad day in bad traffic.

Whatever is motivating the lunatic in traffic, psychologists agree with traffic safety experts that the best way to cope with the increasingly deadly problem of road rage is to get out of the way.

"Let them go away. Don't cut them off. Don't make eye contact," said Mark Reinecke, professor and chief psychologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "Don't make any gestures and roll down the windows or yell at them."

"If somebody does something, don't do it back," said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Mike Link. "Go on about your business."

That's something to think about as the heavily traveled Memorial Day weekend winds up.

Road rage causes a relatively small, but increasing percentage of fatalities on U.S. roadways, linked to 467 fatal crashes in 2015 or 1.3 percent, up from 80 or 0.2 percent in 2006, an increase of almost 500 percent in 10 years, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The number of road rage incidents that involve firearms also appears to be rising. Last month, The Trace, a nonprofit news organization focused on gun violence, found that cases of road rage involving a firearm more than doubled to 620 in 2016 from 247 in 2014, with 136 people killed in those three years. The count included cases of motorists brandishing or firing a weapon at another driver or passenger....

People most likely to engage in road rage tend to fall into a few categories, according to experts.

According to Michael Hakimi, clinical psychologist with Loyola Medicine, one type is a person with an actual mental problem, such as a narcissist, someone who always feels entitled; a sociopath, someone who has no remorse or guilt and no regard for the rights of others; someone with a borderline personality; or someone with intermittent explosive disorder.

Another kind of road rager is someone who has a heightened sense that his or her personal rights are being violated, which ties into a cultural norm in the United States, Hakimi said.

"People feel they're so entitled to their rights that their rights should be protected under any circumstances," Hakimi said.

Hakimi said that a driver may have the distorted view that it is his or her job to teach other drivers a lesson.

Those who engage in road rage tend to think in a rigid, self-righteous manner and lack both empathy and a sense that they need to share the road, said Russell Brethauer, a psychologist who spoke on the subject at the Wisconsin Bike Summit this month. They do this whether they actually know traffic laws, and trying to tell them the law tends to be counterproductive, Brethauer noted.

An avid cyclist, Brethauer recalled how a truck driver once purposely went onto the shoulder ahead of him and sprayed him with gravel. Brethauer gave the one-finger salute and yelled that the man had broken the law. The trucker became so enraged that he got out of his vehicle at a red light and came at Brethauer with an axe handle.

"He yells, 'I broke the law, huh?' He's changing all colors of red and purple," Brethauer recalled. Fortunately, the light changed, and the man decided to get back in his truck.

Bad behavior may also be encouraged by the anonymity of a vehicle, which is similar to the anonymity offered by social media, Hakimi said. Someone in a car or an online chat forum may behave much differently than they would in a social setting, where there are immediate consequences for antisocial actions, he said.

"Whenever we have anonymous situations, people are prone to act aggressively," Hakimi said.

Males and younger drivers ages 19-39 are significantly more likely to engage in aggressive behavior, according to an AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study last year. The study found that male drivers are more than three times as likely as female drivers to have gotten out of a vehicle to confront another driver or rammed another vehicle on purpose.

Curiously, a 2008 study from Colorado State University found that drivers prone to road rage tend to have more bumper stickers or other personal markers like vanity license plates on their cars — it does not matter if the stickers say "Jesus loves you" or "Save the rainforests."

"It identifies them as individuals to a larger world," said Reinecke.

Fatigue, drinking, being under stress and bad traffic also can contribute to road rage, Reinecke said. He said he suspects that the increasing volume of cars on the road could be contributing to an increase in incidents.

Though some personality types may be more prone to aggression, most drivers are prone to get angry in traffic sometimes. The AAA study found that nearly 80 percent of drivers had expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage at least once in the past year, with 51 percent of drivers reporting they had tailgated on purpose, and 12 percent saying they had deliberately cut off another vehicle.

Keeping the rage down

So how do you avoid maniac drivers who want to ram your car, or worse yet, fire a gun through your window? The first way to stay safe is to be a good, alert driver, and not make other people upset, according to safety experts.

"If people aren't obeying common courtesies, it can enrage other drivers and make them frustrated," said Deborah Hersman, president and CEO of the Itasca-based National Safety Council.

Being a good driver includes not using your phone or being otherwise distracted, not using your high beams if you're behind someone or if a car is coming in the opposite direction, and using your turn signal if you are turning or changing lanes, Hersman said.

Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and even if you did nothing wrong, you can run into a raging motorist convinced that you did. The best reaction in this case is to not react, Hakimi said.

"If somebody wants to pass you and is driving crazy and giving you the finger, do not react — just get out of the way," Hakimi said. "They're going to be getting into trouble somewhere down the line." He said a driver should never think it is his job to teach another person how to drive...

Iskra Lawrence Bikini

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Bella Thorne Chocolate Video

See, at WWTDD, "Open Wide For Bella Thorne’s Sexual Chocolate."

BONUS: "Bella Thorne Finally Reveals All."

Busty Olivia Holt Bikini Photos

At Hollywood Tuna, "Olivia Holt."

Jen Selter Tight Bikini Booty in Mykonos

Here, "Jen Selter's Bikini Bod in Mykonos -- Greek Goddess."

Kara Del Toro Busting Out of Too-Tiny String Bikini

At Egotastic, "Kara Del Toro is One of the Best InstaModels."

Demi Rose Black Pantie Upskirt

At Taxi Driver.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

'You Dropped a Bomb on Me'

From yesterday's drive-time, at 93.1 Jack FM Los Angeles, the Gap Band.

The station's definitely eclectic. (*Eye-roll.*)


I Ran
A Flock Of Seagulls
9:11am
Janie's Got A Gun
Aerosmith
9:06am
Ophelia
The Lumineers
9:03am
Don't Do Me Like That
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
8:54am
Take On Me
a-ha
8:50am
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Nirvana
8:45am
You Dropped A Bomb On Me
The Gap Band
8:41am
Gimme All Your Lovin'
ZZ Top
8:37am
It's Time
Imagine Dragons
8:33am
White Wedding
Billy Idol
8:21am
Paradise City
Guns N' Roses
8:14am
Love My Way
The Psychedelic Furs
8:11am

When Did Sports Become so Political? (VIDEO)

Here's Clay Travis, for Prager University:



Michelle Malkin on Tijuana Border Invasion (VIDEO)

Michelle's always excellent on the immigration issue.

She's got a seminal book from 2002, at Amazon, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists Criminals & Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores.

And on Judge Jeannine's the other night:


Migrants in Tijuana Regret the Caravan

Heh, Trump's policies are working.

At the Daily Beast, "Migrants in Tijuana Regret the Caravan: ‘I’m Done With the United States’."
After being gassed by the U.S. and held in a camp by Mexico, hope is running out for some who left Honduras with dreams of a better life in America.


Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Danielle Gersh's Storm Thursday Forecast

She's looking fabulous.

And it's going to be rainy tomorrow, it looks like.

Bundle up folks, and keep dry.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:



Millennial Poll: America is Racist

Well, what else is new?


The Ugly Departure of Max Boot

I really don't care about Max Boot.

I think I blogged about him when he first said he was abandoning the GOP after Trump was nominated. He was over tthe top then, but he's gotten worse, much worse, apparently.

From Jonah Goldberg, at National Review, "Max Boot Decides Conservatism Was Corrupt from the Start."

A really acute and sad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Read it all at the link.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

You'd Think the Leftist Media Had an Agenda or Something?

At AoSHQ, "The Media Prints Only One Picture."

Yep.

Shameless. Absolutely shameless. (*Eye-roll.*)



Glenn Reynolds Protests Twitter's Targeting of Conservatives

He suspended his own account, because he's truly pissed off at Twitter's thought-police Orwellian totalitarianism. It's destructive and sickening.

At Instapundit, "TWITTER’S GONE CRAZY BANNING PEOPLE ON THE RIGHT, so I’ve deactivated my Twitter account."


And he writes in an update:
I’ve never liked Twitter even though I’ve used it. I was a late adopter, and with good reason. It’s the crystal meth of social media — addictive and destructive, yet simultaneously unsatisfying. When I’m off it I’m happier than when I’m on it. That it’s also being run by crappy SJW types who break their promises, to users, shareholders, and the government, of free speech is just the final reason. Why should I provide free content to people I don’t like, who hate me? I’m currently working on a book on social media, and I keep coming back to the point that Twitter is far and away the most socially destructive of the various platforms. So I decided to suspend them, as they are suspending others...
Previously: "Jessie Kelly Banned."

MSNBC Reporter Gadi Schwartz Busts Narrative on 'Mostly' Women and Children in Migrant Caravan (VIDEO)

At the Conservative Treehouse, "Whoopsie – MSNBC Accidentally Airs Ground Report Showing Vast Majority of Caravan are Military Aged Males…"



Monday, November 26, 2018

Jennifer Delacruz's Monday Forecast

I'm late posting the lovely Ms. Jennifer, but better late than never.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:



Cyber Monday

I'm a bit late posting my links, but it's a workday for me, and I've been trying to post some regular content as well.

More promotions later. Meanwhile, you can check out all the Cyber Monday sales at my Amazon associate's links.

See, Cyber Monday Deals.

And especially, LG Gram Thin and Light Laptop - 15.6" Full HD IPS Display, Intel Core i7 (8th Gen), 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2.4lbs, (15Z975-U.AAS7U1).

Thanks for your support!

Jessie Kelly Banned

From Twitter, for no reason whatsoever, apparently.

At the Other McCain, "Twitter Bans Iraq Veteran Jesse Kelly; Glenn Reynolds Quits Platform in Protest."


I actually was not following Mr. Kelly, but I love the piece he posted at the Federalist, "Twitter Banned Me for Literally No Reason, But in the End They’ll Lose":
We have become a nation of sensitive losers who care about words. We care about how things “make us feel.” The exception these days is the man who just wants to put his talent and his thoughts in the marketplace of ideas and see if people will buy it.

That man is rare today, but it was not always so. The American man used to be one who threw his family in a covered wagon and headed West into the wilderness. The American man used to be one who found out the Japanese had attacked men he didn’t know in a state he’d never visited so he ran down to the recruiting office to enlist in the Marines. That American man still exists, but he’s an endangered species.

The American spirit of free speech has been replaced by people who want uncomfortable speech censored. Nowhere is this more apparent than the social media world.

As I have said before, social media is not a small thing. It is no longer three nerds with pocket protectors huddled in their dorm rooms dreaming about a day when a woman acknowledges their existence. Social media has surpassed the telephone. It is the means of networking and communicating with others: 2.5 billion people use Facebook and Twitter.

That is not a fringe thing that is going away. It has now become the way humans interact with each other. It is completely run by Silicon Valley leftists who know the power they hold. And they are using that power.

But power is a funny thing. Power, no matter how ominous it may seem at the time, is always finite. It doesn’t last forever. If there is one thing history has taught us, it’s that silencing voices will always be a temporary solution.

Kendall Jenner Trolls Siblings for Thanksgiving: 'All my siblings posting their babies and shit and i'm just like...'

She's definitely the hottest chick going right now, man.

At Instagram (click through).

And at London's Daily Mail:


Brooke Candy's Tattoos

At Drunken Stepfather, "BROOKE CANDY TATTOOED NIPPLES OF THE DAY."

Oren Cass, The Once and Future Worker

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Oren Cass, The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America.



Sunday, November 25, 2018

Leading Canadian Feminist Meghan Murphy Banned by Twitter for Speaking Out on Trans Ideology

I've interacted with Ms. Meghan a few times. Been following all year, and have been especially fascinated by her deep and shockingly incisive feminist analysis of the transgender cult.

She's been locked out of Twitter umpteen times and now her personal feed has been permanently suspended.

I'm not on other social media platforms (except Facebook, which I literally rarely check, like once a month if that), so for Twitter to continue its extremely rapid decline is depressing. I imagine soon I'll be spending less time on it, but for now I still like it as an entry point and rapid news feed for politics. That it's become the main platform for political correctness and thought control is now beyond dispute.

Jonathan Kay has one of the most thoughtful threads on Twitter's Ms. Meghan ban:



And check the ever-excellent Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain, "Jonathan Yaniv Is Not a Woman and #IStandWithMeghanMurphy."


And at the Daily Wire, "Progressive Feminist Suspended From Twitter After Criticizing the Transgender Movement":
Daily Wire: Has this experience with Twitter changed your perspective regarding online political life?

Meghan Murphy: It’s blowing my mind how much power trans activists have. I’m not able to make my arguments. What they’re doing is ensuring I can’t talk about this stuff at all on Twitter.

It’s not, “you can’t say offensive things,” or “hateful things,” or “you can’t be mean,” because what I’m saying isn’t hateful or mean or offensive in my opinion. I’m trying to show that this ideology is incoherent and irrational. I’m trying to get them to explain their own arguments and defend their own claims.

If I can’t articulate my position, or ask questions – like “how can a man become a woman?” — then I can’t engage in these conversations at all.

The fact that there’s no accountability is crazy. Twitter doesn’t respond to my appeals; they just send me these form responses that don’t actually explain their policies or explain why I can’t say what I’m saying.

DW: Is there anything you want people to know regarding this situation that hasn’t been touched on?

MURPHY: Like I said before, the amount of power that trans activists have over public debate is incredible and kind of scary. It’s just a few people. There are a few people who have connections to Twitter or work for Twitter who are either trans themselves or allied with this movement who are just dictating these rules.

With the stuff that I’m saying, I have more supporters than detractors — not only online, but in the world. Most people in the world don’t believe it’s possible for a male to become female. Most people think this ideology is ridiculous. A lot of people are afraid to say so, and others are just regular people who aren’t aware this debate is going on.

This minority of people, who have an incredible amount of power, are claiming to be the most marginalized people on the planet. You can’t really be that marginalized when you’re controlling the entire conversation, and changing legislation and policy faster than anyone else has been able to do.
Ms. Meghan's response is up at her website, Feminist Current:



Jennifer Delacruz's Cyber Sunday Weather

The lovely Ms. Jennifer is back, at ABC News 10 San Diego:



Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.



Jean M. Twenge, iGen

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Jean M. Twenge, iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood – and What That Means for the Rest of Us.

A highly readable and entertaining first look at how today’s members of iGen—the children, teens, and young adults born in the mid-1990s and later—are vastly different from their Millennial predecessors, and from any other generation, from the renowned psychologist and author of Generation Me.

With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today’s rising generation of teens and young adults. Born in the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and later, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person—perhaps why they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. iGen is also growing up more slowly than previous generations: eighteen-year-olds look and act like fifteen-year-olds used to.

As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them: Friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation—and the world.

Bridget Phetasy Posts 'Tasteful Nudes' at Patreon for Money, and Responds to Her 'Haters' With Topless Photo on Twitter

Hey, that's one way to make money, I guess.

But what constitutes "tasteful nudes"?

See for yourself, here.

And here's the photo as well.

And she tweeting quite a bit in response to her "haters."



Saturday, November 24, 2018

Cyber Weekend Sales

At Amazon, Deals of the Day.

And especially, Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV Metal Detector.

Also, Pelican 1650 Case With Foam (Black).

More, Bose QuietComfort 35 (Series II) Wireless Headphones, Noise Cancelling, with Alexa voice control - Black.

Here, uKeg 128 oz Pressurized Growler for Craft Beer - Stainless Steel.

And, Sound and Sleep MINI High Fidelity Sleep Sound Machine with AC and Battery Power, Real Non-Looping Nature Sounds, Fan Sounds and White Noise.

Plus, LG Electronics 55SK8000PUA 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2018 Model).

Still more, Sherwood DANISH DELIGHTS Butter Cookies, In a Nice Gifting Tin, box (340g).

More here, Black Rifle Coffee Company Complete Mission Fuel Kit, Coffee Rounds for Single Serve Brewing Machines (96 Count) Coffee Pods Cups.

BONUS: Roberto Bolaño, 2666.

Beautiful Kaya

She's a hot patriot woman.

A dream woman patriot!



Peter Maas, Serpico

I watched this film last night on cable. It's excellent. And I especially love Al Pacino. I don't know (nor care) if he's a leftist: he's just so good on film.

At Amazon, Peter Maas, Serpico.


Heartwarming Video of When Dying Chimpanzee Recognizes Life-Long Friend

This is so wonderful.



Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day: A Novel.



You Gotta Love It: California Gun Owners Buy Ammunition on #BlackFriday (VIDEO)

Getting ahead of the new state legislation, which takes effect January 1st.

This guy Walt Fetgatter, interviewed at the piece, speaks for millions of Californians. Our rights are being violated. People are fleeing the state. In addition to gun control, taxes are way too high (and all kinds of "climate change" emissions regulations are killing businesses statewide).

At ABC News 10 San Diego:



Friday, November 23, 2018

Black Friday Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

See especially, All-New Fire HD 8 Kids Edition Tablet, 8" HD Display, 32 GB, Blue Kid-Proof Case.

Also, Dyson V8 Absolute Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner, Yellow.

More, Cuisinart SS-15 12-Cup Coffee Maker and Single-Serve Brewer, Stainless Steel.

Plus, Polaroid Originals 4725 Polaroid 600 Camera, Express, Blue.

And, Gotham Steel Titanium Ceramic 9.5” Non-Stick Copper Deep Square Frying & Cooking Pan With Lid, Frying Basket, Steamer Tray, 4 Piece Set - Graphite.

Still more, Bose QuietComfort 35 (Series II) Wireless Headphones, Noise Cancelling, with Alexa voice control – Triple Midnight.

Here, Toshiba 32LF221U19 32-inch 720p HD Smart LED TV - Fire TV Edition.

BONUS: Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Blame the 'Culture Wars' on 1968

From VDH, at Investors, "Did 1968 Win The Culture War?":
Most of the political and cultural agenda from that turbulent period — both the advances and the regressions — has long been institutionalized. The military draft, for good or bad, has remained defunct. There is greater transparency in politics, fewer smoke-filled rooms. Disabled children, once ostracized and/or dismissively labeled "retarded," are now far better integrated into society and treated more ethically as special-needs kids. The rights of women, minorities and the LGBT community are now widely accepted.

Yet lifestyles have been radically altered — and often not for the good. Before the late '60s, most Americans married before having children; afterward, not so much. One-parent households are now far more common.

Other legacies of the '60s include couples marrying later and having fewer children. A half-century later, these social inheritances often mean prolonged adolescence, older parents, delayed or nonexistent homeownership, and more emphasis on leisure time than on household chores.

Fashion remains '60s-influenced. There are few dress codes left. Even billionaires now dress in jeans, T-shirts and sneakers rather than slacks and wingtips. Wire-rim glasses of the 1950s were considered old people's spectacles. Then they became hip, and now they are standard.

The iconic drug of the '60s, marijuana, has been legalized in many states and soon may be decriminalized at the federal level.

Post-'60s movies routinely include the sort of profanity, nudity and graphic violence that was unknown in 1950s cinema. Big-screen romance is often no longer about courtship, romance and mystery, but lots of on-screen sex.

Promiscuity and hookups were redefined in the '60s as norms. They are now, too — but with lots of ensuing psychological, social and cultural damage.

Before the campus turmoil of the late '60s, there were almost no "studies" courses in the college curriculum. The ancient idea still persisted that the university was obligated to teach philosophy, literature, languages, science, math and the professions — along with the inductive method to use such knowledge to make sense of things.

Yet the impatient '60s threw out that disinterested notion as quaint, naive and a roadblock to utopia. The campus instead became a center of deductive progressive activism. Updated studies courses now train students to think politically correctly rather than empirically...
RTWT.

Ellen Pompeo's Call-Out Virtue

Seen on Twitter, and at USA Today below:


Danielle Gersh's Black Friday Weather

She's the prettiest little thing doing the weather.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:



Jonathan Neumann, To Heal the World?

"A devastating critique of the presumed theological basis of the Jewish social justice movement―the concept of healing the world..."

From Jonathan Neumann, at Amazon, To Heal the World? How the Jewish Left Corrupts Judaism and Endangers Israel.



Thanksgiving with Jennifer Delacruz

She's so lovely.


Kristen Van Dyke Biking in Southern Utah

She used to be at Portland's CBS News-affiliate KOIN 6 News. I used to watch her on YouTube a lot, when I was covering the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon.

A really cool lady. She's now the chief meteorologist at KSTU FOX 13, in Salt Lake City, Utah.



Caroline Glick: President Trump, Israel and Anti-Semitism (VIDEO)

Ms. Caroline's remarks on October 30, 2018, in Dallas, Texas.

And buy her book, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.



Perpetual War Over Political Culture

The big question is who's to blame?

Both sides?

I don't think so, personally. It was back in 1992 when Pat Buchanan that America had entered a state of cultural warfare to determine the "soul" of the country.

What's different today is the breakdown of the old media hierarchy and the institutionaliztion of the demonizing, destructive, anti-American ideologies of the campus left inside America's top ranks of cultural, educational, and economic power.

But see Politico:



Thursday, November 22, 2018

New Interview with David Foster Wallace

Actually, it's not "new." It's an interview by Eduardo Lago from 2000, previously unpublished.

Wallace is most famous for his novel, Infinite Jest.

At Electronic Literature, "A Brand New Interview with David Foster Wallace":


Eduardo Lago: I know you’re not teaching right now, but can you talk a little bit about the reading lists of your courses?

David Foster Wallace: Most of what I teach is writing classes where we’re concentrating more on the student’s own writing. When I teach literature classes, I’ve taught everything from freshman literature, where the department will buy an anthology and I will teach them John Updike’s “A & P,” and John Cheever’s “The Five-Forty-Eight,” and Ursula le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas,” “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a lot of very what I consider to be very standard stories that are in all the anthologies. I’ve tried teaching more ambitious or strange or difficult fiction, but with freshmen and sophomores their preparation isn’t very good and it doesn’t work well. Graduate literature courses are usually themed courses, so what the reading lists are depends a certain amount on how I design the course, as I’m sure you know. I’ve taught a fair amount of Cormac McCarthy, who’s a writer I admire a great deal, and Don DeLillo and William Gaddis. I’ve taught quite a bit of William Gass, but usually his earlier books, and I teach poetry … I’m not a professional poet but I’m an avid reader of poetry, so I teach most of the contemporary poetry that’s available in book form.

EL: Do you consider yourself an accessible writer, and do you know what kind of people read your books?

DFW: That’s a very good question. I think the sort of work I do falls into an area of American fiction that, yes, that is accessible, but that is designed for people who really like to read and understand reading to be a discipline and to require a certain amount of work. As I’m sure you know, most of the money in American publishing gets made in books — some of which I think are very good — that don’t require much work. They’re almost more like motion pictures, and people read them on airplanes and at beaches. I don’t do stuff like that. But of the American writers I know who do some of the more demanding fiction, I think I’m one of the more accessible ones, simply because when I’m working, I’m trying to make it as simple as possible rather than trying to make it as complicated as possible. There’s some fiction that’s very good that I think is trying to be difficult by putting the reader through certain sorts of exercises. I’m not one of those, so within the camp people usually talk about me being one of the more accessible ones, but that camp itself is not regarded as very accessible and I think it tends to be read by people who have had quite a bit of education or a native love of books and for whom reading is important as an activity and not just something to do to pass the time or entertain themselves.

I think I’m one of the more accessible ones simply because when I’m working, I’m trying to make it as simple as possible rather than trying to make it as complicated as possible.

EL: I’ve read in a number of places that you intended Infinite Jest to be a sad book. Can you talk specifically about that aspect of the novel and what else were you intending to do when you started writing it?

DFW: I think what I meant by that was that there are some facts about American culture, particularly for younger people, that seem to me to be far clearer to people who live in Europe than to Americans themselves, which is that in many ways America is a wonderful place to live from a material standpoint, and its economy is very strong and there’s a great deal of material plenty, and yet — let’s see, when I started that book I was about 30, sort of upper middle class, white, had never suffered discrimination or any poverty that I myself had not caused, and most of my friends were the same way, and yet there was a sadness and a disconnection or alienation among I would say people under 40 or 45 in this country, that — and this is probably a cliche — you could say dates from Watergate, or from Vietnam or any number of causes. The book itself is attempting to talk about the phenomenon of addiction, whether it’s addiction to narcotics or whether it’s addiction in its original meaning in English which has to do with devotion, almost a religious devotion, and trying to understand a kind of innate capitalist sadness in terms of the phenomenon of addiction and what addiction means. Usually I would tell people I meant to do it a sad book because when I did a lot of interviews about Infinite Jest all people would seem to want to talk about was that the book was very funny and they wanted to know why the book was so funny and how it was supposed to be so funny, and I was honestly puzzled and disappointed because I had seen it as a very sad book, and that was my attempt to explain to you the sadness that I’m talking about.

EL: How would you define your literary generation?

DFW: Boy.

EL: If you believe in that.

DFW: Can you explain the question a little bit, say who are the writers of the generation?

EL: Perhaps I mean that you belong in a certain age group that has inherited a literary tradition that you are trying to transform somehow. In other words, what are young American writers today like yourself — in a certain type of fiction because there are many different approaches to literature — doing. Do you think you belong in a group where your original work plays a role, or something like that?

DFW: Well, I don’t know. See, when people would ask me that question before it was because I was very young and I was in the youngest generation, and I think there’s probably a whole new generation now. A generation in American fiction is probably every five or seven years. Usually when people talk to me about my work, the other younger writers they lump it in with are William T. Vollman and Richard Powers, Joanna Scott, A. M. Homes, Jonathan Franzen, Mark Leyner. Those are all — I think Powers and Scott are in their early 40s, I’m 38, I think it’s all sort of writers now in their later 30s and early 40s and I think we all started publishing books at about the same time. And that group of younger writers, as I’m sure you know, we’re only a small percentage of the younger writers who are out there. There are plenty of active, productive young writers who do what I think is called Realism with a capital R: the sort of traditional, third person limited omniscient, central character, central conflict, classically structured kind of fiction. I know a couple of the other writers I get lumped in with, whom I just mentioned to you, and if there seems to be something in common, it seems to be that we all, particularly in college, were exposed to a great deal of first of all literary theory and continental theory, and second of all, classic American postmodern fiction, which means Nabokov and DeLillo and Pynchon and Barth and Gaddis and Gass and all these guys. And both of those exposures, it seems, make it constitutionally more difficult to do traditional stuff, because some of the best classic postmodern fiction really, at least for me, exploded or destroyed the credibility of a lot of the sort of conventions and devices that classic realism uses. Nevertheless, I think that what gets called classic American postmodernism — which would be, you know, metafiction or really high surrealistic fiction — has a very limited utility. Its essential task appears to me to be to be destructive — to clear away, to explode a lot of hypocrisies and conventions — but it gets rather tiresome rather quickly. Now that’s being kind of general. I myself personally find John Barth’s first few books interesting and then it seems to me that all he’s done since is work out certain techniques and certain obsessions over and over and over and over and over and over again. I don’t think any of the writers that I’ve mentioned, myself included, are comfortable with the idea of simply doing more of that kind of fiction. On the other hand we’ve all been influenced by it a great deal and I think for a whole lot of different reasons don’t see and understand the world in the way that classic realist fiction tries to capture or mirror.

So I think what I’m trying to say, in a long-winded way, is [that] probably the group I get lumped in with has been heavily influenced by American postmodernism, and of course by European postmodernism too — I mean Calvino — or Latin American writers like Borges and Marquez and Puig. But nevertheless we are also uncomfortable with some of the self-consciousness, and for me in particular some of the intellectualism, of standard postmodernism, and are interested in trying to do fiction that doesn’t seem to be formulaic or “traditional” but nevertheless has an emotional quality to it; is not meant simply to be about language or certain cognitive paradoxes, but is supposed to be about the human experience, what it is to be particularly an American and yet not be a John Updike or John Cheever traditional story.
More.

Hat Tip: The Young Hegelian, at the comments at Althouse, "At the Thanksgiving Café..."


Nice Girls in the Kitchen for Thanksgiving

At Drunken Stepfather, "Naked Girls in the Kitchen for Thanksgiving."

Gerald Posner, Case Closed

Following-up, "Misspent Conspiracism."

See Gerald Posner, at Amazon, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK.



Misspent Conspiracism

At Quillette, "My Misspent Years of Conspiracism."


Unfriend Facebook

Heh.

On Twitter:


Margaret Walker, Jubilee

At Amazon, a fantastic book and wonderful Christmas present, Margaret Walker, Jubilee (50th Anniversary Edition).



Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower

At Amazon, perfect for Thanksgiving, Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War.



As a Ring of Fire Closes In, a Mother Calls Her Daughters: 'This is How I Die'

This is the front-page story at today's Los Angeles Times.

Harrowing:



Megan Parry's Thanksgiving Forecast

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

I hope you have wonderful weather.

Here's the lovely Ms. Megan, for ABC News 10 San Diego:



Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Rains Threaten Northern Californian Burn Areas

"Sorely needed" rain is expected in Northern California, but the precipitation could cause more harm and endanger the search for those lost in the wildfires.

At LAT, "Approaching storms raise threat of mudslides in California burn areas."

Also, "Rescuers fear rains will wash away victims’ remains; 870 still missing in California fire":


The cadaver dog alerted to a corner of the charred metal frame, what probably was once the kitchen of a mobile home in Paradise, Calif. Searchers in white jumpsuits walked over, with shovels and gloves, to sift through the debris.

After about 10 minutes, they determined there were no bodies or bones in the rubble — just burned sausages.

For days, hundreds of searchers have been methodically working through the destruction left by the massive Camp fire, looking for clues that someone couldn’t escape, such as a wheelchair or a footprint. They scour places where people may have tried to protect themselves from flames: under a mattress, inside a bathtub.

So far they have discovered 81 bodies — people who died in cars and homes; people outside, probably trying to outrun the flames. But with 870 people still missing and more than 12,600 destroyed homes to comb through, their grim mission is far from over.

“We have so many souls unaccounted for, I believe that this search for remains is going to go on for a long time,” said state Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), whose district includes Paradise. “Could be weeks.”

And now, a pair of incoming storms are threatening to hamper recovery efforts. In a worst-case scenario, the downpour could flood the ruins and wash away human remains, leaving authorities unable to find and identify every victim of California’s deadliest wildfire on record. Authorities fear bones could sink underwater, making them harder to spot and drowning any scent that cadaver dogs rely on to find them.

Paradise narrowed its main road by two lanes despite warnings of gridlock during a major wildfire »
Deborah Laughlin last heard from her son and his pregnant wife just after the couple evacuated their Magalia home. It’s been almost two weeks, and she has no idea whether they survived.

“Please don’t tell me he died,” said Laughlin, tears in her eyes, from the cafeteria of Bidwell Junior High School in Chico. “Please.”

She said she is clinging to hope that they’ll be reunited soon. The 63-year-old lost her home in Paradise. She’s afraid of the approaching storms because she knows there are still people who are missing, people who may have died in the fire.

“I’m scared,” she said. “I’m scared they’ll be washed away and people’s remains will never be found.”

Meteorologists say the Camp fire burn scar — which is larger than the city of San Jose — could see up to 6 inches of rain through Saturday, with the heaviest downpour expected overnight Thursday. The forecast has triggered a flash flood watch for possible rock slides and debris flows. Light rain was beginning to fall Wednesday morning in the Sacramento Valley, with stronger showers expected later in the day.

“That rain is going to get in that ash, it’s going to turn into it a paste-like substance,” said Monterey County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Joe Moses, who is helping in the recovery effort. “It’s going to stick to everything and slow things down.”

Officials are preparing for an long, wrenching cleanup...

Miluniel Louis

Not sure who this is, but she's nice.

Here, "Miluniel Bush of the Day."

Plus, Playboy photos of Miluniel Louis.

Volker Ullrich, Hitler

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Volker Ullrich, Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939.



Tuesday, November 20, 2018

'Close to Me'

From yesterday morning's drive-time, at 93.1 Jack FM.

The Cure.

Smashing Pumpkins
9:17am

More Than A Feeling
Boston
9:13am

How Soon Is Now?
The Smiths
9:07am

Brain Stew
Green Day
9:03am

Don't You Want Me
The Human League
8:52am

Lose Yourself
Eminem
8:48am

Here I Go Again
Whitesnake
8:44am

No Rain
Blind Melon
8:40am

Love Is A Battlefield
Pat Benatar
8:36am

Close To Me
The Cure
8:25am

When You Were Young
The Killers
8:21am

Sweet Home Alabama
Lynyrd Skynyrd
8:16am

Shout
Tears For Fears
8:10am

Alive
Pearl Jam
8:04am

'It's Only Rock 'n Roll'

A new live performance of "It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll," from the Stones' Voodoo Lounge tour.



Plus, the upcoming 2019 world tour: