Random Thoughts

by | Aug 7, 2023 | Fun, Musings | 171 comments

H/T: The Hyperbole & Tom Sowell

A few random thoughts on subjects that aren’t big enough to become an article on their own.

Music: when I was a kid, my parents owned some Seekers records (naturally for an Australian family at that time). On one of those was a recording of “Danny Boy.” I remember reading the liner notes which said, in part, that the song was “once considered the most beautiful ever written but it’s writer was never discovered.” I always felt bad for that dude thinking he’d disappeared into obscurity…until I looked him up last year. Frederic Weatherly wrote at least 3000 songs, about half-a-dozen books, and translated several operas. All while working full-time as a barrister.

Grammar: I’m on the mailing list for my old high school. A few years back they got a new Executive Principal (and, yeah, apparently that’s a real title). He writes the first page or two for each newsletter. Here’s an example from one (fairly recent) newsletter.

We live in interesting times as the old homily goes and more than being resilient to what goes on in the world our mission is really to do our best that our young people are happy and safe, while they get on with the purpose for being at school, to learn, achieve, succeed.

Now, I don’t know if he really thinks that’s well-written or if he just throws something together at the last minute and doesn’t proofread. Either way, it’s hard to stand up for grammar when the head of the school puts that kind of crap out in public (and that’s just one example). Of course, I’m sure there will be mistakes in this post now that I’ve snarked like this.

Manners: after thinking about this, my conclusion is that there have always been assholes in the world and their numbers haven’t really increased. But I think there is an increase in casual rudeness. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve held a door open for someone and there’s not even a nod of recognition, let alone thanks.

Sport I: I’m always a little surprised that discussions about men’s tennis GOAT don’t even mention Rod Laver. Yes, he only won eleven major singles titles (tied for sixth overall). But he missed six years in the prime of his life because, in the 1960s, the slams weren’t open to professionals. Oh yeah, he also won the Grand Slam twice – the only person to ever do so. He did it in the last year before he turned pro and the first year he was admitted back to the circuit. His 198 singles titles is still a record (I’ll also award an honorable mention to Don Budge).

Sport II: while I still follow big-time sports, I’m fascinated by what takes place at the lower leagues of English & Scottish football. A great recent story is that of English Bury Football Club. They went bankrupt and got kicked out of League One (tier 3) in 2019. Within months, fans had formed a phoenix club called Bury AFC which was admitted to a Tier 10 league. At the same time, Bury FC still held rights to the name and to the club’s home ground but couldn’t field a team. A few months back, the members of the two clubs voted to merge under the original name. Bury FC  will return to competitive football next month, in the Premier Division of the North West Counties League (Tier 9). Both the club and the ground are owned by Bury Football Club Supporters’ Society. More about the whole thing here, here, here, and here. (cue TedS on the German system).

Sacred government: we’ve heard the BS about the hallowed grounds of Congress. But Jacinda Adern followed the same line in New Zealand, referring to anti-lockdown protestors at Parliament House as desecrating parliament. Once most people accept government as holy, then those who oppose it are no longer dissenters but blasphemers (and the right is equally guilty of this).

Human Spirit: a year or so back, I went down a rabbit hole reading about the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster. The whole story is unbelievable (indeed, the endurance required to climb Everest is astonishing) but what struck me was the absolute limits some of those who died had reached. In a couple of cases, they vaguely knew that traveling another few hundred meters probably would have brought them to safety. But the cold was so intense and they were so fatigued they just couldn’t do it (not a criticism, just observation).

Music by which to have random thoughts.

About The Author

Raven Nation

Raven Nation

171 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    “We live in interesting times as the old homily goes and more than being resilient to what goes on in the world our mission is really to do our best that our young people are happy and safe, while they get on with the purpose for being at school, to learn, achieve, succeed.”

    That’s just awful.

  2. Common Tater

    I remember opening, or holding open doors for women, only to have them yell at me.

    • Sean

      Still a thing around these parts. Not the yelling.

      • Sensei

        Even NYC still lets you open doors and elevators for women.

      • rhywun

        I do it for anyone who clearly might benefit.

        I don’t give a flying fuck about chivalry but I might be an outlier.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      Odd; I hold the door open for anyone following and I have never been chastised.

      • Fourscore

        Now the widow ladies hold the door open for me and vice versa. Always get and give a Thank You. Old people, small towns…

    • Animal

      There’s an old thing going around where a guy gets snarked at for holding a door, and he replies, “I didn’t hold the door because of who you are. I held it because of who I am.”

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Thanks. I’ll use that next time.

      • Grumbletarian

        Oh, very nice reply! Also will use.

  3. DEG

    Music by which to have random thoughts.

    Good song.

    • rhywun

      I don’t care for that song but that was the best rendition I’ve ever heard of it.

  4. Common Tater

    It was always that way, with crowns and robes and such.

  5. Ted S.

    I hate hate hate “Danny Boy”.

    • pistoffnick

      *takes notes*

      • Fourscore

        The plumbers song…

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      Oh Teddy boy, the hate, the hate is calling…

  6. UnCivilServant

    A school needs three non-teaching administrative staff – Principal, Vice Principal, and Secretary. The non administrative staff – cafeteria and custodial, should be augmented with press-ganged students. The librarian role should rotate through teaching staff, and technology should be managed by someone not beholden to the petty tyrants at the school.

    • R.J.

      Funny you should mention. I was just at my daughter’s school orientation, and the school staff saw fit to subject me to a 10 minute recorded plea to approve a bond for $50 million. That’s a shit load of cash. My first thought was that half of that would go to bloated managerial class workers, not to fix school or raise teacher pay.

      • UnCivilServant

        Did you respond with “Fuck you, Cut Spending”?

      • R.J.

        I remained silent. I just wanted out of there.

      • UnCivilServant

        But they set it up so perfectly.

    • Fourscore

      In 8th grade I had Library as an elective. In high school I worked in the cafeteria (dish washer) and got non-union wages

    • Pope Jimbo

      Our neighborhood has two elementary schools that are so close they share a playground. Of course, both schools need a principal, a vice principal, a nurse and all the other phony-baloney jobs.

      At one point, they claimed that if the voters didn’t pass a bond for more money one of those schools would have to close. The bond didn’t pass and to save face the administration changed one school to be K-3 and the other grades 4-6. I have no idea how that saved enough money, but they claimed it did.

      If I was in charge, each school would have a single principal, there would be one nurse and I’d shoot any suburban mom who drove their kid to school. (If you live close enough to not be on a bus route, you live close enough to walk).

      • UnCivilServant

        The bond was a bluff. They would have done the reorganization regardless.

    • Rat on a train

      Billy, you have KP this week.

  7. Ted S.

    But Jacinda Adern followed the same line in New Zealand, referring to anti-lockdown protestors at Parliament House as desecrating parliament.

    Since you were going on about ABC and RNZ doing a bunch of stuff on “misinformation” as battle prep for… something, but what?, I was thinking of you when I listened to this report. The woman who hosts Checkpoint consistently comes across as a nasty bully who just knows better than everybody else what’s morally right, and heaven forbid you have the wrong opinion.

    • Ted S.

      Crap; this should have been the link.

      • Raven Nation

        Yeah, she is one of the most punchable reporters out there. Condescending, arrogant, and knows pretty much nothing about anything.

  8. Brochettaward

    WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG IWTH YOU PEOPLE?

    • kinnath

      Don’t know. But we’re not you, so we got that going for us.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Ya know, the war’s over: you can get parts for your head now.

    • Ted S.

      There’s nothing wrong iwth me.

    • Zwak , “There is infinite amount of hope in the universe… just not for us.”

      We can spell with?

    • Animal

      I’m fine. Happy as a hog in shit, in fact.

      What’s wrong with you?

    • MikeS

      Hi, Bro. Glad you stopped by.

    • Pat

      How much time have you got?

  9. rhywun

    held a door open for someone

    Hoo boy… here comes a recent – as in, people did not used to do this – pet peeve.

    I’ve arrived at a business – say, a drugstore – with a double door in front. Because this is ‘Merica and I’m not a crazy person, “In” is the right-hand door. So I pull the right-hand door open for myself and out sails some cretin too lazy to open their door for themselves, zigging from their side onto my side in the process. This is nine times out of ten a woman, FWIW.

    I don’t know what broke people in the last ten years or so but this is NOT how it works.

    • robc

      To be semi-fair, in the last 10 years it seems like 1 of the 2 is always locked closed, so if you found the open one, that is the only one they can go out.

      But yeah, probably just assholes.

      • rhywun

        in the last 10 years it seems like 1 of the 2 is always locked closed

        Ugh yes there is a lot of that too. And it pisses me the fuck off.

        Customer service has gone out the window along with manners.

      • The Hyperbole

        The shop where I get my coffee every morning and my beer every afternoon is like this. The people up there treat holding the door for others like a competition, it turns into the live action version of the Looney Toon’s overly polite gophers bit. Also I don’t remember which random Twitterer said it, but we do need a non verbal signal that means “Thank’s but I’m too far away and this is awkward, you go on ahead and I’ll get the door for myself”

      • Raven Nation

        Also I don’t remember which random Twitterer said it, but we do need a non verbal signal that means “Thank’s but I’m too far away and this is awkward, you go on ahead and I’ll get the door for myself”

        +1000

      • Not Adahn

        People here seem to think offering to let you have their turn at a 4-way stop is polite.

      • Gender Traitor

        My pet peeve: the driver in front of you who stops to let someone turn out of a business in the apparent belief that drivers in their field of vision are inherently more important and deserving than the line of drivers behind them. Of course, my attitude toward that may be colored by the fact that I’m not a nice person.

      • UnCivilServant

        I find that people who do that often are in one lane of two, and block the view of the other lane’s oncoming traffic from the person exiting the lot (me), especially when you’re turning such that you have to cross both of those lanes.

        Just let me wait until the traffic is clear.

      • Gender Traitor

        “No, no! If I stop to let you turn, there’s a special place for me in heaven!”

    • DrOtto

      Thank you, my pet peeve as well. I even get annoyed when someone holds the wrong door open for me and will actually grab the right door and open it and walk through it as if to demonstrate “you’re doing it wrong.” This ranks up there with assholes that rush the elevator door to get on before anyone has a chance to get off first.

      • UnCivilServant

        With elevators you let people out first.

        With bathrooms you let people in first.

      • rhywun

        someone holds the wrong door open for me

        Ha, yes.

        It is hard to navigate all these little things in life that used to be so obvious when everyone else has completely lost all common sense.

      • Rat on a train

        This ranks up there with assholes that rush the elevator door to get on before anyone has a chance to get off first.
        At times getting off a subway car in DC was like salmon swimming upstream.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I was going to comment on this as well.

      My twist will be that it isn’t someone cutting in front of me and making me wait, but the person who will deliberately slow down so they can cut behind you. But they didn’t have to expend all that energy opening their own door.

      Happened to me yesterday when I was leaving the gym and some surly teen held up his approach to the door because he was going to cut behind me. I flummoxed him by stopping in my door and just looking at him. I got a double-take from him because I’m sure he was miffed that he had to enact his own labor.

  10. UnCivilServant

    *sigh*

    … I have three interviews and a change management meeting tomorrow.

    • Sean

      I delegated my last interview. They were a no show for their first day today. 😡

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve had people no-show interviews, but not the actual job.

    • rhywun

      There are few things I hate more than giving an interview. I am not directly responsible for hiring anyone but I do sometimes interview consultants. I just don’t know what to say. Finally I gave up on a “proper” interview and decided the only real qualifications are “can I understand you” and “do I want to listen to you for more than a couple minutes at a time”.

      • UnCivilServant

        Those are unofficial criteria, but I also try to figure out if the candidate has the ability to think through a problem. We can tech the technology we use, we can’t teach people to think.

      • rhywun

        I also try to figure out if the candidate has the ability to think through a problem

        Yeah… I have no idea how to suss that out. Or I do, but not via chit chat. To be fair, by the time I get them, that should already be decided.

      • Rat on a train

        I look for problem solving and honesty. Don’t pad your resume. It may get you through the search filter but you will fail the interview.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My favorite interview question is always “What is wrong at your current job and how would you avoid it in the future?”

        People who can think can usually answer that one pretty well. They can vent about some dumb process or technology and then tell you how they’d never do X again if they could.

        But I think you also understand the most important thing: Will you be able to tolerate this person as a coworker? Like UCS says, you can train them for the most part on everything else.

      • rhywun

        I am not directly responsible for hiring anyone

        And the proof of this is that the consultant I have worked most closely with for the last couple years fails both of my requirements. And is in fact, regressing on both.

        I had three guys at one point and two of them – both a joy to work with – got pulled in another direction.

        Oh well.

  11. The Gunslinger

    Years ago I stumbled across the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I remember it was a Sunday and I got so drawn into the story I couldn’t put it down and finished the whole book by the end of the day. Fascinating story.

    • Ted S.

      Find Anatoly Boukreev’s memoir about the incident from the point of view of the other expedition.

      • Raven Nation

        Yeah, as I read it, there was a big distinction between two companies. One said, “OK mr client whatever you want.” The other said, “fuck you, we don’t want anyone to die.” (very broad generalization0.

        But, on top of that, the mountain wins.

    • John Nerfherder

      It’s been a while since I’ve read that. Good book.

    • westernsloper

      I was an avid reader of Outside back then (back when it was a great magazine which it is not anymore) so grabbed that up as soon as available. It has been a minute since then but still remember my first impressions as too many people on a mountain they should not have been on. If you have enough money you can hire someone to get you to the summit of anything. Maybe I am misremembering but I don’t think so.

      • The Gunslinger

        Some climbers ignored the hard turn around time and kept pushing for the summit way too late. Even one of the guides made that mistake while trying to get a client to the summit who he had turned around on a previous expedition. They died on top of the mountain. I believe he is the one they were able to patch through on a phone call with his wife/girlfriend.

      • dbleagle

        Back “in the day” the Nepalese allowed one expedition in the pre-monsoon period and one post-monsoon. Then it expanded to two, if they were on different parts of the mountain. But dollar signs beckoned and now the south side of the mountain is a circus. Of course people are dying up there. They did before, but the climbers (for the most part) were highly experienced. Now they are just people with lots of dollars.

    • Ted S.

      Good thing I don’t do Zoomshit.

    • Brochettaward

      I trust nothing about Zoom.

    • Pat

      Zoom doing shady shit with user data and being dishonest about it? Surely you jest

      The Jitsi Meet server I set up for you guys to test is still there, if anybody wants to do it. It may or may not have enough oomph for your group size, but if you can collectively kick in $20 a month you can rent a heftier VPS that should more than accommodate everyone.

      • MikeS

        I’d like to give this a go. But, I’m not a regular GlibZoomer, so I’ll defer.

      • Pat

        Neph’s got the admin credentials for my server, so if you guys want to do a small group beta test some time, just badger him about it. If you did want or need to upgrade to a higher-level VPS, I’m happy to set up the Jitsi instance for it.

      • R.J.

        This needs to be explored. Seems like eight peeps at a time is the normal robust Zoom night.

      • Pat

        The current server can probably handle 8 people, but probably not more than 10. Neph was going to test it with some of TPTB inner circle and give me some feedback on it, but that was before his new job and everything, so I think it just got put on the back burner. If anybody else wanted to give a shot to hosting a meeting on there, I can give you the credentials for it. I have a post up in the forum about it, or just email me at rTtsVtYpKxR5PwT3zf@protonmail

  12. John Nerfherder

    “an increase in casual rudeness”

    Fuck you, buddy

  13. Mojeaux

    My brother played “Danny Boy” on his violin at my dad’s funeral. I read “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Both were things my dad had wanted.

    • Mojeaux

      “Danny Boy” doesn’t make me cry. I’m ambivalent about it.

      Now, let’s talk about “Shenandoah,” though.

      • Mojeaux

        Glen Campbell makes every day better.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      You could have just said “I’m Irish” and everyone would have just assumed that you had a brother who could play “Danny Boy” and that “The Quiet Man” is one of your favorite movies.

      (Kidding)

      • Mojeaux

        Well, except … I’m not Irish. Got some English and Scots in me but that goes back to 1650, so …

      • rhywun

        Everyone thinks I’m Irish because reasons but I’m not. Not that I know of. English and German.

      • Pat

        because reasons

        Pretty sure I can guess. My first and last might as well be Limey McIrishman. Accurate enough in my case. There’s a large Irish contribution, although off hand I think it’s about equal parts Hungarian.

      • rhywun

        You of all people can guess.

      • Mojeaux

        I believe my dad’s maternal side may be Melungeon. There is a census record showing an ancestor as mulatto. His grandfather was from southern Belgium. Otherwise, the rest of me’s English.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Whoa! It’s old Glibs week around here.

  14. Derpetologist

    It’s odd that my internet here in Floor-duh works worse on a brand-new laptop than on the Frankenstein computer I built in Jaw-jaw. I went to the store where I got my wifi gizmo to complain. The clerk replaced the SIM card because that helps sometimes, supposedly. I don’t know how it would help.

    Most days I am forced to restart the gizmo 3 or 4 times. Hopefully I won’t wear out the power button.

    • Pat

      SIM card in a WiFi gizmo? 5G hotspot, I’m guessing? If so, the USB ones almost always suck. You can still get some business class laptops with built in WWAN, and that tends to work a little better. Either way though, a real data hose from the cable or phone company is worth the price.

  15. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    I don’t know if this falls under “Manners”, but it is peculiar how much society wants to rehabilitate genuine monsters as sympathetic characters nowadays.

    Making a movie about a scientist who spent years building a nuclear bomb that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians who later went on a drama bitch apology tour to try and absolve himself seems gauche to me. But, “ooooh, he quoted the Vendas once. So powerful!”

    • rhywun

      It is an odd subject for a Hollywood juggernaut. I am completely mystified by all the positive attention the thing is getting.

      • Pat

        It’s basically just the standard hype that every new Christopher Nolan movie gets. I like what I’ve seen of his work, but I think he’d have a less lofty reputation if he had a worthier group of peers against which to compete. He’s been fortunate to be suitably competent in his medium at a time when most of the rest of the directors and producers working in the Hollywood system have abandoned any pretense that they make films for any reason other than to grind their political axes.

      • R.J.

        You mean, make him an ambi-sexual with blue hair?

      • R.J.

        That was for the comment below. Sadness and snark fail.

      • Pat

        I don’t know, the image of Christopher Nolan as a blue-haired ambisexual still puts a smirk on my face.

      • rhywun

        I didn’t know it was him.

        I love several of his non-comic-book genre films. Still have Tenet on a back-burner somewhere.

    • Pat

      Oppenheimer as genuine monster is a bit of question begging, I’d argue. It’s precisely the moral ambiguity about the race for the bomb that makes it an interesting subject, historically or as popular drama. I’m sure artistic license will be taken with the history in order to tell a better story, but that’s the nature of biopics.

    • Gender Traitor

      It’s getting to be Old Home Week around here with long-absent Glibs reappearing. Don’t know what brought it on, but I’ll take it. Glad to see you again, TGA, as well as Suthenboy and Shirley Knott (and any others I’ve overlooked.) Welcome back, all of you, and please don’t be any a stranger.

      • MikeS

        seconded

      • Gender Traitor

        Now we just have to get Jarflax back here – I have a standing bet with him re: whether Biden finishes his term.

  16. PudPaisley

    Little factoid: Otis Redding died 3 days after recording Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay. Him and his band was flying to a show in Madison, WI in rainy, foggy weather when their plane crashed into Lake Monona. It was his only Billboard #1 song and the 1st #1 song released posthumously.

    One of the greats who died way too young at 26.

  17. Brochettaward

    MikeS thinks he can First, but I have seen his hands. Firstng is all in the hands. The hands and the penis. They go together like a glove and your hand in reverse. But no one could ever First with such feminine little hands. I tell you, it’s not even possible. That is why he has never even produced a First let alone done so on the level of a Great Firster or a First Of All Firsters who has been blessed with a Third Eye that can see through interdenominational paradigms.

    I was born for this. His delicate hands tell you that he wasn’t.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      This makes a lot of sense to me. “First”ing is the most masculine of comments and it requires testicular fortitude and steady hands. But, does this mean Fist of Etiquette was an alpha male? I seem to remember him being first a lot at TOS.

      • CPRM

        He did fist a lot. Probably why Robby couldn’t change a tire.

  18. slumbrew

    Going down memory lane, musically, tonight. My old co-worker was a giant Catherine Wheel fan – I think he was on to something.

    I confess – I miss the 90’s.

    • rhywun

      So was I, and so do I.

  19. Winston

    But I think there is an increase in casual rudeness

    Libertarian who wans to change social norms and make inappropriate behavior more socially acceptable is shocked that social norms have changed and inappropriate behavior is now more accepted.

    • slumbrew

      Show us on the doll where the imaginary libertarian touched you.

      You have slayed that straw man. You can now retire from the field, victorious.

      • Winston

        Eh libertarians have generally supported the undermining of traditional morality. Of course they assumed this would never result in social changes they didn’t like.

      • slumbrew

        Ah, now it’s not “libertarian who…” but “some libertarians”.

        Don’t be a douche. Back up your original, personal attack or apologize.

      • Winston

        What do think is meant by social liberalism?

        https://mises.org/library/character-american-individualism

        Part of this opposition was also cultural: a revolt against hidebound Victorian mores and literature.

        Another phase of this revolt was embodied in the new social freedom of the jazz and flapper eras, and the flowering of individual expression, among increasing numbers of young men and women.

        https://mises.org/library/left-right-and-prospects-liberty-0/html/c/77

        the death throes of an ineluctably moribund, Fundamentalist, rural, small-town, white Anglo-Saxon America.

        Rothbard ended up in last days complaining about the immorality of early 90s America.

      • Winston

        By the way I meant my post as a general critique of libertarians rather than personal shot at Riven Nation. I have nothing against Riven Nation. Sorry if you felt that way. Sometimes I have trouble expressing myself in the way I mean to.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ah, the conflation of libertarianism and libertinism continues. Reason staff lounge is thata way.

      • Winston

        https://www.aier.org/article/embrace-dynamism-the-future-and-its-enemies-at-25/

        The Future and Its Enemies encourages readers to embrace dynamism, an outlook that embraces progress, but not “progressive” progress. It embraces not the articulated, planned progress of intellectual and political elites but the freedom-fueled progress of the Bourgeois Deal. Dynamists hear the bourgeoisie say “leave me alone and I’ll make you rich” and enthusiastically nod “OK” as they embrace an ever-changing world of more and better.

        This is a good example of what I am talking about. Carden talks about an “ever-changing” world yet he clearly takes it as a given that people will never embrace central planning or reject Bourgeois Virtues as one of those changes in the name of Progress and Dynamism.

      • CPRM

        January 10, 2023

        Our schism happened 6 years. We are no longer libertarians, we are Glibertarians, splitter…Well, I’m a Constitutional Property Rights Minarchist, but no one read those articles.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And Virginia Postrel to boot. Who’s held in such high esteem by the people she despises. It’s like Winston isn’t really even trying.

      • cyto

        Postrel writes in defense of small governments ruling over small soveriegnties with competing rulesets

        Stasists seek specifics to govern each new situation and keep things under control. Dynamists want to limit universal rulemaking to broadly applicable and rarely changed principles, within which people can create and test countless combinations. Stasists want their detailed rules to apply to everyone; dynamists prefer competing, next rule sets.

        Ugh… I used to love the language of philosophers – coining new terms to discuss issues in heavy jargon. This is what he is complaining about with his “progressive” progress versus “bourgeoisie” progress.

        These idiots toss around “progressive” like vacuous centrists toss around “democratic” to mean “good”. I notice this tic a lot when listening to ostensibly non-political commentary, such as in the skeptical community. They will almost all drop a comment that something “isn’t very progressive” or “is a progressive stance” where progressive stands in for the word “good” or “praiseworthy”.

        When one swims in the milieu of cultish political jargon, it contaminates all of your thinking. They cannot even process the idea that “conservative” might mean something other than “evil”.

      • Rat on a train

        It is easier to attack/defend labels than debate policy.

      • cyto

        I have become the curmudgeon of Reason. They just released a podcast with the subhead title of “why don’t journalists support free speech?”

        Good lord.

        Matt Welch, Suderman, and ENB opining as to why those dirty “other” journalists don’t support free speech. It makes my head spin. Those 3 absolutely cheered every step of the way as the Tech society censorship regime was created. They loved the idea that people like Alex Jones were being cast out. Heck, even to this day, ENB is rabidly opposed to Elon Musk making Twitter into a free speech platform, eagerly pushing every alternative the progressive left pushes forward.

        Juxtaposing those guys with the days of my youth, reading Postrel’s philosophy heavy Reason, or the investigative works of Balko? Painful.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Also painful, seeing Balko and Postrel today.

  20. Winston

    https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/the-china-convergence

    A self-governing individual is one willing and able to make his own decisions about what to think and do, and how to do it, rather than automatically looking to some external authority to do these things for him. To do so he must have first developed some trust in his own ability and authority to judge the truth, decide, and act, as well as the courage to accept and take on risk. He must have some faith in his own skill, agency, and ability to accomplish things in the world (including through cooperation with others) and to thereby influence his own fate and that of his community. In psychological terms he has an internal rather than external locus of control. In other words, he must possess a certain degree of self-reliance.

    Fascinating Essay from N. S. Lyons. I found this part quoted by Arnold Kling.

    This part is something I am concerned about lately.

    First of all we can see how the current culture and society is not producing these self-governing individuals. If you are depressed and lazy you are not going going to be one. Safetyism prevents people from taking initiative. Identity politics is an external locus of control. Social media encourages an external locus of control.

    Also how do you produce these self-governing individuals? The public schools and universities were supposed to do this. Worked out well didn’t it? Not to mention if people need to be taught to be self-governing are they really self-governing? And why would you teach someone to be self-governing?

    And many 19th Century classical liberals thought that industrial societies would automatically produce these individuals. Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner certainly did which is why they became do pessimistic in the 1880s once they realized this wasn’t happening.

    Oh and mamy libertarians certainly thought that globalization, the internet and the social changes since the 1990s would create a new generation of self-governing individuals. This didn’t happen.

    • mindyourbusiness

      Looks like a must-read. I’m saving this for later.

  21. cyto

    I just got sent off on a minor adventure – after buying a couple of external hard drives from Seagate that didn’t last nearly as long as I would expect, I picked up an Asustor external enclosure and popped in 2 Western Digital Red 6TB hard drives, mirrored.

    After 11 months, one of the drives quit. To be fair, it had been tossing off bad sectors every now and again from the beginning. So, off to WD.com to do an RMA. No biggie.

    The Asustor array kinda sucks. it was not able to disable the bad drive while the array was up. I had to pull the drive to get the array to run in degraded condition. But everything seems to be there, I guess.

    Meanwhile – looking for a cheap drive to have a second copy of everything in a desktop, I came across the world of “renewed” enterprise hard drives. On amazon, that is just about all you see. Some even sport impressive sounding 5 year warranties. Who knows if they honor the full term.

    But that isn’t the adventure yet. In the middle of all of that, Amazon pushed a 2TB thumb drive into my search results…. 2TB thumb drive??

    I pulled up thumb drives, and it is full of these 1 and 2 TB offerings for cheap. Like, less than a 64gb drive in many cases. 15, 20 bucks?

    Gotta be too good to be true.

    And sure enough, a couple of looks at ones with lots of reviews shows hundreds of “great product” reviews, and a few that say “it looks like the data gets copied, but when you go to read it, nothing is there”.

    One scam – a pain, but understandable. But there were dozens and dozens of these. Surely Amazon must know about it. There just is no way that they haven’t seen enough complaints to know better – yet, here they are. Clearly fake drives that report back the file allocation table, but only have maybe 16 GB of storage and just cycle through, dumping your data. in other words, fraud.

    Anyone know what can be done about this sort of thing?

    I was kind of aghast at the hard drives – many were selling what are obviously simply wiped enterprise drives that have been used for a few years as if they are new or “renewed”, with warranties from resellers that may or may not exist in a couple of years. But at least there are clues in most of the listings to let you know what is happening (if you read a few dozen listings). But these thumb drives are clearly just fraudulent scam items. And there is no “tell” there. A boatload of clearly faked or naive reviews, and I am sure a bnch of people are being harmed. You could easily rely on such a drive for something important and not figure it out for months, since reading back an entire terabyte of data would take quite a while.

    • Rat on a train

      Has WD stopped their SMR scam?

    • robodruid

      Good Morning

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Sean, Roat, cyto, ‘bodru, Shirley, and U!

      Today I get to vote on Ohio’s Issue 1, which I’m pretty sure is the only thing on the ballot. I’m inclined to vote for it, for all the good it may do.

      • Shirley Knott

        Mornin’ GT! And the rest of you early birds as well

      • Shirley Knott

        Random neuron’s fire and I remember to ask — what did you thing of Ives’s Variations on America?
        I freely admit the pedal variation at the end is my favorite part of the piece, but the Turkish March variation is fun, too.

      • Gender Traitor

        Just gave it a re-listen. Genuinely interesting, and I don’t mean that as a euphemism for “ugh!” Definitely not a good piece for “background music.” I like what he’s doing with the melody rhythmically and what’s going on in the left hand. I also like how the particular video I found switches visually from the hand-scribbled score to the sedate published one and back. 😄

      • Shirley Knott

        👍
        Yeah, definitely not background music. I’m amazed a 16 yr old wrote it. I find it fun; wish I could play it 😉

      • Grosspatzer

        Thanks for the Ives link. I just listened to the first variation, will cue up the rest as background music for a meeting later this morning. Speaking of background music, I need to mute the audio when I join one of our all hands meetings; the kids apparently love to hear annoying loud rap while waiting for the meeting to start. Definitely not background music.

      • Gender Traitor

        So is the music likely to be more interesting than the meeting? 😏

      • Grosspatzer

        Watching water boil would be more interesting than this meeting.

      • Grosspatzer

        Issue 1 would raise the threshold for constitutional amendments to pass from 50%+1, a simple majority, to 60%. This means that 40% of Ohioans would get to choose the law.

        It means no such thing. Sounds good, though.

      • rhywun

        Because everything ever conceived is already stated law unless 40% of Ohioans disagree.

      • Grosspatzer

        Requiring a supermajority for every law wouldn’t be such a bad idea. As it stands, every election is a life and death struggle to get the 50% + 1 needed to impose your agenda on the 50% – 1.

  22. Shirley Knott

    Figured some of you (us) would find this funny, TW:FB
    Curbside Service

    • Sean

      Valet service?

      • Rat on a train

        You pull into a stall and wait for a carhop?

      • Fourscore

        I’m old enough to remember the Adult Bookstore/Video shops with a parking lot full of 18 wheelers, always located just outside of city limits. Internet ruined small entrepreneurs.

      • Shirley Knott

        Heh. Lansing had a block of seedy cheap (long stay) room rentals and adult bookshops & bars on both sides of the street, very near downtown. Six blocks or so west of the Capitol building. The bastards tore it all down and put in a baseball stadium, leaving the crooks to the west alone. Smdh

  23. Sean

    https://www.nj.com/politics/2023/08/it-was-10k-in-a-paper-bag-but-was-it-a-bribe-under-the-law-it-sure-was-says-njs-top-court.html

    “We find that the bribery statute provides sufficient notice that no person — candidate or incumbent — may accept unauthorized benefits as consideration for the performance of official duties,” the justices wrote. “The law plainly states it is no defense that someone in defendant’s position was not yet qualified to act. And ordinary people can understand that New Jersey’s bribery statute does not allow them to accept a bag of cash in exchange for promising a future appointment to a city post.”

    Glad they cleared that up.

    • UnCivilServant

      It specifically indicates that cash can only be accepted in briefcases, not bags.

      • Gender Traitor

        Is a designer handbag acceptable? Of course, in that case, one would have to use larger denominations of bills.

      • Grosspatzer

        I believe they carved out a spot for backpacks in the most recent legislative session.

      • Fourscore

        “It wasn’t cash, it was Amazon gift cards”

    • WTF

      “Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?”

      • robodruid

        I was not trained on that.

  24. Grosspatzer

    Mornin’, reprobates!

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, ‘patzie! 😃☕

      • Grosspatzer

        🚬

  25. juris imprudent

    Good morning, who else is without benefit of the grid this morning? We’re running on our generator.

    • UnCivilServant

      Still running on mains power here.

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, JI. All clear here. Please refresh my alleged memory – in what general region do you reside?

      • juris imprudent

        Southcentral PA. I was out doing some storm damage assessment before it got dark yesterday. Haven’t heard if we had a tornado or not, but I did cut up one tree across a road just by our house. I’ll be out to help our neighbor where our horses are boarded shortly.

      • Grosspatzer

        Yikes, it looked pretty bad there.

  26. juris imprudent

    this revolt was embodied in the new social freedom of the jazz and flapper eras

    I see Winston is right on top of the latest trends again.