jesse.in.mb
Jack Saul – The Sins of the Cities of the Plain; or, The Recollections of a Mary-Ann, with Short Essays on Sodomy and Tribadism. SugarFree shot me a message: “Would you like an e-copy of one of the first published works of gay erotica?” “Obviously!” I replied and figured a Victorian (1881) novel would be quaint. It was truly a delight to be proven wrong by Mr. Saul, who taught me that Victorians ate ass like fiends and generally engaged in and described sexual practices that remain largely taboo in even fetish-oriented adult content with the exception of maybe one major studio. The interplay of the vulnerable youth and moneyed members of society also felt timely although Saul himself is never portrayed as a victim in the narrative. Jack Saul does not. give. a. fuck. about your opinions of him and feels like a very fresh, modern voice in the Victorian context. I always used to joke that I felt libertine by LA standards, but prudish by San Francisco standards, but I feel positively dowdy by 1881 London standards. Even if you’re not interested in reading elegantly crafted prose about Jack’s 10-inch Mr. Pego breaking-in[to] barely-legal, virgin manhole on behalf of a wealthy older gentleman with particular tastes, I think you’ll enjoy the balls, both proverbial and tufted with fair hair, on the author.
mexican sharpshooter
This month I picked up the somewhat anticipated Apocalypse Never. Written by Michael Shellenberger, an environmentalist well-regarded in such circles. The expectation I gathered around the internet when it was released was it was a sort of debunking of environmentalist sacred cows by an insider to the movement.
This is not that kind of book. Instead, it puts them all into proper context. It takes the tone that many (if not most) environmental issues are overplayed by their advocates, and their solutions unfeasible. The first chapter on climate change for example referenced multiple scientists saying something to the tune of, “The newspaper quoting me took that line out of context” or “I don’t think the reporter understood what I was saying”. In short, I felt like I was re-reading Ron Bailey’s book End of Doom.
OMWC
Many many decades ago when I was imprisoned in high school history class, I stumbled across a mention of a supposedly excellent series of books, “The Story of Civilization,” by the husband-and-wife team of Will and Ariel Durant (fun trivia- he’d be in jail these days since they got married when she was 15). I read a bit of one of them, was impressed by the writing, the depth of knowledge, and overall, the insight. Then I got distracted by quantum mechanics and never got back to them. After 50 years, I am rectifying that mistake, starting with Volume 1, “Our Oriental Heritage.” And fuck, this is even better than I remembered, and now I’ll have to make my way through the next ten volumes. Witty, unpretentious, and amazingly prescient in so many ways, though it is often noted that, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Here’s a fun passage from “The Age of the Poets” section on China:
…Wang Mang, at the very outset of his reign, abolished both the slavery and the estates by nationalizing the land. He divided the soil into equal tracts and distributed it among the peasants; and, to prevent the renewed concentration of wealth, he forbade the sale or purchase of land. He continued the state monopolies of salt and iron, and added to them state ownership of of mines and state control of the traffic in wine. Like Wu Ti, he tried to protect the cultivator and the consumer against the merchant by fixing the price of commodities. The state bought agricultural surpluses in time of plenty, and sold them in time of dearth. Loans were made by the the government, at low rates of interest, for any productive enterprise.
Wang had conceived his policies in economic terms, and had forgotten the nature of man. He worked long hours, day and night, to devise schemes that would make the nation rich and happy; and he was heartbroken to find that social disorder mounted during his reign…. Revolts broke out, and while Wang, bewildered by such ingratitude, struggled to control these insurrections,subject peoples weakened his prestige by throwing off the Chinese yoke, and the barbarians overran the northern provinces.”
SP
Vegan cookbooks, vegan websites, vegan nutrition books, vegan medical studies. Yes, there is a pattern.
As of today, I’m on Day 26 of my 100 day trial of 100% plant-based. Only 74 (or maybe forever) to go!
SugarFree
It should be a National Holiday when a Neal Asher novel comes out. Shut it all down and let us read in peace.
The Human (2020) is the final book in The Rise of the Jain trilogy and is literally one long, insane space battle fought on a number of different fronts. Techno-porn, weapons-porn, and epic space opera all knotted together in a screaming mass of alien tentacles. Science fiction nerdgasm.
The Rise of the Jain, though billed as a trilogy is really a long, long novel difficult to print in one volume. (Although, coming in at 420,000 words, it is still shorter than It.) Set late in the Polity Universe, it draws together storylines from Agent Cormac quintet of novels and early Spatterjay storylines to bridge the gap from the last Cormac novel to the detente between the AI-run Polity and the psychotic crabaliens called the Prador shown in The Skinner.
Mad Scientist
Every month about this time I get nagged about adding a contribution to the What Are We Reading post. I’ve protested that it’s a waste of time because no one is going to read it. I’ve be reassured, countless times and against all experience, that the commenters are caring souls who cherish the experiences of others. I’d ask you motherfuckers if you’re going to just sit there and let your reputations be besmirched like that, but I know you won’t get this far anyway.
I did not intend to First today.
It was truly a delight to be proven wrong by Mr. Saul, who taught me that Victorians ate ass like fiends and generally engaged in and described sexual practices that remain largely taboo in even fetish-oriented adult content with the exception of maybe one major studio.
I remember reading some Victorian era porn when I was in my early twenties. That was my impression.
Wang had conceived his policies in economic terms, and had forgotten the nature of man. He worked long hours, day and night, to devise schemes that would make the nation rich and happy; and he was heartbroken to find that social disorder mounted during his reign…. Revolts broke out, and while Wang, bewildered by such ingratitude, struggled to control these insurrections,subject peoples weakened his prestige by throwing off the Chinese yoke, and the barbarians overran the northern provinces.”
“Same shit, different day” is more concise.
Whycome they turn into Kulaks and wreckers?
Because utopian theorists just don’t account for nature (not even restricted to human nature).
These are the same people that tell me I am a heretic for pointing out their claims that there are 50 plus sexes when science (biology) says that there are 2 chromosomes that define one’s sex. I get some people feel biology stiffed them, but deciding to undo biology to make them to create the illusion of things being different, seems to be a solution that will eventually cause some real ugly things to happen (and not just demands to say stupid things, but that result in lives lost). Deciding to override reality is never going to end well….
It should be a National Holiday when a Neal Asher novel comes out. Shut it all down and let us read in peace.
I read “The Technician” based on you posting about Asher either here or on H&R. I liked “The Technician”. I haven’t read anything else by Asher yet.
See my reply to Timeloose at #18 below for suggested next books.
Neal Asher is f*cking awesome. The Rise of the Jain is Asher turned up to 11.
I’ve protested that it’s a waste of time because no one is going to read it. I’ve be reassured, countless times and against all experience, that the commenters are caring souls who cherish the experiences of others. I’d ask you motherfuckers if you’re going to just sit there and let your reputations be besmirched like that, but I know you won’t get this far anyway.
Did someone write something?
😉
More reading-of-the-reading, from OMWC:
Someone said here a little while back that people want to be ruled (and of course the observation has been made in many other places too). This is true, to a degree, but people also want not to be ruled. For nearly every aspect of human nature, there’s a contrary one as well.
people want to feel secure. If being ruled makes them feel secure, then they want to be ruled. If being rules makes them feel oppressed, then they don’t want to be ruled.
They want a set of boundaries and limited choices (to combat analysis paralysis).
They do NOT want to be ruled when they want to go outside those boundaries.
Rathern than “people want to be ruled” i think: People want their rules to be followed. Most people don’t want to be “in-charge”, but they do want their sense of right/wrong enforced on everyone else. Libertarians included.
Yes, that, too and I almost mentioned that, but everyone has a “good for me but not for thee”.
Example: An old dude says, “When I was young, I did X stupid thing and I turned out fine.” Then same dude when he has a son, gets worried sick about the son doing the same stupid stuff.
“Well, it was okay when *I* did it!”
My daughter once said, “Dad, you did that too.”
And I said, “Yup. Now think about (1) if it did me any good and (2) how much trouble I could have gotten into.”
Being a thoughtful kid, she quit doing that.
Heinlein.
I finished “Argentine Mauser Rifles: 1871-1959”. It’s got some good information in it. The author talks a little about what was going on in Argentina and in South America, which drove some of Argentina’s purchases. I took my Argentine Mauser Modelo 1909 out of the closet after finishing the book. Now I know it was made in 1910 and might have some replacement parts.
I will start “Retief and the Warlords” over the weekend.
I was going to say reading is for fags, but this entry literally started off about gay erotica so I thought that would be in poor taste.
And you wanted the stakes of our race for first to be sucking dick?
The Bro’ doth protest too much, methinks.
There were no stakes for me last night as I am the First of Firsters. There was no way I was going to be second.
Ah, but you fantasized about losing, and having to honor the terms.
If you ain’t first, you’re last….
Just finished Salvation by Peter Hamilton. Not bad – a series of mystery stories within a sci-fi novel. The sequel is waiting for me at the library.
Also continuing to read The Daily Stoic which has been very helpful these days.
Discounting re-reads, my books for the month:
Arkady Martine, A Memory Called Empire. An interesting tale of culture clash, in more of a politico-social/separated by great distance fashion than the riot LARPing we’re undergoing. I enjoyed it. It’s self-contained, but seems to be launching a series.
Ann Leckie, The Raven Tower. Excellent fantasy & it’s a joy to read a story with spoken magic without the ‘true name’ trope that almost universally accompanies such. Interesting use of second person story telling as well (not total, but one of 3 perspectives used throughout).
Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the Ninth. Lesbian necromancers in outer space. Okay, the lesbianism was more pronounced in book one, Gideon the Ninth, but…
Second book of a trilogy, book 3 out in a year or so. Intriguing and unlike anything else I’ve read.
Graphic novels:
Gideon Falls. Dark, well done.
The Dreaming, vols. 1-3. A continuation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. I thought it was outstanding.
The Nei Gaiman Library, vol. 1. 4 stories, in descending order of quality IMNSHO. The first was an interesting pseudo-Holmesian take on Victorian England long after the Great
Old Ones returned to rule.
Ann Leckie, The Raven Tower
Her sci-fi isn’t bad, might have to give that a try.
Definitely. I’m a big fan of her Ancillary books: this lives up, while being entirely different.
https://twitter.com/jacobfhsmith/status/1299356419771248641
Read this thread if you would like to get a hold of a lot of Butt hurt people about Nate Silvers Electoral Model.
I like also the one guy who just straight up says he likes the economists model because it makes him feel more comforted.
Yall read a lot. I should try it.
So last trip to Baldwin’s I stumbled upon Jane Jacobs The Nature of Economies. I just started reading it, and inside of 50 pages knew I was reading one of the best work on economics I had ever read. Had to mark the margin for this quote:
I’m on Book 6 of the Odyssey One series by Evan Currie. I read his follow-on series first (only 2 books so far), and so some of the suspense is gone, but I really like the premise of this series.
Yup, I like that series as well. I’d still like him to give us some idea on just what the gravitic entities *are* exaclty / how they came to be, but in the meantime the cold war with the Empire is fun enough.
At the moment, I’m re-reading Jack Campbell stuff (The Pillars of Reality at the moment), just because it is relatively light and fun.. and that beats the heck out of the rest of 2020. Probably re-do the JAG in Space then the Lost Fleet series after that… if I’m lucky his next book picking up after those books will be out, but probably not. They’re quick reads, and I don’t think he’s got another one due until next year.
For more serious reading, I’ll be trying to get through Dante (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradisio). We’ll see how that goes.
I’m working my way through all the Alan Faust spy novels again, in order of publication. It’s like going to the zoo and seeing the giraffes – you know exactly what you’re gonna get, and you’ll enjoy the hell out of it anyway.
Also working on The True Believer. It’s not good for my ego when a highly regarded philosopher keeps tossing off lines that I’ve been saying, unknowingly, for years.
I haven’t read any Neal Asher, I clearly need to fix myself…
Who knew HM was of a Victorian nature. *looks up dowdy*
What I am reading: Not one damned thing. My attention span is in the shitter and I’ve got too much on my mind to be able to escape. Those may be related.
I also haven’t been writing. My life is such that escape is not an option and I have to deal with what’s going on. This does not lend itself to creativity.
Poor Mo. I completely sympathize, except for the writing inability part inapplicable to me.
Well, on the upside, things are being handled. I credit this to my anti-anxiety med and my zoom-zoom med. Once upon a time, I would have just checked out, so that’s a #win.
Thanks again for the Bronkaid tip. It helps but I still owe you (and Sir D) a parcel.
Am always interested in OTC anxiolytics and antidepressants.
Welcome, although my drug dealer gave me something to counteract the weight gain with my anxiolytic, with the condition I ditch the Bronkaid. It works much better.
But for OTC, the Bronkaid/caffeine stack does help immensely without side effects. Mr. Mojeaux went off the Bronkaid for a while because he didn’t think it was doing anything and he was just constantly tired, so he went back on.
Good to know. Grazie.
SF and others. I’m looking for a new SF author to go deep with. Neal Asher sounds like my kind of author. Where should I start to be able to grasp the background of the Polity Universe? Should I follow the Polity Universe (chronological order) in SF’s link or is there a better way to get up to speed in one of the novels?
Should I start with Prador Moon and see if I dig his writing or is there another shorter story that could allow me to make the determination faster. I generally like military SF as well as well done space operas.
I’d suggest starting with The Technician and proceeding through Dark Intelligence, War Factory, and Infinity Engine. That gets you a fairly complete story arc through his relatively newer Polity works.
Alternatively, start at Gridlinked and forge through the whole shebang.
He discusses the choices on his blog, Where Do I Start
He’s insanely prolific. Also quite interactive with fans on his Facebook page, where he tolerates no SJW BS.
Thanks!
You’re very welcome.
As an alternative to his Polity novels, the Owner trilogy is quite good, and should resonate with “our” politics, despite some divergences. He understands big government, and those who rise to the top of same. Serene Galahad is awesome in entirely terrible ways.
I started with Gridlinked and forward from there, but the chronology is not extremely important. Prador Moon is an early work and not great. It’s odd, but I usually recommend starting with The Skinner which is late in the overall Polity Universe but so exceedingly fun that it drops you right into Asher’s way of doing things.
But read by story arc. They are closely interrelated plotwise, but the overall Polity story is very loose (much like Banks’ Culture novels.
The Skinner creeped me out so utterly and totally that it was literally years before I picked up another Asher. I’m glad I did, and mad props to Ssher for taking biology and ecology seriously. That’s something quite rare in science fiction, and he does it well, if often horrifyingly. (E.g., the short story The Grunnard.)
You rarely see body horror and high concept science fiction so easily fused that way.
But that might be a good disclaimer. The Skinner is huge gross-out.
But Sniper. Sniper is the best!
Oh, and though I linked to it, the Goodreads chronology is wrong and incomplete.
Internal Chronology:
01 – Prador Moon
02 – Cormac 0.5 – Shadow of the Scorpion
03 – Cormac 1.0 – Gridlinked
04 – Cormac 2.0 – The Line of Polity
05 – Cormac 3.0 – Brass Man
06 – Cormac 4.0 – Polity Agent
07 – Cormac 5.0 – Line War
07.5- Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck
08 – The Technician
09 – Transformations 1 – Dark Intelligence
09.5 – Transformations 1.5 – The Other Gun
10 – Transformations 2 – War Factory
11 – Transformations 3 – Infinity Engine
12 – Rise of the Jain 1 – The Soldier
13 – Rise of the Jain 2 – The Warship
14 – Rise of the Jain 3 – The Human
14.5 – Spatterjay – 0.5 – Spatterjay
14.6 – Spatterjay – 0.6 – The Gurnard
14.7 – Spatterjay – 0.7 – Snairls
15 – Spatterjay 1 – The Skinner
16 – Spatterjay 2 – The Voyage of the Sable Keech
17 – Spatterjay 3 – Orbus
18 – Hilldiggers
And then there are Polity Universe stories that can’t really be placed in the chronology easily:
Acephalous Dreams
Adaptogenic
Alien Archaeology
Choudapt
Garp and Geronamid
Putrefactors
Shell Game
Snow in the Desert
The Engineer
The Gabble
The Rhine’s World Incident
The Sea of Death
Thanks SF. I’ll give the Gridlinked a try.
I’ve been trying to work my way through: Socialism by mises, but damn it’s dry.
I said that two or three months ago here. It isn’t just dry, it’s terribly written. (And I know it’s a translation.)
“Human Action” is much better.
Its been awhile since I read Asher. Will (shudder) follow SugarFree’s recommendation.
I’m in the middle of Demon in White, part of hristopher Ruocchio’s Sun Eater series. I’ve mostly liked these so far, and this one doesn’t disappoint.
re: Ruocchio, I liked Empire of Silence well enough but I’ve stalled out 40% of the way through Howling Dark. I’m finding it hard to care about any of the characters, least of all the protagonist.
I’ve switched over to The Destroyer series – fun, bubblegum reads.
I’ve got Farnsworth’s Classic English Rhetoric queued up for when I switch away from literary junk-food. Then maybe What Every Body Is Saying (by a former FBI agent who’s an expert in reading body language). I also bought The Good Shepherd based on someone’s recommendation here.
People are freaking out that Ivanka made up a story about her son that was then tied to politics. As if politicians don’t do that. I kinda want to see an unmarried single guy run for office and just constantly tell stories about his non-existent kids, just to point out the bullshit all politicians do.
Doulbe standards, yadda yadda.
I didn’t hear that. But I watched her on mute.
[golf claps]
Umm you already have Matt Gaetz who has been surreptitiously
groomingraising a Cuban boy since he was 13, but until it was politically convenient referred to him as a “local student” and “helper”.The Story of Civilization series was in my parents’ library when I was a kid; sadly, I only dipped my toe into a few bits, and never read the whole series. It got “lost” during my parents’ divorce and some subsequent moves. I know of at least one history major, an acquaintance, who says that the series has some heavy need for revising, but is still an amazing accomplishment.
I’m just going to post this here without comment:
Derp warning – it’s The Guardian
I’d call this the black scare, but most people would assume it had to do with race instead of politics.
To the extent anyone buys it, this is a prelude to purging the civil service (and military, contractors, auxiliaries, etc.) of wrong-thinkers, a la the red scare and McCarthyism, with the slight difference that at least McCarthy did manage to identify some actual Soviet infiltrators.
Spare me.
They’ve focused on far-right threats to the exclusion of others. Just ask Ammon Bundy.
LaVoy Finicum unavailable for comment.
hundreds of police officers have been caught posting racist and bigoted social media content.
Of course wearing a MAGA hat or expressing support for our current duly-elected president counts as racist and bigoted social media content.
“Blue Lives Matter” is regularly accused of white supremacy.
I think I mentioned this in an earlier thread, but I hadn’t read Cryptonomicon in something like 15 years. We spent a week at Edisto Beach back in July, so I got the Kindle version and re-read it then. And now I’m re-re-reading it just because I like it so much. It’s just full of “best evers”. To wit:
– For something written in 1999, the section on the wokesters in Charlene’s academic crowd could have been done as a satire yesterday.
– Everything about Amy.
– I don’t know what Stephenson would say to this, but I think it’s written as a deliberately crypto-Christian novel.
– Just the writing, like Lawrence looking at the front of Qwghlm House – “…embarnacled with Victorian foofawfery…”
I just got the Autobiography of Ben Franklin and Notes on the State of Virginia. Added to a growing collection of books that I have not read. Perhaps I’ll crack one open while it’s raining tomorrow.
I won’t read it but I’m looking forward to the film adaptation of the fantasy novel by James Comey.
Ahem, SP! Beware of phytic acid. (Also I knew a raw fruitarian whose teeth dissolved, but I’m sure you wouldn’t do anything so extreme.
(meant to be bolded. I mix up em and strong. What was wrong with B and I tags anyway?)
Mad Scientist, I’m going to sit here and stare at the screen until you tell us what you are reading.
Haven’t had much time to read myself because work, but I did manage to catch UCS last contribution. Good job, dude.
Howard Zinn’s A Peoples History of the United States
This
Thank you. Bookmarked for when I have time to #$*&^#@! read again.
I’m reading his Lucid Blue. Who knew I liked superhero stories? I’m all about intelligent escapist fiction right now.
The other day i asked “Why does the left hate Trump so much?”. And i think a large part of it is that he said “The media is the enemy of the people”. He declared war on the press and they have gone scorched earth on him. If Trump was soft on the corporate press, i think he would still be hated, but at more civil levels. You wouldn’t be seeing the media calling to not have debates as to not legitimize him.
He has said more than once that (paraphrasing) he is just a proxy for their contempt of the little guy. Probably regardless of how many LGs support him.
“They don’t hate me so much as they hate you” might be closer to it.
Short words R generally good*. If you disdain The Elements of Style, how about Politics and the English Language?
*excepting specialist jargon such as (e.g.) peticchiae
*petichiae
I’ve seen people call the media the propaganda arm of the DNC but that is wrong. Michael Malice has said that the Democratic Party is the implementation arm of CNN and I think that gets closer to accuracy. The media is the tail that wags the political dog. The Democrats have had a cozy relationship with the media for a long time, but they are being led rather than doing the leading. The media wants Biden to win, no doubt, but he is more beholden to them than they are to him.’
That Trump declared war on the media class and not the free press is the crux of the distinction. Trump is an obnoxious loudmouth but not a dictator. The media is the enemy of the people, and like the East German government, they’d sooner dissolve the people and elect a new one than admit that they have lost the trust of much of the public and should change themselves rather than demand change of others.
I sort of agree with this description. But then I recall that the media people are utterly dumb. Dumber than Schumer or Pelosi. Where are the brains in the media class to lead its political wing?
I tend to agree about the Media being the driving force, I see it mostly as the Media being the “biggest” lobbiest? I don’t know. But they certainly have formed their own agenda, and then push the Dems to enact that agenda, rather than necessarily taking queue’s from the Dems. I think in the past it was that way (when Obama was president). If i was going to be conspiratorial i’d say that the change in direction is because the powerbrokers in the DNC (Clintons/Obamas) are no longer in political power, and are now using their allies in the media to push Policy.
I don’t think so. The reason I disagree is that the media narrative turns on a dime whenever the Democrats need it to. If the media was the driving force, it would never need to change, or would evolve more slowly.
I’ll disagree too. Both the media and politicians are just vehicles for groups pushing their agenda. Both groups are dependent on their funders and we’re now seeing a very high degree of overlap in the funders/groups.
I said the MSM is a propaganda arm of the Dems this morning and will concede that’s not entirely accurate. I should have said the MSM is a propaganda arm for whatever groups are funding/guiding the Democrat party.
Both groups are dependent on their funders and we’re now seeing a very high degree of overlap in the funders/groups.
This sentence needs to be clearer. I meant both the Dems and the MSM are dependent on their funding sources, and we’re now seeing a very high degree of overlap in the groups funding/guiding the both the Democrats and MSM agenda.
Nancy Pelosi didn’t put on a stupid scarf and get down on her bad knee because she’s calling the shots. She did it to get the media’s fawning adoration. There’s a political calculus there, to be sure, but they control her more than she controls them.
That having been said, I agree entirely that there is a funding nexus which they are both primarily the recipients of; in some cases, neither the visible media figures nor the politicos are calling all of the shots.
Nancy Pelosi didn’t put on a stupid scarf and get down on her bad knee because she’s calling the shots.
Agree. Pelosi isn’t calling the shots. Politicians are prostitutes and she’s following whoever is funding/guiding the Democrat party.
She did it to get the media’s fawning adoration.
Hard disagree. She could gut a baby in daylight and the media’s fawning adoration wouldn’t waver an inch. The MSM do as they are told, and they are told to provide cover for the Dems. The Dems do as they are told, and Nancy dropped her knee to provide the image demanded of her by her overseers.
The overseers could have overlap between the Media and the Dems, but that’s not at all the same as saying the Media controls the Dems. More like two appendages of the same organism.
That having been said, I agree entirely that there is a funding nexus which they are both primarily the recipients of; in some cases, neither the visible media figures nor the politicos are calling all of the shots.
Maybe we are in agreement but approaching differently
GS, I hear?
This is making the phoned-in DM et al paparazzi and their clients look above-board. Kathy Griffin used to be frank about this in the ’00s which is why she once amused me.
IMO, it’s a mistake to go looking for “the leader”. it’s a cell network. use the gun rights network as an analogue. if the nra disappeared tomorrow, it would be a blow to the movement, but the list of desired changes doesn’t disappear with them, nor do the connections that keep people plugged in.
Reading is a form of white privilege, so I’ve sworn it off.
I’ve been trying to read excerpts from here and there on Amazon, in an attempt to make sense out of what we are seeing today in the streets, the media, academia, politics, etc.
They’re all commies, maybe doesn’t cut it. Some of them think they’re commies, because they need some sense of purpose, even though they don’t even know what Marxism is. They just have no discipline at all, no respect for anyone else, and no sense of right or wrong, because they’ve never been taught any of that in school, or by their parents.
I’m starting to come to the conclusion that although I am not a religious person, that some sort of religion may be necessary to instill a general sense of morality. Maybe not to someone like a libertarian who has enough self discipline and principles to understand what the limits of our own ‘I’m a do whatever I please’ is before it crosses the line into encroaching on other people’s liberty. But these kids have no respect for personal property and no guiding principles.
I read one interesting excerpt where the author seems to think that it all began with ‘materialism’, not being the same as consumerism, but naturalism. IOW, everything is natural and there is no god or higher principles or morality, because there is no real right or wrong. So are humans capable of actual morality without some sort of guiding principle?
Then you get to the question, is it communism when you see the rioters turning their focus on churches, or is it just this gradual trend towards secularism and atheism that is so prevalent today in academia, the media, etc?
Am coming around to the outlook in your fourth graf. Am not a churchgoer (save concerts) but I had just enough churching in my youth that some of it stuck.
+1 Van Hagar
“I have just enough Christ in me to make me feel almost guilty…”
I think many people need to believe in, and be a part of something bigger than themselves. It could be church, or military, or government. But they want something with grand goals
+1 Eric Hoffer’s unifying theory
“The Story of Civilization,” by the husband-and-wife team of Will and Ariel Durant
Based on the excerpt, that looks like something I need to read.
I’m reading The Long Eighteenth Century, by Frank O’Gorman, which feels like it’s plugging a gap in my knowledge. Also Salammbo, by Flaubert, mostly so I can say I have.
Obligatory: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=utNGX7lqwDc
Mme. Bovary was good. Poor silly lass.
OMWC, I saw the Durant series sitting on the shelf of my favorite store, was afraid to start reading it, it just looked formidable . Sort of wished I had it now, but reading an Andrew Jackson
bio by HW Brands anyway.
While I know libertarianism is all about personal choice, for some reason veganism seems unlibertarian (outside some health necessity )
Dunno about un-lib.
A defense of meat-eating in most recent Tom Woods podcast (haven’t yet listened).
Probably Robb Wolf.
He’s my entry for today, as well. I read his latest, Sacred Cow, and found it a very compelling argument for regenerative agriculture.
It will piss off a lot of people. Highly recommended.
I was watching a YouTube video where some guys were commenting on a Jubilee video about veganism. In the original video, a bunch of vegans and one (secret) non-vegan were gathered together to play a game of vegan werewolf: without knowing who, the group had to decide who the non-vegan is from talking to each other and voting. The game ends when the remaining participants agree they have found the non-vegan; if they were right, they win, if not, they lose.
For the most part, they were amiable enough, but there was one obnoxious bitch who kept hammering one of the guys because his vegan choices weren’t pure enough. She was the holiest of the holier-than-thou vegans and even though the guy she was attacking seemed sincere she insisted that because he didn’t commit his life and soul to veganism as a life statement he wasn’t the real vegan. So she convinced the others and they voted him out and then said yep, of course we’ve found the non-vegan. They were wrong.
I think the other vegans in that group (and of course the guy who basically got bullied) are agreeable enough, but it’s that puritanical streak which crops up just a little too often that keeps the whole thing off-putting to me. The old joke about “how do you know someone’s a vegan? don’t worry, they’ll tell you” is definitely accurate to a certain sort of vegan. And by being the most vocal and most exclusive they get to set the standard of what true veganism is in a lot of other people’s eyes. It is that kind of veganism that’s incompatible with libertarianism, insofar as such people decide to use the government to enforce their morality.
What are we reading question:
How many glibs read mostly ebook vs mostly dead tree?
I read only ebook this year but I feel I should do some more real books.
Ebooks for fiction.
Audiobooks for nonfiction (I know that’s not really reading).
Huh. Same here.
I read dead tree editions only when no ebook is available. I find them far more convenient.
Pity that the Sowell books, or at least the ones I’m interested in, are not available as ebooks. Audio books, yes, but I absolutely loathe being read to, so that’s a non-starter.
I’ve listened to several Sowell e-books when doing mindless tasks at work. Enjoyed everyone of them. The books, not the tasks.
Dead tree so I have something to burn after I am reeducated in the Great Awokening.
E-books for years. I only read technical papers on paper.
Dead tree.
Whichever is cheaper or my library has.
Still have lots of dead trees, but have moved entirely ebook — because I get tired of dealing with the dead trees when moving, etc. And having my whole library on my phone when I’m out is nice if a whim hits me.
Depends on one’s needs. Paper supposedly better for eyes but devices better in the dark: you won’t fall asleep with lamp on.
I have a e ink kindle which does not create its own light, so I assume it is like a normal book on the eyes
No e-books – strictly dead tree.
Let me amend this.
I read ebooks. I buy hardback editions of books I love to keep on my shelves. I like looking at things that bring me joy.
you’re lucky to have shelves
I don’t right now. My books are in storage and I sold my bookshelves.
My family (mother’s father) is from Romania and his sister lived in a house with just two shelves. She was still there in the early 2000s with little furniture, the two shelves and a hand pump for water. There was an outhouse. Not unusual in rural Transylvania. So, I can’t tell if you’re joking.
well i am joking obviously. Also Rural Moldova is quite worse than rural Transylvania
Moldovans are often the butt of a joke in Odessa.
Dead Tree. Now get off my lawn.
Me too. I prefer to hold a book and turn the pages.
just dont use spit on your thumb to do it
I’ve gone all ebook. Once I got used to it (a Kindle helps) it became too convenient. Even I forget the Kindle it syncs to the app on my phone and saves my place and I can read everywhere.
My Kindle Paperwhite is a beautiful marvel. eInk with soothing backlight. Lovely. I can read in the dark and not bother anybody.
backfrontlightSupposedly the fact that it’s a front light accounts for the “soothing” part.
/love my paperwhite, too
Noted. Still the best reading experience evah.
E-book all the way. Haven’t read a physical book in at least a decade.
Dead tree. I also like to listen to vinyl records. I’m one of those assholes.
This drivel…
Despite the potential financial risks, the players were right to explore whether they could grab America’s attention by withholding their services. Had the NBA players opted to carry out a long-term strike, just imagine what that might have looked like: They play in cities that depend on the revenue they generate. Perhaps upon feeling the financial strain, officials in those cities might have been more motivated to reimagine their police force. Perhaps NBA owners might have been so bothered by losing money that they would have used their power and connections to put pressure on the right people to change the status quo. An extended strike also would have put pressure on NFL players to act. Pro football is by far the most popular sport in America. Nearly 70 percent of its players are Black. If Black NFL players followed the NBA players’ lead, a big chunk of the sports economy would be made contingent on racial progress.
At the very least, this week’s historic disruption shows that Black players should leverage their talent to promote change at every possible opportunity. They’ve tried to sweet-talk America into caring about racial injustice, but the litany continues. After George Floyd, a Jacob Blake was only a matter of time. After Blake, someone else is likely to come next. When a country doesn’t respect Black lives, it can’t expect Black athletes to hold back their anger.
The NBA driving itself into bankruptcy will be the first time they’ve entertained my since the early 90’s.
Excellent pic.
Seconded
Give a hole new meaning to Poo bear!
Well….. bye
The NBA is playing their playoffs in a bubble. Their cities, already mostly run by Democrats, wouldn’t have lost a dime if they cancelled the playoffs. But it’s funny how when it comes time to make a real sacrifice how quickly these guys backtrack.
The Jacob Blake shooting was entirely justified.
They can stay in Orlando forever, as far as I’m concerned. Maybe broadcast their games to China only.
Their strike lasted less than 24 hours no? Seems like they were really committed to the message.
Word is they told the players “A strike means no playoffs, means no playoff revenue. So that’s a 25% paycut.”
After George Floyd, a Jacob Blake was only a matter of time. After Blake, someone else is likely to come next. When a country doesn’t respect Black lives, it can’t expect Black athletes to hold back their anger.
Really? Blake is your new poster boy? The felon who was being arrested on a warrant and resisted arrest with a knife? And decided to reach into his car while police were following with their guns on him? I have a hard time finding that shooting unjustified.
And never mind the fact that actual data shows that blacks are not more likely to be killed by police than white people, so the whole not respecting black lives thing is a false premise anyway.
Relative to just their share of the national population, black people are more likely to be killed by police. It’s not completely lopsided but it’s definitely not reflective of the basic racial demographics of the country. However, when you take into account the deeper demographic differences between blacks and non-blacks in the country as a whole in terms of poverty, urbanization, criminality, victimization, and policing that’s when the discrepancy disappears. Black people are more likely to live in urban areas with higher density of police, more likely to have incomes below the median and below the poverty line, more likely to be convicted of crimes and more likely to be the victim of crimes, than the population at large.
If you go by number of encounters with police, cops actually kill white people at a slightly higher rate than black people. And the number of encounters probably has something to do with the fact that 12% of the population commits about 50% of the violent crime.
12% of the population is not committing 50% of the violent crimes. A larger proportion of that 12% compared to the proportion of the remaining 88%. I don’t think you mean to say more than that but sometimes shorthand is too short.
Well, yeah, obviously shorthand.
This says roughly 38% in 2018. Have no idea what that does and does not mean, just providing the info:
https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2&selYrs=2018&rdoGroups=1&rdoData=c
I think the death rates are a red herring. I don’t think there’s any debate that black people are routinely victimized and brutalized by police. So are white people. And Hispanic people. My preferred approach when talking to people about this is to try and find the common ground because police encounters are a very real and serious issue for black people (and for everyone else).
But BLM and the riots aren’t about police reform. They’re just vehicles for Marxism masquerading as police reform, so it really doesn’t even matter for discussion with BLM believers.
I don’t think there’s any debate that black people are routinely victimized and brutalized by police. So are white people. And Hispanic people.
Exactly right, and BLM and other democrats pretending that the problem is a matter of police racism against blacks, and that blacks are more victimized by it than others, fans the flames of racial animosity and prevents anyone addressing the actual problem, which isn’t racism but rather lack of police accountability, police unions, qualified immunity, prosecutors covering for the cops, etc. etc.
They’re conflating two different phenomena.
The first is that the police are badly trained and lack accountability, particularly where easily scapegoated victims are concerned.
The second is that lots of black people are easily scapegoated, for example where they already have criminal records or live in a bad neighbourhood.
By smashing the two together they “erase” (as they might say) non-black victims and make the problem insoluble.
There are plenty of things than can be done about lack of police accountability. The problem of how to improve the socio-economic condition of black people is a lot harder.
Cops are more likely to fuck with poor people, and particularly poor people that they can easily see. Like, new law here in VA is if your dog is on a tieout cable at 85+ or under 32, its now a crime. It’s not illegal, as far as I can tell, to leave your dog in a fenced yard at 85+ degrees.
You think the cops are gonna cite a guy out in the sticks for leaving his dog out on his 3 acres of land? Or cite a guy in the burbs for having the dog tied out to his redwood deck? No, but they’ll roll down the streets of a poor neighborhood and write citations there.
“The problem of how to improve the socio-economic condition of black people is a lot harder.”
Stop subsidizing bastard children with tax dollars. When you adjust for rates of bastardy, the crime disparity between white and black shrinks a huge amount.
Crime is not caused by poverty, or by urban environments, or by systemic racism. Crime, on a societal level, is caused by young men raised without fathers. Men are violent predators, and violent predators must be shaped and molded by older, wiser violent predators to focus that violence in the proper direction.
I’m glad they have nice clean cut offs like over 85 and under 32. I’m sure there will never be anyone who gets hassled for it on a 81 degree day or a 35 degree day as well.
The problem of how to improve the socio-economic condition of black people is a lot harder.
It starts by breaking the NEA, the AFT, and the bureaucratic stranglehold on public education. The economic condition of people growing up with a school system and community that doesn’t teach them to read, write, or do arithmetic is unlikely to ever improve.
The crazy part is that this is Progressivism 101. Literally the first and most important thing (self-defined) the progressive movement did was universal education. It was not ever meant to be universal daycare with free or reduced price lunches (though it was, to some extent, meant to be universal decatholicization). In many places, the public school system is worse than no system at all, because if there was no system at all, people would recognize that they have a responsibility to their children and their fellow man. Instead, all of the responsibility is offloaded to the public school system but there’s effectively zero accountability and zero results.
The problem of how to improve the socio-economic condition of black people is a lot harder.
First, not my problem.
Second, government did this to black americans. Shut down the war on drugs; shut down the welfare system; shut down affirmative action; etc; etc; etc.
Government is at the heart of the problem, but it is also downstream of the root cause of the problem. There’s an argument to be made that the U.S. system of government has been fundamentally broken for decades but it appears to continue working for some and not others based upon the biases and prejudices of the people running that system. You can take some of the difficulties that other countries have when the population demographics change as an indication of how this problem isn’t specific to the U.S., though it seems to manifest most acutely here (according to the perspective of Americans, anyway).
Take school desegregation for example. Separate but unequal was the reality and it was unjust. But when the two systems were integrated, what happened to the teachers and administrators of the black school system? They got the shaft. Like East Germany and West Germany reuniting leading to all of the East German infrastructure and capital getting sold off to the highest bidder in the West and thus destroying or at least devaluing much of what was worth preserving (the DDR was among the wealthiest and most advanced communist states at the time, after all).
In the U.S., to align with the biases and prejudices of wealthy suburbanites, teaching K-12 was increasingly “professionalized” and higher education was increasingly made “accessible” and the end result is that there’s no way for residents of poor black communities to get involved with their own education systems. They get governed through attrition by the sort of white guilt bullshit that sells well in wealthy suburbs but does fuck all for poor kids. Iterate over a couple of generations and fucked up government is about the only thing that could possibly happen.
Yet while the effects fall most acutely on poor urban blacks, they’re really not specific to them. The U.S. education system is running on borrowed time. Vast sums of money have been thrown at it and yet results for the system as a whole haven’t moved an inch. It’s a bureaucratic fief, a license raj, a palace of sinecures, a place for dumping the less promising sons and (primarily) daughters of the social climbers.
The welfare system is another example. It’s been broken for decades, if not since inception. Yet the only real interests anyone has politically are to increase or decrease funding for it. While I’m highly preferential to the decrease funding approach, that is not strictly speaking a structural reform and just as budget cuts fall inexplicably hardest on the fire department, the people running the welfare bureaucracy know how to direct funding cuts to generate maximum emotional response.
They are way more likely to be killed by other black people. And how many have been killed as a result of the rioting since the rioting began?
I know around 30 people have been killed in the rioting, I don’t know how many were black.
The police disengagement after decades of disarmament is likely leading to more deaths than any of the riots per se. The longer term damage from the riots is in the destruction of the community: businesses, infrastructure, interpersonal relationships, and the civic relationship between people and their local government that will take years if not decades to recover, if they ever do.
The police disengagement after decades of disarmament is likely leading to more deaths than any of the riots per se.
It has, the murder rates in big cities have jumped significantly in 2020.
Not a single city the NBA plays in depends on them for their revenue
Disappointing reading month…read “The Quantum Thief” because it got a bunch of good reviews as a first novel. For me it was meh. YMMV
I also started reading Stefan Aust’s Baader-Meinhof: the Inside Story of the RAF. Good information but I find it really badly structured. Put it down after getting through the second section. Will probably go back and finish but I need a break.
I liked the quantum thief. Not loved but I found it one of the few post singularity novels that is imaginative. Bu it was a case where I though the guy was not a fantastic writer and thestyle is tough few most things need to be deducted over time are not easily revealed
I think my problem with it (and, again, personal issues) was that there were a whole of concepts which seemed really important to the story that were never really explained and/or elaborated on. So, even by the end, I still was entirely sure what was going on. Again, that may just have been me. But, I’m in no rush to read the sequel/s.
*wasn’t entirely sure what was going on.
well there were nanomachine clouds and you could make copies of yourself which obeyed you and there was some RPG gamers
also perhonen means butterfly if I remember
Haven’t had the time this month to continue with my 50’s-60’s SciFi pulp. Been reading Ozy’s Anthrax book on Kindle, The Second Crusade on ebook and Dan Crenshaw’s book in dead tree.
Pie: E-books and my Kindle app are handy for waiting rooms but I prefer print.
(fun trivia- he’d be in jail these days since they got married when she was 15)
Is no one going to touch that?
That’s a crime, too.
I was holding out to make the joke…………..
Many many decades ago when I was imprisoned in high school history class, I stumbled across a mention of a supposedly excellent series of books,
I bet it was a bitch fitting stone tablets in your backpack.
Leftists Fight Fascism By Marching Through Streets Forcing Everyone To Perform Their Special Salute.
https://babylonbee.com/news/leftists-fight-fascism-by-marching-through-streets-forcing-everyone-to-perform-their-salute/?utm_content=buffere6c26&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Savage.
And also true.
Too busy doing a full remodel on a house that the we’ll be moving into shortly. I did read a lot on the Graco Airless sprayer… does that count? I’m getting pretty good with it too!
I’m reading “The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908-1923” by Sean McMeekin.
It’s part of the story about how the mendacious imbeciles who started WWI and kept it going also completely screwed up the subsequent “peace”.
It’s a companion to McMeekin’s “The Russian Origins of the First World War” and adds some information to David Fromkin’s “A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East” and “A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914-1948”, by James Barr
Good stuff, if you like that sort of thing.
Interesting. I might have to burro into some of those. I’m reading In the Garden of Beasts, about the U.S. ambassador to Germany and his family’s experiences there during the first years of Nazi Germany. It was a big hit about a decade ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Beasts-Terror-American-Hitlers/dp/030740885X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3AC016CGSSG5K&dchild=1&keywords=beasts+in+the+garden&qid=1598636772&sprefix=beasts+in+the%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-1
It’s okay as far as popular history goes.
Burro? A verb? Jesus.
Pretty sure Jesus burroed around the MidEast, didn’t he?
Not a bad mode of transportation when fishing for supporters.
just don’t cross the local government
Nailed it!
You people are sure riding my ass over one stupid typo.
Seems the Bee has opened a
news division.
My new favorite:
https://spectrumreport.com/cnn-describes-mostly-peaceful-riots-as-kenosha-burns/
I’d ask you motherfuckers if you’re going to just sit there and let your reputations be besmirched like that
Yes. Yes, Iam.
“I’d ask you motherfuckers ”
At least he knows his audience!
I have not yet begun to defile myself.
I will not be pawed at.
Ahhh… Jim Gaffigan shat the bed last night.
What else would you expect from an insecure, overweight, middle-aged white guy?
We’re still talking about Jim… right?
Masks will stop the spread of TDS! Wear your masks, people!
It should play well with his aw-shucks fan base.
That’s what I was thinking. His core audience is not skinny jeans-wearing Brooklyn lefties.
Well, I just had to drive around a protest-blocked intersection in DC.
Happy Friday!
Aw, you still have time for it to get happier, IYKWIM.
Rand Paul is a pussy who is all about standing up to oppressive government “but not me, though”
Nice people.
Research? What’s that?
Internet tuff gais are not in shortage.
They are irredeemable at this point. I don’t know what the answer is, but these unAmerican vermin will use every protection and tradition to shield themselves as they work to tear down those very same edifices. They have proven themselves unable to participate in society and need to be literally outcast.
“I weep for the future.” Not much help, sorry. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OkcmOyXcLZw
“I weep for the future.” Not much help, sorry. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OkcmOyXcLZw
I’m gonna go get the papers.
And best response:
This guy…
Mark Slack
@mes4icon
Replying to
@AndreaWNYC
My three year old made pancakes for his mother, it was the cutest thing.
BUT DID HE MAKE THEM HIMSELF OR HAVE HELP? CAUGHT YOU IN A BIG LIE!!!!
My daughter just made a picture for her grandpa, who just had knee surgery. The letters and the stick figure look conspicuously like my handwriting. I guess I need to be cancelled now.
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/08/bend-bus-driver-complains-black-passenger-not-wearing-shoes-chokes-him-unconscious-district-attorney-says.html
I’d believe it more if a) the DA hadn’t been a participant in the recent criminal mob to block ICE agents from lawfully taking criminal aliens into custody b) hadn’t come out on a Friday to stir up protests over the weekend.
I’m questioning why a bus driver took physical action against a passenger but the lack of a footwear requirement, supposedly due to ADA, is perplexing. How in gods name would bare feet not violate health and safety rules, let alone common sense?
Conveniently missing from the release, the video.
Riots in Bend? That should be interesting.
It’s California yuppies now, along with the riffraff from elsewhere. I remember when the population was under 30k. Totally unrecognizable I’m politics now. State rep is a Trump hating RIÑO carpetbagger.
Thanks autocorrect for those worthless “corrections”.
Oh it is not a logging town anymore for sure and has been a collection of yuppies and windsurfing hippies for as long as I have been aware of the place but I imagine the locals won’t take kindly to destructive rioting and burning of coffee shops, hemp clothing stores and kiteboarding shops none too much.
Here’s the one supporting the criminal illegals
https://www.foxnews.com/us/hundreds-of-oregon-protesters-delay-ice-agents-detaining-2-men-for-hours
I have been reading and rereading a lot of stuff on Northern Ireland lately, as I kinda maybe sorta think that is where we are headed, nationally. So, Tim Pat Coogan’s The IRA; a history, and for a fictional take, Chris Petit’s The Psalm Killer. That last one gives a good rundown of what it was like in Belfast in the early ’70s, which was known as the wild west at the time. Previously I had read JG Farrell’s Troubles, a novel about the lead up to the Easter Rebellion and how the British were taken by surprise, in a very Ballardian way.
Also watching a lot of older documentaries on the whole “Irish Question” on YouTube. Particularly Alan Clarkes Elephant, which is 40 minutes of “oh, that’s how fucked up the whole thing was”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoqnphLAEpg&t=1321s
Also, El Salvador.
Check out Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Thanks for the recomend. I was in Belfast in ’89 as an 18yo high school graduate on a lark, boy did that change in a hurry.
Some time in the early ’90s, my dad’s best friend and his wife had a girl from Belfast stay with them for the summer as part of program. The idea was to come here and experience life in a place where Protestants and Catholics live side by side without killing each other. They’d all stay with different families, and they’d do big group events like picnics and beach trips. They weren’t supposed to know which was which, but dad’s buddy said that he saw the kids making little lists to keep track of which of the kids they met were Catholic and which were Protestant.
I purchased an read The Complete Question, an I assume unauthorized republishing of Steve Ditko’s original Question stories for Charlton Comics; and Fight Club 2 (a graphic novel). The first was a good read, the second (despite Fight Club being among my favorite novels and my favorite film) was lackluster at best. It seems Chuck was too enamored with the popularity of his own villain that he got very confused about his own story.
Did you ever read Lullaby or Beautiful Monsters by Chuck P. I liked both very much.
Sorry correction:
Invisible Monsters
I’m on the fence whether or not a give a shit about this.
Are going to be the ones counting those votes?
This is retarded. Professional sports arenas are not designed to allow easy entrance and exit, nor does it make sense to centralize voting into a single site. A basketball court, minus the seating, concessions, and extras is as small or smaller than neighborhood elementary gyms. Which is where voting was and should be held.
Why the fuck is this so difficult and why are there still lines in 2020? The Democrats got their fraud by mail here, but every time I voted before, the poll workers outnumbered the people actually voting. Make reasonably sized precincts and voting locations based on registered voter numbers. It’s not fucking hard.
Yeah, if you want it to be fair and free sure. But if you need to have it come out some way, its a might bit harder to pull off.
Yeah; the poll workers here recognize me by name before I can tell them who I am to look up on the rolls.
The league is run by morons. “Let’s promote this idea where voting is more inconvenient for everyone!”
Yeah. I stupidly read the tweets. Some idiot in Portland was so excited because Moda Center would be so great to drop off a ballot. In a county where there are 30 24 hour drop off boxes. And can drop the pre metered return envelope into the mail anywhere as long as it arrives before the election deadline.
Mods is a shithole to try and get to and the parking is crap.
Hell, there’s a lawsuit going on in Ohio because in addition to mail in ballots, in person voting, and early voting at the county board offices, there was a law passed that required each county to set up a drop box for absentee ballots that people didn’t feel safe mailing. The lawsuit is that the Secretary of State only set up one in each county, which wasn’t enough. So they’re pushing for more drop boxes.
I’ve voted in person about 25 times, this past year being the first absentee ballot I ever filled. I think the longest wait I have ever experienced might have been ten minutes. More commonly it is either straight into a booth or a couple minute wait for one. I live in a city and the voting spot is always within a block or two. It isn’t that hard. How do places fuck it up that badly? Going into an NBA stadium to vote seems incredibly more difficult than my typical experience. Oh, and fuck the NBA.
In many densely populated areas, a lot of people show up after work or in social groups late on election day and so the number of people wanting to cast a vote temporarily but significantly exceeds the capacity of the polling places. Opening up more polling places would alleviate this but they’d also be sitting nearly empty for 3/4 of the day. The places where I’ve voted have always had a mix of people, including retirees and college kids, those working in different professions with different schedules, etc. and lower population densities and so voters tend to come in evenly throughout the day and there are enough polling places to handle them all.
I missed last month’s when I was ready to report back on my sci-fi beginner’s course, so here’s an update:
Foundation (Asimov) – Interesting look at classic sci-fi, but ultimately didn’t make me want to go on with the series.
Ender’s Game (Card) – I really enjoyed it, but having seen War Games, I kinda guessed where he was going with the finale.
Dune(Herbert) – Loved it and immediately bought the rest of the original trilogy, but haven’t started on them yet.
Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (Heinlein) – Love it as well. Maybe even a little more than Dune. The sex/marriage stuff is weird.
Non sci-fi:
Sweet Thursday(Steinbeck) – Bland sequel to Cannery Row, which is one of my favorite books
Currently reading:
Grapes of Wrath(Steinbeck) – We’re from the same town and I grew up with dust bowl Okies and Arkies next door, so I should have read this a long time ago, but I was hesitant due to its commie reputation. I probably should have read it back when I was a leftist myself. I’m about a third of the way in and there have been parts that I consider some of the finest writing I’ve ever read and parts that make me roll my eyes to the back of my head. I hope it continues with more of the former and less of the latter.
I haven’t read TMIAHM yet, but if Heinlein keeps to style, I expect a compelling plot in the first half of a book and an acid trip orgy for the last 100 pages.
TMIAHM is from the “first half” of Heinlein’s career. So, it’s way closer to Starship Troopers than Stranger in a Strange Land.
Good! it’s on my bookshelf and I’ve been meaning to get to it, but I liked Starship Troopers a lot more than Stranger in a Strange Land, so i wasn’t sure what to expect.
I have never been able to finish Stranger and I love Mistress. I also love the first half of Stranger.
The sex/marriage stuff is weird.
It only gets weirder from there.
Cool, ’cause I meant ‘weird’ in a good way.
Yeah, TMIAHM is pretty tame by his standards. Frankly, the weirdest stuff is taken care of in the opening ten pages or so.
That’s a lot of golden oldies! Any particular reason you’re reading older material?
Yeah, I haven’t really read a lot of sci-fi so I asked friends, and the folks around here, for some classic suggestions and these were the ones that sounded the most interesting to me.
Poul Anderson is also good.
And even further back is EE “Doc” Smith.
I’ve only read the Lensmen series by EE Smith. I can see where it influenced lots of later works, but I wasn’t a big fan of them by themselves.
TBH: I read Smith in my late teens. I should go back and re-read.
East of Eden is my favorite Steinbeck, but I haven’t reread it for years now.
I found Cannery Row particularly believable.
East of Eden strains credulity: the coin comes up heads twenty times in a row. The GAR nonsense rang true (I hate most big organizations and am generally not a joiner), and the bits about high desert pioneering captured the risk and desperation of a story I’ve found in west TX lit. Eden numbers amongst a few books I read because some girl I wanted to bed rated it her favorite; few of the women and none of the books were worth it.
20 in a row with a fair coin is literally a 1 in a million chance.
And you know what they say about 1 in a million shots? They happen 1 time in 10.
I love Cannery Row. It’s probably overly sentimental but all the characters are lovable.
I read East of Eden in college (not as an assignment, just for fun) and I remember thinking, “Man, he’s really piling the symbolism on thick.” But I should reread it.
You’re a Salinas boy? I grew up just down the road in SLO. Read East of Eden for a good view of the area, and In Dubious Battle for more fine writing and eye-rolling.
Didja know any of the Carr clan from Wichita Falls?
Cool.
Yep. Lived in Salinas full time until I was 8, then my parents split and I moved with my dad to Texas, but still spent every summer and most holidays back in Salinas with my mom.
I tried to start watching In Dubious Battle on Amazon Prime the other day and I didn’t make it too far.
I think I recommended last time, but in case I didnt:
The Mote in God’s Eye – Niven & Pournelle
A Deepness in the Sky – Vernor Vinge, technically a prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep. They can be read in either order though. They are totally unconnected, other than one characger kinda/sorta being in both. Both are awesome, but the motif of Deepness is literally “Fuck off, slavers!”, so it has that going for it. Honestly, its a theme in Fire too.
Snow Crash – Neil Stephenson. Though about recommending Cryptonomicon instead, but decided to go this way. Can’t go wrong with either.
BTW, book 4 is where I stopped reading Dune. It had become a universe I no longer cared about.
I’d say Snow Crash is a better introduction to Stephenson then Cryptonomicon. It’s also a much easier and lighter read. 🙂
Another vote for Snow Crash
And another.
#metoo
/feels all supported and validated
GAHH! IT BURNS!
Sure, but Cryptonomicon has discussion of code breaking and antique furniture sex.
Also, how to eat Captain Crunch.
I’d say Snow Crash first also, just because of timing investment. But I’m always advocating Cryptonomicon, so go right into that next.
Thanks for the recommendations!
I thoroughly enjoyed the Gap series from Stephen R Donaldson
The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story (1991)
The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge (1991)
The Gap into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises (1993)
The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order (1994)
The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die (1996)
28 hours without power forced me to read a dead tree book. I got most of the way through the book before power and internet came back. I still managed to finish it.
I quite enjoyed “The Library at Mount Char”.
It appears the author hasn’t managed to write a second book.
That remains the most astonishing book I’ve read this millennium.
I share your dismay at his lack of further output.
Good Video
https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1299414234258956288
That will never see the light of day.
The democrats have done exactly what predicted. What they do every single time, made it all about race.
So you see, the police and prison, justice system reform we need has nothing to do with drugs. I’t all about race.
So the solution is, let every violent criminal out of jail, defund the cops, and get every one’s guns.
After we’ve accomplished all that, the only thing left to do it get rid of the real problem, whitey. 1935 all over again.
After someone mentioned it, I went back and reread Eon by Greg Bear. It didn’t hold up nearly as well as I remembered. Definitely a pro-socialism slant. The purge of anyone who believed in private ownership of weapons or individualism was a bit off-putting.
Not sure where I’m going to go next. Thinking about rereading Dan Simmon’s Illium or CJ Cherryh’s Faded Sun Trilogy.
Love The Faded Sun trilogy.
You might consider her Foreigner series. It gets kind of bogged down by book 12 or 15, but it’s very creative and well written. She’s another amazingly prolific author.
Foreigner is great too. I read through the first 10 or 12 and then saw she had added another 8 or so. I’ve slowly been picking them up off ebay and will read through that series soon.
I also enjoyed her Cyteen and Chanur series.
I don’t remember that from Eon. I haven’t read it in 25 years probably. The fall of the Soviet Union really dates it badly.
It’s just briefly mentioned. Not an active/important event so also not a spoiler for anyone else.
Also, the Atlanta-Kiev exchange would have completely screwed up the 1996 Olympics.
“Faded Sun” was good.
I really enjoyed the Illium/Olympos epic. Really mind-expanding. Helpful to have some Shakespeare and Greek references at hand.
I recently looked through the many boxes of old books inherited from my mom, and she has dozens of Detective Book Club trilogies (three full novels or novelettes by three different authors in the same book). I’ve been reading the ones with Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason stories.
I started the PM novels and got sidetracked, but enjoyed them immensely.
Same with the Bond novels by Fleming
Stupid vendor software. Apparently there’s a per user simultaneous login limits. And login persistence even when the client drops. Like when a pc reboots.
Not supposed to be a reply here. Time to find coffee.
I swear, if these mostly White idiots don’t calm down, things are going south real quick, they need to be smacked down now, or we get to fight,
It is slowly beginning to dawn on some that they are in fact building a backlash. I doubt it will spread fast enough to keep that backlash from releasing.
Just read that Crusader Kings 3 has been put on Ice in Australia, because it can’t get bast the review board. That’s retarded.
https://www.galco.com/techdoc/abbg/pse300-600-70-1_inm.pdf
pretty good so far. I’m on chapter 7 at the moment.
Kindle offered me a “free” 2 month sub for Prime so I’ve been reading craploads of books … most of them are cheesy but I enjoy almost anything sci-fi or fantasy.