winsor

Actually, I think the response was pretty funny - in an unprofessional kind of way. The request from the student was entirely racist, and the professor took the bait. As my beloved Drill Instructor pointed out, "you can think it, but you BETTER not say it!" As far as being wrong goes, I imagine that from your standpoint I am nearly always wrong. If the usual suspects here began agreeing with me too often I might begin to worry. BSBD, Winsor

Agreed. Your point?

Name changes are pretty common from a historical standpoint. Hannah Ulysses Grant went by his middle name. When he got to the USMA he gave his name as 'Ulysses' and his mother's maiden name as 'Simpson,' and was Ulysses S. Grant thereafter. Good luck trying to correct a military typo. V. I . Lenin started out as Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyễn Sinh Cung, and went variously by Nguyễn Tất Thành, Nguyễn Ái Quốc and carried a passport as Chen Vang. Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay ("his momma still call him Cassius, and so do I." - Joe Frazier). Flo (the Phlorescent Leech) and Eddie were Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan before they encountered contractual disputes with their former record label. Prince had similar issues, and changed his name to a symbol that, when pronounced, sounded something like 'prince.' Going into the Legion Etrangere typically involves taking a Nom de Guerre, which helps to distance ones self from the liabilities of a former life. Various social organizations (e.g. outlaw biker clubs0 often rely entirely on club aliases (road names, etc.). Some names carry legal connotations. There are places where adding a 'de,' 'van,' or 'von' prefix to one's family name is a big deal. Joachim von Ribbentrop arranged to be adopted by his aunt in 1925 in order to add the 'von' to his name. Joseph Heller's character 'Major Major Major Major' is an instance of mixing name with title. I always figured that putting 'Admiral Chester W. Nimitz' on a birth certificate would make the kid's time in Navy Boot Camp interesting, The issue of nomenclature vs identity is where things can get blurry. You have Johnny Cash's 'Boy Named Sue" with its story line for one example. 'Bradley Manning' going to 'Chelsea Manning' is another story. Terry Gilliam now identifies as a black lesbian, IIRC. Gender is a grammatical construct, while sex is biological. When you switch languages, the gender of a noun can switch between masculine, feminine and neutral, apparently at random. I suppose people are free to get all strung out about it if they wish, but if I tell a group of young females "you guys get on the bus" it carries no particular implications. A social acquaintance has made slightly more money than God transitioning people between 'male' and 'female,' and I don't see it as a big deal. The line that I draw on taking to 'non-binary' pronouns is that it's too much like work, and that I don't care enough one way or another. BSBD, Winsor

My contention over the years that 'Orwell was an optimist' is entirely serious. Here's another bit from zerohedge.com: The Definitive List Of How We're Living In '1984' BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, OCT 01, 2021 - 04:20 PM While some may think we're living more of an Animal Farm existence (pigs hatch a coup and overthrow the humans, only to end up in worse shape thanks to a dictator named Napoleon who uses propaganda to obscure his incompetence), Sarah A. Downey - operating partner at Accomplice VC (and Dune fan, gamer and cosplayer) has assembled a comprehensive Twitter thread on why we're actually living in Orwell's other notable work - 1984, a cautionary tale of life under communism. Presented for your edification (and click here or scroll to the bottom for Downey's July 2020 interview with Benjamin Boyce where she opines on free speech, cancel culture and more): Continued via Threadreader Note that I’m not saying that the dystopian, totalitarian hellscape of 1984 is exactly what’s happening today. However, the last couple of years have seen some disturbing parallels emerge. * * * Discouraging good relations between the sexes by only allowing unattracted people to marry; weaponizing sexual frustration into political rage Labeling stereotypically masculine behavior "toxic;" the all-time low rate of having sex, particularly in Millennials/Gen-Z * * * Changing the meaning of common words/phrases instantly and punishing those who do not adapt The redefinition (literally) overnight of phrases like "sexual preference" (used to be fine; suddenly "bigoted" and rewritten in the dictionary) https://reclaimthenet.org/sexual-preference-websters-rewrite/ * * * Tactical language changes, continued Changing definitions of “racism” (to pretty much anything where there are disparate outcomes among races) and “white supremacy” (to…pretty much anything involving white people) https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-white-supremacy/ * * * The ubiquitous presence of technology that delivers you content but mainly serves to spy on you (primarily the Telescreen but also cameras, mics, etc.) Amazon Echos, Google Homes, smart TVs, mobile apps that covertly monitor you (ahem, Facebook) * * * The attack on objective reality as a way to demoralize and control people; “2+2=5” People saying 2+2=4 is some sort of “racist math” washingtonexaminer.com/news/math-prof… Statements that everyone knows are true (e.g., men and women are biologically different) have become “unsayable" * * * Newspeak, the Party language in 1984, designed to eliminate critical thinking, free will, personal identity, self-expression, and descriptions of objective reality Political correctness, resulting in dehumanizing language like “bodies with vaginas” for “women” * * * The Newspeak tactic of renaming words/phrases so that disagreement is hard (e.g., removing "bad" as a word & replacing w/ "ungood") Slogans like "black lives matter," where the broadness of the phrase makes it difficult to state any disagreement with its methods * * * "Memory-holing," where the controlling government effectively erases a person, word, or event from history Government-led "disappearing" of uncooperative individuals (e.g., the CCP memory-holing actress Fan Bingbing) businessinsider.com/fan-bingbing-c… * * * The Party changing the status quo in real time, then acting like it's always been this way ("we've always been at war with Eurasia") E.g., Biden saying in 2020 that vaccines won't be mandatory (bbc.com/news/world-us-…), then making them mandatory for millions in 2021 * * * Another example of “we’ve always been at war with Eurasia" below: The sudden shift in summer 2020 from “if you’re out in big groups, you’re literally killing people” to “if you’re not out protesting in big groups, you’re a bad person” cbc.ca/radio/asithapp… * * * Another example of “we’ve always been at war with Eurasia" below: E.g., the current administration expressing hesitance about *certain shots* under Trump, and now behaving as though such hesitancy is inconceivable * * * Tiered society: the elitist Inner Party on top, then the Outer Party, then the Proles; the Inner Party have special privileges and exemptions from rules "Rules for thee but not for me;" e.g. @GavinNewsom's French Laundry dinner; only staff wearing masks at the Met Gala * * * Doublethink/speak (phrases that are obviously false but stated as true): “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” E.g., CNN reporting on “mostly peaceful protests” in front of burning buildings thehill.com/homenews/media… “2 weeks to slow the spread” lasting 563 days * * * Doublethink, continued “My body, my choice” applying to abortion rights but not vaccine mandates; feminists who “support women’s sports” but see no problem with people who’ve lived 30+ years as biological males competing in said sports apnews.com/article/2020-t… * * * The Ministry of Truth, “which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education and the fine arts” & puts out propaganda The too-close relationship between big tech, the media, and the government and their fight against “misinformation,” AKA whatever ideas they dislike * * * The Ministry of Truth, continued The media/big tech declaring that story about Hunter Biden’s laptop wasn’t true when it was; the same declaring Russiagate was true when it wasn’t, at least in part greenwald.substack.com/p/the-indictme… * * * The mandate that there’s only one “correct” political party and set of opinions (The Party's) Many people’s repeated insistence that they’re “on the right side of history” and the increasing lack of tolerance for any diversity of opinion washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/… * * * “Vaporization:” “Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten.” Severe cancellations where one becomes an “unperson:” fired, socially isolated, etc. Indoctrination of children so that they become spies who turn in their parents for “wrongthink” The increasingly political stance of many teachers who take it upon themselves to transfer political beliefs to children rather than educate them neutrally/factually * * * The Thought Police who surveil the population looking for the slightest indication that a person doesn’t fully support The Party Scanning of social media, e.g., police showing up to people’s houses in Australia to question them about their posts reclaimthenet.org/australia-poli… * * * Controlling speech to control (and prevent) thought Social media platforms silencing people (like @NICKIMINAJ), applying “misinformation” warnings, blocking hashtags/link-sharing around convos they don’t want to exist * * * Using citizens to spy on each other and report “ungood behavior” E.g., the Texas 6-week abortion law encouraging citizens to report anyone in violation newsweek.com/texas-abortion… Encouraging citizens to turn in others who aren’t following lockdowns police.vic.gov.au/palolr * * * Tribalism: The Party vs The Brotherhood Tribalism: vaccinated vs unvaccinated, Left versus Right, Republicans versus Democrats, etc. How about we focus on something we can all agree on: avoiding a future like 1984? * * * I wish all this was in jest. BSBD, Winsor

I'm trying to track down the English version, but in the meantime here's some content from Zerohedge.com: What were we to make of multimillionaire Barack Obama's 60th birthday bash at his Martha's Vineyard estate, and the throng of the woke wealthy and their masked helot attendants? Was socialist Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) suffering for the people when she wore a designer dress to the more than $30,000-a-ticket Met gala? Her entourage needs were certainly well-attended to by masked Morlock servants. Did the leftist celebrities at the recent Emmy awards gather to discuss opening Malibu beaches to the homeless when the (unmasked) stars virtue-signaled their wokeness? For answers about these hypocritical wokists, always turn first to George Orwell. In his brief allegorical novella, "Animal Farm," an array of animal characters -- led by the thinking pigs of the farm -- staged a revolution, driving out their human overseers. The anti-human animal comrades started out sounding like zealous Russian Bolsheviks ("four legs good, two legs bad"). But soon they ended up conned by a murderous cult of pigs under a Joseph Stalin-like leader. And so, the revolution became what it once had opposed ("four legs good, two legs better"). Our own woke, year-zero revolution is now in its second year. Yet last year's four-legged revolutionaries are already strutting on two legs. They are not just hobnobbing with the "white supremacists" and "capitalists," but outdoing them in their revolutionary zeal for the rarified privileges of the material good life. The Marxist co-founder of BLM, Patrisse Cullors, is now on her fourth woke home. She has moved on from the barricades to the security fences of her Topanga Canyon digs in a mostly all-white, all-rich rural paradise--the rewards for revolutionary service. Professor Ibram X. Kendi has evolved from the edgy revolutionary work of flying all over the country, hawking his Orwellian message of "All racism bad! But some racism good!" Now he has mastered the art of zooming the wannabe woke for his $20,000 an hour avant-garde hectoring. What of Colin Kaepernick, the mediocre second-string quarterback turned sudden firebrand? He refused to stand for the national anthem and spread his "take a knee" kitsch throughout professional sports. Kaepernick became a boutique revolutionary multimillionaire. For $12 million a year, he pitches Nike sneakers, often made in Chinese forced-labor camps. Woke NBA star LeBron James, from his $23 million Brentwood mansion, blasts America for its endless unfairness--in service to his totalitarian Chinese paymasters who will ensure his good life with an eventual lifetime $1 billion payout for hawking their goods. Our other elite wokists navigating around the revolution are even more cynical. The corporate and Wall Street capitalists feel that a little virtue signaling, showy diversity coordinators, and woke advertising will more or less buy off the latest version of Al-Sharpton-like shake-down artists. Then there are the trimmers and enablers. These are the wealthy, rich, and the professional classes. They feel--in abstract--absolutely terrible about inequality, but hardly enough in the concrete to mix with the unwashed. For them, wokism is like party membership in the late ethically bankrupt Soviet Union. It is necessary for peace of mind and good income, but otherwise not an obstacle for the continuance of the privileged, comfortable life. The more TV news hosts rant about "systemic" this and "supremacy" that, and the more college presidents write stern penance memos to their faculty about "that's not who we are," the more they feel not just good about themselves, but relieved of any real obligation to live and socialize with the Other. As for the self-declared non-white Other, wokism is also a top-down revolution of celebrities, intellectuals, actors, activists, academics, grifters, lawyers, and the upper-middle class and rich. And they are not calling for a Marshall Plan to bring classical education to the inner city. They themselves have little desire to move in or spread their wealth. They rarely mentor others on their shrewd capitalist expertise that made themselves rich. They are far more cynical than that. The regrettable violence of the street, the 120 days of 2020 looting, death and arson, are the levers of the woke professionals. They fight with the various tribes of the same class and mindset over the slices of the same coveted elite pies. But they bring to the scrap the unspoken cudgel that without greater non-white de facto quotas in comic books, TV commercials, Ivy League faculties and students, symphonies, and sit-coms, then "systemic racism" could once again ignite downtown Portland or Seattle or Baltimore. Orwell would say of the woke Obamas, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Bernie Sanders, LeBron James, or Ibram Kendi--and their supposedly unwoke, but similarly rich and privileged enemies -- "It was impossible to say which was which. I hasten to point out that there is much with which I agree with a variety of religions, but that the process whereby religions exist is pathological by its very nature. Woke is no exception. The shrill condemnation of those viewed as heretics is unworthy of serious consideration. Any casual perusal of the subject will reveal various highly esteemed experts in a field reviewing the same data and reaching different conclusions. Science is like that - it is never "settled." It is hard to review Woke ideology in light of historical precedent without recognizing its pathology. Put simply, Woke is evil. BSBD, Winsor

Given the deft rebuttal, I am further impressed by the toxicity of the mental illness that is 'Woke.'

From the French standpoint, the mental illness that is Woke is nothing less than suicidal: https://kiosque-valmonde.immanens.com/detail/publication/330/20?issue_id=75774 They blame the "Woke Dictatorship" for the impending collapse of the "American empire" (which is either good or bad, depending on one's standpoint), and excoriated U.S. academia for its culture of censorship. 'Free exchange of ideas?' I don't think so... BSBD, Winsor

My preference, dated though it may be, is a cabover with a four and a quarter Cat, a Jake Brake and a 9513 Road Ranger. Handles the hills nicely.

Can't slip one past you. It's EXACTLY like nanothermite. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-021-00358-0

Just a bit of trivia, but Rollin White patented the drilled through revolver cylinder, which allowed the use of breechloading cartridges, when he worked for Smith and Wesson in the 1840s. The $100,000 he received for the patent was absorbed, per the contract, in litigation against infringement, and S&W kept the proceeds from selling the offending revolvers. Not deterred, White went on to found the company that somewhat later offered the Freightliner. BSBD, Winsor

Good advice. A lot of the article is legit, but for some reason he went off the rails at the conspiracy part. At least he stopped short of including space aliens with their dreaded anal probes. BSBD, Winsor

Okay, so the last article was a dud. This one touches a lot of bases that fit what I think I know: https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2021/09/spartacus/ I skipped to the conclusions and I think Hanlon's Razor applies. I am more likely to attribute things to incompetence than conspiracy, which gives the culprits too much credit.

Thanks for doing the homework. As I noted, some parts were more plausible than others. Turns out the source has agenda - who'd a thunk it? My experience is that out and out conspiracies are rare, and they are often in your face like the Great American Streetcar Conspiracy: https://theanthrotorian.com/history/2014/5/18/fact-or-fiction-the-great-streetcar-conspiracy More common is the predisposition to accept some concepts and reject others on the basis of comfort level with the fundamentals. Given that there's a lot of bad craziness associated with SARS-CoV-2, the subject does rather lend itself to manipulation. BSBD, Winsor

I stumbled across this: https://off-guardian.org/2021/09/22/30-facts-you-need-to-know-your-covid-cribsheet/ Some of the points are more valid than others. I'm a lot more concerned by the proliferation of blood clots of various sizes and the permanent damage that results than of death per se - there's a difference between recovering and remaining among the undead. Having worked in a COVID-19 hot spot continuously, I don't take much for granted. The comparative merits of masks are debated, but I have worn N-95s since February of 2020. The vaccine is not a panacea, but I got the third shot on Friday. The principle I follow is that, given that life is a crapshoot at best, it behooves one to load the dice in one's favor as best as possible. To continue the gambling analogy, I see the same kind of religious fervor attached to the pandemic (on both sides of every issue) that I see in casinos (rabbit's foot anyone?). I don't gamble and have never bought a lottery ticket, but have stayed in casinos when working in Reno and so forth, so I have been exposed to the vibe. In any event, if anyone claims that something works or doesn't, I'd love to see the data AND the testing methodology. I've seen too many PhDs whose dissertations were invalidated by further research - and they are still doctors. Like a lot of dangerous things, it is best to do your homework as best as possible, prepare yourself accordingly, and strike a balance as you proceed. Like skiing an expert slope or kayaking rapids, your best results can be if you don't try to stop once committed, Also, Wendy's sig line comes to mind, where people who ignored basic safety procedures and got away with it got cocky and came to grief. BSBD, Winsor

In the short term, your point has merit. In the long term, the more we depend on finite resources the more screwed we are when they run out. In all fairness they will never likely 'run out' so much as become too scarce and expensive to consider. In the meantime, our problem is that our way of life is dependent on cheap and plentiful energy. And. like any good metastatic tumor, we depend very much on 'growth.' For a variety of reasons we have no game plan to transition to a stable, self-sufficient society. The idea that, having trashed the planet that spawned us, we should somehow transition to another planet (Mars, anyone?) with the expectation that we should do any better is quite amusing. Whatever one's stance on Global Warming/Global Cooling/Climate Change, the reality is that our survival as a species (the planet will be around long after we're gone) is enhanced if we develop the means of limiting our population to that which is sustainable, and get away from wiping out the backlog of finite resources. Good luck with either. BSBD, Winsor

Actually, I had forgotten. Thanks for reminding me.

News flash - I listen to NPR to and from work, and tune in CBS News in the evening. Most of what I know from Fox is by reference, since I very rarely watch it. Same thing went for Rush Limbaugh while he was alive - I must have listened to a solid 20 or 30 minutes of his stuff in total. I base my take on the Woke ideology from such right wing sources as Mother Jones as I base my take on Islam by reading the Koran and by serious interviews with practicing Muslims. I'm pretty much spared the neurotypical susceptibility to religion; Buddhism's okay, but you lose me with the reincarnation thing. As an Eagle Boy Scout minus the 'reverent' requirement, I'm as likely to stop to help change a tire if it's an old pickup truck or a new Benz. I personally don't give a rat's ass what is the skin tone of the driver in either case. I could easily outdo billvon's Wokelogue qualification ("some of my best friends are..."), but consider that to be up there with Godwin's Law - cross that line and your credibility is shot (not that I expect you to find me credible). Sure, it's a hell of a lot easier to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Having said that, I've worked with people from a spectrum of ethnicities that came from the humblest of origins and did wonderfully, and I've also known Mensa qualified trust fund babies that crashed and burned. The best circumstances I have seen include equality of opportunity and equality of resources. Army/Air Force/Navy brats have identical schooling, housing and so forth, whether their parents are from barefoot hillbilly origins or the barrio or suburbia. Often they have lived most of their lives in places where the general view is "you Yanks are all the same..." and locals are oblivious to their perceived social status in the U.S.. Per Poe's Law (thanks SkyDekker), I don't need to resort to AltRightWingers.com to get a parody of Woke ideology, since the Woke liturgy may well have come from Monty Python. I hope never to fully understand the susceptibility of neurotypicals to 'systems of belief,' and am comfortable being a confirmed skeptic. Your assumption that I adhere to a competing system of belief to yours could not be wider of the mark. BSBD, Winsor

Dunning and Kruger's work is based on the idea that, given how effortlessly the pros do it, how hard can it be? It strikes me that the complexity behind any really good religion serves the purpose of "baffle them with bullshit." In some cases a religious ideology is backed up by marvelous feats - "you doubt Ra? Let's see YOU make a pyramid..." By and large, however, ideologies that engender religious adherence are usually based on claims that are easily shown to be nonsense. The Book of Mormon is a wonderful example, since it makes specific claims that are belied by verifiable data. The Hebrew Scriptures aren't much better; the Bronze Age lore of a big, dysfunctional family got pretty weird with the retelling before being put to parchment. Woke ideology, as well as Communism and various right-wing isms (Fascism was copyrighted by Mussolini), follows a standard pattern of systems of belief. There's the narrative, victimhood, the defined enemy and the concept of heresy for anyone who disputes the 'truth' contained therein. Depth and complexity are no indication of veracity. A study of history will show many cultures that were rich and vibrant in their heyday, but fell to the wayside in the end along with the 'truths' they considered self-evident. There is much that appears unlikely at first blush but is actually spot on, and other things appear true but are complete fiction. Having said that, the distortions and doublespeak behind Woke ideology reveal it to be nonsense at the level of Scientology. BSBD, Winsor

I'm sure you think you know what you are talking about, which is fine when you limit your observations to yourself. I can only guess whether your goal is to be offensive when you pretend to have a clue regarding my level of awareness, but I suppose it does not matter in the long run. It is not my goal to sway your opinion one way or another. Bless your heart, Winsor

Yeah, the results of these studies are stressed heavily in the media. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.26.21254377v1.full.pdf I am also impressed by the approval of Remdesivir, which has nasty side effects and no improvement of outcome, while medications with hundreds of millions of doses taken safely are, of course, strictly proscribed. Works for me. BSBD, Winsor Final_Document_-_Supervisor_Haff_Handout.pdf

I guess my objection to the vaccine is that it is pretty much the only treatment given much consideration. Of course there is the use of masks and otherwise limiting transmission, but precious little attention is paid to other prophylaxis and treatment. When anyone touts a Single Input-Single Output Closed Form solution to a complex problem, it raises flags. Getting even a Jordan Form (first derivative) solution to a multi-parameter LINEAR system is generally daunting, and settling on an SISO approach to a complex nonlinear system suggests intellectual laziness. I got vaccinated at the first opportunity, but have no reason to view it as a panacea. Two long time friends had severe thrombosis issues five days after receiving the Moderna vaccine, one of them was revived (and is still undead), one died. If the vaccine is but one arrow in your quiver, fine. If you're betting the ranch that the vaccine is all that is needed to bring COVID-19 to heel, good luck with that. BSBD, Winsor

Teaching ABOUT religion is okay. Teaching OF religion (i.e. religious instruction or indoctrination) - not so good. The tale goes that a traveler had a flat tire and, while installing the spare, realized hw was across the fence from an insane asylum, with residents strolling about on the lawn. While wrestling the spare into place he knocked over the hubcap in which he was keeping the lugnuts, which all went through a grate into a storm sewer. One of the people across the fence had been watching his progress, and said "take one lugnut off of each of the other wheels and space the three as evenly as you can. There is an auto parts store a couple of miles up the road where you can replace them." Taking his advice, the motorist installed the spare and got ready to go. "Thanks for the help" he said. The resident said "no problem. I'm crazy, not stupid." The moral to that story is that it is often more effective to evaluate content than the source.. Again, the problem is one of definition, and that we are talking past each other. I should have thought that you would have picked up on that by now. BSBD, Winsor

Actual qualified scientists have been wrong en masse, and a few of us high school dropouts have made the odd breakthrough. Argumentum ad Hominem - circumstantial and Argumentum ad Vericundiam are at play here. BSBD, Winsor

WTF? I did a search of the article and found nothing to support that characterization. Do you have anything that supports or refutes the points he made in the article? BSBD, Winsor

My choice of Charlie Manson over Hillary Clinton was partially based on the idea that BOTH sides of the aisle would do everything in their power to keep a leash on the sonofabitch. I figured that The Donald was a suitable stand in for Charlie. What I lost track of was that Charlie Manson and Trump actually have followings that buy into their drivel. Some of Trump's antics were mildly amusing, and it was/is entertaining to see how those opposed to him wax rabid in their hatred of him. Having said that, I can't wait for the moment when he is out of the limelight for good. He has a knack for making everything he says sound like utter bullshit - even when he's spot on (a stopped watch is right twice a day). For him to worry about his reputation is akin to Bill the Cat's (of Bloom County) trying to maintain the image of a total degenerate in the face of allegations that he is actually a decent guy. Ironically enough, Bloom County absolutely nailed Donald Trump's persona over 30 years ago. I have to be careful, however, since every time I have thought "they couldn't do worse than this asshole..." I've been wrong. BSBD, Winsor