C'mon guys, it's all tribalism nowadays!
Posted On: Saturday - November 28th 2020 1:53PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Immigration Stupidity Websites California Pundits Race/Genetics
(You're right. Peak Stupidity has seriously overused this line from Chevy Chase in the old movie Fletch, but c'mon guys, it's all memes these days! Yeah, I know, I skipped the "whaddya' need, a refresher course?" part.)
I want to mention a very good article on California's rejection of its Proposition 16* a few weeks ago. The article, by pundit David Cole, is California Secedes From Black America.
Mr. Cole is a Jewish pundit who was formerly heavily involved in Hollywood, but pissed off the whole crowd with his views. He changed his name, or picked up this pen name, I should say, and writes stuff that I am about 95% in agreement with. That's at least from what I've read of him on Takimag, or "Taki's Magazine", as the banner up top now says (trying to look back like real magazine, I guess??)
Speaking of the Takimag site, as I went to the main page to find the Cole article in question, it's gone down the tubes in 3 ways over the last couple of years. The first thing was the doing away with the comments. Comments bring in a lot of readers. At some point, I'd gotten sick of them myself anyway, as the takimag crowd had a lot of commenters who would argue a long thread about minute details of history having nothing directly to do with the posts. I'm sure they had fun at it, but between that and the hidden comments you had to click to open up, I thought it was really wasting my time. (Who am I to criticize the format of a comment section is another subject, haha.) Still, if one is bored ...
Secondly, the format was changed. I don't like these kinds of changes to begin with, and if it's not in the order I'm used to, I may just bail out.
Thirdly, I have bailed out, also because I don't see any of the good writers I'd follow anymore on the site. Other than the syndicated Ann Coulter, who I can read on thousands of sites elsewhere, there are the Steve Sailer weekly columns that I get to from links on his blog, and then I like this David Cole**.
Before I get to this gist of post about this California referendum, let me categorically state that California is dead to me, dead to me, ya' hear? They called it Paradise, rightly so, about half a century ago. Due to that long a period of socialism and immigration stupidity, doubling the population (mo people, mo problems!), they kissed it goodbye. (That's all explained in that old post.)
Back to the present day, Mr. Cole explains the real reasons for the rejection of Proposition 16 in California. The proposition was about getting rid of the legal restraints on Affirmative Action in government employment, education, and contracting in the former Golden State. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of "extra-legal" ways of arranging for White men to be screwed over, but they wanted to be on the up and up there. This was "amazingly" rejected. The word's in quotes, because the amazement comes from conservatives and the left both, who are deluded as to what's really going on with the tower of Babel that is California and California politics. Tribalism rules now. Mr. Cole explains the stupidity of both the left and the right in their interpretations of how the vote went wrong or went right, respectively. First, he explains the battle:
And on the subject of Californians and electoral surprises, commentators left and right have been puzzling over the fact that we defeated an attempt to bring affirmative action back to a state that banished it in 1996. Proposition 16, which would have allowed for favoritism of nonwhites in public employment, education, and contracting, lost by a wide margin. Yet the backers of Prop. 16 outspent the opposition $30 million to $2 million. And what a list of backers it was! The California Democrat Party and every Democrat officeholder in the state championed Prop. 16, as did every major newspaper. Every leftist “social justice” organization—the ACLU, NAACP, NOW, the ADL, BLM, even the Sierra Club and the PTA—backed Prop. 16. So did the Chamber of Commerce, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, Uber, Dropbox, Reddit, Lyft, Yelp, AirBnB, Instacart, Gap, Levi’s, United Airlines, Wells Fargo, the 49ers, the Giants, and the Oakland A’s.Holy crap. Remember these people. If you care, then I don't know what to tell you - get off the social media, don't watch movies, don't travel, hold your money in cash, property and precious metals, take over the PTO (not PTA now), and, most definitely***
Soros backed it. The Chan/Zuckerberg Initiative backed it. Ava DuVernay backed it. Kaiser, Blue Shield, and PG&E backed it.
DON'T DONATE ONE RED CENT TO THE SIERRA CLUB, EVER!!
Sorry, where was I... Yeah, it was the little people against that PC Globalist juggernaut, but this is not particularly a win for the White man. After all, White people, and especially conservative White people are a small minority in the State of California. This was a tribal thing. The few conservative whites couldn't have voted this down. It's not 1970 anymore.
No, the Hispanics and Asians, both the Chinese and the •Indian immigrants, have no love for the few black race hustlers left in California. They don't feel guilty about anything, even things they probably ought to, like being grateful to have left their shitholes and being able to live in what lots of them have turned into Paradise Lost. The Chinese care about the Chinese, the •Indians care about the •Indians, and the huge Hispanic population cares about the Hispanics. None of them believe that this AA is going the help their tribe or they'd have voted otherwise. Constitutional principles, fairness, all that? Not a factor.
Mr. Cole explains that the stupidity of the lefties' interpretation of the election result, that the proposition was written in a confusing manner, because voting YES is rejecting older law that prohibits AA:
No, the wording of the proposition was not confusing. The ballot summary was crystal clear: “Proposition 16 permits government decision-making policies to consider race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin to address diversity.” That’s hardly Aramaic.If the California voters couldn't understand that language (per the lefties), then maybe we can get them onboard with some voting restrictions. We could start with property ownership, then maybe sex, then, if we could work together really ambitiously, we could draw up some restrictions based on being an American citizen even. If that is a bridge too far, how about just a working knowledge of English? I mean, we all don't want these mistakes to continue to be made in the future.
I want to include this part just to show that David Cole is a funny guy too:
And knowing what Prop. 16 was, whites, Asians, and Latinos in California voted against it. Only blacks overwhelmingly supported it. And at a paltry 5.8% of the state population, black “overwhelming support” plus two bucks buys you a McNugget and Coke.Now, as for the establishment Conservatives, they are very happy about the result, thinking this proves that these big minority groups rejected identity politics:
Meanwhile, establishment conservatives at National Review, Hot Air, and elsewhere took the defeat of Prop. 16 as proof that “minority voters reject identity politics,” because inside every Ibram Kendi is a Thomas Sowell crying to be freed. “Demography is not destiny,” wrote John Sexton at Hot Air; nonwhites are “opting out” of the Democrat identity-politics machine.[My bolding to point out the snark.] Mr. Cole answers that stupidity here:
But no, Prager U grads, Latinos and Asians did not rebuff Prop. 16 because they “rejected identity politics.” Something was indeed “rejected,” but no one wants to acknowledge what it was. Here’s a simple truth that none of the analysts left or right are willing to admit: Prop. 16 was a referendum on blacks. Not “diversity,” not “identity politics,” but blacks. Everyone with half a brain understood that Prop. 16 was there to help blacks, and blacks alone. Asians and Latinos are doing exceptionally well in the UC system (Asians are overrepresented, and Latinos, represented at roughly their percentage of the population, outnumber non-Hispanic whites). Blacks are the ones who need the “special help.” They’re the ones who feel like they can’t compete without being given extra points for melanin.There's a lot more there. That was a very illustrative article about a place that is far gone down the road of immigration stupidity and tribalism. I've long given up on California. Peak Stupidity noted that California was the epicenter of much of our stupidity in our about page even. It's time to find a solid doorway, for The Big One.
Proposition 16 posed a question to the people of California: Wanna help a brother out?
And Californians said no.
* Yeah, these numbers have gone around back through 1 again. They've had a LOT of them over the years! I kind of like the referendum idea - it works great in a place full of educated voters, but, then that gets us back to the subject of this post, speaking of coming around...
** My 2nd favorite writer behind Steve Sailer on that site was Jim Goad, whom we praised on this site long ago. He is gone from Takimag, per commenters under his article Tom Metzger, American Radical (April 9, 1938-November 4, 2020), which appeared on unz.com. I hope Mr. Ron Unz makes Jim Goad's writing into a column on his site.
*** You're gonna want to read Part 2 too.
Comments (6)
Chicken suits and soap water enemas
Posted On: Friday - November 27th 2020 4:02PM MST
In Topics: Humor Kung Flu Stupidity
This one comes from Mr. Anon, who comments here and on iSteve Sailer's blog, which we all know and love. Mr. Sailer, though not nearly the panicker* about the Kung Flu he has been, gives out continual info about the vaccines that have been coming out. I don't think Mr. Sailer has really got into his head how much the whole COVID-19 thing has been, is, and will be more, used as a weapon by Totalitarians.
Mr. Anon's comment under one of these posts is a great way to put this:
Most western countries, and many states in the U.S. have mask mandates and have had them for months now. And yet the virus, we are told, is peaking again. Of course we will also be told “Well, imagine how bad it would be if there weren’t mask-mandates”. Someday we will all be saying “Well, imagine how bad the pandemic would be if we weren’t all wearing chicken-suits and getting daily soap-water enemas!” or whatever our public-health wardens next deem to be “the science”.Mr. Adam Smith, somewhat of an image guru, has just the picture to go along with Mr. Anon's comment (also taken straight off that blog comment thread):
Mr. Smith, if this is some kind of patented enema-ready chicken suit of yours, or at least a copywritten picture of such a suit, Peak Stupidity's legal team apology and disclaimer is at the bottom.**
* I really don't have a better term. Mr. Sailer has always been very logical about things, and he never got hysterical by any means. However, from the inundation of posts with very pessimistic looks on the COVID-19 business onto his blog from March through May of this year, he at least used to be on the (Mr. E.H, Hail's term) "pro-panic" side of things.
** We own nothing! Nothing! - PS Legal Council, on retainer from Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe.
Comments (12)
The Peak of Stupidity has been postponed...
Posted On: Friday - November 27th 2020 3:40PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Websites
... due to a severe, order-of-magnitude sized overage that was not at all expected at time of the creation of this blog. Peak Stupidity went on
Yeah, no kidding. We were way, way off!
From the looks of it, though I'll say in our favor that the graph was created at least a year before the blog cranked up live, we were very optimistic thinking that 2018 would be when stupidity peaked. Who could have foreseen all the new flavors of stupidity that have come about in the intervening years? This 9-months-running Kung Flu PanicFest was just a twinkle in some idiots' eyes when we started this blog. America and the Western World in general, but especially Washington, FS, the Capital of Stupidity, have grown in ways unimaginable in our 4 years in operation. Seed money from all over has been flowing in to make us the virtual Silly-con valley of Stupidity.
You readers have been receiving a cost-free education in Stupidity. After 4 years, you deserve some kind of certificate or something. Your education has been worth much more than that received from many in some of our best Ivy-, or at least Kudzu-league schools, for which people are in hoc for mortgage-sized sums... that will soon be "written off" by the Super-Spreader. You could have done a lot worse with your time spent:
Posting has been really steady over this long term. This post number is 26 posts short of being twice the 2-year blogversary number. Site visits are up from about 65,000 for the '19 calendar year up to over 100,000 (easily) projected for the full 2020. At the end of the year, page views will have gone from 250,000 or so up to 350,000. Spread the word. The peak may not be so nigh. There's more time to read before the Peak SHTF.
PS: For thoughts from our other year blogversaries, see the posts at 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years.
Comments (2)
Happy Thanksgiving 2020
Posted On: Thursday - November 26th 2020 9:19AM MST
In Topics: Holiday from Stupidity
We've heard a lot about how the year 2020 itself has been the problem ... somehow, on it's own. Nope, there's nothing about the stupidity of this year (so far!) that cannot be pinned down to those responsible. The problem is only that they are not being held responsible.
We can all be thankful for our health, our families, and for the days we have. I would like to have seen another 4-year slight reprieve from the deepest stupidity that a Trump win would have given us. (On the election, who knows, still?)
One thing that helps with my coping with the stupidity inundation is talking over it with friends. We're not going to find many solutions, but it's still entertaining. A good friend of mine died a little before Thanksgiving last year. He was always good for a long talk once a week or so. Maybe we agreed on only 90% of things, but I sure do miss that. Another friend can will talk on the phone about it, but he is too far away to come by.
I am thankful that my family is fairly well on-board with what is going on and what we have to think of doing next. It wasn't always like this. My wife's schedule of catching up with the big picture that I try to relate to her has shifted from a 5 - 10 year lag to something like a year or 2. I will write my post about this later this week, I think.
Also, I am thankful now to have the commenters on this blog. Though I know people are viewing the pages at least, if not reading, from the stats, it's great to hear directly from you who comment in. Thank you all. This and Steve Sailer's blog, with the good commenters there, including almost all of you too, are a great help.
T HA N K S G I V I N G !
I should be back on here tomorrow.
Comments (9)
Tampax marketing genius doubles the market over
Posted On: Tuesday - November 24th 2020 8:25PM MST
In Topics: Music Humor Political Correctness Salesmen Female Stupidity Big-Biz Stupidity
Genius, sheer marketing genius!
I mean the "New Coke! OK, we hear you, it sucks. Now, New Coke AND Classic Coke! New Coke? Oh, you don't want that crap anyway." campaign was damn clever, you know, to make the product visible and all. Some people would have never heard of soft drinks otherwise, I guess ... However, I don't think it changed the size of the market, so... actually, what was the point again?
This campaign, though, involved some real out of the box thinking! Materials and methods to stem the flow, if you will (well, you'd better!), of menstrual blood have been around since the 15th century BC, per Wiki. That was even before the writing of Proverbs 25:24! (We'll get to in a bit.) More recently, Tampax started selling their products in 1933. That's 87 years of sales, and it took just this one guy and his tweet to double the market. I don't think this was meant to be a joke. The tweet looks like the real deal - it doesn't have blood stains, but there is that blue check mark.
The same wiki page says "The average consumer may use approximately 11,400 tampons in her lifetime (if using only tampons)." Whoa, wiki, that there's some pretty offensive stuff, assuming it's women generating all that toxic waste. We men can generate a few tons of it ourselves if we put our minds to it, you sexists. Yes, we can!
#TimeofTheMonthStrong!
The tranny market for Tampax is somewhat limited, as Peak Stupidity discussed already in Can Male to Female Transexuals have Periods?. We delved into the plumbing tweaks that would need to be involved, not beyond the capabilities of modern engineering and surgical practices, but our question was "why?!"
As far as marketing goes, it's time to go with the tide of diversity and inclusion and sell to men in general. Why didn't someone think of this before? If a tweet says that men can have periods, in this politically correct country of ours, who can argue with that? People are much too scared to stand up and shout out "the Emperor has no clothes!", or in this case "these men have no vaginas!" With a strong ad campaign, plenty of male TV viewers can be convinced to find a hole somewhere in which to put these things. It may not be so obvious as to what time of the month to apply them, but we can find out on the Tampax for Men application, excuse me, "app", Ragtime 2.0.
One does wonder whether a passage in the Bible, Proverbs 25:24, may need to be changed now to be more inclusive. Peak Stupidity wrote in part 2 on periods - the 2nd half of that post:
It is something that many religious texts have discussed over the millennia. Proverb 25:24 of the Old Testament, for example says "It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.". [King James Version]. Now, this must be taken in light of the times in which it was written. What I mean is, the roofs were flat back then. All the proverbs in the world aren't going to help you when you roll off a 50% slope and fall 10 ft to your death. Anyway, details, details ... modern interpretation could easily have us read "woman on the rag" for "brawling woman" and "man-cave" for "corner of a house top". That is the point, we men need plans for these 2-5 day periods to be completely away, but it must be constructive time for us too - we could be working on updates to blog software just as a random example.Next, we will have to get an apology from Vincent Furnier, who, while using a nice trans-sexual name like Alice Cooper, had that old fashioned notion that, pssshaaaww, Only Women Bleed.
PS: If you have noted the date of this informative tweet, you may wonder about the delay in the writing of this post. Peak Stupidity was going to write it in a timely manner, but that was a bad time for this blogging. In mid-September, or around that period, all my best typing fingers were totally cramped up, all my friends and family were acting weird and mean to me, and life was just meaningless. All those people have changed back to being normal now, so it was time to write the post.
* Though I met an engineer who worked for a company that made machines for the Proctor & Gamble tampon production line in Cincinnati. The output of one of the huge machines was something like 10 tampons/second. If something got out of whack, whoa, talk about the supervisor being on the rag!
Comments (12)
The Clerk from Calcutta
Posted On: Tuesday - November 24th 2020 10:48AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity
You know, sometimes these blog post ideas come one right after another. The thoughts for this one came to me not more than 30 seconds after those that led me to write Hurrah for extra Credit Card charges! last week. I'm just getting around to it.
The .Indian woman cashier that I dealt with twice as I paid in cash to fill the gas tank was decent enough, though no telling about her English. Nobody seems to want to chat as much now. As I came in to pay (first time inside) with a 20, I figured I may as get some one dollar bills too that I needed for something. The lady was fine with that. She went into another drawer of some sort to put in my 10 and get the 1's out, versus the one she put my 20 into. Maybe that's odd and about tax avoidance, maybe not...
I figured I'd better count the bills, and I'd better do it right there inside the store. If the amount were wrong, coming back from outside would be suspect if they didn't add up. OK, so I counted them up for a few seconds, and went on my way to pump gas (again, coming in later for the change once that tank was as topped as it could be). While coming out of the store, I wondered for a second (well long enough to get a blog post going!) whether this lady would be offended by my counting the money right in front of her.
It's a matter of trust but also of competence. My guess, based completely on stereotypes, mind you, as that is usually all I have to go by, was that the lady was probably very competent, but maybe not so trustworthy. I'd never met the lady before. No, I've never had any bad dealings with .Indian people in general, but I haven't had any major dealings at all. Even the stereotype in my head would tell me that 95% of the convenient store clerks of this persuasion would give me the right change, based on honesty. I don't want to lose 5% though, or I would just keep my money in the bank, with no interest and exposed to inflation, wait ...
Was the lady pissed off at me, a native of her adoptive country, for not trusting her? I don't care that awful much, but I thought about it long enough for this post. "Oh, these Americans don't trust us. That is so stereotypical - probably another Trump voter who wants to kick us all out. We need to change this country by overwhelming these white people with numbers. I can't wait till my cousin from Bombay gets through the hoops with my Uncle Apu's bribe money, so he can take over, and I can spend more time on my hair and dot."
Who knows what she's thinking? That's the problem with having a mishmash of ethnicities and races in this Tower of Babylon. I've heard it from an immigrant woman myself: "I can't see what these people I work with are thinking. It's different from back home." Actually, it's not that much different as women everywhere think that female intuition is accurate, but it's not half the time. I don't have feminine intuition. However, if it's any American-looking individual behind the register, I'm gonna have more faith, and probably not count the change. Sorry, I could be wrong in my estimates. Too bad.
Would it not be better if we have much smaller numbers of immigrants who we can get to know and trust (or not) after a while? If you've got one Chinese family in the whole area, and people understand they are good people, must of us will not worry when we get our change from the teenage son as the store. Of course, being a Millennial, like all of them, I'd kind of wonder if he knows how many 1's to give back from a 10. If there's no app, I mean, what the hell do you do?
Comments (12)
C J Hopkins says "The Germans are Back!"
Posted On: Monday - November 23rd 2020 8:46PM MST
In Topics: Websites Pundits Globalists World Political Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
Peak Stupidity has quoted this C.J. Hopkins guy before in our post Scenes from the Kung Flu Summer re-Panic - Part 9 from another article of his, "Invasion of the New Normals". This pundit (at least as is his capacity in which I know him) does yeoman's work in pointing out the evils of the Kung Flu PanicFest. In particular, as an American living in Germany, he gives the news from there.
I can't say I would agree with so much of his other writings just from first glance. Maybe I'm wrong. He has the term "GloboCap" which he is trying to push, and hard, to describe the political evil the world is undergoing right now. It's obviously short for Globalized or Global Capitalism. I dunno if the guy understands real Capitalism any more than lots of other pundits who don't. Without big governments, Capitalism on a global scale might work out just fine. What we have our big governments everywhere that work with, or often for, the big corporations, as the little guy is squashed. I was under the impression this is Fascism, in an economic/political sense.
Anyway, that was quite off the subject, but just written to introduce this guy that has written another great article on this Totalitarianism coming down on us, using the PanicFest as a pretext. Mr. Hopkins wrote a great satirical analogy, which one can read on unz.com, called "The Germans are Back".
Here's the intro., before the satire starts:
Break out the Wagner, folks … the Germans are back! No, not the warm, fuzzy, pussified, peace-loving, post-war Germans … the Germans! You know the ones I mean. The “I didn’t know where the trains were going” Germans. The “I was just following orders” Germans. The other Germans.We may have just as much Totalitarianism here in America, though it varies from State to State. As some commenters pointed out, too, at least the Germans are having some big organized protests. What do you see here?
Yeah … those Germans.
In case you missed it, on November 18, the German parliament passed a law, the so-called “Infection Protection Act” (“Das Infektionsschutzgesetz” in German) formally granting the government the authority to issue whatever edicts it wants under the guise of protecting the public health. The government has been doing this anyway — ordering lockdowns, curfews, travel bans, banning demonstrations, raiding homes and businesses, ordering everyone to wear medical masks, harassing and arresting dissidents, etc. — but now it has been “legitimized” by the Bundestag, enshrined into law, and presumably stamped with one of those intricate official stamps that German bureaucrats like to stamp things with.
I'll give the reader here a taste of the satire, as Mr. Hopkins compares the goings on in his adoptive country to events of 80-odd years ago.
Now, this “Infection Protection Act,” which was rushed through the parliament, is not in any way comparable to the “Enabling Act of 1933,” which formally granted the government the authority to issue whatever edicts it wanted under the guise of remedying the distress of the people. Yes, I realize that sounds quite similar, but, according to the government and the German media, there is no absolutely equivalence whatsoever, and anyone who suggests there is is “a far-right AfD extremist,” “a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist,” or “an anti-vax esotericist,” or whatever.OK, I'll leave it at that. Please go read the rest. Even if you don't agree with the analogy, this is what's going on in Germany right now over this COVID-one-niner nonsense.
As the Protection Act was being legitimized (i.e., the current one, not the one in 1933), tens of thousands of anti-totalitarian protesters gathered in the streets, many of them carrying copies of the Grundgesetz (i.e., the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany), which the parliament had just abrogated. They were met by thousands of riot police, who declared the demonstration “illegal” (because many of the protesters were not wearing masks), beat up and arrested hundreds of them, and then hosed down the rest with water cannons.
The German media — which are totally objective, and not at all like Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda in the Nazi era — dutifully reminded the German public that these protesters were all “Corona Deniers,” “far-right extremists,” “conspiracy theorists,” “anti-vaxxers,” “neo-Nazis,” and so on, so they probably got what they deserved. Also, a spokesperson for the Berlin police (who bear absolutely no resemblance to the Gestapo, or the Stasi, or any other notorious official-ideology-enforcing goons) pointed out that their water cannons were only being used to “irrigate” the protesters (i.e., not being aimed directly at them) because there were so many “Corona Denier” children in their ranks.
Going back to the writer again for a bit, I perused his site (linked to above), and here are some of the sites he publishes his articles in:
I think he keeps pretty good company. Thank you, Mr. Hopkins for another good description of this on-going stupidity from another continent. It can't be just about Trump.
Comments (6)
The signing of the Mayflower Compact
Posted On: Saturday - November 21st 2020 4:43PM MST
In Topics: History Americans Legal Stupidity
It was 400 years ago today. As the Pilgrims stayed on their chartered ship, the Mayflower, for some weeks after the ship had made it to Cape Cod (Providence Harbor on the northern tip), trouble had been brewing. Not all of the people on the voyage were on the same page as far as what was to be done, law-and-order-wise, once they set foot in this New World.
The "Virginia Company", 2 companies actually, was a charter of King James of England under whose auspices the Pilgrims were traveling. From what I gather, that simply meant that it was legal under English law for them to settle the property in these sections of N. America's east coast (like someone who wasn't would ever be seen for 50 years in this vast wilderness). Because their ship hadn't made it anywhere near official Virginia at the time, the travelers on this voyage who weren't Puritans, called "Strangers" by those who were, reckoned they were sovereign in this new land. The Mayflower Compact, signed on this day 400 years back, made it clear that a government would be formed for all the settlers. Without it, who knows how much worse the new colony woud have fared. Maybe the "Strangers" would have done a better job.
This was not some EU Constitution-like book length document. It was not even anything near the length of the US Constitution. When they said "compact", they meant it. Here is the Mayflower Compact in its entirety, since it's kind of hard to read up top:
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.:That was that. I could write more, but I'll just link you to this quick History Site article, The Federalist, with more detail and understanding here, and, of course, VDare's remembrance, which requests input from their readers.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith, and the honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another; covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
PS: I've been getting confused about some of the dates of this famous voyage's anchoring/disembarking/etc., but that's the story I've got from perusing 3 or 4 history sites. Some of the confusion was about the Old System dates and the New System. I will use our new dates, as anniversaries are about thinking back with nice round numbers. VDare is accurate as any news/opinion site I know, so I was relieved to see they had a remembrance post today!
Comments (3)
Exercise machine / TV force-feeding Update
Posted On: Saturday - November 21st 2020 9:10AM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Artificial Stupidity
I'm sure there are updates out about more important subjects than exercise machines. It's just a small Peak Stupidity fixation, and there is a bit about TV here too.
Since we left off with lots of praise for the best of the exercise machine consoles I've seen, the Precor 62/80/82*, we'll mention a competing machine this time. There are a bunch of Star Trac machines that I've seen at hotel gyms. These must not be the newest models, per a good review site I just found, Treadmill Reviews, but that's probably for the best. The newer ones have the infotainment I probably don't want.
This console has the simple numbers, incline, speed, distance, METS or kCalories burned (METS are a rate of energy exertion), heart rate, and time elapsed. It has a 40 arrow-shaped LED display in a race track pattern that represents a 1/4 of a mile. I guess that was cool for its time, and it's fine with me. This one has no fancy color LCD screen. Everything is displayed with your old LEDs. That's all good. The only problem was that the heart monitor didn't work. I need to get a rate right after I finish, and I moved my hands to hold those sensors the way that usually works. I had no luck with this thing. Maybe it just was a case of a broken wire on this machine or bad-quality sensors. I'll find out on another machine like it.
Now, to the TV force-feeding** aspect of this, maybe a more interesting subject for this blog's readers. I was the only one in the place, and the TV was on. It would not have been any bother without the audio, as it was way off to the side of that Star Trac machine. It was loud enough though. Rather than find the remote, it seemed easier to use the physical buttons on the side of the screen. (I guess all TVs still have these.) They didn't work. That's a new one. After trying o/- for power off, I tried the volume ones. Nope.
I found the remote and tried it. Nope. OK, a more paranoid guy than me might have figured that they REALLY want that thing on to blast the infotainment at me. I chalked up the remote problem to an old battery or possibly my not having a good enough angle toward the TV. Whatever, it was time to take care of this the old fashioned way.
The right-up-against-the-wall devices have cords that hang down, do a 180 back up, and plug in right behind the thing to where they are very hard to get to. That's for installation reasons, but maybe also to keep hands away from the plug. I played around for a minute and noted not a power, but a signal, cable that was easily unpluggable from just below the screen.
I can take some static during exercise a lot better than getting force-fed TV. Luckily, the removal of this cord took care of it all. With no more video and no more sound out of it, peace and quite were the result. Anyone who wants it back on, well, you go talk to the management. See if they understand you through that face diaper.
PS: As with all these posts about these machines, since they have had a particular negative emphasis on the machines that don't calculate shit right (it's NOT hard!), we are not reviewing the mechanical hardware. I have found a few that make a lot of worrisome noise, but I chalk that up to the hotel not getting them maintained as they should be. It's likely that all these hotel commercial models will be pretty mechanically solid, since they seem to get used a few times a day at least, except when the LOCKDOWN gym rules are in effect, and I'm possibly the only one sneaking in. That is more than one would use them at home.
* It wasn't this series, with the paddle-switches, my favorite feature, but one nearly like it, that I noticed recently was used in the Precor treadmills, elliptical machines, and bike machines, with the only difference being some printed-on instructions. They had the same hardware with membrane switches being the controls, but just different software for the differing types of exercise.
** Peak Stupidity first started using this term in the post TV force-feeding in the lobby.
Comments (6)
School Daze
Posted On: Friday - November 20th 2020 10:14AM MST
In Topics: US Police State Curmudgeonry Educational Stupidity
In a comment of mine under The Principal is no longer my Pal, I stated how unbelievably different the school environment is now compared to when I went to school. I don't want to pin things down, but it was quite some time ago in a fairly small school, kind of like this, but not:
There always have been ways to give kids the schooling they need without these ridiculous budgets that cost taxpayers $10,000 yearly per kid or parents directly $20,000 per year. The school I attended was a lean mean, learning (most of the time) machine. There was only one paid employee besides the couple of janitors that did not teach. The assistant principal taught class, and the sports coaches taught class, though with the latter, most did not do a great job at the teaching.
There was no attendance committee that would set up laptops in would-be deposition rooms for those who missed 3 days due to illness in a row but didn't email the right person. There was no "school resource officer", a cop, to put it in English. This is in an elementary school in a GOOD neighborhood, mind you! For the last couple of years, it was a nice lady, a foreigner from Brazil, you know, doing the school resource officering that Americans just won't do, but still a uniformed cop no less. She, and this year it's a guy, who helps direct kids in the crossings in the morning, another job that American 5th graders just won't do, had an office. I think they stay there the whole day. We had a cop come to the school maybe once a year, and this was when some teenager OD'd on valium or something, best I can recall, or some kid was in serious trouble and needed to go downtown.
Yes, 1/2 the juniors and seniors smoked pot in their cars in the parking lot in the morning, but that was off the school grounds (sort of) and apparently nobody's business. No, I did not participate, and I'm glad my parents were so conservative that I wouldn't have thought of it (nor known what the heck the valium business was even about). I was not one of those cool kids, yet that was better than the one guy, Steve. He wanted to be one of the cool kids, so he let the others know how high he had gotten from the one doobie ... that the cool kids had secretly made out of pencil shavings. Who knew pencil shavings were so potent? There's a way to cut your allowance money expenditures in half!
Sure, we flew burning paper airplanes out the window, and the French teachers only lasted 2 years max (that was something I've always felt bad about). Yes, there was one grade, I'm guessing 9th, in which every time a student opened the book up to the page requested, there was a penis drawn across it. There's no getting away from that stuff...
It was no learning utopia. We just didn't make a big deal out of anything. Yes, there was detention, but we didn't call the specialized room the RTC (the Responsible Thinking Center, I shit you not)*. It was simply the little room next to your Pal's office. For a while there, a suspension meant being sent home, with zeros given as grades for any tests missed. That was too sweet a deal, so they changed it to where you had to stay at school.
It was just a freer world, that's all. It's the electronics mostly, that are the problem, but the US Police State attitude has been a part of Big Ed, at least the government-run sector, since that time.
I can remember walking home from school out in this semi-rural area, after I'd found a good short cut. I had to avoid a few cows and get over some barbed wire, and then I was clear of all sight of the school and any other man-made structures for 1/2 mile or so. At that point, I was really alone, in a good way, and in a way that maybe nobody can be anymore, even out in the high Sierras. Nobody had his virtual eyes or ears on me. It was just me and my thoughts under God.
I've had thoughts that the electronic world that watches us is quite the opposite of God. I think the book We Will Harmonize You, though it's about China, has scared the BeJesus out of me.
What a completely different world it was!
* I wonder sometimes if the RTC isn't used as a teacher's lounge when all the kids have been good, perhaps to smoke a doobie or two with the school resource officer. When it comes to obtaining some of that wacky tobaccy, some of these officers can be pretty resourceful... just sayin' ...
Comments (6)
Hurrah for extra Credit Card charges!
Posted On: Thursday - November 19th 2020 5:22PM MST
In Topics: Economics Liberty/Libertarianism
There's a trend in retail business going on right now that, as big-time noticers, the Peak Stupidity staff is right on top of. We noted a year ago, in the post What's the
Often the charge is a surprise to the customer (it shouldn't be that way), but with gasoline, it's clearly advertised. I've seen differences of from 5¢ to 10¢ per gallon. It's great that gas prices are so low**, but now the difference in price is significant, 6% or so (just got some gas at $1.79/G). Debit cards, or cards used as such, are often treated as cash at these stations, but other times the debit price is in limbo. If you've got to go inside to find out, you may as well pay cash while you're in there.
Right now, lest the reader thing this is another Curmudeonry post, to the contrary, I am pleased with this manner of pricing gas and other retail purchases.
Retailers have to pay for those fees somehow. It's the credit card customers who are causing the charges, so, IMO, damn right they ought to pay for them. The reader may want to peruse Peak Stupidity's case for cash being King, in Chipotle - no credit, no debit, and hold the E. Coli, Cash is King (Part 2), and Cash is King (Part 3).
This charging extra for credit card purchases, unless it is done in a hidden manner, is helping to encourage the use of cash by Americans. It is a hassle to go inside the gas station for a fill-up, since starting in the summer of '08, when gasoline prices peaked, almost all stations became pre-pay. (It's not that long ago, but people forget quickly. If you went back to early 2008, most gas stations outside the ghetto or NY City let you pump the gas and pay afterwards.) I filled up a vehicle at that awesome $1.79, OK $1.799 per gallon, and found out I couldn't get those 11.1 gallons into the tank. That required another trip in. So, what, is it not worth a small extra effort taking 2 minutes max (unless those damn Lotto Players are in there scratching up a shit-storm!) to support cash purchases.
OK, let me explain why it is very important. This book about China I am 2/3 way through with, We Will Be Harmonized, is scaring the living out of me. It looks like the review will be a multi-part one. It will scare the living out of the average Peak Stupidity reader too, I'm guessing. The almost total elimination of the use of cash that has happened in just the last few years (I mean like 3!) is not the only Orwellian stupidity the book discussed, but it's a big part of it. Americans need to make really sure it doesn't happen here.
I've had airport vendors lately tell me I need to pay with a card. Reason # 1, after "out of change"?: COVID-one-niner! Sure that's the ticket. COVID-19, what CAN'T it do (to take away freedom that is)? I see this being pushed over here too, but only to a small degree so far.
You got extra credit card fees for the customer? Go ahead, charge the credit card customers out the ying-yang! Piss them off, hell, maybe even me some days. I'll get over it. I like this trend. What's good for cash is good for America.
* That post involved more than simple CC charges after the price was given. There was also a service fee that was told to me afterward, that added to the price quoted on the phone.
** In real dollars, they are as low as they've been in our readers' lifetimes.
Comments (10)
Escape from Stupidity
Posted On: Wednesday - November 18th 2020 8:00PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity
Yeah, it was only temporary. Peak Stupidity has been heavy on the personal anecdotes lately, and ones that have been specific to the Kung Flu stupidity, at that. There is plenty more to write about, but that'll have to start tomorrow.
I had the time to hang out at the park with the kids, it turned out to be lots of them, for 5 hours. We started at virtual school lunch time, and it turned out my freezing my ass off by not moving around enough after a while had us going home before the wife called about dinner.
There were Moms I knew, and a few Dads, along with some lady about my age who had just my attitude about this PanicFest, to the tee. After I got done throwing the frisbee, and the kids threw it on their own and then went on to other things, this lady and I (to paraphrase Arlo Guthrie) sat on the
Later on, after trying to get a little bit of work done (I can't really do much blogging either like that), I just looked at the deep blue sky we had and appreciated a normal world. Come 4:30, a bunch MORE kids came. The playground area was full of kids from 2 to 10 years old, running around, inventing games, and throwing all manner of stuff around.
A group of 2 sets of parents set up a table and gave out free chips and cupcakes to any takers. I didn't partake (just went over to make sure my boy had said "thank you") but noticed that even the cupcakes were specially packaged. These parents were the only ones* around with masks on, probably just to cover their asses. No, don't take that literally! You're thinking this, right?
I could just imagine that elementary school principal driving by the place with 50 kids cavorting around - no masks, no 6 ft, and sharing everything including spittle and boogers. "I see NOTHINK!!"
* That is, besides one soccer coach who always wears a mask among the 8 or 10 little ones who don't. The other anti-panic-freak and I agreed that he must have signed something saying he would wear it in order for what? I think either for the parents to agree or for some official to "allow" him to teach soccer there.
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The voyage of the Mayflower
Posted On: Tuesday - November 17th 2020 7:29PM MST
In Topics: Music Political Correctness History Americans
See how the main sail sets.
Call for the Captain ashore.
Let me go home, let me go home.
I wanna go home, let me go home.
This is the way Peak Stupidity is, I'm afraid. We just cannot seem to keep up with important dates in history. The problem is, as discussed in our October post The Mayflower sets sail, also not written on the right date, is that the political correctness or "wokeness" is simply erasing our history. I mean, you'd have heard of this all over the place were TV and the internet around 100 years ago, on the the 300th anniversary.
Yes, it's been 400 years dammit! I don't watch the TV, but I haven't even seen a Yahoo headline in passing on the 400th anniversary of this voyage that was so important in American history.
The first sight of land off Cape Cod in present-day Massachusetts was November 9th of 1620, and we forgot that date. We'll make a remembrance today then, of the successful voyage. Here are a couple of maps of the rough route, the first a close-up of the departure portion.
Because they voyage was delayed so long due to the problems with the 2nd ship, the Speedwell (discussed in that previous post), the voyage across the North Atlantic wasn't made in ideal weather conditions. There was one death along the way, but one child was born, named "Oceanus" en route.
By this date 400 years back, the brave group of Pilgrims was still on the ship, anchored off of Cape Cod. The famous Mayflower Compact was drawn up during this period. We'll try to remember that one in a few days.
I'm sure there were days over the last few weeks, 400 years back, when it felt like in the song.
"I wanna go home (let me go home).
Why don't you let me go home? Yeah, yeah.
This is the worst trip
I've ever been on!"
OK, we're gonna repeat some music here. It's almost been 4 years, and we featured both the Beach Boys and Dwight Yoakam versions. Neither wrote this song, as it's an old traditional song. These versions are both excellent though.
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OK, we can slow it down and make it country:
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PS: I just talked to my elementary school kid about it. No, he hasn't studied anything about the Mayflower's voyage this year (only back in 1st grade). The school is too busy setting up plexiglass for 400 year-old important pieces of American history.
Comments (7)
It's
Posted On: Tuesday - November 17th 2020 6:28PM MST
In Topics: US Police State Educational Stupidity Female Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
I know, I know... I don't care what Mr. Rogers or some fat-assed bird on Sesame Street told you. It's no longer nice to share. It's not just not nice, it's DANGEROUS, I tells ya'!
The kids at the elementary school are not supposed to share pencils or their sharpeners if another kid is out, or he's broken his tip. Too bad. We are all individuals with all our own stuff that MUST NOT BE MINGLED. The stories of the stupidity going on right now are bad. Take gym, please! (OK, actually, way back, I was the only one who could climb the non-knotted rope up to the steel beams, so I liked it.) The rubber ball must be kicked only. One kid caught it with his hands*, and the teacher corrected him. My son did not mention whether the teacher then proceeded to sterilize the ball in a bath of 75% alcohol or not ...
I noted in our recent post Tagless Recess during the PANDEMIC that both the maintaining of 6 ft. Kung Flu Clearance and the wearing of face diapers is required OUTSIDE, for crying out loud, on the playground. My boy had suggested he'd sneak and play a game of chess with his friend. Being facetious, I suggested one kid make a move, then move back 6 ft., then the other guy ... (still quicker than the old postal chess, by a little bit). "Nope, but then we're sharing the pieces." He didn't mean that he agreed with this stupidity, but was just pointing out the violation that he and his friend would be part of.
However, it's still cool to touch the playground equipment, one at a time, mind you, 6 ft. apart. What the fuck is it?! Is this thing extremely contagious on surfaces or not? I think if you're gonna be hysterical, you ought to be at least consistently hysterical!
Well, I could go on, but I'll just mention that I put the Female Stupidity topic key here, because I just think this stuff wouldn't happen like this with more male influence. There'd be just too many guys who'd let it all slide - gotta get actual things done, you know? The women are awfully compliant sometimes.
That brings up the latest incident that I got involved in. Perhaps my temper is a bit idiosyncratic, as maybe I should have blown off the PrinciPAL the other day. This time, as my kid wanted to give me his face mask to bring home, I first asked him to take care of it himself. (I don't carry his stuff around. He's got pockets.) Shouldn't these, after all, be getting thrown right away into steel BIO-HAZARD! trash cans right there in the parking lot, if this were the Black Plague 2.0? Just as with the touching and sharing, it's the back-and-forth, inconsistencies that show us how much of a farce this whole thing is.
Then, I just took his face mask and threw it in a small bush nearby. I'm normally not a litterer, but I just had a bug up my ass from all of this. The used face mask was very visible on top of the bush there. The same Mom from that other post who is nice enough, but a flaming lefty, scolded me like a schoolkid that "that's not where that goes". I stuck the mask deeper into another bush in front of her and everyone. "I'm done!", I said, pretty loudly, as that was just enough for me. I don't think we'll be speaking again.
So remember, there are dangerous bio-hazards in the classroom and on the schoolyard ... called "kids". Therefore, they must stay separated and contained. Their stuff must be separate, till, I dunno, they get home and throw it all hap-bio-hazardly in their rooms.
"You've all been told to share, even when you didn't want to, for the last 9 years, or at least by kindergarten. It's all changed. COVID-19! Forget all that stuff. Big Bird is dead. COVID-19. Mr. Rogers is dead. COVID-19. Schoolyard fun is dead to us. COVID-19. Learn it, live it, Comrades."
Oh, my boy's friend's Mom must have been worried about the rules, as my boy said his friend didn't want to play chess on the playground after all, per his Mom's advice. It's all getting painfully stupid ...
(My son would have kicked his ass anyway.)
* See, this is the problem I have with Communist Kickball. You can't throw or catch the ball. That's stupid - I'm sorry if this offends any soccer, excuse me, Foootbol, players. There are some crazy conspiracy theories, cough, Ron Unz, cough, cough, out there about the Kung Flu, so I'll just add another one: Is the whole Infotainment PanicFest a conspiracy to get Americans to play more soccer?! Bastards!
Comments (7)
America's Kung Flu recession, women hardest hit! - Part 6
Posted On: Monday - November 16th 2020 8:19PM MST
In Topics: Feminism Economics
(Continued from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.)
It's been another 3 weeks, but Peak Stupidity will fisk this whole article, come hell of high water. This one gets to the meat of the feminist stupidity in Miss Chabeli Carrazanna's compendium of feminist complaints, America's first female recession, so I foresee a less boring post than Part 5.
A caring crisisCould it be that men and women were somehow created differently, perhaps? I guess if we can't even admit anymore that we have different body parts, among certain crowds these days, it's even harder to state the truth that men and women have different roles in raising children. I seem to still read about the women being more nurturing, though, when that's important to the narrative. But when it comes to being like men and taking over their world, we can't admit this.
For women, in particular, hopes of climbing back out of this recession will hinge on one key, lingering question: What happens to the future of childcare?
The realities of the lopsided division of care inside American households has been on full display since work left the office and entered the home — for those who kept their jobs, anyway. Women in 2020 still take on the overwhelming majority of child care responsibilities, spending 40 percent more time watching their children than fathers in couples in which the parents are married and working full time, according to a study by economists at Northwestern University.
If I'm doing my higher math correctly, that "40% more" means that men are still watching the children for 42% of the time they are being watched. That's a considerable amount, and more than was the case in the old days. The old way was simpler. We didn't watch them. We told them to get outside and come in by suppertime. By then, the caring Mom had made a nice home-cooked meal, and the whole family was happier.
Still "caring crisis" is definitely a thing. I'm having a real hard time giving a shit right now about whatever this woman's been bitching about for 6 Peak Stupidity posts now.
Then child care facilities started closing by the thousands. Since January, 1 in 4 child care providers have lost their jobs and as many as half of all child care slots could be lost with centers closing, according to a study by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.This may sound like a vicious cycle here with layoff from other jobs causing women to not have the money for daycare, causing these mostly impersonal babysitting facilities to close, causing layoffs at the daycare centers themselves. To me, it's a virtuous cycle. If they are not working, why wouldn't mothers want to take care of their children themselves? The women at the daycare centers could spend the time at home taking care of their own kids rather than others'. Face it, women like to take care of the little ones. It's what they are made for. I don't understand the good in these complicated arrangements that end up with less parental love for the children.
During a regular recession, women may have entered the labor force to supplement their partners’ lost hours; in this recession, with the child care safety net gone, that option is not even available.
When the layoffs started, Diana Niermann remembers some parents cried telling her they were out of a job and would have to pull their kids from daycare. Her Portland, Ore. facility, called the Kozy Kids Enrichment Center, closed on Friday the 13th in March — a bad omen if she ever saw one, she thought then.
An infusion of nearly $160,000 in a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program helped keep her from shutting down permanently, but the money was drained quickly to pay her staff, rent and to bring her facility to coronavirus regulation standards so she could reopen in June.That's $160,000 of those breadwinners' (mostly men) tax money in government cheese. Her staff got months of paid time off. Then there's those coronavirus regulations. Who are the more hysterical ones about this Kung Flu crap, I ask you? I have a number of data points, some of them pretty close to home, very close ...
Of the 92 children Kozy Kids served pre-coronavirus, 17 came back. Much of Niermann’s staff, discouraged by future prospects in the child care industry, didn’t return either. Her director quit on re-opening day.She "was like" a lot of things. I'd rather not have this lady like talking to my kids like all day.
“I kept thinking in the beginning I was like, ‘Well maybe I’m not supposed to do this,’ but I’ve been through so much that I was like, ‘I’m not giving up, this is what I’ve done my whole life. This is what I believe in: good, quality care,’” Niermann said. “Child care doesn’t pay very much. We need to switch that.”
Oh, and "We need to change that."? Now, there's that free-market talk for ya'. Who is this "we" again, Kemo-Niermann? Try raising your prices. Ooops, though, you might see how many families decide this whole "have it all" lifestyle doesn't pay. Or, you can just keep even more kids with even less attention paid to them. Figure it out, or if you can't make it in business, GTFO and stay home and do something more useful for your own family.
So much of the reason behind that are policies that have often overlooked the needs of working women, said Heather McCulloch founder and executive director of Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap, an initiative working to advance policies that build women’s wealth.Let me get this straight: Women have been getting shortchanged because they are undervalued. Even with Affirmative Action all over the place, "the economy" has been screwing over these poor women. If women are thse "economic drivers", why have middle-class wages been stagnating for 50 years now? Besides the immigration aspect, discussed in Part 4, the labor supply has been increased due to so many women in it.
“We don’t recognize women’s roles and so we never ask, ‘Do women benefit?’ McCulloch said. “We completely ignore or undervalue the role that women are playing, not just in their own families as breadwinners, but also as economic drivers of the economy. If women don’t benefit, the policies need to change because we’re all going to lose.”
"We are all going to lose." If losing means going back to those bad old days of the conservative nuclear families of the 1950s, well I'm telling you, I'll never get sick of all that #LOSING.
It looks like 2, maybe 3 max., posts on this will finish the job. It's been a fun task, but a long one, as this Chabeli Carrazanna provides the virtual mother load of feminist stupidity.
Comments (9)
Run-in with the PrinciPAL - Part 2
Posted On: Saturday - November 14th 2020 2:56PM MST
In Topics: US Police State Educational Stupidity
(I may find a more appropriate picture later.)
This post is an expansion of what I wrote in the previous post, The Principal is no longer my Pal, but really more of a continuation of the comments section underneath that post. I thank the commenters for the good discussion.
I will answer Cloudbuster's opinion that during the incident I should have just taken the kid and whatever (probably minor in the short-term) consequences. I used the expression "learn how to pick your battles" from that old post.* Mr. Blanc has wisely told me to that "that's not the hill to die on" regarding something else. "Yeah," the reader, including Cloudbuster, might say, "you're the supposed tough guy telling us not to keep taking this shit." (Yes, I can read the commenters' minds. Why do you ask? Ooops, I know why.)
Let me get back to the details. In the first incident, my kid was still on other side of the fence, with the opening right there though. Yeah, I could have just walked the 6 ft and got him, or commanded him to come over against the wishes of the PrinciPAL standing right there. Believe me, it's not that I don't want to teach him rebellion and cynicism - he's already picked up loads of that! Just the fact that I wasn't wearing the mask among all the others that were showed him that too. Something inside just told me to hold it in on this one. Contrary to Mr. Blanc's praise on my keeping my cool, I really have a hard time with that though. Here, I did, figuring "OK, well, I suppose there were plenty of emails that I don't ever read telling me the parking and kid pick-up/drop-off traffic and all that jazz. I'm gonna chalk that up as my fault".
I know, just a few decades ago bureaucracy like this would have been considered asinine, and nobody would have been there anyway, as my kid would have just gone on his way home by himself. I held my temper completely and amazingly.
The 2nd run-in was the doozy. It WAS getting stupid, like an alternate version of Dirty Harry Callahan being run around the city of San Francisco, from phone booth to phone booth by that deranged killer. I first did just refuse, and I was telling my boy we'd just keep going. However, something in me said that causing trouble for him later** was not worth it this time. What I don't like is that I wavered back and forth on it, that's all. I didn't keep my cool the whole time, or just resist completely. I said words to the effect of "this being stupid" and "sure, we'll walk all the way around."
The lesson is not lost to my boy that you do have to put up with some stupid things, but you've got to know when to take a stand (pick your battle, die - or, hopefully not - on that hill). My stand was not wearing the mask, and I think that was what was bothering everyone around. One Mom and her girl from my son's class, in their closed up vehicle with masks on,just kinda stared at me, as I went by on the first trek to meet him on the other side, like I'm nuts. (Hey, she's not even close to a MILF, the lady, so that didn't bother me a bit.)
There's not a back-up plan yet, Cloudbuster. That's part of the problem I like your ideas and how you handled things. I've homeschooled some during the past Spring, as described in some unz comments (but I'll be danged that I never described it on Peak Stupidity). We've praised homeschooling in 3 posts on "Poking the Beast in the eye with a big stick" - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. It's just that we are not quite set up to have that as a plan B, or really a BETTER plan. I would like to expound on that in a later post about prepping and the on-going awakening of my wife, finally.
Without a Plan B, it's best not to do rash things like get on the outs with the school, YET. By "yet", I mean that I can foresee this happening in the pretty near future, maybe a couple of years. The battle that I will pick will be over the grief we are likely to get when the political incorrectness we have instilled, errr, let's say pays off. There will be trouble for this boy and/or his parents when the time, not very far off, comes when the schools start trying to indoctrinate the kids even harder into the "woke" world. That's when a back-up plan needs to be in place, so I can have it out, and say "screw you all, see ya'!" when it's the right time.
I appreciate all of these constructive and suggestive comments.
* The gist of it was that checkout kid at the grocery store who was 1/2 my age, told me that in reference to my causing a small fuss for being ID'd when obviously over-age for buying beer. I did have a point (it's none of that State's business WHO buys alcohol, only who is at least 21), but was it worth causing any trouble about? Not for me it wasn't, but if more people did that, we wouldn't put up with an encroaching Police State. This was right at 19 years ago, and here we are ...
** No, it's not like stories I've heard from China - the kid would not get called on in class, because his parents were poor and didn't give gifts to her. It'd probably just have meant that he may be seen as that kid with the "nasty" trouble-maker father and embarrass him a bit.
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The Principal is no longer my Pal
Posted On: Friday - November 13th 2020 10:41PM MST
In Topics: Educational Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
Maybe she never was. I guess the expression was always said in jest anyway. In this sequel to our post Tagless Recess during the PANDEMIC!, I will relate how I found out that our elementary school principal is much more State bureaucratic cadre than anyone's pal.
She didn't used to seem this way. Has she changed just due to being under the thumb of the school district for so long or this new Kung Flu PanicFest with edicts of all sorts being handed down for here to enforce?
First, it's not so easy to lay down rules about face masks on the little ones:
It's much more productive to give the parents the COVID run-around during pick-up time. I had to park on the far side of the school due to not knowing about some road construction. Well, as I approached the schoolyard, a teacher who somehow had avoided being a total bureaucrat told me "well, this isn't where the 'walkers' get picked up, but your son is out here anyway, so let me call him". My kid was about 6 ft. away when the Principal came over and told us this was simply not how it works. Well, fine, tomorrow I can go to the right place, right? Nope, she sent my kid way around 200 yards, and me around on the other side to meet him at the REAL pick-up place.
I let it go. You've got to know how to pick your battles, right? 5 minutes later, on the other side, I waited a couple of minutes and my boy was there with me. (That's when I told him, in front of people "you can take off the silly mask now".) We headed off toward the car, alongside the school, the opposite of the way I had just gone to get him. I'm guessing our walking in front of all the mask-wearing folks pissed off this school
Will he get sent to detention now more often?* Will the sins of the father get put on the son, Old Testament style? An unmasked prophet gets no honor in his own school district, or something like that.
* OK, it was only the one time when he peed on the wall of the school when he had to go badly during recess. This was something that my wife had explicitly told him to do, as "it can hurt you to hold it in." We weren't at all mad at him - the whole thing was hilarious to the whole family.
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Bohemian Rhapsody - The Movie ... and the song
Posted On: Thursday - November 12th 2020 10:25PM MST
In Topics: Genderbenders Music Movies
The movie makers, not very original these days, must have found out that making movies of the lives of 1970s artists is paydirt, as there have been s a slew of them out. Peak Stupidity reviewed Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice and also Rocketman about Elton John.
I want to compare the 2018 movie about the band Queen called Bohemian Rhapsody, which I saw recently, to the Elton John Rocketman movie. (The Linda Ronstadt one was more of a documentary.)
I'll state right here that the Queen movie is much better than the Elton John movie. The multiple flaws that I didn't appreciate in Rocketman were not a problem in Bohemian Rhapsody:
1) You want to hear some of the music, of course. In this movie, the songs did not make the movie into a musical, a genre that I never liked, with only a few movie exceptions. In this movie the songs were played either in the background, or with the actors doing a concert scene, or they were from music videos done at the time.
2) Unlike the Elton John movie, this Queen movie was not all gay, gay, gaiety. There was some gay kissing, but none of the gay sex that was in the Elton John movie. This was a big relief. I had thought that there must be some incentive for the studios to keep that in-your-face gay narrative going, by sticking it into (no pun intended) the movies with the great 1970s musical artists that many people want to see.
3) Bohemian Rhapsody did not present a story made to have us feeling sorry for the guy, in this case Freddie Mercury, Queen's flamboyant (and gay) lead singer. This was much better than in Rocketman, as Elton John's Dad's disapproval of his son was a big theme. Something similar iwas in this movie, but the Dad supported his son at the very end.
This movie still had some of that VH-1 "Behind the Music" feel to it. Mr. Mercury (and his band) got famous, then he lost himself or something, then he recovered his mojo by the time of the huge "Live Aid" concert at Wembley Stadium, just when he'd found out he had AIDS and was going to die young.
The actor who played lead singer Freddie Mercury sure looked weird, with his unusual arrangement of teeth and the long hair. The idea was to look like the artist, of course, who had extra incisor teeth, not his idea, I'm sure. In the movie, and I guess in real life, Freddie Mercury said that his bigger mouth due to these extra teeth made him a better singer. His real name was some not-easily-pronouncable Parsi name, and the actor looked much more foreign with the long hair than the real Freddie Mercury did. Once he got a haircut, it made all the difference. He looked more normal, while the rest of the band kept their long hair, not a bad idea, since at that time they had moved into the "hair band" era anyway.
Freddie Mercury got much of the attention in the movie as in real life. He did have an impressive voice. However, I maintain that the band Queen would have been nothing special at all if it hadn't been for the lead guitar playing of Brian May*. It may not have been just his playing (I'm not enough of a critic to compare him to Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, or Jimmy Page), but more the sound out of those amplifiers and the special effects. It reminds me very much of the guitar sound out of Jeff Lynne of ELO (see Mr. Blue Sky, for an example). Whatever it was, on Killer Queen and then the song this movie was named after, those guitar solos are fantastic. The harmony from all the singers, to me best displayed in Fat-Bottomed Girls, was also a big part of their great sound.
I want to mention one scene to comment on a rock band phenomena that I've commented on before. The record company executive in one scene, or I guess that's who he was, had a meeting with the band, as the band had finished the groundbreaking A Night at the Opera album. As the executive noted that he really wanted more of the same formula that Killer Queen and other songs came from, the band stated the usual deal about wanting to be more creative, etc. No doubt, they had been very creative with this new album that had the operatic number that we may all know (damn well should!) Bohemian Rhapsody. It was great stuff, but from what I remember, whenever bands said they were tired of their "old formula", I ended up not being a fan anymore after another album or two. I could bring up many, such as Fleetwood Mac, with their Tusk album, after they had left their old (fantastic) formula behind. The Beach Boys did the same with creative genius Brian Wilson, but than, their latter stuff was not the same, but still good in its own way. Many other bands went downhill fast after this new creative phase started.
Back to Queen and that scene, a big argument ensued, not about the quality of the album itself, but just about which single should be released, Bohemian Rhapsody or You're my Best Friend, a great catchy song. The band insisted on the former, while this executive argued that 6-minute songs didn't get played on (at least AM) radio. It's hard to believe that what happened was the band quitting their big contract over this argument of which single to release. Could they not have released You're my Best Friend first, and then Bohemian Rhapsody after the album sold a bunch of copies?
I'd like to discuss one more detail about this famous song the movie was named after. The movie states at the end that Bohemian Rhapsody had a second run of success after Freddie Mercury died of AIDS in 1991. However, I've been under the impression that is was the famous scene in Wayne's World in which Mike Meyer and Dana Carvey blast the song out in their AMC Pacer, that gave the song new popularity, especially for many who didn't catch the song 1 1/2 decades earlier. I am pretty sure I'm right on this.
Enough about the music, though. I really enjoyed this movie, especialy because it didn't have the blatant in-your-face gay agenda that was in Rocketman.** The story of the band was told well. The band's best songs were in the movie and played right and in a timeline-consistent manner.
Peak Stupidity gives 2 thumbs up for Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie, and the song too:
Queen was:
Freddie Mercury: Lead vocals, piano.
Brian May: Guitar, backing vocals.
Roger Taylor: Drums, backing vocals.
John Deacon: Bass guitar, additional vocals.
* Brian May was a graduate Astronomy/Astrophysics student when the band got big. He had to decide between finishing his PhD or sticking with the band. I think he made the right decision, though I read a few years back that he went back and finished his work to get that PhD.
** I'm guessing that the other band members had some input into this movie. I really doubt they wanted this one to have a gay, gay, gaiety theme, as they were a normal bunch of family blokes.
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Tagless Recess during the PANDEMIC!
Posted On: Thursday - November 12th 2020 10:04AM MST
In Topics: Curmudgeonry Orwellian Stupidity Educational Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
I'm not sure how long I can just be calm about this stupidity. I almost had it out with the Principal. And here I'd heard for years that the Principal is your "pal". Things have really changed!
In one of our 13 posts called "Scenes from the Kung Flu Re-panic", Part 6, it was, Peak Stupidity wondered about the effect of this PanicFest on the kids:
It really is sad, what you see in that picture. You don't have to be a out-of-control full-of-compassion women voter to feel bad for the kids. What kind of life is this for them? It's been 20 years since the helicopter parenting has been big, meaning kids just don't run outside to play with friends and get told to come back for dinner*. They've had to have their parents arrange "play-dates".We got into the face mask business later in that post , as we will here too. School is now open for the kids, at least for a couple of days a week. I had heard some of this stuff was coming, the plexiglass, the mask wearing, and the other rules. Now, it's become real. I am hoping this is still better for the kids than interacting on computers completely (as far as school goes), but it may be a wash.
That's bad enough, but over the last 4 months, they've had to get their parents to lend them their phones or computers just to talk with friends or see them on zoom. That's no way to interact, just on a screen, not for months at a time! (We've been lucky enough to deal with some other parents that don't mind the kids all being out together ... no masks, no muss.)
I didn't bring up this elementary school boy to be a strict rule follower. He knew the masks were required, and is complying. After school, just seeing all the kids AND all the parents outside with the face diapers on was plain depressing to me. I ended up making one remark to a Mom of 4 I know, just out of disgust. (The remark wasn't AT her, but she asked me how things were going right when I'd just seen the scene out there. She's a flaming lefty anyway, but normally we don't get into that, so I did feel bad a bit, as I guess she thought I was angry at her.) Then, there were the remarks to the Principal, but I'll get to that part in another post.
"What about recess?" I asked my boy, as he has no problem with schoolwork, so my concern was is he going to get to play with his friends regularly finally. They have to wear masks outside, while running around or on the playground equipment. They have to stay 6 ft. apart! I mean, this stuff is enforced too. How Orwellian are things going to get? Not only that, how much general stupidity is going to be mixed in with it?. As me and my kid discussed, if you're gonna pretend to be worried about the Kung Flu, I could see the 6 ft. OR the mask-wearing, but not BOTH. Actually we both noted either rule alone is just asinine.
So, they cannot even play tag. There are eyes watching. On the playground equipment, since they must maintain 6 ft separation, one kid can't spin the other one on that dizziness inducing* deally that they like so much. Since I like to get this boy thinking critically and mathematically, I asked him this: "Hey, what about the swings? You can't stay 6 feet apart all the time if you swing right next to another kid right?" He was smiling while understanding what I was saying. He's way too young for Calculus, but still "you're gonna be 10 ft apart, if you're way forward and he's back there, but then it goes to 8, 6 4, 2, 4, 6 ...." is a good start. He noted that, yeah, the swings must be an exception. We are learning about math and Orwellian Stupidity at the same time, without spending 2 hours to color, cut, and glue in order to properly teach the subject like a professional.
As soon as my boy got past the police tape that is being used as a temporary COVID-emergency barrier for the pick-up area, with masked people everywhere, I told him nice and loudly "you can take off the silly mask now. Let's go home."
* Let me tell you, I can't last 30 seconds at maybe 60 rpm on that thing, much less lasting till the thing slows down from 200 rpm the way the kids do it. I can't hold my school lunch like I used to.
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Save
Posted On: Tuesday - November 10th 2020 7:07PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Race/Genetics Dead/Ex- Presidents
Pretty soon we're going to need more than "SAVE JOEY" bumper stickers, that is assuming that the Blue-squad holds onto their hard-earned "win" in what's not over with in Election '20. Joe Biden maybe be half senile, he rags on White People just to show how cool he is, and he'll spend like a normal 77 y/o when confronted by highly capable window salesman, except with OPM).
Yeah, it'll be bad, but not so bad, knock on
There's a lot I didn't know, and maybe didn't want to know, about this D primary dropout who may magically be President. You can read Mr. Welton's and Miss Saxon"s articles to get the background (he did a good job on this one), but the gist of it is that Mrs. Harris' background is eerily similar to ex-Prez Øb☭ma's. They both have pretty foreign backgrounds, not your Mom, baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet types by a LONG RUN. Mr. Øb☭ma was born in either Kenya or Hawaii, depending on which version of Photoshop you have loaded, and spent a lot of time in Indonesia. Mrs. Harris came from India by way of Berkeley, California, which has been AINO since the early 1960s. (Oh, that's American In Name Only.) At 12 y/o her Mom felt like should couldn't get any slack, being obviously black-looking to the caste and took her from India back to the US after 6 years in between in Quebec, Canada,
Mr. Øb☭ma came from a broken home in which his deadbeat worthless Kenyan father left his young mother, extreme radical Ann Dunham. Mrs. Harris' Mom, Shyamala Gopalan, a racist .Indian of the Brahmin Caste (Caste motto: "You can't touch this stuff!") was not happy, it sounds like, being married to her Dad, Steven Harris, though he was a very respectable Jamaican Stanford Professor. Per Miss Saxon's first article the marriage up and "collapsed" and Mr. Harris obviously did not cut and run, since it was a "contentious divorce". However, the Mom gets to take the kids, don't it always seem to go?
These 2 people are very foreign to us. There are plenty of people from "broken homes" who do well and are stable, adjusted individuals, but the chance of that is still lower than with someone from a stable home, and it'd sure be nice if he/she was an American. We tried this shit before with Øb☭ma. He did not help this country in any way. With a couple of hundred million eligible people to choose from, could even the Blue-squad not have ended up with a senile plagiarizing half-wit, ready to be replaced at any moment by another foreigner from a broken home? I dunno, maybe that's just me...
* He's not one of the usual VDare writers respected by this blogger, as he just tends to put too much psychology-based mumbo-jumbo to explain people whose personalities can be explained much more simply - they are stupid and/or evil. See our post Affirmative Action for the marble-supply-challenged, in which we discussed this writer's work a little bit.
** I already linked to Mr. Welton's article, so I'll keep that, but Miss Saxon's 2 articles give a better background biography.
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