JHK’s Three-Act Play
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These are the long, dark hours when cis-hetero white patriarchs sit by the hearth chewing over their regrets for the fading year and expectations for the year waiting to be born. I confess, I like Christmas a lot, Hebrew that I am, perhaps the musical and sensual trappings more than the virgin birth business. Something in my mixed Teutonic blood stirs to the paganism of blazing Yule logs, fragrant fir trees, rousing carols, and snow on snow on snow. I hope we can keep these hearty ceremonies… that they are not banished to the same puritanical limbo where the Prairie Home Companion archives were sent to rot.
One surviving old chestnut of the season is the 1946 movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, a movie so thick with gooey holiday sentiment, it’s like bathing in egg nog. It’s larded with messages of good-will-to-all-mankind, of course, but some of the less obvious themes — almost certainly unintended — tell the more interesting story about where America has come from in recent history and where it went. One thing for sure: every year that goes by, the America of It’s a Wonderful Life seems utterly unlike the sordid circus we live in now.
The movie takes place in a town, called Bedford Falls, like many in my corner of the country, upstate New York, or at least the way they used to be: alive, bustling with activity, with several layers of working, middle, and commercial classes employed at real productive work making things, and a thin candy shell of “the rich,” portrayed as unambiguously greedy and wicked — but overwhelmed in numbers by all the other good-hearted townspeople.
The movie depicts an American social structure that no longer exists. It’s both democratic and firmly hierarchical — owing probably to the lingering influence of army life in the recently concluded Second World War. Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, the head of an old-style family-owned Savings and Loan bank, a very modest institution dedicate to lending money for new homes. His competitor in town is the wicked old rich banker Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a swindler and thief, who wants to put George out of business.
Bedford Falls is a man’s world. The women in the movie are portrayed as taking care of the “home front” and supporting the male “troops” in the toils of small town commerce — another social holdover from the war years. This depiction of life would surely give a case of the vapors to any post-structuralist college professors who dare to watch the movie.
Now here’s one catch in the story: the main business of George Bailey’s bank is lending money to build the first post-war suburban housing development outside of town, a project called Bailey Park. One of the pivotal scenes concerns the Martini family, immigrants, moving into their new suburban home with great sentimental fanfare. So, what we’re witnessing in that incident is the beginning of the destructive force that will soon blight small town life (and big city life, too) all over the country. Moviegoers in 1946 probably had little intuition of the consequences.
Another catch in the story involves the plot twist in which George Bailey misplaces a large sum of money ($8,000, actually purloined by the wicked villain, Mr. Potter). With his bank facing ruin, George contemplates suicide. He’s saved by his guardian angel, who goes on to show George what Bedford Falls would be like if he had never been born. It would be called Pottersville. Its Main Street would be bustling with gin mills, the sidewalks full of suspiciously available young ladies, the whole scene a sordid nest of vice and wickedness.
The catch is that Pottersville would have been a much better outcome for American small towns like Bedford Falls than what actually happened. Today, the lovely landscape of upstate New York today is dotted with small towns and even small cities that have absolutely nothing going on in them anymore, and stand in such awful desolation that you’d think a long war was fought here. Much of that is due to the activities of good-hearted suburban developers like George Bailey.
The Americans of 1946 must have had no idea where all this was headed, nor of the coming de-industrialization of the country that had won World War Two, or the massive social changes in the divisions of labor, or the annihilation of several layers of the working and middle classes, or the much greater wickedness of the generations of bankers who followed Henry Potter. It’s a Wonderful Life presents an American scene poised to arc toward tragedy. It’s an excellent lesson in the ironies of history and especially the dangers of getting what you wished for.
Readers may agree: we’ve never seen our country in such a state of ugly division, moral confusion, and intellectual disarray. A coherent consensus eludes us. Grievance, resentment, and bitterness boil and sputter everywhere. My Christmas wish is that we might put behind us some of the more idiotic and pointless debates of the past year and get on with tasks that really matter… that will allow us to remain civilized through the hardships to come. That’s how I roll this dark morning, here at the glowing hearth, while the Christmas day ahead, at least, offers some comforting stillness as the snow on snow on snow piles high. And so… to the presents waiting ominously under the twinkling tree.
Christmas Bonus: Conversation between JHK and Jasun Horsley on his Podcast, The Liminalist:
The Liminalist # 139: The Land of the Wounded Father (with James Howard Kunstler)
New Paintings by JHK 2016 — 2017
Great Fall Reading… JHK’s new book!
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Very nice Jim! It’s a Wonderful Life does indeed work on so many levels, ironic and otherwise. Watching the around the clock Christmas Story barrage on TBS as we speak, another nice little bit of nostalgia, sarcasm, irony, and sentimental humor all rolled into one, about a time now long gone and almost certainly never to return. It’s good to wax sappy, nostalgic, and sentimental from time to time, whether you fully buy into the illusion or not. A reminder of more innocent times when life’s possibilities seemed truly limitless. For all to soon now, we’ll be “girding our loins” once again for an uncertain future where sentiment is nowhere to be found, as we continue to march resolutely toward the war of all against all that looms ominously just over the horizon.
Happy Holidays!
I watched I W L again last night, not because i wanted to but because I needed to. Capra’s parable is more true than ever with the arch libertarian Potter trying to control the economic lives of all the good folk of Bedford Falls. I would cast David Koch in the role today and Bernie Sanders as Clarence, the angel. Capra gets the politics and economics right in the movie and time and again shows a frame crammed with humanity and the true face of American democracy and egalitarian ideals. Potter’s rent seeking is pitted against George Bailey’s desire to provide Affordable housing to the masses. Act 3becomes a mini oddysey with George trying to get back home to friends and family. Capra’s view shows us the importance of, in JHK’s words, the value of having a place to care about. Regarding the knock that Bailey Park represents the Levittown of its day, true but suddenly we have gone from upstate n y to what is obviously the back lot of a hollywood studio….maybe that is foretelling the great post war migration to the golden state! All best for the season, cfn fans, noel.
Noel, my thoughts exactly…the Kochs want to run the country and line their pockets ever more fatly even though they couldn’t spend all their billions in ten thousand lifetimes. They are old bitter men like Mr. Potter in the movie.
Kochs are harming our Federal, state and local governments via their massively funded political organization. They truly are a danger to us and our nation. No one elected them to a damned thing yet our GOP is busy doing their dirty work.
Kochs are in cahoots with Bannon (Breitbart / National Enquirer) who stated at the CPAC convention that he had Trump deconstructing the administrative state. This implements the Koch agenda via major cuts to EPA staff and rules so Koch Industries can pollute more without consequences.
All those that worship wealth be it the KB’s, the Clintons, the Soros’ or Rothchilds can never collect enough wealth. It is the hollow nature of that which has NO actual value. Perceived value is not sustaining and all of those that covet it will never find any real faith in collecting it. Their infatuation in that which has no value is a true impediment to their abilities to transcend the physical nature of this plane of existence. This is often manifest in the desire to extend mortal life forever or even just well beyond the actual useful span of years that we in human form should have. It must suck to be them.
A lot in one brief paragraph, Walter.
Regarding medical efforts to extend life beyond a useful span of years, this leads, at least for me, to the worst sort of cognitive dissonance, On the one had there is the now highly-developed and enormously expensive organ transplantation industry. On the other hand, there is our taxpayer (richly) -funded military, causing civilian deaths in foreign lands by means of drones and other high-tech weaponry.
I guess hypocrisy is a necessary precondition for human civilization. On the other hand, Switzerland is very civilized and has a non-interventionist foreign policy.
By the way, the groupthink mainstream media refer to the transplanted organ as a “new” heart or kidney or whatever. In fact, these organs are not new. They are used.
@My Point of View
“Kochs are harming our Federal, state and local governments via their massively funded political organization. They truly are a danger to us and our nation. No one elected them to a damned thing yet our GOP is busy doing their dirty work.”
Indeed:
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
FDR
The “library” is presented as a place of suffering in the anti-intellectual milieu of Bedford Falls. Nothing is worse than Mary ending up as an Old Maid Librarian but for George. Even Clarence isn’t allowed to show him THAT. Everything else, but not THAT.
The “library” is presented as a place of suffering.
Care to say how? No I did not think you would. And Clarence did show him that.
I know the movie pretty good. I bought a copy after returning from my trip to ‘Bedford Falls’ last January and watched it. While I was there the movie was playing in an endless loop on the wall behind the reception desk of the Gould Hotel. I mention further down that Bedford Falls is actually Seneca Falls.
Watch it again, Sam. Clarence doesn’t want to show him Mary as an Old Maid at the Library. You are going to have to apologize to me – but you won’t.
But that has nothing to do with the library being a place of suffering. Clarence did not want to show Mary because she was alone in an empty life. That was Clarence’s motivation. Not because the library was a place of suffering.
If all we are doing is splitting hairs here I do apologize, but I maintain you just like your random bullshit nonsense on this page to see if it can fly.
The industry was slowly leached from New England and New York to the South where it was short lived on its way to Mexico. Lingered there for a bit until heading East. It will have a permanent home in Asia until and unless Trump signs on to joining the Belt and Road initiative with the rest of the world. It’s now or never. Keep hoping.
How much would it cost to bridge the Bering Strait? Probably a lot less than Obama was planning to spend on refreshing the USA’s nuclear stockpile (Trump is going ahead with O’s plan), and far less likely to destroy the world in the end.
I’ve never seen “It’s a Wonderful Life” but I get the idea. I’m spending time in Europe right now.While they certainly have their problems, one thing they did get right, probably as a result of being developed at a time that cars had not yet appeared on the scene, was the compact nature of their cities and towns.
It’s a pure delight to be able to walk on walk-able streets with tons of local stores everywhere. Produce stores, bakeries, fish markets, small pharmacies; block after block. The quality can’t be beat either. As well, their mass transit is a delight. It’s easy to travel by train or bus from city to city and within by metros, light-rails, buses etc. Why anyone would own a car here is beyond me.
And for those who do own cars, they are nearly all small compact cars. I haven’t seen a pick-up truck the entire time I’ve been here. Vans are reserved for business use and most are the small Ford Connect style ones. Lots of motorcycles, bikes, scooters, skates etc. I haven’t gotten to walk this much since probably the last time I was in Europe.
That said there are lots of tensions here; the presence of heavily armed military and police evident at shopping areas, public squares, train stations etc. It’s a very uneasy feeling here and I’m not sure what will happen next. They did get the use of land right though; no evidence of sprawl. Farmland is neatly kept and beautifully laid out. Would that we would have done as they did on this.
Germany has 82M people living in an area slightly larger than NM, i.e., 137K sq miles for Germany vs 121K sq miles for NM. Land use there is tightly controlled, as you’re seeing, as they have to have agricultural land to feed themselves. There are compact towns and across the street it’s farmland, no sprawling suburbs.
Rail transit works superbly with that density and compactness, as it sort of does in our own NE Corridor.. After WW-2 Germany got to rebuild much of its rail network.
I enjoyed visiting there in the early 1980s but don’t think I could live in such tiny quarters as do most Europeans; I like my large SFH in wide open AZ.
Many Germans buy a basic Mercedes with a ten year note and drive it little around town as public transit is good there. Gasoline runs in the range of $8/gallon or more due to taxes.
I recall riding buses there and if a woman with a baby stroller needed to embark the driver would stop the bus, exit his seat, and help lift the stroller into the bus for the woman. If that happened here it would get sensational reporting as a rare good samaritan act. Over there it was just basic courtesy to your fellow citizen.
Best to you and enjoy your trip.
You only get that in a homogenous society where everyone seems like family. Thus a wallet will sit on a sidewalk in Japan until someone returns for it or it is turned into the police. Family – not forced Marxism – family feeling. It can’t be forced.
And what do they seem like family? Because they are – compared to alien peoples. You think bringing Black Africans will help Japan? It would utterly destroy the delicacy of feeling and the brotherhood. Blacks are genetic aliens to the Japanese, and thus aliens in every sense.
No actually if they fuck they can have kids. Aliens can’t do that.
You are a legend in your own mind Janos. You did guess right about Japanese being racist. Many a Japanese daughter has been disowned for marrying a white guy.
Once I was twenty years old working as a bellhop in an upscale hotel. First job I ever had over minimum wage. Tips made the difference since I was only paid a buck fifty an hour.
One day about a dozen Japanese businessmen were in the lobby. They did not notice me or considered me to be the same as furniture. Some white guy shows up as a spokesman for a meeting they would all have later with some American company. He talks to them briefly. After leaving the group the Japanese contingent figured they were alone and started talking.
Janos, your vile distemper and hate had nothing on them. Equal filth to what you have ever spewed spewed from them then. But they had a different favorite color. It turns out they hate white people with a passion which they keep to themselves.
Well, K-Dog, since American whites dropped two A-bombs on them after they were already defeated, who could blame them.
You are utterly lost if you think Blacks could add anything to Japan or to any Asian or European country. You haven’t learned to love yourself in the right way and you hate anyone who can and has.
K-Dog, good story but I’m a little confused. Were the Japanese businessmen talking with one another in English or do you understand Japanese?
But yes, I’ve heard the Japanese think very highly of themselves. They see not just whites and blacks but other Asians as their inferiors. I think their national mythology teaches them that they are descended from gods.
I was amused to read an official response to an appeal to build a mosque in a Japanese city, after it was politely rejected.
‘Islam is not suitable for Japan.’
Wow, that’s telling them.
Unfortunately the birth rate has gone into a flat spin and without immigration they look pretty much doomed – even with a generation of robots to serve the elderly.
hmuller good question. I was actually hoping someone would ask.
The Japanese businessmen were mixing English and Japanese but they were speaking mostly English. They were making fun of what the white guy had said to them and were aping his mannerisms. I also think the group was sensitive about appearances and wanted the whites they were doing business with to think they were they were friendly and kissing ass. Perhaps the group had been told to speak English as mush as they could on their trip (which they all did perfectly abet with accent) to make positive impressions. Japanese are sensitive to such things.
Many times I have been in the company of native Chinese who have no compunction speaking their language in the mixed company of English speakers. Even if their conversation is private it does not feel good to be in their company knowing they can speak English and that you are being excluded from everything they say. If they don’t know English that is another thing entirely. That is my two cents worth, and if I were a Japanese boss I’d order my people to speak English in America to make a good impression.
When I was listening to their conversation I paid close attention to see if any of them were aware of my presence. I’m convinced they had mentally disregarded my being within earshot. It was a hotel lobby, exactly the place to mistake that you are not being overheard and I had twenty year old ears.
Regarding young women who have been disowned by their Japanese families I know of two personally. My family is mixed race so I have an inside track on certain cultural attitudes that most Americans do not have. Neither of these two women that I referred to are part of my family. One was a former neighbor who had met her husband in Tokyo when he was working over there. Even his seven figure bank account was not good enough to win her family over but it was sufficient to win her over, obviously.
Janos, the difference between you and me is that it is -9 F at my house.
If you came and knocked at my door, I’d let you in. I’d feed you and let you sleep in my house. You were a person struggling to survive.
You wouldn’t do the same for me. You would see me as a Pole, or a Russian, or some subhuman. You wouldn’t let me in your home. I’d have been struggling to survive.
That’s the difference between our philosophies. That’s as basic as it gets.
-> JS
I cannot begin to imagine what life experiences brought you to freakishly conclude that biological homogeneity is anything other than a disaster in waiting with a hair trigger. The robustness of the Universe is expressed in its ubiquitous heterogeneity.
For sure, Japan as a tiny niche in the Universe, lacks healthy heterogeneity and it shows in many aspects of their society. Isn’t it JHK that says Japan will probably be the first back to the feudal past?
Ever read about how modern race horses came into being? Europeans love the fast, high spirited Arabian horses, but they were very small. So over the centuries, they carefully bred them with larger European horses, trying to get the size without losing the spirit and speed. Do you think the modern racehorse would benefit by being bred with some old nag, little pony, or big workhorse?
Just so the Japanese. Or the Jews. Or Whites. We all are magnificent works of artful breeding and have much to lose. The first two know that, the last does not by and large. Thus we are being driven to extinction by the previous group.
toktomi: “biological homogeneity is … a disaster in waiting with a hair trigger”.
By ‘biological homogeneity’, I suspect you’re referring to lack of genetic diversity. It’s true that a species with absolutely no variation in its gene pool, where every individual is basically genetically identical, is endangered by the slightest change in environmental conditions.
But a species can be homogenous while still retaining robust genetic diversity. Such diversity, dispersed far and wide, is a good thing for a species and greatly increases the likelihood of survival in changed conditions. Such a species has lots of genetic tools with which to roll with the punches.
It’s also frequently assumed that hybridization (mating of individuals with relatively fewer shared genes) decreases diversity. But nature provides counterexamples — here’s a recent one:
Rare Amazon bird species arose from ancient interspecies sex
Golden-crowned manakin evolved its colour thousands of years after its parent species mated
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/golden-crowned-manakin-1.4462762
“Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a couple of birds with exotic tastes had an interspecies tryst.
“Now, a Canadian-led team of scientists has confirmed their descendants are a new species that arose from the hybridization of two separate parent species — which happens very rarely in birds, as far as we know.
“The golden-crowned manakin, a rare species found in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, is a descendent of hybridization between the snow-capped manakin and the opal-crowned manakin, according to a team led by Alfredo Barrera-Guzman, who conducted the research during his PhD at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
“And it appears that after becoming isolated from the parent species, the golden-crowned manakin evolved a very unique feature – bright yellow feathers on its forehead that are distinctly different from the bright white ones on the snow-capped manakin and iridescent bluish feathers on the opal-crowned manakin.
“Jason Weir, co-author of the paper published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said people often think of hybridization as something that erodes diversity. But this is an example of hybridization generating more of it.
“‘That’s really exciting,’ said Weir, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto Scarborough who supervised Barrera-Guzman.”
Thank you for teaching him, Elrond. Now be taught by your own self if not mine. Whites are a viable subspecies and have no need of “enrichment” from any other. Just so the East Asians. The learned Confucian, Lin Yutang, said the Chinese benefited from the genetic influx of the Mongols and Manchu barbarians – but only because they were genetically similar enough to be assimilated into what Chinese ALREADY WERE. To be Whited or Blacked out of existence is not any kind of viable diversity for them.
The lack of subtlety is simply amazing – the result of endless years of Ideological drubbing by pedants such as yourself.
Cheetahs have just such a lack of genetic diversity. Perhaps a species created by the Ancient Egyptians who used to hunt with them?
Janos
Yes, that’s true to a great extent. The more I travel the more I see that many people want to live with those who they perceive to be “like them” and I don’t see any problem with it. I’ve been living for such a long time in a state that’s nearly all white and Christian so it’s rather homogeneous in that regard. Those of us who aren’t, such as myself, a Jew, just sort of learn to fit in and do our own thing.
Here in Europe, for instance France where I am now, there are many tensions due to the influx of Muslims. I well understand that. There are entire areas where one would never realize they were in France other than occasional signage in French, street signs in French etc. Otherwise it’s all halal butchers, kebab shops and streets full of Arab men hanging around, especially in the south such as in Marseilles. I have to admit I’m really uncomfortable as a woman walking in these areas as they have no problem with staring at me. Very different social mores……. I don’t feel very safe in these areas. I understand the Brexit vote and I understand why the far right parties in Europe are gaining voters. They still scare me though as I know too well what the far-right can be capable of in Europe.
Still, the multi-culturists believe in trying to make everyone live together and get along but in truth I think that the cultural mores are so different it’s not too likely. I see Europe as a powder keg due to this.I’m not saying that one culture is “better” than another although I do have my own thoughts on this that I’ll keep to myself. It’s just that when you try to force people who have very different beliefs and ways of living to live together it can get rather tense. In France’s case it doesn’t help any that one group seems intent on waging jihad on the “infidels” and this needless to say has created a lot of tension.
I’m not ascribing to your racist views though and I know full well your thoughts on Jews as you express them often(why do you read this blog written by a Jew anyway?). Still, there are often kernels of truth to be found in what you say and I have no problem with acknowledging those.
Regarding Janos’ thoughts on tribal solidarity.
I spent nearly 5 years of my life in Korea. Their society still honors Confucian principles to include “the 5 relationships” each of which involves its own obligations, privileges, expectations, codes of behavior, etc. They are:
1) Ruler & subject
2) Father &son
3) Husband and wife
4) Older and younger brothers
5) Friends, i.e. equals
There is no relationship here for man & stranger. You can forget the Christian concept of the good Samaritan. I noticed a surprising lack of general good will and helpfulness among people in public who were strangers. People in America of different races help each other more than members of the Korean DNA family. Perhaps a long history of scarce resources has made them very selective in whom they help.
To take a mild example:nepotism is a virtue. It goes without saying that you hire and take care of your relatives before strangers. A harsh example is a pedestrian hit by traffic, no one helps except the fortuitous passing Westerner. Korean orphanages – children without family – are in very sorry unfunded shape. (And I’m talking the full-blooded Korean orphans; the ones half white of half black don’t even survive long.)
Unfortunately, some people will jump on my case and call me racist for my remarks. But I’m only describing my observation of social behaviors – every society functions in its own way.
One of the greatest cars ever built was a 1949 Merc. When chopped & slammed they are a good ride especially with a Crate 502 & cast iron Powerglide. Add flat black high build primer, and white walls.
Can’t imagine driving around Europe in a 49 Merc? You go to your church, and i’ll go to mine.
Look at Art Deco Cars via Google. Art Deco cars started in the EU first. Europe must have a car museum, eh.
Jane Jacobs was not a car guy!
RW
What’s next? Being conquered by Islam of course. But being against that would be “racist”, right?
For Global Conquest read Caliphate. Islam and it’s teachings leads directly to the desire to form an isolated Islamutopia where non- believers do not exist. There are no national or cultural boundaries that it wishes to recognise. We have many Islamic Cultural Centres in the UK. Most are peaceable but they make it clear that they have little desire to integrate with the indigenous population and it is my belief that when their numbers pass a critical point, they will become even more demanding and belligerent; a situation that has up until now, been nurtured and encouraged by the political and global elites. Those on the left here, are still under the delusion that two diametrically opposed systems can thrive together, despite growing evidence to the contrary. The authorities here are desperate to suppress any protest, dissent or comment about what is obvious to anyone with half a brain remaining. There is a constant stream of propaganda from the media and from the outside, an observer could be forgiven for thinking that the UK is predominately Asian/black in culture. The resentments here that have built up (Brexit leave) because of TPTB and their undemocratic behaviour, have resulted in the rejection of the EU and it’s open and uncontrollable borders and immigration policies.
Which the globalists are determined to overturn.
“…an observer could be forgiven for thinking that the UK is predominately Asian/black in culture.”
Perhaps you could just refer them to any internet search engine. Correcting their prejudices would take seconds.
Population of England and Wales from the latest census:
White (total) 87.1%
Asian (total) 6.9%
Black 3.0%
Mixed 2.0%
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_the_United_Kingdom
Scotland is 96% white:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid/Ethnicity/EthPopMig
It would be helpful if people would stop spreading nonsense.
Yet Mohammad is the most popular boy’s name in England. The future is Islamic as you well know and celebrate. Stop lying.
It should be 100% White. Of Course! I mean you still haven’t found anything in Blackstone’s books of Common Law that gives the Government the right to give the Country to another people, have you?
Wrong again, Janos. The top names in England and Wales are Olivia and Oliver.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/20/oliver-olivia-crowned-countrys-popular-baby-names/
Muhammed was the eighth most popular boy’s name, after Oliver, Harry, George, Jack, Jacob, Noah and Charlie. And, because you’re not stupid (but are extremely manipulative) you will know that a very large proportion of Muslim boys are called Muhammed or variations of Muhammed, so that further skews the order. If there were an equal distribution of Muslim boys’ names to non-Muslim boys’ names, it would be way, way further down the list. That should be obvious to you, given that the percentage of Muslims in England is 5.2. That’s 5.2 out of an entire hundred, Janos, just to be clear.
But it makes a good misquoted headline on the kind of sites you quote on here – sites I’d have to wear thick rubber gloves to click on and then use alcohol to clean my hands afterwards, just to be doubly sure.
The quote you managed to misquote was that Muhammed was the most popular boy’s name in London and the West Midlands. But that still carries the proviso above about the excessive popularity of the name *within* the Muslim community. You are presumably at least slightly acquainted with arithmetic and statistics, in addition to rhetoric.
“I mean you still haven’t found anything in Blackstone’s books of Common Law that gives the Government the right to give the Country to another people, have you?”
Stop talking nonsense.
You made a comment in another context about women being reluctant to apologise.
So let’s see how good you are at it. I don’t want one with any ifs or buts. Just a simple ‘I’m sorry, I misquoted the statistics for effect’ will do nicely, without the trimmings.
You owe me another one as well. You said on a previous thread:
“Likewise, she thinks Muslimas should be able to cover their faces all the time – even for ID photos.”
This is stupid, and desperately so, even for you. K-Dog already called you out on your totally unjustified assertion, but the apology is owed to me. I’m waiting…
You don’t know anything about my views on Muslim women’s wear. Having lived and worked for several years in France, I have experience of differing views on the matter and mine are quite nuanced. But your statement above remains utterly stupid. Even in Muslim countries, women’s ID photos show their face. But you knew that, because it’s blindingly obvious that their wouldn’t be any point otherwise.
“The future is Islamic as you well know and celebrate. Stop lying.”
Another one requiring an apology.
Now here’s another of your silly assertions. I don’t require an apology for this one but it really does require a response to its silliness. I answered it last night but you may not have seen it on the other thread, so I will repeat it roughly here.
Your quote:
“Offhand I would have said she doesn’t get around much,
but I think she said she doesn’t have a car.”
Now, I realise that many Americans can’t move without a car, but you really need to get your head around the fact that in other places people are not thus handicapped. Freedom from car ownership brings the benefit of actually mixing with your community and other communities you visit.
Perhaps your level of logic requires you to think that people who use public transport most of the time see less than people travelling in their own little hermetically sealed bubble. A little thought would tell you this is nonsense.
I can get from my home to anywhere in Europe by train. When I visited your country I had to take a plane like everyone else. (As I also did when I visited a couple of Muslim countries, incidentally, including Syria). When I really need a car, which is rarely, I hire one.
I choose not to keep a car because I prefer not to increase my CO2 footprint any further than I need to. And I really don’t see why a rational person would keep an expensive-to-maintain hunk of steel parked on the street when there’s a bus stop 60 seconds’ walk from their front door or they can walk to the centre of their city, where it’s difficult to park, in 25 minutes.
My husband doesn’t keep a car either – entirely through choice. He’s rational too. And male.
We even have taxis in our neck of the woods, because it’s a pretty civilised neck of the woods.
Apologies for the typo ‘their’ instead of ‘there’ above.
PS regarding car ownership, there are two cars in my street, some 20 yards from my home, which I can hire any time by the hour because I’m a member of the City Car Club. I rarely need them.
Those two cars probably keep 100 notional private cars from clogging up our city even more than it’s already clogged up. And I can hire one online or by phone anywhere else in the city or in any other city that has a branch of the same car club. So that’s a whole lot of unnecessary private cars kept off the road and more parking spaces for the incurably car-dependent.
GreenAlba: Your efforts to discipline Janos back toward some kind of sanity are laudable. Let’s just say I’m pessimistic about the outcome.
There’s a quote attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Janos is the kind of person who hears a thing like that and responds, “Oh yeah? Hold my beer.” The dedicated bigot is playing by completely different rules. In his world, his prejudices loom far larger than mere events in actual time and space, no matter how readily verified.
If the Wiki statistics are believable, (and as Wikipedia is part of a globalist driven corporation, I doubt their accuracy in comparison to what is a moving target), then why is it that minority representation in the British media exposure is so skewed in the minorities favour?
Uncontrolled mass immigration has specifically impacted on certain small geograhical areas here in the UK and on certain communities.You should have an awareness of that, because you are on a site that has “Clusterfuck” as its hook.
An example of where your argument falls short would be if I were to quote average land mass divided by total dwellings in the USA. How much land would each house have? The average would simply tell you nothing about any local conditions.
Quoting average statistics is irrelevant to the experiences of the individual. I trained in statistical analysis, so I do have some knowledge about how easy it is to present average results in favour of an opinion.
An ounce of experience is worth more than a pound of theory and my experience with my home town (which I will not name because I still have left some nostalgic affection for it), is that it is now 48% Islamic and increasing. That is a fact. Tell your statistics to an isolated, indigenous resident of a street, where they are now an old rarity. Ask them how they feel about their situation, the ones that earlier had no wings for white flight. The problem with the Islamic community is that they are, by their own rigours, unable to fully integrate into the indigenous cultures that they occupy. A live example of that is the Islamic Cultural Centre which is close to where I rent out an apartment. I walk past the centre regularly and can attest to the fact that not once have the many worshippers given me any acknowledgement of any kind, despite my efforts to make contact. Next time you skate over some one’s concerns, you may want to be a little less dismissive. Your attitude is unfortunately that of the lefties and politicians here. They see the fly on my wall at a thousand yards, but they fail to see the elephant in their room.
Thank you for your correction! For the first time I got you to reveal, in your own words and without realizing it, the magnitude of the Muslim threat. It’s like what a brother did to Laurel Southern, an alt-lite chick. He accused her of dating Muslims. She bristled and ON TWITTER – corrected him saying, dating a half Irish, half Black Englishman is not the same as dating a Muslim. Outed and destroyed (in terms of making money by begging from us) by her own hand.
London is now Londonistan. The Capital! Yet still you slumber….
Thanks Allam, for trying to talk some sense into this bird. I fear it’s hopeless, such is her arrogance and Leftist privilege.
I think it’s worse than you believe. I’ve seen videos where Muslim Leaders say they have no intention of assimilating. They never did. They are colonists, intent on assimilating us. The hijrah (migration) goes hand in hand with the Jihad. Already secret weapon shipments to Europe have been intercepted.
Funny, I just read (Hegel or Schopenhauer?) that if you adhere to Christianity because you find it reasonal and/or rational, you’ve missed the point. Perhaps, it isn’t to be taken literally, Jim. Not telling you anything you don’t already know. Joseph Campbell says the same thing. Myths (and I hesitate to call religions mere myths) are metaphors (J. Campbell), and not to be taken too literally. But, they give a way to understand the world. JC (Big Joe) stated over and over that the lack of a working mythology in today’s society is why we have become so rudderless. Now you can take that to the bank.
Thanks daytrip. To my mind as well, Campbell had it exactly right. I think Greer made comments to the that effect as well, that as societies grew old and past their expiration dates, their founding myths gradually became entrenched as “facts”, as the people could no longer appreciate them on the subliminal level they were originally intended to speak to. Christianity has long been at that stage, a virtual hero cult of personality, and I expect we’ll be seeing comments here shortly to the effect that that idea is utter bullshit, and that the literal truth of the Holy Bible is incontrovertible and eternal, forever and ever Amen! To each his own I guess. Everyone is searching for meaning and truth somewhere these days, in a land where the gospel truth is either everywhere or nowhere, depending on who you ask. The only founding myth remaining these days is exceptionalism of a myriad various stripes; which, given our current circumstances, is entirely rational as well.
Myths are things that never were but always are. On that level, Christianity is as real as a short skirt riding high on a nice round feminine rump and as rational as a quadratic equation.
God became Man that Man might become God.
‘as real as a short skirt riding high on a nice round feminine rump and as rational as a quadratic equation.
I liked that ! Everything but last four words. There you blew it.
Clarification:
‘that Man might become God.
Five words.
The Kingdom of God is a form of government, not a religion, nor a myth. We are being allowed to try everything we can come up with and it has all failed spectacularly.
It is smorgasbord religion [ “to each his own” ] that has accomplished this. Taking a little here and a little there from every carnal or demon-inspired concoction has created chaos and oppression.
“ A coherent consensus eludes us.” – because “ ‘we’ will not have this man to rule over us.”
Myths are things that never were but always are. On that level, Christianity is as real as a short skirt riding high on a nice round feminine rump and as rational as a quadratic equation.
True. Good observations.
God became Man that Man might become God.
A misinterpretation, thanks largely to Paul of Tarsus and his Roman enablers. This is the Hero Cult interpretation. Actually, Jesus, assuming he wasn’t an apocryphal figure in the first place (which would not invalidate the myth), was merely saying that “God” (an elusive term at best) was subtle and lived within each and every one of us. In other words, the individual’s spiritual life goes on after the physical life is done, and that truth, once embraced, will truly “set us free.”
Conventional Christianity is nothing more than a justification for the still (at that time) emerging authoritarian hierarchical system, where men ruled over men absolutely. That was why Jesus was such a dangerous figure. He came to say that legitimate hierarchies were to be submitted to as part of this physical life, but that true allegiance should always be paid to one’s inner voice, which would survive this mortal coil, even after mortal men took your mortal life unjustly.
No, he knew how fallen man was and how he need authorities, at least until he had grown. Thus the Church.
I find imagining what a supreme being would like to see on earth helps. Would ‘god’ be happy with people all out for themselves and ignoring the needs of others. Would god be happy seeing his creations killing each other.
No fucking way.
The emphasis is appropriate.
Supreme being? the *MOON LANDERS* (NASA) all talk about what they saw over the past 75 years…
There’s a reason the first UFO sightings in the 40’s were over Hanford (nuclear uranium/plutonium refinement) and Roswell (the b52 bomber sight for NUKES). At *THAT* time, none of them had a clue… (how could they)
I have a hard time caring about what aliens would think of me. If they have ray guns I’ll change my mind.
Still working at the Food Clown on East 14th?
Apparently U and Ur inbred white racists *R*. Sux to have a *CLAN* of sub-80iq clowns – but then, you’ve got the Prez *BARKER*!!!
Admit it – a crew of sub-100 (sub 90(sub 80)) iq *DOUCHES* .
Very interesting – and to post on Christmas Day itself – also very welcome !
I have seen “It’s a Wonderful Life”, but I must admit to not having seen it the way Jim has presented it here = so thanks for this new view.
Curiously, the movie I have been watching in bits and pieces over the last two days, and will soon be watching more of, is Leonardo’s
“The Revenant”
which seems to me to capture the spirit of our times, i.e.,
‘Just breathe – while you can – just breathe…’
Many, in Calgary – Merry Christmas !!!
If “The Revenant” had been realistic, Leonardo DeCaprio would have frozen to death.
At least he DID in Titanic!
Some things to be thankful for in this world.
“Readers may agree: we’ve never seen our country in such a state of ugly division moral confusion, and intellectual disarray.”
And yet Jim isn’t that the point about “centralized govermnment” be it Republican or Democrat, to dumb down the masses/divide and conquer so they can increase their control and power or the populace?
With the trajectory of America in particular and Western civilization in general, as it is — I can see Christmas being completely expunged from the secular landscape by 2040.
“Its A Wonderful Life” will have been banned as a hate speech in 2020 and VHS, DVD or Netflix editions shredded and burned by the authorities. Viewing will be accomplished in rural farmhouse tornado shelters, root cellars, catacombs, and caves.
Persecuted Christian minorities, like those that currently exist in Mesopotamia, will worship the birth of The Messiah as in olden times; but under the constant threat of torture, bombings, killings, and genocide.
In its place will be some official variation on Saturnalia for the nominal (used-to-be) Christians. (Sort of like now.)
Everyone else will have a nebulous invention called “The Holidays” and not have a freaking clue as to what it means other than lots of shopping, buying, garish decorating, and partying culminating in New Year’s Eve. ( A lot like now.)
No, there shall not be any of that Guy Lombardo or Auld Lang Syne artifacts of the former hegemonic cultural construct.
My wish to the CFN: blessings of peace and goodwill.
Luke 2:14
.
If the Muslims take over, you’ll at least have a government that respects God. In my favorite quote: the most religious country on earth is India. The least religious is Sweden. America is a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes.
That situation won’t last long.
That’s one heck of a Christmas present Doc, thank you. I will use it frequently I assure you.
Actually the seem to have given up on the Happy Holidays Horseshit. With Bergoglio in charge of the Church, Christianity can be very useful indeed to them. Corrupting Christianity and turning it into to its opposite is far more fun anyway – and more effective in the long term. Already they have White Christians adopting non-White babies and thus destroying themselves as a people.
I’m not sure how you figure that someone can destroy themselves as a people through adoption. Does that work if you just have a dog or cat too? Are infertile couples ‘destroying themselves as a people’?
You really need to get out more.
Here’s a heartwarming story, appropriate to the season, about Muslim foster parents taking in non-Muslim children (the first example).
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/03/muslim-foster-parents-it-has-been-such-a-blessing
And yes, it’s an anecdote, just like your comment about white Christians adopting non-white babies. All people lacking your hatred of strangers.
By the way, I went to my grandson’s Christmas Carol concert this year (he’s just started school), where the Muslim children were on stage singing Christmas carols along with the other children, with their parents sitting enjoying the performance. They don’t do anything similar when it’s Eid, for instance, but all the children are taught what it means and when it is, which seems perfectly reasonable to most people of goodwill.
GREEN SLIME,
A people [RACE] can only survive if the have replacement level births and take care of their won.
She’s such a sucker. Probably celebrates Kwanza or would if she was American. She’s the type.
I have never watched the movie Jim, only seen snippets of it as I passed by a screen it was playing on from time to time. Thanks for the synopsis, now I do not have bother. It sounds like a twisted parody of the part of my life 20 plus years ago, when we pulled together in my Township, got me elected and as Mayor I was able to keep the state’s largest developer from bastardizing a 300 acre farm into a 700 Clusterfuck housing development. I weaseled the developer into selling us the land which today is 300 acre Heritage Park, the focal point of the rural Township that we remain. Fast forwarding 20 plus years finds me back on the Committee struggling to pay off the massive debts that previous politicians have accrued, battling Trenton in every way, and being generally disliked by the party addicted alcoholics, and uncaring swinging couples that make up the active elements of this place. In the end, Hollywood’s Happy Endings are pure fantasy and degradation seems to be the only “workable solution”.
For those who may claim that folks like me and some of “us” are buzz kills, downers, and naysaying nabobs of negativity, I offer this way to look at it:
Seeing what is not right and taking positive action for the greater good is not negative at all, it is the pinnacle of positive. Victory is not something that is won by getting things to go your way, it is had simply by continuing the good struggle regardless of how it works out. We do not come here to be inflated by rainbows and unicorn farts. Here is a place where those who care and those who are willing to rage against the coming of the night can find reassurance that we do not struggle alone.
Those of us who believe in the Carpenter’s Son from Nazareth and concentrate an effort to celebrate the idea of His birth today understand that we should be committed, just as He was, to the ability of all mankind to believe in what they choose to believe at their own choice and not at the insistence of anyone else. Believe or not, only a true idiot can argue that if we all followed the advice that He gave us and worked together, cared for one another, and adopted Love rather than hate, this place would be a Wonderful Life indeed. It can be argued quite easily that this will not and cannot ever happen, but who is being negative now.
So Merry Christmas everyone, thank you James Howard Kunstler for your thoughtful, excellent work, and let us all try to work with each other here next year with kindness and consideration even though we all feel strongly about everything.
,
Thanks for fighting the Good fight, Walter. That open land may feed your town some day.
It only takes a few comments such as you have made brother, to make it all worthwhile. Thank you, bless you.
If we all followed the advice that He gave us and worked together, cared for one another, and adopted Love rather than hate, this place would be a Wonderful Life indeed.
That needed repeating.
I’m kinda glad somebody else volunteered to be the “true idiot” but I take it that “all” will not work together, to be Walter’s point.
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” I used to think this was talking exclusively about evil men, but now realize it pertains to good men as well. Good men who are innovative rather than faithful.
I agree. That must be Walter’s point.
If we take the attitude that it is the journey that matters and not the destination his point really does not matter at all. However that sophisticated outlook requires an adjusted mindset to appreciate so Walter has a point. In daily life we do indeed worry about our destinations and having a right attitude with which to view the frailty of men can be hard to find.
If we all followed the advice that He gave us and worked together, cared for one another, and adopted Love rather than hate, this place would be a Wonderful Life indeed.
This is a true statement. That paradise cannot actually be achieved on earth does not mean we should not try to achieved it for it has been said:
“Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”
Add achieving heaven on earth to that list.
Interesting observation about Ecclesiastes 8:11.
Innovative as in good men thinking suburbs would be the answer to the post WWII war housing shortage?
The instigators were innovative and did not see the unintended evil consequences of their works. If they could have seen them they would have adjusted things to make burbs walkable energy efficient and socially cohesive from the get-go but the need for careful planning back then was ignored as no consequences were appreciated.
The hubris of men is the reason for such oversights and ‘sentence against an evil work not executed speedily perpetuates evil through hubris by way of ignorance. When men are aware of consequences they become better at planning and less inclined to create evil works. They experience ‘the fear of god‘ though here I wish a better word than ‘fear’ had been used. Awareness and love of god would have been sufficient.
Putting an awareness of the love of god in the hearts of men sounds better to me than putting a fear of him in their hearts.
How does ignorance produce evil? :
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
messianic, your interpretation of Ecclesiastes 8:11 seems to address the statement
“anything goes and nothing matters” by making the point that things do matter and that they matter very much.
Good work, Walter. We could use your help here in Iowa, to save our farmland.
Yes, I know that New Jersey is the Garden State, but you would be amazed at the land here in Iowa, and sickened to see what developers are doing to it. Back around the time of statehood, 1846, the black prairie topsoil was many feet deep. Even now, after modern industrial agriculture has eroded much of that soil, Iowa’s land is incredibly rich–where it has not been bulldozed and paved over.
As I have stated here before, the Central Valley of California also has rich soil, but the crops there must be irrigated. Iowa’s land in normal years produces abundance with only rainfall as the water source. Irrigation rigs here are extremely rare, used only on the fields of the seed corn producing companies, where a crop failure is not an option.
Thank you, Mr. K, for writing a new post when most are taking time off. For those of us who no longer have children at home or family get togethers for dinner, Christmas can be a very boring day. At least it’s good for reading.
In any case, another classic movie is “A Christmas Story,” which is shown around the clock by TBS. Although filmed in 1983, it takes place in the early ’40’s (probably pre-Pearl Harbor). The movie presents a cheerful, working class intact family with the mother at home, caring for her two young sons. I’ll never forget the classic scene where the boy gets his tongue stuck on the frozen flagpole. An America which is gone for good. I’m glad my youth is long gone.
All that exists has both positive and negative values simultaneously This technology that has made everything easier yet not necessarily better and sometimes even much worse, now allows us all to gather here at “Uncle Jim’s” for a sharing of thoughts and “gifts” to one another, without any of us having to risk life and limb on the highways. It also allows our host to never leave the warmth and comfort of his own man cave or be forced to shave, shower or otherwise primp himself up. Neither do we. Look everybody, It’s a Win/Win!
Yeah, taking a shower is the worst, only exceeded by shaving. If we continue to evolve, we will go back to living in a caves, but fully “wired in”.
The movie “Zardoz” shows a struggle between a sterile Feminist Utopia where erections are seen as a form of violence, and a telepathic mutant superman (Sean Connery) and his barbarians who have vowed to overthrow them.
The point was that the utopia had achieved immortality for it’s members but that immortality turned out to be a curse and a leader of this utopia needed Zardoz to destroy the utopia so he could die. He was desperate to die. Zardoz had been selectively bred by this leader over generations so that he would have the natural abilities to do the job and give him the eternal sleep he craved.
Zardoz was not telepathic or there would have been no plot. Feminist utopia it was not. The flying stone head cave was cool.
It’s interesting what different people pick up. I do remember something about the Man at the beginning and how he planned it. But Zardoz is a telepath – the equal of any of the Utopians. They think he’s just another “brutal”. Their underestimating him is his greatest power. With heterosexuality banned and male sexuality frowned upon, Lesbianism becomes the ruling form.
Maybe I did miss the telepathic part. There was reason to give Zardoz special powers since he had been selectively bred to bring down the flying stone head civilization yet most of the movie was about Zardoz (and the audience) finding out about what was going on. If Zardoz was truly telepathic he would have known all the answers right away. If he only had rudimentary telepathic abilities that would fit with the plot and mark him as a superior being.
It has been decades but I recall sex was disparaged. The reason I gleaned for it was because immortals lose their sex drive. Sex becomes pointless and only leads to overpopulation when nobody can die. When the immortals built their resurrection tower which would reconstitute them if their bodies died they must have medicated their sex drive away somehow.
Not being afraid of lesbians I naturally would not have not gleaned the misogynistic interpretation you did.
“It’s interesting what different people pick up.”
Yes it is. In a book we all reconstruct different realities from scratch while we read, but watched images on a screen are immutably fixed . Yet fixed as they are they are still interpreted in many different ways. That they can be interpreted in so many different ways is fascinating indeed.
Many Lesbians hate men. You haven’t picked that up? You’re not very telepathic, even emotionally.
True, but that does obligate me to hate them and some do not hate men.
Hope, Peace and Joy to all.
Really does not matter where the Truth resides if one’s intent is to ignore it. The fellow whose moniker adorns the day had something to say about two masters. The truth is impartial, it stays with good men all of the time!
Speaking of “blazing Yule logs’, the wood stove is cranking. My wife (of thirty-one years) and I have been living in this 1959 built, ‘out of town’ house for thirty-one years. The woodstove (which can hold a 28″ x 12″ log) has approximately 93,000 hours of burning time on it since we have been here, and it was very old when we moved in. ‘Have a Hot Holiday” chili is cooking in a dutch oven right now. There is a Christmas Spirit for you! And as a nod to a positive future, the garlic gloves I planted six weeks ago are beginning to show their ‘smiling’ shoots guaranteeing another great addition to foods next Summer and Fall. This is a Christmas I can believe in and am grateful for.
The Best to you all!
the garlic gloves [cloves]
It took me a minute to figure that out. I must be slowing down.
The best to you too, Doc.
The gardens here were nothing less than spectacular this year. That amazing Iowa soil, you know. And all fed by compost, no artificial fertilizer or chemicals. I grow bush green beans, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, zuccini, carrots, lettuce, and collards.
I have three garden plots, all in the back yard, in feet, approximately: 10×16, 20×20, and 6×20. These are all surface-level gardens; no raised plots.
Hey, Janos: Have a happy Christmas. Get off the computer and enjoy the day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce
I’ll get back to trouncing you tomorrow.
And here’s this for you all:
https://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8
Sleep well, Kirsty. Sweet dreams.
What do you mean get off the computer and enjoy the day? Being able to hop on here from time to time and still get on with life in the living room is the best of both world, You K-nuk Weasel Squeezer you (just kidding). It is always good to have diverse opinions in every group lest book burning ensue. Your rapier like wit and poignant opinions are tools that I for one always enjoy watching as you work them hard. Be warm (what’s it 20 below up there?), stay safe, and see you around the Timber Line.
“A beautiful white Christmas but blustery with brisk winds and local blowing snow this afternoon.” Thanks, Walter B, and the same to you. Now off to my sister’s for dinner with my family. Cheers!
Don’t let the exuberance of the Day carry you away. He must be purged or he will purge us. Decades ago, his Superior in the Movement (Bill Ayers) said that twenty five million White Americans would have to “disappear” as they were incorrigible and could not be reformed.
Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men? A calculated mistranslation. It really reads as “Peace on Earth to Men of Good Will”. The Angels are exact thinkers. Unlike men, they always know what they’re thinking and saying. So what do the other men get? Their just deserts: War. Not to make War on them would be to wrong them you see. Just as not putting murderers to death is an injustice to them as well as to everyone else.
Nah JS, EH may jump us occasionally but the best way to avoid that is to not leave ourselves open by posting something that leaves us open to assault. I certainly have left myself vulnerable in the past to be sure. I find that the occasional quarry makes me a better person and sometimes even a bit humble. A man can never be too humble. You have a lot to say as well and I enjoy hearing it all. The only real shame is that I have to come to Cyberspace to do it because the “actual” humans I find myself surrounded by do not give a shit about much of anything but themselves and how wonderful they are.
That’s too bad. My gesture, puny as it was, was sincere.
Lights, please?
And there were, in the same country, shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And the Angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord shone ’round about them; and they were sore afraid. But the Angel said unto them: “Fear not. For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior; which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” Suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the Heavenly host, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the Highest; and on earth peace, and good will toward men.”
Those who seek to live through violence and destruction will find their license where they can, and invent it where they must. That includes reading it into scripture, which is bloody enough without adding further embellishment. While I don’t practise the faith I was brought up in, I still remember the soliloquy I delivered in the school play well enough to type it from memory. (Of course I played Linus; I was that kind of kid.) And remember that those tidings of great joy shall be to all people.
Chris Hedges has some thoughts about the meaning of Xmas too:
“In the early 1980s I was in a refugee camp for Guatemalans who had fled the war into Honduras. It was a cold, dreary winter afternoon. The peasant farmers and their families, living in filth and mud, were decorating their tents with strips of colored paper. That night, they said, they would celebrate the flight of Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus to Egypt to escape the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem ordered by Herod. The celebration is known as the Day of the Holy Innocents.
“‘Why is this such an important day?’ I asked.
“‘It was on this day that Christ became a refugee,’ a farmer answered.”
Read the rest here:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/what-christmas-means/
Happy new year, all!
JHK, you mentioned the unintended ugly suburban sprawl which the well meaning George Bailey released upon the earth. He and his goody-two-shoes crowd also unleashed debt slavery.
Before FDR a typical home mortgage (from a real bank) required a 50% down payment and was paid off over 7 years. People really had to save up before buying their first home.
Then, with FDR we got to 20% down, 20 years to pay. Now we’re at zero down, 30 years to pay.
You may think this is all good, but it’s not. The easier terms made homes relatively more expensive than before, hence less affordable. The long term of the mortgage resulted in a typical lifetime of debt servitude. Add in borrowing against home equity to fund that vacation – and the lender can rest assured that the loan will never be paid off.
And why shouldn’t old man Potter be a misanthrope. No one in town built an access ramp for his wheelchair.
hmuller
That brings to mind the old saying about the Tyranny of Good Intentions. As CS Lewis said: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.”
Thus did the Russian City States make war on the Swedes first. The Swedes would have ruled them with a heavy hand, changing everything, especially their religion. The Mongols were indifferent rulers who preferred to live out on the Steppes. If the tribute of Gold, Grain, Young Men, and Young Women were met, they were left alone almost completely.
One White Nationalist brother (generic) said something similar about Scrooge: He would have been a good neighbor. Always paid his debts, etc.
Why was it not good that some people were able to get homes when before they could not.
“The long term of the mortgage resulted in a typical lifetime of debt servitude. “
That may be true but that is the result of personal choice. I can figure out the faster a mortgage gets paid-off the more money I can save. That was sufficient motivation for me on top of my family values to pay mine off.
If you can’t figure out that getting your house paid off is incredibly empowering I can’t help you. Your debt-servitude is not my problem. You could have got a smaller place. Every dollar spent lowering mortgage principal increased value exactly the same way as investing the money at the mortgage interest rate in a bank account.
Merry Christmas K-D. Yes, there is not anything inherently evil about borrowing money to purchase a home over time until greed and stupidity enter the issue on either, or in America’s case, both sides. Of course once the governments get involved and get stupid and greedy as well, home ownership will certainly be a choice for the wealthy only as the European model clearly indicates. Parents that raised their children to work hard, spend less than they made and purchase homes but pay them off ASAP as mine did, armed us with the ability to make it work without serious downsides. Bought mine on a 30 and paid it off after 20 and have been in sound financial shape ever since. It is small, easily heated by the woodstove and carries a small tax burden even in New Jersey. Unfortunately for the masses, marketing works and when you throw in a little “keeping up with the Jones”, bingo, so many find themselves where they are today as incomes tank. Oh well, I consider it more evidence that Natural Selection works.
Usury is an evil work [ Eccl. 8:11 ]. It always ends in “greed and stupidity”. We are living it.
Yes we are!
If men were more able to think about future consequences usury would not be so evil but usury does typical corrupt as evidenced by the huge number of people who carry massive credit card debt. Yet a young couple will not have money saved to buy a house outright as they have not worked long enough to save enough. A mortgage for them serves a useful function if entered into responsibly since they need a place to live. In general though I agree, usury is bad and I avoid it like a plague. Another way it is bad is that it contributes to ‘unearned riches’ and unearned riches degrade society. The way I see it is that it is not usury itself is not bad except for the unearned riches part. What is bad or evil is what men do with it.
Good Advice -> Neither a borrower nor a lender be and never sell a car to a friend.
In a similar vain to thinking about “It’s A Wonderful Life”, the other day while I was listening to the song: “Silver Bells (It’s Christmastime in the City)”. I listened to the song very carefully and realized that what the song was describing was a way of civic life that is now virtually gone from the American scene. That is: Going downtown to Main Street on the bus and actually walking on sidewalks, visiting a whole array of merchants and going to the two or three big department stores in town. As someone who will turn 70 six weeks from today, I have memories of that kind of holiday ambience from the 1950s and up to the mid ’60s. Whether it was as a child being taken to the massive Hudson’s department store in or the more local shopping districts in Detroit; or as a teenager in the early ’60s going to shop along Main Street and going to Levitt’s and Read’s in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
For the past 26 years, I’ve lived in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. One of the many cities and towns across the country that has been hollowed out and deindustrialize. Where the buildings that housed the two major department stores, Penn Traffic and Glosser’s that were closed before I arrived have been repurposed, and are now partially empty. At Christmastime, a couple of the old Wooden Soldiers which, I’m sure are artifacts of that bygone era still stand guard at a couple of light posts. There Is a new electronic Christmas tree in Central Park whose lights blink in time with recorded holiday songs. This is an encouraging sign that maybe, just maybe downtown may see a revival once our Galleria Mall, seven miles away finally bites the dust.
Yes, “Silver Bells (It’s Christmastime in the City)” written in 1950 captured a way of life that did exist then, at least to a certain extent.
I think it died when silver coinage died. I recall the two times I found silver dimes in my change as a result of the delightful tinkle they made as they hit the table. Now our coinage has a clang when dropped, like the tinny electronic music in place or real brass and silver.
I suspect a return to honest money that cannot pile up as bits on a balance sheet will return some of that feel of downtown to us. I can hope.
I had the same experience. I was proud of myself for catching it. Alex Jones said the rich ate off of silver because of its anti-biotic properties first and foremost, the snob appeal only coming later. What thinkest thou?
Once upon a time I bet my wife a dollar that I could pick out, blindfolded, a 90% silver dime from ten clad dimes. She still hasn’t paid up.
They never do. Nor willingly apologize. If you force it, you’ll get an insincere apology which they will resent (as will you) and which they will make you pay for later.
I’ve had better health since using silver plated silverware, Janos. Well, fewer infections. Come to think of it, nothing eaten at home in years has caused a problem.
Silver plated silverware would be quite the public health measure.
I’m told that dropping silver coins into water will purify it after a while. I guess if we go into the Long emergency, we can experiment with that.
Merry Christmas!
I congratulate all Western new-style Christians with the Great Holiday!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Botticelli_Nativity.jpg
“For years now, conservative faux-Christians in America have been fending off an imaginary “War on Christmas” that no one understands but them. They’ve convinced themselves that they’re somehow a slighted minority, and that if anyone dares say “Happy Holidays” to them, it’s an attack on them. These people are in need of psychological help. They’re also a large portion of Donald Trump’s base. Not surprisingly, he went berserk about it on Christmas Eve. It didn’t go over particularly well with mainstream Americans…”
http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/christmas-berserk-trump/6908/
The “War on Christmas” is total fiction, truly fake news, pure divide and conquer politics.
The term is used by evangelicals and the GOP to create fear of “them” and a “circle the wagons” defensive posture where only the preacher man and his GOP strongman can protect them from “evil libruls” who are out to take their rights, bibles, guns, heritage, etc.
The deeper message is send money and votes to the preacher man and the GOP hero to fight the good fight. If you make them fearful and angry you can control them and milk them of money and votes.
Same tactic is used on abortion, gun control, environmental issues, save the whales/owls/snails etc, GLBT issues, bathroom bills, civil rights for blacks and a whole list of politicized issues that can be used to put a nose ring into voter’s snouts and lead them to the slaughter house.
There has been a war on Christmas for a hundred years. Nobody is winning.
I just found a good quote:
“Fear. It’s the oldest tool of power. If you’re distracted by fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above.”
That is very good!
‘keeps you from seeing the actions of those above’
I hope I am not overdoing it here. On the G.O.P.’s sole major legislative feat—the hasty passage of the bill formerly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, AKA the tax scam bill:
“Calling this thing a win because Republicans finally got something done is like saying the captain of the Titanic won when he successfully found that reclusive iceberg.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/republicans-frantic-tax-bill?google_editors_picks=true
“The deeper message is send money and votes to the preacher man and the GOP hero to fight the good fight.”
There’s a YouTube clip of Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits performing ‘Ticket to Heaven’…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1k8B-qw040
…where half the commenters haven’t even realised the song is about religious snake-oil salesmen after your cash. They think it’s a heartwarming song about love!! Really, a constituency just waiting to be fleeced and being grateful for it.
Here’s a chaser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7dzTCvLfN0
“Oh yes, I was a comical priest / With a joke for the flock and hand up your fleece…”
My excuse. I blew my ears out with a toy bomb in high school. Potassium chlorate and red phosphorus. I was deaf for five minutes and lost a chunk of high frequency hearing. Enough so I could not hear lyrics embedded in music. The odd thing is now, decades later is that my hearing has actually been improving.
So send what you can
To the man with the diamond ring
They’re tuning in across the land
To hear him sing
Praze De Lord
No, completely untrue. Saying Merry Christmas became verboten in many environments. Manger scenes were forbidden in public parks, even ones that allowed the Menorah (Jewish religion), etc. We have fought back and now in classic Leftist fashion, you pretend there was no defeat because there was never a conflict. Revisionism.
Trump you.
His resurrection is much more significant than His birth.
He couldn’t rise if he didn’t die. And he couldn’t die if he was never born. Thus you are refuted. This is an example of angelic intelligence.
Countless angels can dance on a head of a pin as St Thomas pointed out. Why? Because they don’t take up space. Countless people can’t live on Earth. Why? Because they take up space and the Earth isn’t infinite. Pointing this out will get you banned from Catholics sites. The method of St Thomas is only to be believed in and admired in a historical sense – not used on modern questions.
Actions are more significant than words.
If He had not risen we would not be celebrating His birth.
Chicken and egg. They are equally important perhaps.
From this Demi-Teuton to the site’s proprietor Hebrew, you embody more of the spirit of Christmas than too many of my secularists Christian friends. A Merry Christmas to you, and a wish for you to experience all the blessings its promises can bestow.
Well said. The God Man appeared in the Hebrew Race, but his own by and large rejected Him. But even so, some Jews like Christmas nonetheless. Why not, since they’ve helped make it a secular holiday as well as a sacred one. I don’t get the ones who hate it. Very bad attitude indeed.
I feel that the part that is hated is the buy, buy, buy marketing orgy that occurs every year this time. Even if we were being coerced/forced into debt to enrich some marketing asshole under the guise Snowman worship. the annual orgy of buying as much worthless shit that nobody needs is an insult to humanity. Why so many losers fall for it is sad indeed.
WalterB,
Our capitalist economy NEEDS Christmas to survive. Without Xmas, half of the clothing stores in this country would shut down. Xmas was not even enough to save Toys ‘R Us, which is in bankruptcy. Why, to not waste hundreds of dollars on junk each year is positively un-American. You need to get with the program.
There is no doubt my friend that what you say is correct. The problem stills exists however as to how this place went from finding a need and supplying a solution to creating a bullshit “need” with a bullshit for profit solution ready in hand. How to correct that is the problem. A real economy should have a stable base of exchange year round, NOT just one month a year.
The Lemmon Drop Kid seems a more apt description of life in ‘Merica today, methinks. Blockchain tech is analogous to
the Nelly Thursday Home for Old Dolls where the fix is in on the racket with the derivative side bets that the Lemmon Drop Kid cooked up to avoid being murdered by the mob.
The Ref with Denis O’Leary & Kevin Spacy is a pretty good Christmas story too. Analogous to the Dems & Repubs constantly bickering over the directions both want to push the country into with respect to energy, banking, and empire building. Characteristically divided as a nation with opposing views of future potential, the ‘Merican family at Christmas is one that argues, fights, and imbibes to forget.
Best of all is the Trailer Park Boys Christmas Movie where nothing is realistic except the poverty, and drugs. It is effectively escapist and allows one to forget the miserable damn Capitalist holiday, and the scumbags on Wall Street that must have been responsible for it.
Bah Humbug, & don’t bogart that joint, man.
RW
Spoken like a true Marxist.
In the 20s and 30s, during the great anti religious purges in the Soviet Union when churches and synagogues were blown up or converted into pigstys, any overt celebration of Christmas was a ticket to the gulag or the execution pits surrounding Moscow or Leningrad.
It sounds like you’d be down with that.
Really, what a hateful bunch you lefties are.
brh
I’m a red tory Progressive Conservative primarily due to being raised by a Chartered Accountant. Lefties have difficulty balancing the books IMHO, and while I don’t appreciate much of what is on the right side of the political ledger, I do understand that books must be balanced. Furthermore, I am an Anglican Christian due to family historiography. In the secular world I am a Grumpy Marxist due to the dismal science, the oligopoly, and 50 years of outright theft of Disposable Income Gains of the entire population by the wealth transferring elite.
Clearly, the Roman Catholic Church, via the Vatican Bank, is a criminal organization. The Federal Reserve is also a criminal organization, and the Republican Party members of the USA sold the entire US population down the river when they bailed-in all the Too-BIG-to-Fail, Nail, or Jail, bankster slime-of-the-Earth.
Yes, I’d be down with jailing everyone involved in the corporate takeover of North America, and the European Union. Yes, I would be down with abolishing Brussels, the Federal Reserve banking system, and the God-damned partisan religious zealots, plus the leadership.
P.S. Right wing extremists foment war, and are too narrow minded to understand ‘lefties’ objectively. The right wing of the USA is pure unadulterated Fascism.
Not a fan of Fascists, BackRowHeckler, and neither are you.
RW
Small towns are the product of a bygone age, when they supported a surrounding area of agricultural land and most were created when the mode of transportation was by horse. When the green revolution was accelerated by the presence of the gasoline engine, 90% of the rural population had nothing to do. What did they do, moved to the city. This influx into city center continues today, except it is now immigrants that are doing the infilling. As the economically fortunate wanted to rid themselves of the negatives of city life, they moved to the suburbs.
Today the trend is out of control and the result is homelessness and tent cities. And where do they go? Blue states where the cities are. As long as immigration is unchecked, the trend will continue, increasing the liberal cities populations. Makes sense why the Dems do not want immigration controlled. The Left do not care about the population of the cities once the votes are in, as Chicago is a testimony to.
I cannot understand why the previous administration slowed the economy down while encouraging more immigration. It seems to me that economic growth is the only thing that will allow people to move ahead into the American dream. Dumb! If we had continued in that direction, the deficit and debt would have doubled again quickly trying to support unwarranted population growth.
Neither party has any idea what to do about these trends! It is ironic that a trend is accelerating that is pulling people from the suburbs back into the cities, driven by transportation needs (see peak oil). The newly blighted areas are in the suburbs. The contest for resources and real estate values are forcing the increasing homelessness in the cities. The Long Emergency approacheth with no political solutions.
Dumb? No, evil. Google Cloward-Piven plan. These Leftists advised bringing American down by overwhelming the basic services until it just collapsed. Immigrants have a vital role to play as eaters, consumers, and shitters. Once it all comes down, we’ll have a worker’s paradise with evil Whites put in Gulags.
Of course many of them know better in the backs of their minds, but power is their god so they can’t resist. Not long before his death, Ted Kennedy, his tongue loosened by song and drink, said he was glad he wouldn’t live to see it all fall. He knew his policies were ruinous. But they kept him in power and that’s what mattered.
The Global Banking conspiracy of Financialization & Securitization, along with the overtly overleveraged Too-BIG-to-Fail, Nail, or Jail, bank holding companies, and the deregulatory move to do away with the Glass-Steagall Act, is responsible for
bringing down the Third World Banana Republic of the United States of America. Cloward & Piven’s so-called ‘Plan’ was dubious at best given that the CIA was flushing out political dissidents left-right & center at that juncture in the 60s. Moreover, Cloward & Piven were probably on the CIA payroll at that time too, and the CIA had operatives on every single campus in the USA at that time.
No, Janos, America was brought down by The Committee to Save the World, and their hubris. Please never forget that Brooksley Born warned investigating Congressional Committee USA officialdom that ‘The money of the American people was being put at risk with the Dark Pool Derivatives Universe’ that Greenspan, Rubin, & Summers, deregulated.
Don’t blame the ‘lefties’ for the Greenspan Put, or Clinton signing off on the deregulatory move. Bankster slime hold no political allegiance to anything except profits. Like thieves, they have no honour, or conscience.
RW
You’re making a false distinction: Communism is a project OF the Bankers to overthrow the Aristocracies, the Republics, the Fascist States, and now the Democracies. On the eve of the takeover, Mandela switch from Communist to European style Socialist. He would have been ousted or killed otherwise.
Your thesis does not explain away China, and Communist China, or Mao, or Marx. Got any references for papers on that assertion?
And my idea of Communism is synonymous with Marxist
ideology. European style socialism is market based Capitalism run on a Fractional Reserve Banking System whereby USD is the hegemon over and above all the nations of the European Union. Lets be clear here, the EU is a poorly thought out experiment to unify Europe under one currency so that the Rothschild Bank Reserve Central Banking Oligopoly could avoid pesky disruptions in the volume of profits accrued from the worldwide asset stripping scheme they unleashed on the world with Financialization & Securitization.
Once Mandela became president he was untouchable. I sincerely doubt that anyone ever entertained notions of assassinating him at any time no matter what his intentions were.
RW
Janos: “Communism is a project OF the Bankers to overthrow the Aristocracies, the Republics, the Fascist States, and now the Democracies.”
Wow, what a stew of all-purpose lunacy. Clearly there is no contradiction too great to yield to the universal solvent of conspiracy thinking.
Trotsky and Rothschild used to play chess and have brunch together. They understood their respective roles perfectly. The Tribe came first and last. Whose side were they on? Their side.
Immigrants are not living in tents. Native born Americans are.
Small towns are not the product of a bygone age. Small towns are our future. Getting there will be hard and will ruin many, but that is how collapse works out.
I appreciate your concern with overpopulation. That is at the heart of the issues and I’m happy you are different than the average in seeing this.
Remain civilized? I do not think so. In your book A world Made by Hand only one third was civilized. One third was warlord lead, one third was feudal dictator lead.
Feudal Dictators were often patrons of the arts and sciences – as is the Dictator in the book. I’d advise you to rethink that, laddy.
Ya know, you really should read the book before you rant. (not that that will stop you)
Feudal Dictators were not in the book. Stephen Bullock, Brother Jobe and Wayne Karp had power but they did not have the absolute power of dictators.
I’d advise you to think laddy. Better late than never.
You really got a hard on for me today. I insulted your religion of Blacks I guess. The gentleman above was referring to Stephen Bullock as the Feudal Dictator as does the protagonist in the book.
Not hard enough I guess because the first person to mention Stephen Bullock on this entire page was me. You repeated me so call me Cliff and I’ll take Notes.
The people in Stephen Bullock’s town were all there by choice and could leave at any time. That hardly makes Stephen a brutal dictator. Stephen also caught shit for hanging the midnight bandits and potential rapist of Mrs. Bullock from trees down by the river. That would have never happened to a feudal dictator.
In time Stephen’s sons might have become brutal and dictatorial after they inherited his power. But Stephen, no.
I’d love to eat one of his hamburgers or enjoy a breakfast with him. I’d just not want it to be my last one or my last meal.
F.Y.I.
When it is dark out we are all black.
I really enjoyed those 4 books by JHK and wish he would continue the series. There are certainly enough possible plot lines.
But that prodigal son who came wandering home after killing with his bare hands the woman he was sleeping with. Him I’m not so crazy about. There’s just something very wrong with all that
The main criticism of JHK’s book series on Amazon was that the women were too feminine and not manly enough. A sign of our times. LOL
hmuller: “The main criticism of JHK’s book series on Amazon was that the women were too feminine and not manly enough.”
Without looking at the Amazon reviews, I can tell that you misspelled “underwritten and almost entirely lacking agency” — FTFY. NB, I lost interest midway through book #3 so there may be more that I missed.
The most interesting female character I encountered was the titular Witch of Hebron. JHK’s idea of an independent woman in his world made by hand evidently is still one who makes her way by addressing specifically male needs.
With powers no normal woman could possibly have.
Jeez Louweez, Elrond! When you publish a set of novels you can make every female character Wonder Woman with her own Huma Abedin style sidekick and address specifically “female needs”. No wait, they already did that with “Xena: Warrior Princess”. Well, I’m sure you’ll think of something.
hmuller: What about it? The social contract between writer and reader doesn’t stipulate that I must write my own novel before I can dare have an opinion. I spent time and money on those books, and that’s part of what I came away with. Jeez Louise yerself.
Hey! Is Dee Dee Home? 2002 is a documentary on The Ramone’s
bassist Dee Dee Ramone. If you like New York City it is a great Punk documentary to watch around Christmastime if you remember The Heartbreakers, New York Dolls, & The Ramones.
RW
“In its place will be some official variation on Saturnalia for the nominal (used-to-be) Christians. (Sort of like now.)” –pequiste
Hey, pequiste, the Christians have appropriated the sacred winter holiday of Saturnalia. Centuries ago, our forebearers at this time of year began exchanging gifts, decorating trees, and welcoming the winter solstice with the return of light and end of darkness. All in the name of their beloved God. Yes, you know who I mean. Even in these heathen times, I’m not ashamed to speak his name: Saturn. There, I said it. Let’s stop denying who this holiday is really about.
What has become of the holy Saturnalia? I go into my local Wal-Mart, greeted by all the familiar holly and ivy of yore, and am welcomed not with the rousing “Io, Saturnalia!” of simpler times, but with some made-up newfangled, supposedly “non-offensive” substitute: this “Christ-Mass” thing.
I’m sorry, pequiste, but when your Christian faithful still don’t make up a majority of the world’s population, and you’ve only been around less than 2,000 years, you gotta take a back seat to tradition. I don’t want to offend you… you’re welcome to sing tuneful Saturn-carols any time. You see, you don’t have to be pagan to enjoy Saturnalia! In fact, you’re not, and yet you still use many pagan rituals. Why don’t you just call them by their right names?
So to my Jesus-loving friends, I say this in the yuletide (oy, another appropriation!) spirit of forgiveness and peace on earth. No one minds what you celebrate in private. Just remember: it’s Saturn’s world and you just live in it.
So to all and to pequiste, Saturn bless us all. Everyone.
Janet,
My favorite winter holiday remains Festivus!
I like it so I can say. – A Festivus for the rest of us!
There are only 365 days in a year. Nobody ‘stole’ any holidays because nobody owned them in the first place.
I am not exactly sure who all these Christians” are that everyone talks about. If you are referring to people that say they believe in the God of Abraham and that Jesus of Nazareth was the Emmanuel written about long ago, why would just saying this qualify anyone as the real deal? Those who truly worship God and Jesus as His Son, do not claim a special day of birth but the wonder of the Birth itself and all it meant for the world. They also show their faith by their example, for Faith is a lifestyle, not a catchphrase. I wonder, have you seen many of these so called “Christians”. for I have not seen many, though I know they exist. It is not an easy thing to do or to be and even those of us who try our best to be it seem to never really get it quite good enough. Good thing that the reward is in the effort.
One can contend that when two or more are not gathered in his name he does not exist yet if a single man carries the spirit of Christ in his heart then Christ becomes real. Lifestyle and not actual belief is key. Belief does not achieve the kingdom of god, actions do.
Matthew 18:20:
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Consider one is not mentioned yet I say a single man can carry the spirit of Christ in his heart. This is true because the spirit will make a single man interact with another man in a Christlike way so then you actually have two gathered in his name in that case.
Going back to the reason one is omitted in the passage is because it is the interactions between men which matters to Christ, not how we actually believe. Specifically he says we should love one another. If belief mattered as much as how we treat others the passage would read.
“For where onetwo or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
That is not how it is written.
Hey Janet, did you know that in occult circles Saturn is the planet representing Satan. I’ll bet you did. You are seen.
It struck me after watching ‘Wonderful Life’ again that in the last scene George Bailey is the originator of crowd-funding and setting up a real time gofundme account. If only he was alive during the age of technology….just think what he could have done.
Kunstler sounded a bit like Potter (or maybe Thomas Friedman) when people were being ejected from their houses.
The FBI once called “It’s a Wonderful Life” communist propaganda and they, like Kunstler, or Thomas Friedman
provided real propaganda to protect banksters during our own great housing crisis.
You don’t need mockingbirds to destroy the suburbs, this is a project of industry and Government. Externalities could have been addressed, planning didn’t need to die, but the usual choice is to blow it all up, casualties be damned.
Jim has travelled the same political arc as John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, ee cummings and Jack Kerouac before him. Pretty good company I think.
brh
brh,
Kerouac would have been pretty good company before he became a hopeless alcoholic. But I get it that they all became conservatives in the end.
Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is the best American anti-Capitalist story out there aside from Thoreau’s Walden IMO.
RW
I’ve been following the beautiful middle age professional woman and former well-known/revered sports writer on social media for a couple of years now. I became interested in the pair because it intrigued what a beautiful woman could ever see in a now morbidly obese, balding, unemployed sports news journalist constantly lamenting the demise of the newspaper industry.
The clues soon revealed themselves. She was being introduced to celebrity culture and treated to the inner echelons of professional sports franchise happenings. They had elegant nights out on the town; she in beautiful dresses featuring her considerable better parts and he in loose sports jackets doing a poor job covering up a gut that no doubt blocked any view of his Johnson when taking a leak or anything else intimate.
The former sports journalist is a damn nice guy, showering her with public praise and gifts. So nice, that it made this observer cringe the more I thought he probably was being used for her short time thrill and access to celebrity culture. After all, when I saw the posted video clip of her karaoke singing along with the Righteous Brothers and he wobbling fat up to the mic in romantic ecstasy only to receive the coldest peck ever, well, something just didn’t look to be clicking on the passion front.
And it probably doesn’t help that he still seems totally unconcerned about being incredibly fat.
Last week he started making noise about returning to his native Oklahoma and “she” never did respond one way or another. But plenty of other women did respond no doubt hoping to receive the celebrity tour themselves some day.
Hopefully he will wise up for his own emotional well being and pick a partner more physically aligned with his own dire state of physical being. Because lets face it, all that bullshit about looking beyond physicality is well, bullshit.
Ho Ho Ho…
Alas, we live in a physical world, and thus you are right. Many an ugly woman has a beautiful mental body, but who cares? Should I say I do? That would be telling. A lie. And women only want us for our resources. How wise are traditional cultures where romantic love is eschewed and marriage is but a contract? And where the sexes are kept apart by and large? Wise indeed, Buck, wise indeed.
Bedford Falls in real life is Seneca Falls where I was for a few days last January. The weekend I was leaving they were having an “It’s a Wonderful Life” festival. They should have it again next month. The only cast member (still alive last year I think) is the little girl in the movie. She shows up and charges for autographs.
The area is interesting and at the time the movie was made upstate New York was the ‘Silicon Valley‘ of the time. It would have been called Glass Valley because vacuum tubes were the thing of the time were it an actual valley. I drove across ‘the bridge‘ several times and the turbid water shown in the move was not the water under the bridge which will never be turbid.
“The Americans of 1946 must have had no idea where all this was headed, nor of the coming de-industrialization of the country that had won World War Two, or the massive social changes in the divisions of labor, or the annihilation of several layers of the working and middle classes, or the much greater wickedness of the generations of bankers who followed Henry Potter.”
True but everyone then was very concerned about ‘having enough’. It was not a matter of greed but having experienced the great depression and war shortages personal security was a big concern. People actually worried about having enough money to buy food and putting away a surplus for hard times. Suburban developments that we would learn to hate for doing as much damage to America’s social life as Twitter and Facebook have were seen in a different way. America then had a housing shortage and people who owned their own homes survived the depression a lot better than those who did not. Paying off your mortgage was a value my family took very seriously. Having your belongings moved to the front lawn while you were being kicked out is a scene in more than one old movie of the time.
Much less was taken for granted then and success meant doing the right thing and prospering. Easier in a way as there was less you had to figure out on your own. Resource constraints were not seen as a big issue though that was certainly wrongheaded. Understandable though for a country that had just won a world war. Everything seemed possible then.
If “It’s a Wonderful Life” were made today all of the great depression would have happened since the twin towers have fallen. It was not so far away in time and with the end of World War Two America’s frame of mind was in a space which was quite unique for the time. It is easy to point out their mistakes flaws and muddled thinking now, out of context, but then people actually had their shit together a lot more than they do now. They were just ignorant in different ways. As we are.
ZuZu’s petals equals “Rosebud”. And what kind of name is ZuZu? Not a Christian one. Anyone have any ideas?
A nickname.
ZuZu is perhaps the shortened name of the ancient Mesopotamian religion’s demon Pazuzu.
The one who possessed Linda Blair?
I seldom get scared watching movies anymore, but “The Exorcist” with Linda Blair hovering in air, turning her head 360, and vomiting green goo still gives me the creeps. It still didn’t give me a desire to turn Catholic, though.
It turned me off to split pea soup for life.
They used audio footage from a real exorcism at one point. So the movie was under their influence to some extent.
Henry Potter……….the long form of Harry Potter…….who’d a thunk?
Found a good rant, enjoy!
http://theconversation.com/the-delusions-of-christmas-past-84431
RW
Interesting and thank you. I liked all the different trees.
The flip side of the Christmas marketing equation is bargains! I bought a artificial Christmas tree yesterday 75% off at a local hardware store. It was only forty bucks! Stores are now so efficient they clear their shelves of seasonal holiday items as soon as they can. A day before Christmas. They stock pretty much exactly what they will sell for the season and then want all the rest cleared away.
I did not have a Christmas tree at the ready this year because I threw the old one out. A week before Christmas I found another old fake Christmas tree in the garbage at the curb. I washed it off with fresh snow, and it’s now in the living room adorned with lights, and decorations. If you don’t mind recycling there are better deals at the curb on garbage day.
🙂
RW
After twenty years artificial trees can actually wear out and the old one we had was in a big heavy box. After last Christmas I got rid of it so we have a new one this year. I’d have repaired the old one had it been lighter. Twenty years ago it was not so heavy.
Over the last ten years I have downsized too with the exception of the now over 60 years worth of family Christmas decorations collected over the years. I have an absurd amount of decorations from years gone by that were actually meant for Christmas trees that were around seven feet tall. My fake tree is twenty four inches tall, and plastered with lights & decorations to the point where I can’t actually see the tree except for the outline of decorations on it.
It’s funny how I have kept the Christmas decs out of all the stuff I have sold off or given away over the years.
Christmas is a chore best left to next year, methinks.
😉
RW
Any time, it is my pleasure. I hope when you go to a town where a movie has been made and turned into a big deal you will take the time and effort to talk about it with us too.
F.Y.I. When Bukowski made it big people would always want to drag him into their favorite dive bar. Bukowski, having spent his life drinking in dive bars wanted to do other things in his last days. Dive bars bored him. If I am boring you perhaps you are his ghost.
about competition
the higher you climb.
the greater the pressure.
those who manage to
endure
learn
that the distance
between the
top and the
bottom
is obscenely
great.
and those who
succeed
know
this secret:
there isn’t
one.
By Hank Chinaski
For one thing he bought himself a nice new BMW Roadster, paying cash. A lot of people resented that, ‘specially one who couldn’t afford a Beamer themselves.
brh
The few really famous and successful people I’ve run into over the years have been uniformly disappointing humans. Wrapped in their inviolable magical personas they are there to be adored – not to connect with others except as objects to be manipulated in their own endless odyssey to glory.
Milton Berle, Dennis Hopper, Chris Burden, a few others whose names I’ve let slide – it was never enjoyable being in their rarefied company. For one thing they would only look you in the eye in order to dominate. Not a fun association.
(And of course there is the pitiful Albert Speer narrative about enduring lengthy, repetitive, intensely boring evenings with the Hitlers – funny in a sardonic sort of way.)
That is because Jim either believes or once believed that the number attached to this DOW was supposed to be a real number backed by actual facts and not just a number dialed onto the screen for effect. Just as inflation figures do not include the cost of food or energy, this stock market magic number reflect not the actual value and even the talking heads will say so. The DOW number may very well rise infinitely even if there is fire and blood in the streets. After all , it is only a number that some asshole puts on a screen to keep the rest of us all asleep. There is NO reason to ever lower it, it would defeat their purpose.
Thus it will never go lower on Trump’s watch. By force of will, he will not allow it. Being retired, I followed the advice of financial experts and shifted most of my investments into bonds and other safe bland vehicles. They were wrong, of course, and I was a coward to follow them, but I’m thinking it’s far too late in the bull market to change now.
Yes sir, bonds are a loser going forward and we have been watching this for a couple of years now. As the Financial Coordinator Committeeman for our Township I am as heavily involved with today and tomorrow in this area as anyone can be. Civilians probably do not understand that when municipalities borrow money, they go out for 10 year Municipal Notes, not bonds. These notes require that they are all sent out for bids every year, with the lowest bidder “winning” the right to loan the balances. Interest rates have been doubling for the past two years and will certainly double again in the Spring. Municipalities have 10 years to pay off the balances with interest payments every year, and on the last year, the balance must be either paid off or converted into a hard Bond at a bigger fixed rate for 20 years or whatever they can get. What is the value of these you ask? Think Puerto Rico, think Illinois. Those with enough cash to float such debts realize that the abilities of local and state governments are becoming more and more compromised. There is a very bleak future for such debt. Avoid buying into them, there will be many more defaults.
I don’t understand where you find information saying inflation does not include food and energy? The CPI includes food …and fuel oil and gasoline. I cannot find it specifically calling out electricity, but if it is not, electricity has been fairly stable excluding local companies messing with the pricing. Now, CPI is reported including and excluding food and energy as these are seen as volatile categories. What is not including in CPI is taxes and Social Security…and it appears state income taxes and property taxes. In the last five years, my income and ss taxes have increased by 30%, my property taxes have doubled…and quadrupled over what I paid in 2007( for a larger home). Also, while health costs are included, health insurance is not…and my health insurance has gone from $80 a month to $400 a month, and the deductible has increased from $1000 to $3500//in just 5 years.
By not including taxes (and now health insurance) you are not seeing the correct inflation as wage increases get eaten by increased taxes…and the progressiveness of the income tax further exacerbates this.
From my experience, food costs as a percentage of spending is actually going down…especially if you do not eat the “average: number of “full service meals” as this is where almost all the food inflation is coming from.
Regarding the DOW…that only measure what people think the value of stocks that make up the DOW are worth…nothing more and nothing less. Someone might be able to infer other information from its rise and fall, such as market sentiment, but overall, it is a poor indicator. Now, given that, you might expect the DOW to go up over the next month or two, as people evaluate the effects of tax reform where a company gets a 40% cut in taxes…also known as about a 32% increase in bottom line profits. That might make the DOW go up in the near future…if it is not already priced in.
Just saying.
When Saturn Ruled the World
https://youtu.be/PAVCH3rT6qE
A common critique in the comments section of JHK’s recent “American Conservative” magazine article is that he “doesn’t know any black people.”
Can anyone recommend any good books on the current state of black America?
I was struck by William F. Buckley’s observation made during the Buckley vs. Baldwin debate (1965) on YouTube that at the time the average black American had a higher standard of living than the average citizen of Britain.
I can take a stab at that. From 1954 through 1960 I grew up in Newark and Hillside New Jersey and we lived quite peacefully with blacks (the Italians were a bit of trouble, but not too bad). We moved to South Plainfield New Jersey and lived there through the riots in Plainfield in 1967. I spent 45 years working in the distribution centers of central New Jersey and worked and associated with many, many blacks. I tended to socialize with them more so than whites because they were always a lot more fun and far less neurotic. Many became close friends and we hung out, worked and played for decades.
Those blacks and especially black parents that raised their children to learn in school and find the best jobs they could and worked hard to get ahead did and continue to do well and to lead productive and happy lives. Those that did not, struggle and so do their children. In the end, just as it is with all races, all colors, all types of humans, strong families tend to produce better members of society down the line. The question here is exactly how many, what percentage are working out and how many are not. Unfortunately for America, statistics and trends and numbers cannot be trusted because the sources and motivation for each source cannot be trusted. Leadership is also critical. Those blacks that tolerate Al Sharpton and Barry Obama may not have very good attitudes. Those who look up to Allen West and Ben Carson, well they maintain value and therefore hope.
It is all a question of how many are positive, how many are negative and can the good overcome the bad or visa versa. For those of us who Believe, only God Himself can see the entire Big Picture and therefore only He can know exactly how good or how bad it really is.
A great YouTube interview with a bloke who used to work “With the Elderly” in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. He said that “…in the end all that you have are the memories, unless you get Alzheimer’s.”
What the Dying Elderly Told Me. https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=N1PLO3dk400
“There has been a war on Christmas for a hundred years. Nobody is winning.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/one-jews-take-on-the-war-_b_4350751.html
Palin sez: “The war on Christmas is the tip of the spear in a larger battle to secularize our culture, and make true religious freedom a thing of America’s past. The logical result of atheism, a result we have seen right in front of our eyes in one of the world’s oldest and proudest nations, is severe moral decay.”
I liked this part:
Of course, Palin is widely known for her intellectual curiosity, her objectivity, her distaste for inflammatory rhetoric and her adherence to facts. So we must ask, is The Wasilla Wonder onto something here?
I know somebody in Palmer AK who has met her. If Palin has also met Kevin Bacon then my bacon number is only three. Cool but fact is I think it is only three anyway.
Palin was even too stupid for FOX to renew her contract.
A huge question for the gang. In the mid 20the century, everyone just kinda co-existed, Christians had Christian holidays, Jews had Jewish holidays, Irish had Irish holidays, Blacks had Black holidays and there was significant interplay between the groups. What has caused the ethnocentritic lashing out that has started to break up the US? What has caused the asshole coefficient to increase so much in the last thirty years or so?
I dunno , that it is an ultra-centralized , extremely authoritarian , empire might have something to do with it ?
notice , for example , that even as late as when the movie in the OP was made, in reality, most ” Americans ” lived in actual , identifiable , local cultures / states.
Actual state sovereignty was gone. The horrible events of 1861- 1865 saw to that.
But even when that awful movie was made , no one could , for example, confuse New York with Alabama.
No one could confuse Catholic with HERETIC Protestant , much less with Protestant.
And no one assumed that freedom of association was anything but simply natural law.
Correction ;
” No one could confuse Catholic with HERETIC Protestant , much less with MUSLIM . ”
I’m drunk this Christmas —-because I actually feel sorry for You Americans , whose regime I utterly hate.
Feeling is mutual.
Incidentally, over in GB do the Muzzies still permit public celebration of Christmas? I understand more than a few Christmas events have been shut down, or altered to include Allah.
Photos from London show more armed security personnel than the Kolyma Gulag in 1938. What happened to the vaunted uniformed Bobby strolling thru the streets unarmed? What changed?
brh
Kesa,
No need for pity…our culture is vibrant, our civilization strong, our morals intact…drunk did you say?
What are you wearing right now…?
BRH
“Incidentally, over in GB do the Muzzies still permit public celebration of Christmas? I understand more than a few Christmas events have been shut down, or altered to include Allah.”
One really has to wonder how a person who comes out with nonsense of this level gets to work for a newspaper, even a local one. Now that’s truly scary. Let’s hope you aren’t actually allowed to write anything.
In the latest census, Muslims were 4.4% of the UK population. I wish you and your fellow travellers would stop spreading nonsense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_Kingdom
Question: What has caused the asshole coefficient to increase so much in the last thirty years or so?
Answer: Assholes
There was a Dominant Group: White Protestants with White Catholics as an acceptable alternative. Now that the Jews and Liberals have overthrown the Dominant Culture, it’s a free for all with the Elite playing favorites and against the White Christians.
@JohnAZ,
Sorry but your question is ridiculous on its face. Irish and most Blacks are Christians, of course. And St. Patrick’s day is now enjoyed by all as an excuse to get drunk. And Kwanzaa is a made up holiday created by Maulana Karenga and first celebrated in 1966-67 (Wikipedia).
A guess:
The war on terror.
Some people need to be hated to participate in this war. A fact lost on all those infected by this patriotic phrase and drafted into this wars service. Yet that it is true, that someone must be hated, is beyond any question. Somebody has to be the terrorist. So who are the terrorists since they don’t wear special clothes? Anybody who is different from you could be a terrorist is the answer and that is key. Anybody who is different.
This means an end to co-existence. Something that would not happen in a truly Christian country.
I am missing onehunglo. Did JHK cut him off? I got the impression he wanted to. If that is right or wrong, no offense intended, JHK. You don’t censor some truly awful characters here, and he knows who he is.
Good article today.
“Let not you heart be troubled.” That looks to be impossible.
I have no idea why JHK would ban him ???
I have to admit that , for awhile, I was a bit confused. But , no question about it now , Janos , for example. is an agent provocateur.
He is NOT a Nazi . ( That much I already knew. Long story ; But I knew more than a few REAL National Socialists , before they all died.
People who actually loved Hitler. People who actually gave everything they had , their lives, to the cause.
he’s a fucking fake !
— Nor is he a pagan. that’s undoubtedly an imposture too.
— Nor is he a christian. Fake too.
Indeed, my best guess : He and Elrond are on the same fucking payroll. It’s a WWE wtrestling match – type of thing.
Good day, KesaAnna. I hope you had a good Xmas.
That said, I take exception to the characterization. There’s no invisible Satan tentacle up my backside making me do the things I do. As George Carlin put it: “All messages from the Devil are recorded clearly and audibly in straightforward Standard American English.”
This is my (indifferently maintained) blog:
https://lornebeaton.com/
And here’s my Facebook profile if anybody wants to check me out:
https://www.facebook.com/lorne.beaton
Here’s to radical transparency. Cheers and Happy New Year!
Oh, and my Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/lbeaton1
None of that proves you are not me. Kesa wants to be the bad person on this site. She sees me as competition. She hates Hitler in one post and then in the one right below it, she will love him.
She is High IQ but has a deeply disordered and disorganized mind. The solution? Meditation and Mindfullness.
As Q said, my level of consistency is almost superhuman. The Philosophical Discipline will make one a god in the end.
OHL was here a few days ago, if I recall. But for one? post.
The Coming Anastrophe
Another consideration of the movie with a surprising tie-in to The Fourth Turning.
https://www.sgtreport.com/articles/2017/12/24/the-coming-anastrophe
Nice. Gotta love Corbett Report stuff. Viewing it now.
It would seem that the US dominated West is mentally stuck in the Great Power saeculum – hardly surprising – even though the facts we’re now faced with say differently. The Baby Boomers in particular just can’t seem to let it go.
Sorry Mr. Kunstler , but you are confused.
I guess you have spent too much time listening to Protestants who confuse the United States with the Kingdom of Heaven.
” It’s a wonderful Life ” is actually stridently ANTI – Christian.
NOWHERE in the New testament, not in the words ascribed to Christ, not with Saint Paul, not with any commentator, is it ever even hinted, certainly never stated frankly, that if you do good in this life , YOU WILL BE REWARDED IN THIS LIFE .
No ! They say the exact opposite !
” It’s a wonderful Life ” is materialist , Social Darwinist , and stridently , corrosively, anti-christian.
And i heartily detest it, no less than I detest DIsney and WalMart , who pretend to be wholesome , but are actually harlots !
what about Disney’s Gay friendly outreach and a special day set aside each year, Gay only? Are you against that?
brh
Christianity is down on Gays huh ?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Outside of the proper , good ,well-meaning , and nurturing, OF CHILDREN ,
heterosexuality is no more licit and respectable than homosexuality.
What I am against , or for , is entirely fucking irrelevant.
Personally , I would like to fuck and suck every guy on the block , ande that’s before I have even seen them !
LOL !
But , AS i JUST SAID, WHat I think or feel is irrelevant you stupid American amatuer.
It has nothing to do with anything .
There is what is practical and good , and what is not.
And I would encourage you to consider that For YOUR Benefit , and that of your children.
]
And FUCK my feelings !!! or what I think !!!
i.e. — the wages of good IN THIS LIFE are misery.
NOWHERE does Christ say that in this life good will be rewarded !
—- And neither does ANY OTHER halfway-decent and logical , and fair-minded religion !
Heterosexuality is no more licit (natural?) than Homosexuality? Where in the Bible is that?
Correct about the New Testament. But the Wisdom Tradition of the Old does give lots of practical advice about how to get on. There is this little thing called Natural Law which He is the Author of. And Christ and the Christians thought it was inspired stuff and worth keeping around, so…..
But of course there are no guarantees. The religions I’ve studied make these distinctions as well. God or Destiny (karma) sometimes have ideas of their own.
The lower comment was meant for you.
I’m a Christian within the Anglican tradition. If I ever encounter Jesus Christ at whatever gates in the ‘afterlife’, I will hoof him in the shins, and then punch him square in the nose, just for good measure. Then I will ask where his father is so I can really throw down for good measure.
Organized religion is one BIG gigantic Ponzi scheme, and Christ symbolizes outright corruption on an institutional level. In brief, Christ is worshipped by institutional rapists, thieves, criminals, and embezzlers, within organized religion, and outside of it.
RW
So how are you a Christian? That’s the first think you said and then everything else contradicted it. Is that why you say it – just to trash it?
Which religion caused more suffering and death in the 20th Century, Christianity or Communism? Which will cause more in the 21st Century, Christianity or Islam? And yes, Capitalism is up there too, just a big more subtle or hard to see, at least for those raised in America. Not so much for say, the Afghans.
Anyone and everyone that calls themselves Christian and yet chooses to issue death to other human beings is the same as a Chinese fellow that claims to be black because he has black hair. Claiming to be something does not make you that something. Organized religion on the other hand has always felt free to violate any and every rules that they claim to uphold. Perhaps organized religion was invented by one of Bill or Hillary’s ancestors.
I’m an activist Christian with respect to living in a secular world with secular laws. The ‘tables of the money changers’ need to be audited by forensic accountants due to the moral hazard of Too-BIG-to-Fail, Nail, or Jail, Oligopolists, functionaries, and political hacks, in the revolving door of government & The Giant Vampire Squid.
Bibically, we are all exhorted to actively oppose degradation of the human condition via disparity, inequality, that which is unjust, untoward, criminal, or lacking in compassion for human beings. In brief, Corporations, and corporatists, adhere to the bottom line of Corporatocracy. They are adherents of corporate rule by wealth alone, and corporatocracies do not allocate based upon fairness which is stressed unequivocally in terms of all world religions en masse.
RW
With a guardian angel??????? Somebody here is making no damn sense.
Right!
Are any of you CFNers now playing with your new Star War Jedi warrior outfit and light saber?
Did you ever have a good cap pistol when you were a kid? I had a Dirty Harry .44 magnum cap pistol when I was a kid.
“But Rousseau’s prescient criticism of a political and economic system based on envious comparison, individual self- seeking and the multiplication of artificial needs also helps us understand a range of historical and sociological phenomena: how and why a cleric like Ayatollah Khomeini rose out of obscurity to lead a popular revolution in Iran; why many young people seduced by modernity come to pour scorn on Enlightenment ideals of progress, liberty and human perfectibility; why they preach salvation by faith and tradition and uphold the need for authority, hierarchy, obedience and subjection; or why, suffering from self-disgust, these divided men and women embrace conflict and suffering, bloodshed and war.”
“Age of Anger”
I’m NOT a Moslem , I’m a Catholic.
But I respect and admire the Ayatollah Khomeini.
He had some some common sense.
It never ceases to amaze me how fucking childishly superstitious You Westerners are !!!
Fucking DISNEY writes your narratives !
or Walmart you pathetic souls.
Have you read his Green Book? He rules on whether it is licit to eat an animal that you have ejaculated into. I kid you not. Google it and you will know. Or perhaps you don’t want to know as you are invested in respecting a despised figure – in order to gain a feeling of superiority over the herd, perhaps?
Not only that, but he also instructs you to wrap hamsters with duct tape, so they don’t explode when you fuck ’em.
Only male hamsters if you break a sweat fuckin ’em. Females can be simply held in both hands as long as you don’t get any on ya. Then you just have to wash your hands and all your short hairs before you pray.
Rinse and repeat like a Catholic I imagine.
Not quite right, ablution is apparently necessary after bestiality regardless if the animal is eaten or not. A forgivable inaccuracy I think.
During ablution, one must wash the shortest hairs on the body, but it is recommended that even the longest b washed. If one washes his anus in the water of a public bath, one must first obtain the permission of the owner of this bath for the ablution to be valid. If during ablution, one breaks wind or urinates, the ritual remains valid. If one performs his ablutions after having ejaculated and one has a verse of the Qur’an or the name of Allah written or tattooed on his body, one’s hand must not touch
that part of the body during the ablution, but that part must be washed without being touched. Sperm is always impure, whether it results from actual coitus or from an emission while one is either conscious or asleep, whether it is abundant or not, whether or not it results from sexual pleasure, whether emission is intentional or not. It is recommended that one urinate after ejaculation; if one does not, the discharge that might follow on
e’s ablution would have to be considered to be sperm, even though it seems doubtful. During sexual intercourse, if the penis enters a woman’s vagina or a man’s anus, fully or only as far as the circumcision ring, both partners become impure, even if they have not reached puberty; they must consequently perform their ablutions. If the man thinks that he has not entered the woman’s vagina beyond the circumcision ring, ablution is not required.
If a man – Allah protect him from it! – fornicates with an animal and
ejaculates, ablution is necessary.
The Little Green Book — Ayatollah Khomeini
41
If a sperm moves inside the penis but does not come out, or if there is doubt about whether it actually was emitted, ablution is not required. A man who has ejaculated and has not yet performed his ablutions must avoid the following ten acts
: eating; drinking; reading more than seven verses of the Qur’an; touching the binding of the Qur’an, or the margins of its pages, or the spaces between the lines; carrying the Qur’an on his person; sleeping; dyeing his beard with henna; anointing himself with grease or oil; having sexual intercourse after having ejaculated in his sleep. If a man has sexual intercourse with his wife during the periods of prescribed abstinence, such as the month’s fast of Ramadan, his sweat is impure, and he may not say his daily prayers while in such a state. If a man becomes aroused by a woman other than his wife but then has intercourse with his own wife, it is preferable for him not to pray if he has sweated; but if he first has intercourse with his spouse and then with another woman, he may say his prayers even though he be in a sweat. A man who has ejaculated as a result of intercourse with a woman other than his wife, and who then ejaculates again while having coitus with his legal wife, does not have the right to say his prayers while still sweating; but if he had intercourse with his wife first and then with a woman not his wife, he may say his prayers even though
still sweating. If a fly or any other insect settled first on something impure that is moist and then on something pure that is moist, the latter in turn becomes impure, provided one can be certain that the former was impure; failing that, it remains pure.
This is some seriously repugnant shit on so many levels I can’t get into them right now.
That is one way of looking at it but there are others. Envious comparison and individual self- seeking is not a mark of enlightened ideas of progress at all but is rather a mark of of a conservative and staid mindset. It is after all, all they know.
Envious comparison individual self- seeking and the multiplication of artificial needs = (equals) Donald Trump and Trump has nothing in common with Rousseau.
I should write a computer program that generates false logic the way it is bandied about here. It would not be hard, but I have better things to do.
As I have said before, until I was ten years old , I lived in east Germany.
I loved East Germany !
It was a nice place ! The stores sucked, the lines were long , the stores disdn’t even have ketchup , much less a good choice of ketchups, but I loved my country and people !
West Germany is nothing but a god damned brothel on the big scale. .
Don’t get me qwrong ;, the sociaLIST / COMMUNIST MOVEMENT WAS NOTHING BUT A FUCKING FRAUD !
eRICH hONNECKER WAS A RAT WHO RATTED OUT HIS COMRADES.
tHE COMMUNISTS WERE TOTAL SCUMBAGS.
bUT SO IS YOUR WHOLE FUCKING CULTURE.
yOU DON’T STAND FOR REPUBLICANISM , MUCH LESS FOR FREEDOM .
yOU SLAUGHTER PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES , AND BECAUSE YOU DON’T DO IT ( YET !!! ) ON YOUR OWN TURFF, YOU SAY YOU ARE NICE GUYS.
iTS ALL A FUCKINGF LIE.
Yes, as Solzhenitsyn said, Communism acted as a deep freeze unit, preserving much of value. People knew how evil the Government was, and cultivated their own gardens, greatly valuing others doing the same thing.
Capitalism cuts deeper because people open themselves up to the Pleasure – and end up losing their souls.
Very good Janos!
Baby steps!
It was good for him to bring in Khomeini’s little green book.
I think Kesa had a not-so-Merry Christmas.
i HAVE TO ADMIT , THAT WAS AMUSING.
i DON’T KNOW WHY THIS DAMNED THING KEEPS GOING IN cAPS.
hOPEFULLY , LATER , IT WILL BE IN NMON-CAPS. ;/
mY CHRISTMAS WAS ACTUALLY RATHERB PLEASANT . bUT i WISH THE ddr Actually still existed .
And I wish my American parents would drop dead.
Otherwise, it was a pleastant Christmas.
When the Berlin Wall fell that waS HEART-BREAKLING TO ME.
tHE WALL KEPT YOUR VIRUS OUT !!
i’M A SAD PUPPY WHEN i REMEMBER THAT.
i WISH MY COUNTRY STILL EXISTED.
i HATE YOUYR FUCKING LIEINGF COUNTRY q!!
tHE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS YOU ARE BETTER LIARS THAN WE WERE !!
Probably time for bed, Kesa.
And for God sakes lay off the Schnopps!
brh
LOL! Hope you feel better today KesaAnna. I’ve got a feeling the hangover’s gonna be a bitch!
KA,
Ol’ Scratch’s hangover medicine recipe:
16 oz water
2 pks Emergen-C (2000 mg buffered Vit C, 50 mcg B-12)
1000 mg (500 mg X 2) N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC)
1000 mg high grade Milk Thistle extract
325 mg Acetaminophen (assuming you’ve quit drinking at least 8 hours before)
Repeat in two hours.
Ideally, take one dose, less the Acetaminophen, before going to bed.
Drink copious amounts of water or sports drink between and after doses. Try to relax and sleep if possible.
A quicker grab n’ go option, especially if you must stay awake and function is:
1 20 oz bottle of Gatorade
1 bottle 5 Hour Energy or equivalent
1 325 mg tab of Tylenol
Optional: any B-Complex supplement you have on hand.
Repeat in 2 hours and drink as much water and/or Gatorade as you can stand for the next 4-6 hours. You won’t feel great, but you’ll at least survive the ordeal.
Kesa,
Your constant shouting at us is getting old – very quickly.
“Those who truly worship God and Jesus as His Son, do not claim a special day of birth but the wonder of the Birth itself…” –Walter B
Walter, true Christians see the presence of God in “the least of these”–in the Rohingya Muslims who are being slaughtered, in Syrian refugees that still seek shelter, in the children of immigrants to this country who have made it their home, in the undocumented immigrants who are finding sanctuary in our churches, and in a thousand thousand others across the planet.
Jesus was a refugee and an undocumented immigrant. After he was born, fearing that King Herod would murder Jesus as they returned to their homeland in Judea, Mary and Joseph fled with their child to Egypt. The story, in Matthew 2, is not often read in churches because it disrupts ideas of the nativity. Who wants to move from a peaceful and joyful manger scene to a chaotic story of violence and fear? But this is the story, and this is the Jesus true Christians follow: a child who survived a massacre by fleeing to a safer land.
The presence of Christ God is everywhere for everyone and not just for “the least of these”. The “least of these” would have their place if the most of these would remember their Christian duty and not content themselves with government largesse and the welfare state. Christ’s message is a harsh one which first requires recognition of Him as lord and savior and, then, a purging of their riches. In that sense, it’s the most of these who are the least.
gOD BLESS dER dEUTSXCEN dEMOKRACTIOC rEUPPUBLIK fOREVERB !
gOD bLESS THE CONFEDERETATE sTATES OF aMERICA !
gOD bLESS FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION , TO INVITE TO MY BITHDAY PARTY WHOEVER i LIKE, AND NOT TO INVITE WHO i DON’T LIJKE !
yOU SCUMBAGS ARE REALLYN A BUNCH OF AUTHORITARIAN CONTROL-FREAKS.
aND FUCK YOPU .
iN THE ddr NOBODY CARED HOW MUCH i SMOKED CIGEARETTES.
yOU sUCK ! i HATE YOU !
i WISH YOU FREEDOM —- WHICH yOU don’t HAVE !!
i REMEMBER , THAT IS, TALKING TO ACTUAL nATIONAL socialists WHO WERE STILL BREATHING ;
tHEY WERE SOOOO HAPPYN WHEN THEY FINALLY WERE WITHDRAWN BEHIND THE LINES. nOT IN THE FRONT LINE.
tHEY GOT NEW UNBIFORMS. tHEY WERE ELAted !! Because they had been wearing the SAME tunics and the SAme TROUSERS FOR A year !!!
tHEIR UNIFORMS WERE FALLING APART FROM LICE AND GRIME !
tHERE WAS NO DRY CLEANERS ON THE FROUNT LINE !!
aND THEY HAD SEEN SO MANY PEOPLE THEY LOVED DIE, AND THEY KILLED SO MANY PEOPLE !
BUT IT WAS ALL OK , BECAUSE SOMEDAY gERMAN CHILDREN WOULD LIVE IN A BETTER WORLD THAN THE hELL THEY LIVED IN !!
aLL i CAN DO IS CRY ! aND ALL THE WORLD SAYS TO PISS ON THESE PEOPLE !!
i HATE YOUR EVIL COUNTRY AND ITS EVIL LIES !
Kesa,
With all respect, when I was ten years of age I also viewed the world as black and white…no shading. With age sometimes comes wisdom. Those 10 year olds who observed the world were soon disabused as experience and knowledge replaced simplistic idealism. You cry for the loss of your youth…we all do.
I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then….
“The planet and humanity are in serious danger of extinction. The forests are in danger, biodiversity is in danger, the rivers and oceans are in danger and the earth is in danger. This beautiful human community that inhabits our Mother Earth is in danger owing to the climate crisis.
The causes of this climate crisis are directly related to the accumulation and concentration of wealth in a few countries and in small social groups; to massive, excessive and expensive consumption resulting from the belief that to have more is to live better; to pollutant production of disposable goods to enrich capital, increasing the ecological footprint; as well as the excessive and unsustainable extractive use for production of renewable and non-renewable natural resources at high environmental costs.”
When an ET species writes the final report for humanity it will read:
Summary Description:
Clever ape, although selfish, short-sighted, entirely lacking in wisdom, pernicious destroyer of all other life forms.
Recommendation:
DO NOT REGENERATE
But if we meet aliens that need a lot of CO2 in the air and like it really warm, and also have a bunch of planets which need to be polluted so the aliens can move in we will REGENERATE!
Better stated and with humor!!!!!!
Back to the Future?
“The Economist” 30-year old prediction for 2018
https://i.redditmedia.com/vdS227Sfm1BttJgxpITlxh8A3E34FM9_6rNUwUxsUZg.jpg?w=420&s=1283b29aef817fb746ecb201b694f33f
He, he… Everybody could dream, even the Rothschilds!
I recall a story about two troubles – when dreams do not come true and when they do…
Does anyone doubt that behind the attack of Clintonoids on Trump are their Chinese partners on G2? Like Trump’s attack on China, it is due to the struggle with the globalists who are trying to bury the US national capital.
But without G2, the Chinese New Silk Road is just an attempt to recoup the expenses for built internal infrastructure
Prescient. Actually, that one’s dangerously close to being true now.
The rulers give hints via the Economist covers.
Id better check the 2018 issue.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/breaking-economist-2018-front-cover-just-released-lots-of-sinister-small-graphics-including-trump/
A powerfully prescient must-read, “The Decadent and Deprived United States of America”
James Traub argues that America has become “decadent and depraved.”
-He explains what decadence means, and how it’s tied to corruption.
-“Decadence is usually understood as an irreversible condition — the last stage before collapse,” he writes.
“The marks of imperial decadence appeared not only in grotesque displays of public opulence and waste, but also in the collapse of faith in reason and science.”
“Perhaps in a democracy the distinctive feature of decadence is not debauchery but terminal self-absorption.”
“We listen to necromancers who prophesy great things while they lead us into disaster. We sneer at the idea of a “public” and hold our fellow citizens in contempt. We think anyone who doesn’t pursue self-interest is a fool.”
“We cannot blame everything on Donald Trump, much though we might want to.”
A decadent elite
– Trump functions as the impudent id of this culture of mass contempt
–Targeted tax cuts
“I certainly didn’t vote for Ronald Reagan, but I cannot imagine him using tax policy to reward supporters and punish opponents.”
A democratic society becomes decadent when its politics become morally and intellectually corrupt.
He (Reagan) would have thought that grossly unpatriotic.
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-reached-last-stage-before-collapse-2017-12
I remember the Bible – Revelations I think – saying something about the Great Whore of Babylon. Hmm… wonder what country that could have been referring to?
Both Reagan and Bush the Elder actually raised taxes as well, once they found out that the phony GOP supply-side bullshit was all “voodoo economics.” And to his everlasting credit, Bush the Elder even dubbed it exactly that during the 1980 primaries, before being forced to swallow Reagan’s shit as his running mate. Reagan’s budget director David Stockman also resigned a few month’s in to the Gipper’s administration over the same issue.
So very true, Ol’ Scratch.
Those of us paying attention know the Republican game plan, although the Republicans are depending on a dumbed down public and feckless media. Tax cuts for the wealthy and a few shekels for some in the Middle Class to create the illusion that the tax plan was created for their well being.The Republicans know full well that the tax cuts will blow a huge hole through the deficit. Then it will be time to implement the second part of the plan. Claim the deficits are unaffordable. Since raising taxes on the wealthy is anathema as well as cuts to a bloated military, what’s left except Social Security and Medicare. This will be their opportunity to gut both plans depended on by tens of millions of Americans.
Well said, and absolutely true.
I would strongly advise you Sratchy, or anyone else for that matter, particularly Catholics among the CFN, interested in keeping their theological sanity, against reading “The Two Babylons” by one Rev. Alexander. Hislop.
It might give one a wee too much of a glimpse behind a purple and scarlet velvet curtain.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
(Who’s going bonkers for Boxing Day? You Elrond?)
I yielded to the temptation to shop yesterday, but all I ended up buying was dinner.
Also I just googled ‘The Two Babylons’. Doesn’t sound like my kind of thing, although anything that fed the demented genius that was Jack Chick is something I’m perversely grateful for.
Jack Chick is something I’m perversely grateful for. – Elrond
============
Jack Chick is something I have often been accused of not knowing 😉
yo James, good literary “stuff” as usual and I “accept for value” your on-going “pogrom” on the “urbs”, but . . . I failed to see a link to the following portion of this article elaborating on your “solution”: “A coherent consensus eludes us. My Christmas wish is that we get on with tasks that really matter… that will allow us to remain civilized through the hardships to come.”
How empty for the Russian heart to be “free”! Russians have for centuries been accustomed to arbitrariness, not adapting, however, to it, but finding thousands of ways to avoid violence against themselves.
Now, having found themselves in the society of the declared rights and freedoms, they suffer like the deep-sea monsters taken to the surface.
Tormented by the habit of lying, stealing, doublethink, escapism, people are disoriented completely and out of a pure sense of self-preservation build from the improvised material fortifications of salutary arbitrariness: racketeering, bribery, clannishness, just highway robbery – that’s the saving oxygen of a new Russian society.
And not because the average person is indifferent to the glaring reality because he is tired, but that this is his usual atmosphere, his vital level of pressure.
But what, in the end, is the Russian freedom?
Freedom, “sloboda” – or liberation from known state obligations, labor, military or financial. The status of the settlement, as is known, acquired the handicraft suburbs, which, of course, gave the cities advantages – trade, financial, et cetera.
So freedom as a purely semantically basic, immanent concept in the Russian consciousness is not.
Well-known declarations were cut out not by the Russian ax.
Meanwhile, for a couple of centuries now, the everyday understanding of the word “freedom” has flown from the Western cornerstones of Freedom, Liberty, etc.
The basic value of the Russian people was the “volya” (will? volition? – not even close!). Not as a qualitative component of the mental composition, but as a special state of the soul, most easily described as the shortest distance between the desired and the real.
And Russia did not die at its dawn just because for an uncircumcised heart, every action has its own taste – the soul, as we know, by nature is Christian. And beauty, nobility, self-sacrifice, Truth with a capital letter, love – warm palms warm human heart, do not allow perishing in the advancing glaciers of the world’s evil.
For this warm beauty the Russian heart followed with such willingness the dazzling Truth of Christ.
uncircumcised
Un-Circumscribed?
I insist. uncircumcised
It’s uncircumcised, there’s no getting around it.
Not sloboda! SVABODA!
Ne Hochu Svobody – Daite mne Volyu!
Do not give me Freedom, give me VOLYA!
That’s a mistranslation: Volyu should read Volvo, as in the common Hebrew phrase: Volvo + Villa = Svaboda 🙂
4th grade school kids in the town of Eilat, Israel, are protesting the possible expulsion of an illegal Russian migrant. Lara, their fellow classmate, who speaks perfect Hebrew, is facing legal action due to her parents overstaying their visitors visa and taking up illegal permanent residence in Israel. There are many such Russian migrants striving for a better life in Israel. Israel will do well to take advantage of this. Russia’s greatest resource are her people, not her natural riches, and it’s a shame the Russian government is allowing this resource go to waste.
https://youtu.be/DB5GwDtZ00Y
The family should get a good Jewish lawyer – don’t you think?
Fortunately there are quite a few Knesset parliament members who are sympathetic to the issue. I hope they will work out a solution. What really struck me is the civic activism of the young Israelis and their sense of duty to their fellow classmate in distress.
young Israelis and their sense of duty to their fellow classmate in distress
There the Russian spirit, there smells of Rus!
Pushkin, Ruslan and Lyudmila, 1820
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruslan_and_Ludmila
I wonder Rachmaninov had Pushkin’s poem in mind when he composed this: https://youtu.be/z_FRHVNL2K0
Do you mean Mikhail Glinka, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” (1842)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KScPMs8YlDA
I prefer Khatchaturian’s Masquerade Suite https://youtu.be/Yw7zot4_BFI
Sloboda – a settlement whose inhabitants were exempt from state obligations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloboda_(disambiguation)
What a wonderful essay this week Mr. Kunstler. My favorite part is in the last paragraph:
“My Christmas wish is that we might put behind us some of the more idiotic and pointless debates of the past year and get on with tasks that really matter… that will allow us to remain civilized through the hardships to come.”
I had never thought about IWL in terms of foreshadowing the future. There are Bailey Parks in almost every good sized town in America. What are the poor souls who inhabit these places going to do when the Long Emergency becomes the predominant theme?
Thanks again for this post Mr. Kunstler. It’s a Wonderful Blog!
http://gordonua.com/img/article/1347/92_main.jpg
So I take it you’re not a Putin fan?
Putin: 15 years of progress:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5b/e1/6c/5be16c18bbf67110ab282f9c15ae3cbb–politics-war.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/c7/7b/f8/c77bf8de30e198dc7cad08cc0072e716–vladimir-putin-biography.jpg
https://www.rbc.ua/static/img/3/4/3436935__650x410.jpg
Bon Appetit! We support you! I want to lay eggs from Putin!
http://misto.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/putin.jpg
Two heterosexual Irish men marry to avoid inheritance tax on property
Matt Murphy, 83, intends to leave his house to his carer Michael O’Sullivan, 58, but it would have left him with a €50,000 tax bill
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/23/two-heterosexual-irish-men-marry-to-avoid-inheritance-tax-on-house
“Two Irish men have married in Dublin to avoid paying €50,000 in inheritance tax on a house.
“Best friends Matt Murphy and Michael O’Sullivan are both heterosexual, but decided to get married when they discovered how much tax would have to be paid on the house Murphy, 83, intended to leave in his will to O’Sullivan, 58, who is his carer.
“Same-sex marriage was legalised in Ireland following a referendum in May 2015.”
—
Ireland imitates Hollywood. This isn’t what marriage is for! The effrontery of these men, taking advantage! The right way to do it is to get rich enough to have inheritance laws rewritten for their benefit.
You could descent from the monkeys, if you so wish. And I wish to descent from the stars.
Apparently, you see no connection between the sordidness of the post modern world that you describe so eloquently and the demise of religion within it.
https://gracecountrybiblechurch.com/2016/12/25/thoughts-on-christmas/
God wrote a book. Shouldn’t we try to understand it? I’m sure it would help clear things up.
In the old republic, members have been effectively gaslighted into passively accepting the consequences of the Federal Reserve Banking system. It’s a wonderful lie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbejXMIFRMg
In the New Republic, to make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller, 1968.
……starts with one individual, one family, one neighborhood, one village, one community, one nation, in spontaneous cooperation.
And deductive logic reveals establishing our Constitutional Republic allowing for the working for 100% of our Constitutional Citizens is required before accepting the ingress of unvetted refugees or exporting of funds to other nations, that are not working for 100% of their citizens.
Behold the grace of this day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3mavpGlmHY&list=PLl55Zh3U2VW7YD-JKHT0vYIk1ZCrK7c4-&index=24
Sent from the New Republic.
White Woman sent to the back of the Plane in favor of powerful Black Woman who need a seat.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/4cc84108-3a97-305f-9406-a7981f8a4853/ss_say-what-now%3F-teacher.html
ha ha
Classic Churchill article on the dominant Jewish role in Communism.
https://communismblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/zionism-versus-bolshevism-by-winston-churchill/
Later, he got in financial arrears and was helped out by the Bankers, and thus became owned by them. And of course when the time came to ally with Communism against Free Europeans, he did just that.
Churchill was a monster.
How so?
War, war, war. Then he gave Uncle Joe half of Europe.
I dont like war mongers, of any political affiliation.
Obama had many bombs dropped. 3 an hour.
I assume DT is the same.
True, but I think Roosevelt had a lot to do, too, with giving up Europe to Stalin. Look at the classic picture from Yalta – Churchill looked tired, Roosevelt looked at death’s door (which he was) and Stalin looked in excellent shape. They couldn’t stand up to Stalin. Also, Russia had a moral claim as they suffered more than any country, and arguably won WW2 almost by themselves.
when the time came to ally with Communism against Free Europeans
By “Free Europeans” do you mean a god damned Nazies?
MARKLE SPARKLES!
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/nintchdbpict000374817759.jpg
Some think she may not follow through with the marriage. It’s kind of like the movie “Get Out.” Plus, as you can tell by the picture, she’s already getting too old to have children.
That’s my opinion too – see “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1994).
It would be missalliance.
Bad news for the Black Project: Home prices climb!
https://www.wsj.com/articles/home-prices-jump-in-october-1514299494
The higher the climb the harder the fall!
Dog, you just don’t get it!
Higher home prices means higher inflation – manageable inflation – that translates to reduced relative power of money that adepts of the Black Project printed and pocketed during the Dot Com boom of the 90s, which ACTUALLY was the REAL cause of the world economic crisis and catastrophic strengthening of the power of the Clintonoids.
Thought and effort could be put into the idea that TPTB desire reducing the overall relative power of money. They can’t spend all they have now so at the end of the day any reduction in the relative power of money will increase their position relative to the assets a financially strapped peon. Increasing the overall relative power of money would make the middle class and lower upper class go broke but the solidly rich will be still be able to keep what they have. An increase in economic disparity between the rich and the poor is desired by the affluent for it increases their power. Fools may think otherwise but we are talking lizard people here!
I really doubt things will stay good this long but if Seattle home prices stay high until I can quit working we can sell our house and move twenty miles away to get the same size and quality of house and pocket 400K for our trouble (as of now). However I expect managed inflation will close any gap before I can act on it.
Or we could do it now and I’d spend so much time commuting I’d never be able to be here but 400K would be sitting in the bank earning a K or two or three a year.
Hmmmmmmm……
For you alone, enchanting beauties,
Queens of my spirit, for your sake
Did I convent to scribal duties
Some golden leisure hours, and make,
To whisperings of garrulous ages,
Once-on-a-time my faithful task.
Accept them, then, these playful pages;
And no one’s praises do ask
From fate, but shall be pleased to thank it
If one young girl should love, and pine,
And peep, perhaps beneath her blanket,
At these unshriven songs of mine.
An oak tree greening by the ocean;
A golden chain about it would:
Whereon a learned cat, in motion
Both day and night, will walk around;
On walking left, he tells a lay.
A magic place: there wends his way
The woodsprite, there’s a mermaid sitting
In branches, there on trails past knowing
Are tracks of beast you never met;
On chicken feet a hut is set
With neither door nor window showing.
There wood and dale with wonders teem;
At dawn of day the breakers stream
Upon the bare and barren lea,
And thirty handsome armored heroes
File from the waters’ shining mirrors,
With them their Usher from the Sea.
There glimpse a prince, and in his slave;
Alot, before the people massing,
Across the wood, across the wave,
A warlock bears a warrior brave;
See Baba-Yaga’s mortar glide
All of itself, with her astride.
There droops Kashey, on treasure bent;
There’s Russia’s spirit… Russian scent!
And there I stayed, and drank of mead;
That oak tree greening by the shore
I sat beneath, and of his lore
The learned cat would chant and read.
One tale of these I kept in mind,
And tell it now to all my kind…
A.Pushkin, Ruslan and Ludmila, 1820
https://web.archive.org/web/20060104082442re_/www.sunbirds.com/lacquer/readings/1015
It’s too bad Ruslan didn’t understand dollar flows. You have to run trade deficits so the rest of the world has the surpluses in order to get the dollars they need to buy very important commodities like oil. That Baba-Yega completely blinded Ruslan to the realities of macro economics. No need to chase after Ludmila, Pushkin will print another.
That’s an interesting macro-economic view of a love story.
Yes, I only wish gospodin Trump understood mister tvister bivshi minister mister tvister millionaire. No need to fix something that’s not broken.
Pankaj Mishra’s Book “Age of Anger” is worth reading. Modernity is the Snake in the Garden of Eden. Modernity has stripped people of the security of Tradition, Home, and Hearth. Everything’s in Chaos, bound together only by the “Negative Solidarity” of Technology and Commerce. Terrorism is basically a desperate reaction against Modernity and Globalism. The Chinese, like everyone else, except the Buddhists, Amish, etc., have drunk the Kool Aid Myth of Progress.
Nah, the world has always sucked, even long before modernity.
Just 48 hours Post-Christmas and several women are already making allegations against Santa Claus for inappropriate sexual conduct.
What’s a bloke supposed to do?! Santa comes down the chimney with his bag of toys, and she’s standing their in her “Nighty”. Hormonally, things “kick in”. Give the guy a break!
That’s funny, Puck. Actually, it’s also sad because probably there are a bunch of women who would make that claim. Unfortunately, the claims have to be dismissed because everyone knows Santa isn’t turned on by women – look how much time he spends with elves and reindeer. The perv!
“…standing there…”
The latest manifestation of “Progress” is “Transhumanism”. Everything will become “genderless”, like plants, or barnacles, I guess?
I think you got something there, Puck.
Oh yes, the “Christmas Wars”– I remember them well.
How strange the bizarre sibling rivalry between my mother and her younger brother John, born late in a women’s reproductive life and therefore one who could never do no wrong thereafter. In that regard, it wasn’t much of a rivalry; just the simmering resentments of my mom “dissed’ time and time again by her parents in favor of John.
And I’ll never forget that one Christmas when mom and sister finally bought my grandfather what they thought was the perfect gift: a winter Chicago Black Hawks sports jacket. Eagerly anticipating a pat on the head after dad opened his gift but only to hear a brief thanks and then the ultimate burner: “Did you see what John got us for Christmas ?!”.
I found the entire spectacle to be a hilarious gift. Mom rubbed wrong again, and John, oblivious to the angst his favored status had on his sisters. What a beautiful perspective I had viewing the utter absurdity of it all.
And the sisters, fighting a war that could never be won. The only victor in the Christmas wars was consumerism and department store profits–the same as today.
Don’t forget Amazon profits.
JHK has this theory that the Civil Rights Movement gave up on black people and focused on homosexuals instead as the queers generally have higher IQs. Isn’t this a Conspiracy Theory?
They fought the Blacks and took most of San Francisco from them. The more intelligent among the Mandarins favor Gays, because they fix up neighborhoods instead of destroying everything they touch like Blacks. Gays “only” destroy boys and young men – and thus society over time. It’s very subtle compared to the Blacks. Not for nothing did every Civilization condemn them. Not for nothing either did Classical Civilization relegate Blacks to the lower order.
” Gays “only” destroy boys and young men”
Well, not entirely, as I understand….
The civil rights movement didn’t move ‘from’ African-Americans ‘to’ homosexuals, bestowing its benefits like so much political fairy* dust. It was very much a matter of gay people standing up for themselves, with not a lot of outside support, especially at first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattachine_Society
It was only with time, as they kept fighting and slowly gaining acceptance via their own efforts, that the wider society accepted that equal rights for gays was a matter of civil rights and always had been. The association with African-Americans’ fight for equality was made largely in retrospect.
*Tee-hee!
Our host, JHK, is part of the New Urbanist movement, and also a critic of that movement. Its part of the underlying theme of this blog. I don’t think many people know that much about it, including me, except I see it as an heir to the writing of Lewis Mumford and the work of Law Olmstead (a Hartford native) So you can imagine my surprise when I came across this novel where New Urbanists were central characters, and city planning the main theme, ‘Using Life’ by Ahmed Naji. The city is Cairo, and it is destroyed in a tsunami of sand, except this disaster was engineered by a shadowy group called the ‘Society of Urbanists’, who then set out to build a new Cairo with the goal of ‘changing the direction of humanity as a whole’ by aggressively engineering its cities.
Needless to say the new planned Cairo, when complete, turns out to be a soulless utopia, far less preferable than the old Cairo of squalor, disorder, corruption, pollution and gridlocked traffic.
In this novel New Urbanists are not the good guys. In real life who knows.
brh
What kind of architecture does he have them espousing? Is it the same ideas as that of the New Urbanists?
If Bedford Falls were a real town, what would it be like today? Blogger David Glenn Cox gives his version at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/12/12/813502/-.
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On the Streets of Bedford Falls
By David Glenn Cox
There is not much happening this year on the streets of Bedford Falls. The Christmas decorations went up on Main Street, same as always, but it’s just not the same. Old man Gower’s drug store moved out to the by-pass years ago and was bought out by Rite-Aid. The Building and Loan is a tanning salon now, and across the street is the Thrift Store.
The Building and Loan was bought out by Countrywide Mortgage. George, being George, fought the good fight, but with all the refis done around town and the sweet offer made to Uncle Billy, plus the shares Mr. Potter gladly sold, George didn’t stand a chance. Mr. Potter had other plans after merging his bank with Bank of America; he leveled his properties in Potter’s Field and developed the new Potter’s Field Mall. That’s where all the Christmas activities can be found now.
.
..
Mary got a job as a cashier at the Dollar General, working for Mr. Othello, to try and help out. Even though Mary had a college degree, there were few jobs of any type in Bedford Falls. With no money for college, Pete joined the Marine Corps and has been deployed overseas, and Tommy works as a mechanic at a shop out on the by-pass. Janey moved to California and calls only occasionally on holidays.
Zuzu works as a cocktail waitress at Martini’s, goes to college part-time at Potter State, and still lives at home. The family hopes to sing Christmas carols after midnight, just like they used to do in the old days, after George gets home from his current job as assistant manager at the Wal-Mart Super Center down the road from the mall. Life is still wonderful, but not as wonderful as it used to be.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
In a few more years, Dollar General will be gone, of course, along with most other brick-and mortar stores. Amazon will be the whole economy. Cheers!
I’m sorry, but life in Bedford Falls is worse than that, much worse. Old Mr. Potter killed himself last year when his mall lost their anchor stores and now stands more than half empty.
Mary, who couldn’t get a job, now works as a masseuse at the local happy ending massage parlor.
Pete never made it back from Afghanistan, and is mourned every day by his family. Disillusioned, Tommy ingests copious amounts of alcohol, but recently, things are looking up for him, as he finally qualified for welfare and now can move off the streets and into the shelter.
Janey, living in The Valley, is doing ok with his sex change operation, except people are wondering why he has no Adam’s apple. He’s trying to choose between James or Pookie for his new name.
Zuzu got kicked out of the family home when they found out she was stripping at Martini’s and doing a little hooking on the side, but the family recently forgave her and now she’s back home. But Christmas isn’t the same without George there, as he works the graveyard shift at the nearly empty First Federated Partners Mall (fka Potter’s Mall) as a security guard.
No, life isn’t wonderful in Bedford Falls, and it’s getting worse.
True, but I think Roosevelt had a lot to do, too, with giving up Europe to Stalin.
Wow, we agree on somethings.
A terrorist calm before the storm after the loss of Roy Moore in Alabama and the success of Trump’s tax reform.
The rat is in the corner.
Truly:
The day before the Alabama election, Q posted this:
“The Storm is coming to Alabama. Tomorrow night. Doug Jones will be declared the winner of the U.S. Senate Special Election. He will have more votes than Roy Moore. The multiple fraudulent voting techniques employed to achieve this result are being allowed to occur. They are being documented. The subsequent ‘investigation’ will reveal the entire Democrat Machine. This was put into play long ago. Y’all are soon to find out the true reason Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was installed as the U.S. Attorney General.”
How long has it been since Georg Soros tweeted? [ I don’t have an account ]
Alex Jones, a true English Yeoman, in whose veins flows the blood of Robin Hood Archer, tells it like it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6BXPFZjK2s
“Terrorism is basically a desperate reaction against Modernity and Globalism.” –Pucker
Terrorists are stupid to oppose the inevitable: modernity and globalism.
The leaders of globalism are Luciferian pedophiles. They don’t want to bring us a Star Trek world but rather a Hunger Games world. Your heros are going to GITMO, Janet!
Gawd–thats a powerful statement, in 2 lines.
flows the blood of Robin Hood Archer
Blood is a wondrous thing
……
‘Allow me,’ Margarita suggested gently.
Woland gave her a searching stare and moved his knee towards her.
The ointment, hot as lava, burned her hands but without flinching Margarita massaged it into Woland’s knee, trying not to cause him pain.
‘My friends maintain that it’s rheumatism,’ said Woland, continuing to stare at Margarita, ‘ but I strongly suspect that the pain is a souvenir of an encounter with a most beautiful witch that I had in 1571, on the Brocken in the Harz Mountains.’
‘Surely not! ‘ said Margarita.
‘Oh, give it another three hundred years or so and it will go. I’ve been prescribed all kinds of medicaments, but I prefer to stick to traditional old wives’ remedies. I inherited some extraordinary herbal cures from my terrible old grandmother. Tell me, by the way–do you suffer from any complaint? Perhaps you have some sorrow which is weighing on your heart? ‘
‘No messire, I have no such complaint,’ replied Margarita astutely. ‘ In any case, since I have been with you I have never felt better.’
‘As I said–blood is a wondrous thing . . .’ said Woland cheerfully to no one in particular, adding: ‘ I see my globe interests you.’
Bulgakov, Master and Margarita, 1934
“The whole horror of the situation is that he now has a human heart, not a dog’s heart. And about the rottenest heart in all creation!”
“Heart Of A Dog” Mikhail Bulgakov
Robin was feeling rather low and went to a leech to get bled, but the bitch betrayed him and opened up an artery. His friends tried to stop it but to no avail and his noble spirit quit his body and skied upwards to meet its Maker.
His cousin’s name was Gamble Gold and Sherlock Holmes’ brother’s name is Mycroft.
When TV first came out. it was idealized, as in this Christmas TV promo from 1950:
/////////////////////////////////////////
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWVpn-E7rwY
Mindy Carson – I Want A Television Christmas
I want a television Christmas, a world of magic all my own
I’d lead a life just like a queen, and see strange lands I’ve never seen
And all before I’m seventeen, with television in our home
I want a television Christmas, with all the glamor and the fun
With all the plays and stars I’d see. the whole world in the room with me
Ahh, what a drean world it would be, a magic televlsion Christmas
/////////////////////////////////////////
Didn’t turn out that well.
I agree with you but some will disagree. Most actually as most people are techno-narcissists and your opinion is blasphemy to them.
A T.V. for christmas advanced the singularity which contrary to what adherents of that position believe ends in collapse not paradise. Technical progress accelerates itself until its increased overhead and complexity causes social implosion and environmental catastrophe. We can see this happening now and the childish belief in an ever upward curve which is constrained by nothing and accelerates itself will be seen for the foolery it is.
T.V. made queens but queens of a different kind.
Happy Kwanzaa, y’all.
Twas the Night Before kwanza (author unknown) Perhaps Magus Incognito? JS – Janos Sackneusm
‘Twas the night before Kwanzaa
And all through the ‘hood,
Maulana Karenga was up to no good.
He’d tortured a woman and spent time in jail.
He needed a new scam that just wouldn’t fail.
(“So what if I stuck some chick’s toe in a vice?
Nobody said revolution was nice!”)
The Sixties were over. Now what would he do?
Why, he went back to school — so that’s “Dr.” to you!
He once ordered shootouts at UCLA
Now he teaches Black Studies just miles away.
Then to top it all off, the good Doctor’s new plan
Was to get rid of Christmas and piss off The Man.
Karenga invented a fake holiday.
He called the thing Kwanza. “Hey, what’s that you say?
“You don’t get what’s ‘black’ about Maoist baloney?
You say that my festival’s totally phony?
“Who cares if corn isn’t an African crop?
Who cares if our harvest’s a month or two off?
Who cares if Swahili’s not our mother tongue?
A lie for The Cause never hurt anyone!
“Umoja! Ujima! Kujichagulia, too!
Collectivist crap never sounded so cool!
Those guilty white liberals — easy to fool.
Your kids will now celebrate Kwanzaa in school!”
And we heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight:
“Happy Kwanzaa to all, except if you’re white!”
Happy Kwanza to you, Vlad.
I’ll be downing a 40 for breakfast to celebrate this venerated, ancient (since 1967) holiday.
Vlad, Beantown Bill, Tenneshaw, I don’t know whos post is the most comical.
brh
Thanks. The Forces of Darkness are pressing close. Hark! I can hear the beating of their Great Wings……
Thank God I don’t drink. I always like harder stuff but now I refrain. Ditto Football. What weakness! I’d much prefer to see men torn apart in the arena or fight to death in the games – then feel guilty about it and renounce after having enjoyed and gained such wisdom as the experience had to offer. But this Civilization is about weak tea and small beer.
Your Churchill was a Beast but he was witty. I’ll give you that but nothing else.
Ya, snowflakes in GB are calling Churchill a fascist and want his statues removed from the public square. Churchill himself, ’till his death in 1965, thought he had fought against fascism. But what did he know? A Jamaican co worker here just tonite told me Jamaica began to deteriorate after gaining independence from Great Britain. After that everything began to fall apart to the point the island is now dangerous, dirty and unlivable.
brh
Snowflakes are notoriously narcissistic and sociopathic but their grasp of reality is at best tenuous and that will be their un-doing.
Here in contrast to Conman, Criminal, and Stooge, Karenga, is a great American, one associated with the area in which I grew up. He never faltered in his willingness to hang Witches (he accepted spectral evidence!), or kill Frenchmen or Indians – any Enemy of the Colony or the People. RIP Lord Soughton. May I meet you in the Paradise of our Lord, the Lord whom you served all the days of your life.
Here Lies
WILLIAM STOUGHTON, Esquire
Lieutenant, afterwards Governor
of the Province of Massachusetts in New England
Also
Chief Judge of the Superior Court in the same province
A man of wedlock unknown
Devout in Religion
Renowned by Virtue
Famous for Erudition
Acute in Judgment
Equally illustrious by kindness and Spirit
A lover of Equity
A Defender of the Laws
Founder of Stoughton Hall
A most distinguished patron of Letters and literary men
A most generous opponent of impiety and —-
Rhetoricians delight in him as eloquent
Writers are acquainted with him as elegant
Philosophers seek him as wise
Doctors honor him as Theologian
The Devout revere him as Gracious
All Admire him! Unknown by all
Yet known to all
What need of more, Traveller? Whom have we lost
Stoughton
Alsa,
I have said sufficient, tears press
I keep silent
He lived Seventy years
On the Sevent of July, n the year of Savety 1701
He Died
Alas! Alas! What Grief!
That is, it turned out that the United States has an important unspent resource – direct trade in its geographical location, its political system and propaganda. Rather, the propaganda of its political system. == Finca
The North Korean situation puts this important resource under a direct threat. It would be sufficient for N. Korea to conduct a test of advanced ICBM with MIRV technology to destroy investor’s confidence in US dollar as a safe heaven.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targetable_reentry_vehicle
If you’re not a paid propagandist Finca, you certainly play one well in real life.
The annihilation of several layers of the middle and working class and the creation of an impoverished under-class could have dire consequences that the Davos plutocracy and their perfumed bi-coastal clerisy are too arrogant and self-assured to see.
FDR saw what was going on with the Bolshies and Mussolini and Hitler. And I think it was FDR that told immensely wealthy Americans in the 1930s that they had a choice ahead of them, they could enact reforms that would take away some of their wealth for the general good of the country, or they could risk upheaval and lose it all.
The people that are nowadays so fact and evidence based seemingly can’t see the facts and evidence laid out before them, not only stuff directly underfoot, but that provided by history, a lot of which is within living memory and a lot of which is just outside of it.
The Russian and Chinese revolutions and the rise of fascism and Nazi-ism didn’t come out of nowhere. There were multiple factors behind these massive bloodlettings but without dire living and economic conditions I think that none of them would have come to pass. Hence FDR’s warning.
What happens on this side of the pond may have some surface similarities to what happened overseas. So while guys like Hedges prattle on and on about incipient fascism (I mean, what effrontery to tar people who have justified and legitimate grievances) I doubt that what takes shape here will be anything much like fascism though it could be nasty and may have guys doing straight armed salutes. But fascism was imperialistic and genocidal. I don’t see imperialism but rather its opposite on this side of the oceans, a national contraction and fragmentation. Neither is the massive Stalinist butchery nor anything like what happened to European Jewry in the cards.
That’s not to say that a lot of heretofore smug people won’t find themselves hanging from lamp-posts. Too much in-your-face flouting of the law (Wall Street and the Clintons), too many farcical miscarriages of justice (the Comey debacles, Holder-ist too-big-to jail-ism) and that’s what could happen.
It’s not effrontery, it’s a serious warning.
Let’s say you have a stone in your boot, and it really hurts, but for whatever reason you’re not in a position to take off the boot yourself. So you ask for help, and you get ignored. Then you complain about it, and everyone calls you a racist and tells you to shut up. So you start screaming your head off and they call the cops on you. Finally you can’t take it any more, so you grab a gun and wave it around, demanding that someone, anyone, help you take off your boot. Someone says ‘no’, and it’s just then that the cops roll up as you point the gun at that person and shoot them dead in your frustration. Are you guilty? Should you go to jail? Are the cops now your enemy? Absolutely to all three, even though the stone in your boot was a 100% legitimate grievance.
This little parable is about the death of the rule of law and the beginning of fascism. The rule of law isn’t represented by the cops in this story, but by the self-control of the guy with the stone in his boot. A legit grievance, met with a clueless and/or feckless response, overwhelms self-control and sets loose the raw id. That’s the ecstatic unreason of fascism. The cops in the story stand in for actual right and morality, which now need to step in and subdue the violent id for the common good. Best not to let that happen in the first place.
Am at Christmas week family gathering, here found no welcome to conjecture that augured possibility of difference from what those gathered here now experience as ‘normality’, two of whom are college profs of those ‘hyphenated’ and women’s studies.
“found no welcome to conjecture that augured possibility of difference from what those gathered here now experience as ‘normality’” –cavepainter
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton finished first in Gallup’s annual poll of the most admired men and women in the world among Americans for the 10th year running.
The truth is they are more popular than Trump. You can’t handle the truth.
Bottled water. That must be it for only ‘something in the water’ can dumb down so many people. Yet America is big and water comes from many many different places. But bottled water is common to all.
Stupidity may have been infused into the plastic.
I wonder if acid could?
You have heard of fluoride?
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/07/01/water-supply-fluoridation.aspx
Confusing reply, see no bearing between my remark and your mention of the poll.
https://www.amren.com/news/2017/12/algeria-deports-10000-sub-saharan-migrants-territory/
Algeria deports ten thousand Black African criminals. They’re always trying to get away from themselves, but never can. Their nature follows them even as their shadow. Evidence and tacit admission that they are a failed race.
janos, look up Moorish rule in Europe from 711 CE till about the 1400s during the European Dark Ages. How did Europe get out of its Dark Ages? African came to the rescue. The Moors were Black Africans who conquered Spain, and the rest of western Europe. They brought science, literature, architecture and cleanliness to your European ancestors. All of your building techniques come from Africa.
Janos, where is your acknowledgement of the legacy of the Moors in Europe? Or would that completely shatter your false concept of white superiority that you seem to be emotionally attached to?
Whenever the Moors are mentioned you always emphasize that they were “Muslims” while never stating that they were also African.
Africans literally civilized the wild tribes from the Caucus who had run rampant throughout Western Europe. These wild warring Caucasian tribes did not establish any civilization after they brought down the Western Roman Empire. With little to no intellectual stimulation in Europe, the continent fell into the Dark Ages until the 8th century C.E. Then Black Africa came to rescue Europe.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l8nq5mel4pA/UI6iaYFPIbI/AAAAAAAABD8/ZriseV4q4AA/s1600/Moor+Habsburg.jpg
Janet, please don’t smear the scholarship on this subject with such political bias now lodged in our own time; history has already been strip mined for extracting nuggets for the political capital in today’s market spin.
History is a big subject and you can spin it many ways.
The glory of Moslem Spain came during the reign of the Ummayyad dynasty (originally from the Arabian Peninsula). When the fundamentalist Almoravid dynasty and the later even more fundamentalist Almohad dynasty (from Morocco) ruled, tolerance suffered and so did culture.
Civilizations have their ups and downs. We’re probably headed down now as East Asia is headed up. It’s been a few centuries since Islamic civilization has produced anything notable. Even all that oil money couldn’t spark anything better than Saudi princes living in debauchery.
Yeah cuz we stole their knowledge and shit; knowledge being much like a flat screen TV. One we had it, they no longer did which explains why we found them living in mud huts….
Janos,
A request.
If you are going to quote your racist rag here could you please at least be accurate about it. Lying about lies is really taking things too far.
AMREN – Algerian authorities have reportedly launched a new massive wave of expulsion by forcibly deporting more than 10,000 migrants from various sub-Saharan countries to the neighboring states of Niger and Mali.
Vs.
Janos Skorenzy – Algeria deports ten thousand Black African criminals.
If you are going to tell me that migrants are the same thing as criminals go fuck yourself.
Dog,
Expulsion of “migrants” might indicate that they were “illegally” in the country, hence…”criminals”…I am sure many of the migrants were decent people looking for a better life, but if their status in Algeria was not in accord with Algerian law? Can we agree to call the migrants criminals by way of illegal residence in the country?
Those migrants in the United States illegally are…criminals.
We don’t know enough to say if the migrants were in Algeria illegally or not so the appropriate thing to do would be to give them the benefit of the doubt under the completely logical and fair supposition that the word ‘migrants’ was chosen appropriately. I’ll go further and assume AMREN would have gladly described them as criminals if they could just as Janos did. AMREN is not an unbiased website and would gladly refer to any black man they could as a criminal if they could. It is in their nature.
If you want to return your salad to the chef next time you go out to eat because the veggies on your salad plate were picked by, processed by, prepared by, and served by criminals be my guest. If you want to deport the parents of American Citizens who were born here and not give them a path to citizenship I’ll tell you to do the same thing I told Janos to do.
Believing “there is no such thing as an illegal person” is the essence of being a cuck and a clown, a clown cuck or cuck clown.
They are in Algeria against the Will of the Algerian People and are thus, criminals. Why are choosing Black Africans over Arabs? That was Khadaffi’s mistake, one of them anyway.
Talk to some Arabs about Blacks – they’ll set you straight. Liberals are invariably incredibly provincial people….
Yes there are illegal people and you are one of them. Many of the things you put out are technically against the law. Hate speech actually is illegal and you bubbleth over with hate crime banter.
“Hate crimes are the highest priority of the FBI’s Civil Rights program, not only because of the devastating impact they have on families and communities, but also because groups that preach hatred and intolerance can plant the seed of terrorism here in our country. The Bureau investigates hundreds of these cases every year and works to detect and deter further incidents through law enforcement training, public outreach, and partnerships with a myriad of community groups.”
My source:
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/hate-crimes
As long as you have been here Janos and with the consistency with which you impune the law one could get the idea that you are an FBI agent looking to snag perprs Janos. The same way a state trooper can drive 70 in a 60 and get by with it trying to snag somebody driving 65.
Just sayin 🙂
You could be part of the public outreach.
You think the FBI is credible? Aren’t you precious….
This is a fine example of eliminationist rhetoric, which is seldom in short supply around here.
The essential feature of eliminationism is to deny all humanity to the hated population, after which they can be subjected to any treatment. In the pre-WWII period, rhetoric about Jews, stateless people, and other anathematized groups — likening them to a disease or infestation in need of eradication — laid the groundwork for concentration camps, forced migrations*, liquidations and eventual genocide in Europe. More recently, during the genocide in Rwanda, radio announcers notoriously denounced Tutsis and moderate Hutus as “cockroaches” fit only for extermination. There’s no shortage of other examples.
Nowadays you still hear people from other lands seeking shelter, including children, referred to with the vocabulary of infection and vermin. Neuroscience identifies one part of the brain (the insular cortex) in processing empathy, moral feelings and also disgust. This plausibly suggests why the emotion of disgust has a moral component, and why disliked populations (i.e. ones excluded from the circle of human empathy) come to be thought of in the same terms as infectious disease.
Suggests, but does not excuse. There’s a reason why decent people adhere to the rule of law and the concept of universal, inalienable human rights. The concept of an “illegal person” — i.e. a lesser-breed-without-the-law, having no rights, no recourse, and being the moral equivalent of a cockroach — has been and remains a prelude to the worst crimes humanity has ever committed.
* Yes, Janos, forced migrations happened to Germans too. After they lost the war Hitler started, they got caught in the backwash of his policies, no different from the original inhabitants who got removed to make way for them in the first place. Happy now?
In other words, anyone can go anywhere and there are no natives because there are no nations. The Triumph of the Free Shit Army. They’ll be coming into our homes after that.
Remember Elrond, Phillipe Egalitaire (a made up name of course) ended up losing his head to the Mob.
It’s all a Lie since you obviously don’t think Whites should have equal rights in Africa, right? That would be cruel because you know very well that Blacks will never be able to compete with Whites on a level playing field.
Those migrants in the United States illegally are…criminals. –elysianfields
Wrong. The act of being unlawfully present in the United States is a civil violation, not a criminal offense. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that “it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States.” It is a civil violation, not a criminal violation. Hence, they are not “illegals” and they are not “criminals”.
So, immigration laws aren’t ‘laws’ and borders aren’t enforceable and citizenship holds no special entitlements and our nation’s destiny is not to be determined by ‘will of the people’ but rather by however many foreign nationals choose to, uh…..take advantage of all the benefits paid for by us, uh…….taxpayers.
Non Sequitur Cavepainter.
Thank you for that!
” In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that “it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States.” It is a civil violation, not a criminal violation. Hence, they are not “illegals” and they are not “criminals”.”
Reference, please.
The reference is Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. ___ (2012).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_v._United_States
This was “a United States Supreme Court case involving Arizona’s S.B. 1070, a state law intended to increase the powers of local law enforcement who wished to enforce federal immigration laws. At issue is whether the law usurps the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration laws and enforcement. The Court ruled that sections 3, 5(C), and 6 of S. B. 1070 were preempted by federal law, but left other parts of the law intact, including a provision that allowed law enforcement to investigate a person’s immigration status. …
“Section 6 of S.B. 1070 was … found to be preempted by federal law on the basis that it created an ‘obstacle to the full purposes and objectives of Congress.’ The Court noted that it is not generally a crime for a removable alien to be present in the United States, and that Section 6 would give state officers ‘even greater authority to arrest aliens on the basis of possible removability than Congress has given to trained federal immigration officers.’ Furthermore, the removal process is ‘entrusted to the discretion of the Federal Government.'”
(Emphasis added.) TL;DR: Arizona overstepped itself by trying to enforce a federal responsibility, namely immigration, and the Supreme Court put a stop to it.
Elrond,
Thank you for your effort…however, Illegal immigration status within the Federal Statutes is not what the case was about. The case revolved around Arizona formulating laws that would allow the local police to make arrests on the basis of “possible removability”, and would then impinge upon the discretion of the Federal Government. The case law did not define the status of an illegal immigrant as a civil matter,
The earlier post of Janet’s, where a Justice opined that it is not “generally” a crime for a removable alien was spoken in passing, was not an attempt to parse federal law( and was not debated nor commented upon) which can be treated as a civil matter, although under law it can be prosecuted as a felony criminal matter.
HMuller, would you care to comment?
Russiagate is a Made Up Distraction. The REAL Scandal is Israelgate.
by James Corbett
corbettreport.com
December 16, 2017
For those paying attention, Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to one charge of making false statements to the FBI. Specifically, he denied telling the Russian ambassador not to respond too harshly to the sanctions that then-outgoing President Obama had just slapped on Russia, and he denied trying to convince Russia (“and several other countries”) to take a specific position on a UN Security Council resolution that was submitted on December 21, 2016. According to Flynn’s plea, both of these denials were false.
OK. So what?
So what, indeed. If the charge is Russian collusion then the first example is, if anything, actually counter evidence. Flynn, on behalf of the then-incoming President of the United States, asked the Russian ambassador not to get into a diplomatic tit-for-tat with Obama. That is not a smoking gun of collusion with a foreign power, it’s just a simple job description for someone whose duty was to act as a diplomatic go between for an incoming administration. The only question is why Flynn denied having the conversation at all.
But what about that second denial? About the UN Security Council resolution? What was that all about?
The resolution in question, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, was submitted by Egypt on December 21, 2016 and passed unanimously with one abstention: the United States. The Flynn plea describes the resolution cryptically as pertaining to “the issue of Israeli settlements.” More specifically, the resolution reaffirmed the UN Security Council’s understanding that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law,” among other equally fiery statements. As I noted at the time, the resolution’s passage was remarkable for the fact that it was one of the strongest UNSC statements against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine to pass a vote, not because such resolutions are never tabled but because they are always vetoed by the US.
So it was in this context that we can understand Flynn’s position. He was ordered, according to his own plea, “to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, to learn where each government stood on the resolution and to influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution.” The plea itself only states that the order came from “a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team,” but reports from inner sources soon confirmed who had specifically put Flynn up to this task: Jared Kushner.
Yes, that Jared Kushner.
The Jared Kushner whose family is so connected to Israel’s zionist likudniks that he once let Benjamin Netanyahu sleep in his bed. (Yes, literally.)
The Jared Kushner who failed to disclose that he led a foundation that actually funded an illegal Israeli settlement. (Yes, really.)
The Jared Kushner who is actually leading Team Trump’s quest for the “ultimate deal:” Israel-Palestine peace. (You can’t make this stuff up.)
So just to spell this out: Trump’s zionist son-in-law got Flynn to twist the arm of every single member of the UN Security Council to vote against a resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements…and this is a Russian collusion scandal? That is so far from reality it doesn’t even make sense. Unless, of course, you realize that there is almost no one on either side of the phony left/right divide willing to call out US-Israeli collusion because it enjoys completely bi-partisan support.
https://steemit.com/news/@corbettreport/russiagate-is-a-made-up-distraction-the-real-scandal-is-israelgate
With that in mind, how much of the ongoing saber rattling with the Lil Fat Man in DPRK is pure made up bullshit (aka, propaganda) as well? Does anyone in their right mind honestly believe that The Lil Fat Man would have been allowed to progress so far with a “genuine” nuclear weapons capability or that the “scare” would be so comical that it was mostly ignored altogether, if it wasn’t the deep state’s intention in the first place? Once again, just another case of the tail wagging the dog.
PIGS FLY AS PENTAGON GETS AUDITED
Interesting video commentary as always, but 9-11 skeptics might want to skip to 7:39 and freeze, as the video clearly shows that the Pentagon was not hit by anything remotely resembling a commercial airliner, and in fact clearly illustrates an internal explosion and/or explosive missile strike which ejected debris outwards in front of the building, with very little (indeed, totally inconsequential) subsequent fire damage from alleged jet fuel noted at all.
This also ties into the DoD accounting fraud, which was one on many reasons behind the 9-11 scam.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Dk-OQPD-i7s/
“…which ejected debris outwards in front of the building…”
Nick O Demus,
Silly Goose! Did you not learn anything from the Zapruder film? That is how the Laws of Physics roll these days….
A fascinating 20 minute video (surely you’ve got that much time!) which explains in a fresh way why so many of you rubes prattle on endlessly defending your favorite political hero du joure and their bullshit “causes”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBfkR1YIU4A
All of JHK’s wishes for peace and goodwill dissolved in the last few posts. back to the subject.
I don’t watch It’s A Wonderful Life, since it’s stretched into a 3 hour TV special with a zillion commercials. I did see it four years ago in a movie house on a nearby campus, and that was enough for me. Personally, when it comes to Xmas movies I prefer The Lion in Winter…a barbaric family at the holiday season quarreling, plotting against each other, conniving and bitching as one seeks allies to get back at Dad, mom, brother…sounds like the Christmasses I knew.
As for the movie…the economic/ social message competes with the melodrama of George Bailey and his being tied to the business and unable to see the world he so desperately thinks he needs. A comment from Lew Rockwell years ago noted how that stair ornament keeps coming off, and is never fixed…that something in George’s stability is forever unfulfilled. Also, that the movie is a gradual profession of his wife asserting her need for domesticity over his for adventure. Life for George is always a series of interruptions.
I also read a commentary by one libertarian claiming Potter is actually the hero of the film, implying George’s father ran a failing business and mismanaged it, and Potter was only trying to make it right…well, take that for what you will, although I find i don’t really hate Potter. He has a plan, and always comes out at the head of the race. He also has the best line in the movie when he confronts a beaten, angry, almost begging George; ‘You seem like a bitter old man, but actually, you’re a bitter young man.’
Also, George didn’t lose the $8,000, it was Uncle Billy’s screw-up, and the old drunk was so centered on shooting back at Potter he loses the money. Potter finding the money is, according to the commentator, the only real evil deed Potter commits.
As for JHK’s point about George funding suburbia, I agree with much of this, but also remember most people in America simply want a semi-country life. I’m remind of the recent movie Brooklyn, where an Irish girl and her Italian fiancé go to a lonely stretch of Long island where new suburbs will be built, and it’s made clear such a house is a welcome escape from crowded, tenement life in NYC. As JHK made clear in his books, we’ve never had likable, livable cities.
Also, in the commentary, it was stated Potter kept housing in the city, while George was inadvertently funding a future housing bubble for people who couldn’t pay…the libertarian perspective?
But the strength of It’s a Wonderful Life…George looking back on his life and seeing what life would have been like without him, is it’s main point. All of us have to ask that. What would life be like without JHK, or all of us? We can say we don’t matter, but we want to hope we do.
Orwell said life, when viewed in retrospect, is seen as a defeat. Maybe Capra wants us to have hope…as they say, it’s a cold supper that makes a good breakfast.
And if you find Capra too sentimental, there’s always Charles Foster Kane, a kind of Potter.
I must admit I never gave thought about how the movie innocently plugged the development of suburbia, an anathema to JHK. But I can understand how he came up with the idea of his post, as suburban sprawl is a major topic for him.
In a similar light – speaking of Jimmy Stewart – I think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is the better movie. Very few people are concerned with the concept of how suburbia has affected our national landscape, but most adults are aware of political corruption and grafl, so that topic is more relevant to us today, I believe.
Taking on Uncle Billy’s sin was part of George’s nobility. Sacrifice was a way of life for him. Thus when he came to grief, the response from the Universe was so immense.
In a recent interview, JHK said that he now finds himself sympathetic to the US Evangelical Christians. Can you believe it?!
Ayatollah Khomeini said that the Iranian Nation is not derived from the will of the people but rather from the mind of A..ll,ah.
It’s a joke: Guess who gets to interpret the mind of god?
That’s the problem with a Theocracy.
We must be on the verge of something “Really Bad” When JHK starts identifying with the Evangelical Christians?
A Cheez Doodle shortage perhaps?
The People are now open to almost any Idea?
Tough audience: Tell an Ayatollah Khomeini joke, and stone faces.
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio will be sworn in for his second term by Sen. Bernie Sanders. That means Sanders is running again in 2020 and Trump is toast.
Oh Janet, it must be nice to smoke so much dope.
People across the United States rushed this week to pay their 2018 property taxes early, hoping to avoid Trump’s tax increase on the middle class.
On Wednesday, however, the Internal Revenue Service announced that those prepayments could be deducted only in limited circumstances. The middle class cannot weasel out of paying the tax increase on the middle class signed by Trump.
Local governments could also come under pressure to refund millions of dollars, causing big headaches due to the Trump middle class tax rip off.
How do you like it now, gentlemen?
“Now here’s one catch in the story: the main business of George Bailey’s bank is lending money to build the first post-war suburban housing development outside of town, a project called Bailey Park. One of the pivotal scenes concerns the Martini family, immigrants, moving into their new suburban home with great sentimental fanfare. So, what we’re witnessing in that incident is the beginning of the destructive force that will soon blight small town life (and big city life, too) all over the country. Moviegoers in 1946 probably had little intuition of the consequences…” JHK
A thousand to one that the Martini’s were legal.
That “destructive force” was inevitable, given the robust post war economy, high prices of land and congestion in the cities, the highway programs and seemingly limitless automotive horsepower.
In 1946, Wyatt Earp had been dead for only seventeen(?) years, and both the nation and the world still had some sense of frontier about it. A house on 6,000 sq. ft. plot was far better than a five story tenement walk up. And of course “ownership” was key.
Let’s not forget that many people had great lives out in those burbs for many decades. Many still do. Questions of scale and sustainability are now more urgent issues. But the inevitable is never really planned. Yeah, I would say close to zero intuition regarding the consequences.
No offense Jim but I don’t give a shit about It’s a Wonderful Life or its overt or subliminal messages. What I give a shit about is the ruination of our spoken language which is happening at an increasing clip. I’m not talking about the occasional typo on these threads or the fact that half the commenters here don’t know when to use ‘then’ vs ‘than.’ No, I’m talking about a disease of speech the equivalent of cholera or polio or the black plague.
The neighbor kid, an 18 year old girl, is home for the holidays from her first (Freshman) semester at Bryn Mawr. We had her and her Mom over for tea and cookies. Have you listened to the speech of otherwise intelligent young women lately? “Uptalk” is no longer just this occasional speech quirk. It is a full blown thorough infection. Without an iota of hyperbole, 9 out of 10 sentences are inflected so that if seen written they would end with question marks. It is downright maddening! Along with uptalk and the possibly even MORE annoying (if that is possible) “vocal fry” go an entire repertoire of physical tics and mannerisms…the rolling of eyes, the running of fingers around the ears to brush back long strands of hair, the unnatural shaping of the mouth to convey I don’t know, to convey something not obvious to normal people from another era. And they speak too softly and in quick little bursts. There are no confidently uttered and enunciated declarative sentences. The incessant fiddling with hair around the ears is something all young women do but never 50 year-olds. Why? Is it sexy to fiddle with your hair?
And to make it even worse this plague is making significant inroads into the speech of young males and even adult professional radio and TV journalists of both sexes. I swear to God, I can’t take it!! I’m going to lose my mind!! Don’t these people ever hear recordings of themselves? Don’t they say “OH MY FUCKING GOD, I SOUND RIDICULOUS!?!?!
Jeez, Q, maybe watching “My Fair Lady” would help.
Is she hot? WTF. Looking might ease the pain. Some time ago, a couple of older women on separate occasions did that hair thing, put up their arms and threw their hair around a bit while we were talking. Man, was that a positive sign.
I couldn’t say about the ears.
Strange shapings of the mouth? Rebellion has become the popular Culture – which is an absurdity. Call it Alba for short. In the case of your young friend, it has become physiological, perhaps as a way to ease the tension of the absurdity by way of the orgiastic.
It was like Keith being outraged when Mick accepted Knighthood. He couldn’t accept that they had won and that the rebellion had become the norm. Who are the rebels now? The alt-right Of Course. We’re the niggers now, the Hasidim, the Righteous Men.
Playing with the hair is a classic feminine gesture of seduction. Not that she’s interested in Q, she’s just trying seduce the world since verbalization is such an effort and falls so short, as the result is just the absurdity that we have now as our common culture.
I completely forgot to give credit where credit is due. Effeminate gay men are the absolute worst when it comes to uptalk and vocal fry. Straight young women cannot hold the proverbial candle to gay men. There is no need for elaboration. It is just sooo awful.
Yes, the megacity is now untethered. Great article in Sunday’s NYT.
“San Francisco. Well before anyone thought of this place as the center of the tech economy, the Bay Area built ships. And it did so with the help of many parts of the country.
Douglas fir trees logged in the Pacific NW were turned into lumber schooners here. Steel from the East, brought in by railroad, became merchant vessels. During WW2, workers assembled battleships with parts from across the country: steam turbines from Schenectady, N.Y., and Lester, PA; gear winches from Tacoma, Wash.; radio equipment from Newark; compasses from Detroit; generators from Milwaukee.”
You get the idea. Industrial connective links between big, major cities and smaller ones are mostly gone.
“Google’s digital products don’t have a physical supply chain. Facebook doesn’t have dispersed manufacturers. Apple, which does make tangible things, now primarily makes them overseas.”
The great nexus of Chicago has lost its economic links across the Midwest. Links to Wisconsin mill towns, Iowa farmers, and Michigan ice houses.
This sums it up nicely. This picture “breaks a past pattern where a range of smaller, more provincial cities actually fed the rise of the major cities.”
“Now major cities are feeding one another, and doing so across the globe. New York needs London. But what about Bethlehem, PA.?”
Billy Joel wrote, arguably his most socially conscious song, about that exact predicament and decades ago at that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHnJp0oyOxs
It could be fictional Bedford Falls or Potterstown, but instead, it is the concrete actuality of thousands of real places across the American landscape; from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon.
In the NEW American economy – Hyper-Finance Crony Capitalism – hierophants and globalists work their wicked sorcery. Factories become too costly to build and operate to make stuff here. Workers get permanently furloughed as waste products of worldwide labor competition. Physical stores slide into obsolescence as Amazon delivery boxes fill each and every street on trash pick-up day; Crypto-currencies become the new coin of the realm without physicality, backing, or meaning.
But I dwell on dark images and sufferings. It’s a wonderful life after all: the toilet is broken; someone vandalized the car (if I ever catch that shitbird they are going to get very hurt) and the Yzlamk State (yes, those wonderful party-hearty butchering jihadis from Mesopotamia) had a superlative day bombing the capital of Shitholistan.
Sounds like that vandal’s pecker is gonna meet a Black and Decker.
“The neighbor kid, an 18 year old girl…” –Qshtik
Chill, Q. It is a phase 18 year old girls go through. The uptalk and vocal fry will diminish with time. I find it kind of endearing.
“A thousand to one that the Martini’s were legal.” –tucsonspur
Hogwash, tucsonspur. The Martinis were illegal. The “my ancestors came legally” argument is absurd because they simply didn’t.
Once Congress put immigration quotas in place to keep out less desirable Eastern and Southern Europeans in 1921, the Europeans began sneaking in by the thousands.
On June 17, 1923, the New York Times reported that W.H. Husband, commissioner general of immigration, had been trying for two years “to stem the flow of immigrants from central and southern Europe, Africa and Asia that has been leaking across the borders of Mexico and Canada and through the ports of the east and west coasts.”
A story from the Sept. 16, 1927, New York Times describes government plans for stepped up Coast Guard patrols because thousands of Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Russians and Italians were landing in Cuba and then hiring smugglers to take them to the United States, illegally.
Two years earlier, the immigration service reported that 1.4 million immigrants might be living illegally in the U.S., according to the immigration service’s 1925 annual report.
“The figures presented are worthy of very serious thought, especially when it is considered that such a great percentage of our population … whose first act upon reaching our shores was to break our laws by entering in a clandestine manner,” the report found.
The problem got so bad that the government was forced to legalize an estimated 200,000 illegal European immigrants by a process called pre-examination. These days, the process would be called amnesty.
Clearly, if everyone’s grandparents said they immigrated legally, someone’s grandparents were lying. When people cite their grandparents (in this case the Martinis), they’re basically operating with a very limited understanding of what immigration was back then.
God help us, so bad back then and so much worse now.
But don’t forget, nobody is illegal in “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Being so would belie the title.
Meanwhile, Pope Francie sucks off a buncha yummy Muslims. Ya gotta luv it.
Yurpeeons, having killed/chased off their Jews, now spread their collective legs for a horde of preverts and maniac killers. They deserve what they’ll get. Maybe they’ll luv it.
Please ignore the above comment. It was meant for Janos’s screed below.
Screed? Why? Because you don’t like it? How is that any valid criterion of anything? U a Trible?
I agree about the so called Pope. Mark Steyn: The Pope has described the journey of Mary and Joseph to the migration of peoples into Europe.
a horde of preverts – Tenneshaw
===========
PREverts, hahaha… those who come before verts, I suppose.
Q
Pre-vert is a term used often as an affectation…to mimic the colloquialisms of the unwashed.
I used to refer myself as one of the unwashed, until I took your advice and acquired a hand-held bidet….
A description of the struggle of the Jesuits against Jewish infiltration of their order.
Being children of this world, pompous, cunning, fake, self-seeking, etc., it is certain that they fit religious life very badly and that it is impossible to maintain union with them. If those of this blood are made superiors, they employ almost all their government in external things: they promote genuine mortification and solid virtues very little, and seem to be merchants, seeking first seats and being called rabbis; they are hardly eager to seek perfection that is described in the parts 5 and 6 of the Constitutions; and readily admit others of the same blood who are very unworthy.”
Manuel Rodrigues, Jesuit curia in Rome.
Meanwhile, Pope Francie sucks off a buncha yummy Muslims. Ya gotta luv it.
Yurpeeons, having killed/chased off their Jews, now spread their collective legs for a horde of preverts and maniac killers. They deserve what they’ll get. Maybe they’ll luv it.
“And they speak too softly and in quick little bursts. There are no confidently uttered and enunciated declarative sentences.” Q. Shtik
Q., speaking with a mouthful of marbles is how I describe the seemingly complete inability to ennunciate the language within any verbal communication. There is a youth nearing the age of majority in this household so I have the opportunity to attempt to communicate with some high school seniors. We are through the looking glass darkly and words now mean what the speaker intends them to mean, nothing more – nothing less. Reading was a passion for me in my youth and incorporating the language I found in the pages into my conversation was instrumental in acquiring the ability to be comfortable in conversation whichever cultural mileu I found myself in. My guess is that there is a new dialect , Consumer Speak, at play. The whole point is to make mindless comsumption the basis for all human interaction.
Thank you for your passion for language.
wm
The Jesuits themselves deny the existence of a particular Jesuit morality. And in fact they are right. Their theologians-moralists did not invent a new concept of moral law, nor a new ethical-theological method. Therefore, when one talks about the morality of the Jesuits, they usually do not have in mind a particular ethical theory, but a number of moral rules that allegedly sanction immorality in practice; in this regard, the words “Jesuitism” and “hypocrisy” are perceived as identical. For the characteristic difference of these rules is that they teach how to break the law without sinning before the letter of the law.
Church criminal law, whose tribunal is the confessional, like secular criminal law, often admits a wide variety of interpretations. Both in secular criminal law, and here the opinions of scientists regarding the nature of the sinner’s sin or responsibility often differ significantly; among medieval theologians, we can distinguish between two schools – strict and condescending. The Jesuits from the very beginning – with Ignatius instructions to the confessors – belong to an indulgent direction; Moreover, they helped the indulgent direction to win in Catholic moral theology and practice of confession. Usually they used all means to provide the sinner, at least in the confessional, with a recognition of the mitigating circumstances. For this purpose, they tried to give as narrow a definition of the concept of mortal sin and possibly broader – the concept of redeemable, or easy, sin and the notion of what is permitted.
From their point of view, sin appears only in the event that the sinner quite consciously wanted evil. If he was directed to evil not directly or unconsciously, then one can not blame him, and the confessor must release his sins, even if his deed appears to be criminal and has led to immoral consequences.
The commandment of the Lord commands us: do not bear false witness. But a false oath takes place only when the one who swears during the taking of an oath deliberately uses such words, which under any circumstances should deceive the judge.
The use of ambiguous expressions, therefore, is entirely permissible; in certain circumstances even the use of a secret reservation is allowed (restrictio mentalis). For example, if one person killed another during self-defense, he can safely state the following to the court: “I did not kill N.N.”, thinking to myself: I did not kill, attacking him. If a husband asks an adulterous wife whether she has violated a marriage, she can safely say: “I did not”, because the marriage continues to exist. If she has been forgiven in confession, she can even swear that she has no sin, thinking at the same time of the absolution that freed her from sin. If the husband still continues to feel suspicions, she can reassure him by stating: “I did not commit adultery”, while thinking: “Adultery, in which I should have confessed to you.”
God’s commandment says: “Do not kill.” But not everyone who kills a man, sins before this commandment.
If, for example, a nobleman is threatened with a slap or hit with a stick, he can kill his abuser on the spot. But only a nobleman, and not a plebeian, because for the plebeians in the slap there is nothing defamatory.
God’s commandment says: “Do not commit adultery.” However, the house can be rented to prostitutes if, at the time of concluding the lease, it is not explicitly stated that the house is being rented for the purpose of installing a whorehouse in it. Similarly, it does not amount to much sin when a servant helps his master to dishonor a girl, if he will be punished for refusal, and so on.
You can also arrange an abortion to a pregnant girl, if her misconduct threatens to disgrace her or even a person of spiritual rank. Also in order to avoid a big shame, you can get rid of an illegitimate child. It is only necessary to baptize the child beforehand and take measures so that child does not freeze.
As we near the end of this year it might be appropriate to take the way-back machine to the year 1964 and reflect on some language that certainly has no place in America today. When Mr. Goldwater made his acceptance speech to be the candidate of the Republican Party, he exposed the fraudulent myth that America was a nation of conservatives. What became evident to me was that we were a nation of mindless reactionaries with no taste for self governance. The fact that the content and style of the “Daisy” commercial is the basis for all modern political conversation is telling. There I stood at the age of thirteen with the realization that Americans had no taste for reason and could be swayed so easily by purely emotional images. I posit that the fear of nuclear exchange was little more than propaganda, take a closer look at the delivery sytems of the time. This fact was and still is beyond the ken of the average American.
“And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”(Goldwater) Quite easy to discern that our nation has no use for such concepts even today. I offer this blog comment section as proof for my perspective. Mindless reaction to propaganda and falsehood still reigns supreme. I advance the incessant posting of our resident sphincter, Janos, as proof that one can sell excrement at the gates of a sewer plant that gives the sludge away freely.
The antithesis of poverty is justice. When you seek to limit justice you are creating poverty. We have a nation drowning in the poverty created by accepting injustice, noted by Mr. Hornsby, as just the way it is.
Some of us still hold that some truths are self-evident. Mr. Gorsuch and his ilk who believe that Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madision were not fully modern men writing to humanity and the future besmear the price that has been paid for our freedom. The political opportunism displayed by such is not worthy of Mr. Jefferson’s or Mr. Madision’s latrine.
FincaInTheMountains – I would offer that the strong point of the Jesuits is scholactisticism. The hierarchy of the roman church was adequately corrupted by the sixteenth century that nothing was needed to justify any or all corruption. Luther is noted for speaking truth to power not for any deep insight. Everyone in Europe knew the roman church’s hierarchy was corrupt. Luther’s efforts opened the flood gates of corruption by giving everyone the right to personal interpretation of Scripture.
I offer the view, advanced by the judiciary in the HOBBY LOBBY and similiar cases, that corruption of the ideas and substance of Scripture for political gain or moral justification is as vibrant as it has always been. Might I interest you a dispensation?
Religious hierarchies are just plain ol’ political hierarchies, albeit wrapped up in the vestments of whatever particular brand of lunacy they’re peddling. More dangerous in the long run, as their authority is deemed to be above reproach for the unwashed masses. Thus, they always make excellent bedfellows for conventional politicians (W, anyone?) to use and abuse at their leisure.
Nobody in this world understands what quantum mechanics is. This is perhaps the most important thing you need to know about it.
Nobody in this world understands why the Roman Catholic Church in 11th century broke away from the Eastern Orthodox Church, part of which it was and Pope was a subject of the Emperor of Byzantium.
This is perhaps the most important thing we need to know about it.
“Luther’s efforts opened the flood gates of corruption by giving everyone the right to personal interpretation of Scripture.”
The corruption existed before Luther as well as the right [ responsibility ] of personal application of scripture. Technology gave us access. If anything this opened the floodgate of Liberty.
“Where the Spirit of God is, there is Liberty.”
Libtards and Rethugs: Insulting Each Other as the “Elites” Laugh at Us
Written by Teodrose Fikre, December 26, 2017 (Yes Janos, he’s black, a native Ethiopian no less!)
An excerpt:
The Soviets used to call unthinking loyalists who let themselves be used “useful idiots”. The Democrats and Republicans use a veiled yet more insulting label as they call their most loyal followers their “base”—as in the beneath of the parties. Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, was partaking in this exact form of malicious paternalism today on C-SPAN as he took to the podium to say how Democrats should not seek corporate contributions if they don’t cater to their base first. The crowd was eating it up as they clapped for talking points that were most likely written by speech writers who vote for Republicans. This is what too many of us don’t see, the political infighting in DC and the back and forth we see between Republicans and Democrats is nothing but staged drama. Once the cameras are turned off and the klieg lights are dimmed, the DNC and RNC stop screaming at each other and congratulate one another for a con job well done.
Both sides of the partisan and ideological divide get paid by their plutocratic masters and their corporate patrons to foist this never ending political slug fest upon the rest of us. Instead of saying enough and reclaiming our government, we eat up the anthrax laced red meat both parties throw at us. Like Pavlov’s dog, we salivate when the next political controversy is ginned up and attack one another the minute Fox News or MSNBC broadcast the latest and breaking outrage narrative. In short order, we glom on to the “news” of the day and sprint to social media to vilify and maul each other. All fire and no light, as we burn each other to a crisp, behind the scenes bureaucrats and think tanks cook up new policies that transfers yet more wealth away from the vast majority of us into the pockets of the establishment and their aristocratic chieftains. From a hustler who promised hope and change to an ogre who lies about making America great again, identity politics is preventing us from seeing the true source of injustice that is fleecing all of us.
https://ghionjournal.com/libtards-and-rethugs/
And from Greer recently:
Systems That Suck Less
John Michael Greer
December 27, 2017
Since 1945 the conventional wisdom across most of the world has insisted that there are two and only two possible systems of political economy: socialism on the one hand, capitalism on the other. That’s very convenient for socialists and capitalists, since it allows both sides to contrast an idealized and highly sentimental picture of the system they favor with the real and disastrous failings of the one they don’t, and insist that since the two systems are the only available options, you’d better choose theirs. This allows both sides to ignore the fact that the system they prefer is just as bad as the one they hate.
Let us please be real.
In theory, socialism is a wonderful system in which the workers own the means of production, and people contribute what they can and receive what they need. In practice, as seen in actual socialist societies? It sucks. Get past the rhetoric, and what happens is that the workers’ ownership of the means of production becomes a convenient fiction; an inner circle of politicians controls the means of production, and uses it to advance its own interests rather than that of the workers. Centralized bureaucracy becomes the order of the day, fossilization follows, and you end up with the familiar sclerosis of the mature socialist economy, guided by hopelessly inefficient policies mandated by clueless central planners, and carried out grudgingly by workers who know that they have nothing to gain by doing more than the minimum. Eventually this leads to the collapse of the system and its replacement by some other system of political economy.
In theory, equally, capitalism is a wonderful system in which anyone willing to work hard can get ahead, and the invisible hand of the market inevitably generates the best possible state of affairs for everyone. In practice, as seen in actual capitalist societies? It sucks. Get past the rhetoric, and what happens is that social mobility becomes a convenient fiction; an inner circle of plutocrats controls the means of production, and uses economic power backed by political corruption to choke the free market and stomp potential competitors. Monopoly and oligopoly become the order of the day, wealth concentrates at the top of the pyramid, and you end up with the familiar sclerosis of the mature capitalist society, in which the workers who actually make the goods and provide the services can’t afford to buy them, resulting in catastrophic booms and busts, soaring unemployment, and the rise of a violent and impoverished underclass. Eventually this leads to the collapse of the system and its replacement by some other system of political economy.
https://www.ecosophia.net/systems-suck-less/
How many of the products you buy are locally made? Stop whining and start supporting your local economy. Stop buying at the corporate store, corporate food, corporate water, corporate cloths, corporate electronics, corporate propaganda, corporate schooling, corporate cars, corporate vacations, and paying for it all on corporate plastic cards. We know they are predators and so are the politicians they sponsor. It doesn’t take much to turn things around. God doesn’t care what you think, he cares about what you do about it. Become active and stop spending your days and nights here whining.
“God doesn’t care what you think, he cares about what you do about it.”
akmofo,
According to whom? You?
It’s these kind of inane pronouncements that keep the temperature in here as cold as it is outside right now… and that’s none too warm! 12 degrees F with 20-30 mph gusts.
I think we can understand what you’re trying to say without the armor-plated self-congratulations of sanctimony. (Which turns out to be nothing more than nourishment for trolls, in case you haven’t noticed.)
Well, Scratch is above it all. He believes that good governance will come to cats like him by whining about propaganda he ate at some KGB propaganda dumpster.
Still butthurt because I pissed on your home team the other day aren’t you? You’re a real “loud and proud rugged individualist,” aren’t you?
Rugged individualist? You and burt can butthurt each other all you want:
https://youtu.be/yj4LnfkdJDM
And a pig fucker too? I never would have guessed!
I lied. I supected it all along.
“You’re a real “loud and proud rugged individualist,” aren’t you?”
Nick O Demus,
In my very distant past, while a freshman in High School in San Antonio Texas, the above phrase would have been uttered thus;
“Y’All said some stuff, and you said it real loud….” Usually a fist fight to follow.
“You sit on a Throne of Lies” – Buddy the Elf to a fake Santa Claus
“Americans fleeing tax-heavy blue states at a record pace”
— https://youtu.be/y4q6njC8_0k
People are voting with their feet. President trump is helping accelerate this. The next step is for people to vote with their hands. Stop working for the corporations and start your own business.
Mofo, I’m not so sure that can work without a revolution. The “system” is so heavily stacked against the independent worker. I was an independent for a few decades. Finally, I was essentially forced to go back to work for “the man”. Healthcare is just one example of what I assert. The cost of insurance policies for an independent are significantly more costly and have fewer benefits than those offered in companies. Maybe that’s changed, I don’t know. My opinion on why this has happened is as follows; The US has essentially morphed into a Soviet-style bureaucracy. Bureaucrats rule. And bureaucrats need companies/organizations, even better, large companies/organizations, to provide them with the opportunities to minister to the “needs” of the governed, whether governed in the private sense (as in companies) or in the public sense (as in the government).
Corporations survive from quater to quarter. They are on a knife’s edge. Even a trillion dollar company like Apple can be killed in a very short time. It’s simple, stop buying.
Stop voting for slick corporate politicians that provide subsidies to corporations at your expense, and start voting for politicians that will claw back corporate welfare while they institute tax free zones for individual businesses. Take your public places back, starting with with beach front properties that are now stolen by the rich. The level of civic complacency in the American public is just outrageous.
Let me guess. You’re “independently” rich and you owe it all to the “sweat of your brow,” because YOU among all men, have discovered the fucking secret! You’re rich, you’re independent, and by God/Yahweh (oh yeah, I forgot to mention you’re a fucking Jew too!), EVERYONE else should just shut the fuck up and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps like YOU did! Does that sum it up pretty well? How nice for you!
Yeah, what will you do without iphone. How will you spend your days and nights. You’re pathetic. You can’t bring yourself to any kind of discipline. Keep screaming “fucking Jew”. You’re not the first bloviating racist loser, and not the last. Go play footsie with the spiders in your wood shack.
the invisible hand of the market inevitably generates the best possible state of affairs for everyone.
Sure it does, except when this “invisible hand” is not busy picking your pockets.
More hyperventilation this morning. What will it be next? Kim Jong-un is a sexist pig who desperately wants to pat our women on their fat little asses and breathe his kimchi breath into their ears? Now there’s something to get worked up about!
North Korea WARNING: Anthrax could be Kim Jong-un’s latest weapon – ‘they mean business’
NORTH KOREA could be developing biological weapons alongside its nuclear program, an expert has warned amid rising fears of World War 3.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/897403/North-Korea-news-World-War-3-Donald-Trump-latest-biological-weapon
Funny: absolutely NO ONE I know has a “rising fear” of WWIII. On the other hand, a false flag incident to justify an overthrow of the Lil Fat Man to gain access to territory on the border with both China and Russia…?
I rather think the Beloved Pudgy One* has had, or access to, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons since the armistice agreement of July 1953.
Does Best Korea mean business? I think they do — the Hermit Kingdom does not want to be bombed, invaded or annihilated by any party especially the U.S.S.A.
Did you hear that America has sent a [classified] strength ground force into Yemen to help things out? Among the objectives is to bring them Democracy and all the associated benefits of military assistance from Unkle Sam. U.S. Forces have been operating there for minimum of 15 years! Ships (remember the U.S.S. Cole anyone?) in port and patrolling territorial waters; drone strikes against a ubiquitous Yzlamik asymmetrical threat and Spec Ops types going in harm’s way to get those “Bad Guys.”
WWIII could happen any day with the idiots in charge of the party favors on both sides. It could be hypoxia of high office or the Puzzle Palace that causes such tactical and strategic miscalculations. Blame it on too much Tee Vee if you like.
For America’s regular lumpen and proles, however, the NFL playoff picture, LeBron James’ upcoming political insights, the employment problem for Colin Kaepernick, the acquisition problem of gaining some Bitcoins, as well as the tres gay CNN New Year’s Eve special hosted by Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, are much more important than worrying about some inscrutable Orientalia and the Big One.
*Does Kim like to pat down his comfort girls? I bet he does. It all comes with that Juche party attitude of being top dog.
.
Well they can destroy us now with an EMP strike, say launched from commercial vessels registered from a Chinese African state. I’m assuming that they are to China as Hezbollah is to Irah – the Tip of the Spear.
Excellent point Janos.
Let us not even think about considering the vulnerabilities smorgasbord of commercial shipping arrangements here and abroad.
A half million or so Hanjin (bankrupt S. Korean container company – who can stand the irony) containers might be hanging around ports globally with plenty of opportunity for that “special” cargo load.*
Add in lots of freighters with too little business floating around the Seven Seas looking for some odd job to help with revenue enhancement.
What percentage of those that are in U.S. ports are actually checked by the great folks at Homeland Security?
*Frederick Forsyth provided a well-crafted sneak preview back in 1984 with “The Fourth Protocol.”
pecky,
Great comment with the necessary slathering of cynicism.
” It could be hypoxia of high office…” Perfect.
Too much tee vee? Welll, that certainly doesn’t help. Tee Vee viewing requires — nay, *demands* — a suspension of imagination and deeper thought, and I would suppose that if the mind is not exercised in those disciplines, they become dormant. Voila! Consumers/Customers! Hurrah!
Yeah but what shows did you like before you became an Anar-Dick?
…And just who was vladdie before he took up the occupation of paid asshole?
Probably some local, unpaid asshole without internet access.
And I think you’ve been had. This is a classic bit of geopolitical theater which has been brought back to life to distract the sheep and continue to justify outrageous defense budgets in the face of another attempt at legitimate audits.
Funny: absolutely NO ONE I know has a “rising fear” of WWIII.
Funny: in 1962 NO ONE I knew in the USSR had any idea about the Caribbean Missile Crisis – now the US propaganda and the blackout of real news from the general public is on par with the Soviet one of that time.
Nobody has a clue!
I was just listening to my favorite right wing radio broadcast, and all I can say is after passing that tax bill, they are feeling pretty frisky. Now they are talking about getting rid of social security. They call it an “evil” bill. They are getting pretty cocky.
They are idiots. More than 60 million people is on Social Security – and most of them paid into the system all their lives.
What they wanna do? Murder ’em all?
After years of toil, increasingly bad food and exposure to an increasingly toxic environment, those Social Security recipients are likely pretty frail. It would not take much of a war, with its attendant privations, to make them “disappear”. Thus it may be useful to have a suitably well armed enemy.
Personally, I refuse to go quietly.
With a couple of trusted AK-47s I’ll try my best to invite as many mother-bleepers as I can for a company.
Slowly, but yes.
“They are getting pretty cocky.” capt spaulding
Yes the financialization of consciousness is going pretty well. Adding a reference to the NFL as mentioned above, what you describe looks like excessive demonstration in the end zone but I’m not looking for a flag.
FincaInTheMountains – “This is perhaps the most important thing you need to know about it.”
And yet it is the best desciption of how this thing works, perhaps the most important thing you might need to know about it.
Does anyone truly know why the new testament was the outcome of Nicaea? As mentioned here recently, Campbell’s work helps sort through the some of the dross.
Elrond, I didn’t say what is coming in the future will be fun and pleasant, I said it wouldn’t be fascist.
What happened in Russia and China was bloody and violent, but you’ll notice that communists fought tooth and nail in German streets with German fascists. Communists and fascists had different views of how things ought to work, what Russia and China did wasn’t like what Germany and Italy did.
Communism wasn’t fascism even though both came out of serious distress. What happens on this side of the pond will be nasty, but neither will it be fascism. Fascism was a product of another time and other places. It had its day. History may rhyme but it doesn’t repeat.
What WILL happen is what IS happening in the old republic State of California:
Incoming refugees are praising California Governor Jerry Brown for his generosity in making California the first lawful sanctuary state in the old republic, effective January 1, 2018!
And the refugees believe Jerry represents the consent of homeowners, and fully expect to be welcomed into private homes for loving care. Welcome to the Hotel California!
….all the while the cumulative REAL ESTATE holdings of STATE GOVERNMENT continue to escalate.
…..as the federal government sends $768 million to the peninsula of Saudi Arabia for “humanitarian aid.”
CONSTITUTIONALISM is the new counterculture.
Sent from the New Republic.
http://www.got-truth.com/
I don’t think I agree with your reasoning, volodya. Fascism is not specific to a time and/or place as you say. What it is, is a form of totalitarianism founded in extreme nationalism. It’s true that there are other varieties of totalitarianism, but I see no other nascent totalitarian forces at work right now besides the infamous alt-right, which is explicitly fascist-identified (just ask Janos).
I don’t know what’s actually ‘coming’ and neither do you; if things get bad enough, governance in the future might actually get better (meaning actually giving a shit about the consequences of policy for the bulk of the population) as it did under FDR.
Whatever is ‘coming’, if it ends up being totalitarian in character it’s more liable to deserve the name fascism than any other name. There’s no other identifiable totalitarian seed currently being sown.
Let me leave this for you as I head out the door for the day:
Fox News and CNN were the number one sources of information by measure of site visits and viewer numbers as tabulated in November 2017.
Researchers chart the secret movement of quantum particles
One of the fundamental prerequisites of the quantum theory is that quantum objects can exist both as waves and as particles, and that they do not exist in any of these states until they are measured. This was proved by Erwin Schrödinger in his famous experiment with a cat in a box.
The main problem is that any measurement of a particle influences its main physical parameters, such as speed, location, and spin.
Cambridge University specialists succeeded in what was previously considered impossible in the world of quantum physics: observing the movement of quantum particles in absolutely imperceptible way.
A substantial contribution to this wonderful scientific discovery was made by their colleges in NSA, CIA, and other 17 + 1 alphabet agencies, part of American intelligence community, who acquired this priceless scientific experience while chasing the quantum-denominated ghosts of Russian hackers around the Informational Super-highway at mind-boggling hyper-light speeds, proving that they well justified humongous amounts of money paid by American taxpayers for their sporting events.
https://www.cam.ac.uk/subjects/quantum-mechanics
Well now, at least we know it wasn’t all wasted then! How very comforting. Trouble is, the much larger question, which will never be answered, is: HOW MUCH was wasted in the first place? That answer, apparently exists only on the quantum level as well.
And just think, with all of the advances in theoretical, and of practical applications, of quantum mechanics, we still haven’t the scientific power to cure a common cold.
Or to balance a checkbook, apparently.
https://www.amren.com/news/2017/12/profs-farmers-markets-cause-environmental-gentrification/
Remember, all this is a potlatch for Whites. They’re in competition (add italics). So the young Turks have to shoulder the moderate race hustlers like Elrond (maybe he is and maybe he isn’t) aside in order to make a name for themselves. And also by the Ethnic professors and activists themselves as well.
So Elrond and Alba can say they didn’t mean for this to happen. But don’t let them off the hook – they contributed more than their share to insure that it Would happen.
Spoiler alert: I’m not.
Not a moderate race hustler? Then you’re an extreme one. You’re not not a race hustler of some degree!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj23_nDFSfE
The Economist nods to Geoengineering.
https://real-leaders.com/the-world-in-2018-key-global-themes-to-watch/
Spoken like a true race-hustling asshole. (IOW, a good impersonation.)
But don’t forget, nobody is illegal in “It’s a Wonderful Life”. –tucsonspur
Don’t forget that, if the Martinis are legal, it is only because they received an amnesty. Which is exactly what should happen with the 30 million undocumented residents of the USA who are within our borders, paying taxes, and yet are not recognized as citizens.
Legalize them now …with full voting rights… Stop preventing people who love our country from becoming citizens. Stop the bullshit bureaucratic obstacles.
Not gonna happen under President Trump. He’s a stickler when it come to immigration law.
brh
Well, I found an anvil. Lady in town is selling her house and asked if I would help clean up the property, and clean out the barn. The house was built in 1815. The anvil was barely visible underneath a pile of rusted iron inside the barn. Its pretty rust too. I’ll take a wire brush to it if the weather ever warms up, and see what I have. (right now thermometer stands at 0 F.
I also found a big old firemans axe, stamped ‘Underhill’, a little research shows it was made in Boston sometime after 1850 and before 1890.
that was the age of steel and brawn in America. Those were the days!
Happy New Year, CFNers!
brh