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The current political mess and people popping under pressure
I’m reminded of two things in light of the recent Charlottesville murder(s).
- Dan Carlin’s observation that this is what happens when pressure builds up in a society – the weak parts just start popping. He was originally talking about the stabbing murders in Portland and the congressional shooting in Virginia. To wit – political violence in America is rarely planned, and often carried out by short term thinkers, the highly anxious, the failed artists, the “frustrated” (in Hoffer’s sense)
- I heard a debate after the Newtown murders about video games. One person rightfully said that there are no studies directly linking the two. The other rightfully said that there is no way to have a control group, and raised the question – if you were going to train someone to commit horrible crimes like that (a Manchurian candidate for our modern times I suppose) wouldn’t you want to find some mentally or socially aberrant (pick your dysfunction, anxiety, addiction, neurotic or any bad thing that comes from a horrible childhood) person and have them virtually shoot things for 8 hours a day? Substitute our modern wealth of outrage media, sleep deprivation, drugs (pick any really), and I think you get the same result.
Sadly Eric Hoffer gets more relevant every day.
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The Atlanta Podcast is now real
Actually it’s been real for about a month now – It’s a joint venture with Matt Davis – Check out The Atlanta Podcast – he’s had a lot of great guests on so far.
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Monday quote – Utah Phillips edition
I’ve been feeling very Western in sentiment lately, and less Southern I suppose – I find myself thinking more about how my Grandfather described America, i.e. bounded disparate identities moving in the same direction (that’s how I remember it anyway) – which made this quote ring true.
Yes, the long memory is the most radical idea in this country. It is the loss of that long memory which deprives our people of that connective flow of thoughts and events that clarifies our vision, not of where we’re going, but where we want to go.”
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Quote of the day – Trump Version
From the Sam Harris podcast
If he can’t grope it, or put gold letters on it, it doesn’t exist.
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One unnoted correlation regarding gays and the military
Seemingly the gayer the military gets, i.e. starting with don’t ask , don’t tell, then to openly serving, then to the current whatever transgender terminology the stature of the military has gone up, by any measure I can think of, in every quarter of society. Come to think of it, it’s probably gone too far, and we we’re not exercising enough oversight and thought like we should.
I have no greater point, but it’s odd that no one else has noticed the connection.
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Transgender Dog Whistles
So, the whole “transgender issue”, whatever that is seems to be the premier dog whistle and distraction of the age – Trump just made some pronouncement on the topic – which will gin up lots of controversy, which probably means that there is some other more important, probably brand detrimental bit of news that will be coming down the pike soon. Russia? Sessions? Healthcare?
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Thought of the day – from Henry Luce
A higher percentage of working age men are at work in FRANCE than in America.
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I’m not sure if this is a sad comment or not
From Marleigh on the way to zoo camp this morning.
Daddy – you haven’t made any new friends in a long time – do you want some help making new friends?
She is good at that sort of thing…
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Quote of the day
From Ammon Hennacy via Utah
Judge: You really think you’re going to change the world that way?
Hennacy: Maybe not, but it sure as hell isn’t going to change me!
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Five thoughts on Trump
- From some thought of Tyler Cowen – you can’t be the Court Jester and the King at the same time – the “deep state” – to the degree that it exists, which is a lot – is mostly just filling a vacuum left by Trump not actually doing things (which is probably for the best, but who know)
- NO ONE is talking about Trumps age (71), seemingly poor health, and direct family history of Alzheimers. Are we that old of a country, i.e. we’re all so old that some topics are just considered taboo across the political spectrum?
- Trump’s alienation of the Republican industry members (i.e. the people who are the assistant undersecretaries, etc, who actually know how to do stuff) will haunt him the rest of his term – leading to a lot of things not getting done (yay!).
- He has spurred the democrats to be an actual opposition party, something they generally do not do well.
- The Republican congressional majority does not seem to matter much.