The immeasurable self-confidence of wearing the proper scarf.

Damned straight I look good.

We don't know what gender was 'revealed,' but we know the kid will have an easy way to begin cocktail party conversations for a lifetime.

The art project makes me think of Cameron.

I said, The art project makes me think of Cameron (version with no music and with background information).

...makes me think of Cameron. ~ Crid at November 27, 2018 5:16 AM

Love that museum. Lived in Chicago for a short while and on weekends I would take a book, sit on the steps, and read between the lions.

I'm here all week, folks. Be sure to tip your waitresses and bartenders.

Marriage dying. Less sex. More loneliness. Society dying.

https://fabiusmaximus.com/2018/11/25/sexual-activity-declining/

A school in Brighton has 76 students who identify as transgender. 40 children don't identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, 36 say they are gender fluid.

https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1067324997235019776

Our Culture War Is Between People Who Get Results And Empty Suits With Pristine Credentials

http://thefederalist.com/2018/11/26/culture-war-results-empty-suits-pristine-credentials/

I meant version without narration, but you knew that.

The Art Institute is more fun than the NY Met, whatever their relative curatorial strengths. I think Chicago has more to prove because of the broad shoulders.

GM claims tariffs cost it over $1 billion, leading to layoffs of 14,000 employees, giving ammunition to the anti-Trump activists - and at least partially absolving GM's management of responsibility for its own bad decisions.

Let's face it, tariffs and steel prices were not the primary cause of GM's downfall. GM bet its future on sedans and lost.

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post is reporting that US-China trade tensions have led to increased costs for the Chinese PLA Navy's newest aircraft carrier, putting the regime's plans for floating 4 carrier battle groups by 2030 in doubt.

> Marriage dying. Less sex.
> More loneliness.
> Society dying.

So are you letting go of the "war" thing?

Do you ever have the sense that maybe your postings reflect more data about the outcomes for your interior life & choices than about the larger culture?

"Less sex."

"Society dying."

"War"

Read whatever you want, Pilgrim... The abyss also gazes into you and all that. Knock yourself out. Pretend your shortcomings are universal.

Ah, I have been told that the People's Republic of Portland is lovely this time of year.

https://youtu.be/vKuAcd0u6ys

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post is reporting that US-China trade tensions have led to increased costs for the Chinese PLA Navy's newest aircraft carrier, putting the regime's plans for floating 4 carrier battle groups by 2030 in doubt.

That's a bit of good, if unexpected, news.

This Graham v2.0 is very different.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/314093/

Child abuse.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/11/26/mom-dresses-six-year-old-son-girl-threatens-dad-losing-son-disagreeing/

If all the free-thinkers quit Twitter & move to Instagram or whatever, the same censorship will happen there within 6 months.

https://twitter.com/primalpoly/status/1067411832506392583

Google search for "unbearable whiteness"

All sorts of mainstream media articles pop up. I see:

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being

The Unbearable Whiteness of Success Tips

The Unbearable Whiteness of Baseball

The Unbearable Whiteness of Whiteness

The Unbearable Whiteness of Milk

The Unbearable Whiteness of 80s Nostalgia

The Unbearable Whiteness of Racist Speech

The Unbearable Whiteness of Indie Music

David Brooks' column (some here seem to think he's a liberal).

"Liberal Parents, Radical Children"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/opinion/millennial-activists-generation-gap.html

Excerpt from the second half:

...Two great belief systems are clashing here. The older liberals tend to be individualistic and meritocratic. A citizen’s job is to be activist, compassionate and egalitarian. Boomers generally think they earned their success through effort and talent.

The younger militants tend to have been influenced by the cultural Marxism that is now the lingua franca in the elite academy. Group identity is what matters. Society is a clash of oppressed and oppressor groups. People who are successful usually got that way through some form of group privilege and a legacy of oppression.

The big generational clashes generally occur over definitions of professional excellence. The older liberals generally believe that the open exchange of ideas is an intrinsic good. Older liberal journalists generally believe that objectivity is an important ideal. But for many of the militants, these restraints are merely masks for the preservation of the existing power structures. They offer legitimacy to people and structures that are illegitimate.

When the generations clash, the older generation generally retreats. Nobody wants to be hated and declared a moral pariah by his or her employees. Nobody wants to seem outdated. If the war is between the left and Trumpian white nationalism, nobody wants to be seen siding with Trump.

Plus, the militants have more conviction. In the age of social media, virtue is not defined by how compassionately you act. Virtue is defined by how vehemently you react to that which you find offensive. Virtue involves the self-display of a certain indignant sensibility, and anybody who doesn’t display that sensibility is morally suspect.

The generation gap on the right is less dramatic. It’s less politically important because the young don’t influence the G.O.P. much; the old Trumpians do.

But over the long run it will matter...

(snip)

> US-China trade tensions have
> led to increased costs

Well, we did what we could.

The Unbearable Whiteness of Baseball

Hispanics, Japanese players hardest hit.

Time Magazine's Mother of the year

https://twitter.com/conservmillen/status/1067123518255566849

That's a bit of good, if unexpected, news. ~ I R A Darth Aggie at November 27, 2018 8:45 AM

Coming on the start of the 68th anniversary of the Chosin Reservoir breakout, the timing is pretty interesting.

A thing I did not know from a Twitterer (Tweetist?) who usually locks his account:

The govt forced eHarmony to include gay dating and marriage services.

> the same censorship will happen
> there within 6 months.

No way out, Babe. Everything is war and darkness and sexless society dying in censorship.

Hemlock is your only option.

Or you could spend every waking moment encouraging others to be and emotionally constricted and fearful as you appear to be...

SHORT the STOCK!

> Everything is war and darkness and sexless society
> dying in censorship.

Don't forget spiritual bankruptcy as well -

https://twitter.com/usatodayvideo/status/1066110755156738048

It's what NPC's crave -

https://imgur.com/Sb8Zdtt

Google accused of manipulation to track users

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-google-accused-track-users.html

> spiritual bankruptcy
> as well

Poison, the noose, a pistol at your temple, a pebble in your pocket at the fishin' hole... Modernity provides a kaleidoscopic surfeit of options for the self-destructive shitweasal.

The rest of us ask only that you engage expedience as a primary criterion.

Best be gettin' on with it... Wouldn't wanna find anything new to click about

I meant to type 'cluck,' but either way...

> Our Culture War Is Between
> People Who Get Results And
> Empty Suits With Pristine
> Credentials

He/she totally means Elon.

"GM claims tariffs cost it over $1 billion, leading to layoffs of 14,000 employees,..."

Where? At one time, the Chevrolet S-10 was the #1-selling import truck in America.

Go down to the dealership. The country of origin has to be labeled on the pick list posted in the car's window.

GM has opened plants in China, have they not? To what does the tariff apply?

At least 2 senators weighed in on Jesse Kelly's suspension from Twitter and his account has been reinstated -

https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1067534453029822464

"The #MuhPrivateMonopoly conservative shills, who think their favorite Tech Giants should have all the special advantages the law entitles them too as well as the special advantages they are not entitled to -- because being a conservative means, it turns out, claiming that monopolies should have the benefit of laws without satisfying the actual requirements the law sets for obtaining that benefit -- are all shrieking hysterically."

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=378346

What kind of energy are you putting out into the world? Does it match what you’re hoping to get in return?

Keep your vibes positive, it’ll pay off.

https://twitter.com/erikfinman/status/1067575060259618817

Robert DeNiro requests that you honor him with privacy and respect as he negotiates his divorce.

Well, we all want something, Bob.

"He/she totally means Elon."

Which side do you see Elon being on? I'm not being sarcastic.

> I'm not being sarcastic.

You're not? Well WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU???

(Recomposes self)

Oh... Right....

Specifically, until critiques like this have been convincingly refuted, I think his hyperloop/tunneling ventures are not worthy of our enthusiasm.

This guy Musk obviously has a remarkable imagination, and he knows how to push people. Thiel & Andreesen have made the point that he's done best in businesses that were overdue for new blood and innovation... Finance, cars and rocketry. (Maybe batteries.) Indeed, microprocessor-era innovators are most easily frustrated in the sectors that are heavily regulated. (Next on the horizon: Construction, education, health care.)

There comes a point that it doesn't matter how many of his ideas are laughably wrong... So long as the taxpayer isn't footing the bill. We're told (in my most casual investigation) that Tesla benefits from an insane number of tax breaks; so I'm less impressed. Musk himself says Spacex is almost purely investor money; I'm more impressed.

Well, what do we want from these guys? The typical telling of the Apple tale is that upon his return to the Big Chair in Cupertino, Steve Jobs sold underpowered computers in gaily colored plastic until he figured out what the next possible innovation was going to be. He knew that whatever it was would require some time to appear in the mist, and then years of work an investment to turn into a revolutionary product.

For whatever reason, I was recently looking at the video of Saint Steve at Macworld in 1997. He expresses genuine surprise (and delight) about learning that Apple was, even at that nadir, the largest education supplier in the world, a title it had claimed without fanfare as IBM had collapsed.

Well, here's the thing about education: That means taxpayer money, and it doesn't much matter to me whether the educators or students believe it was a fair value for the dollar. I'm a libertarian: I think government and business are too intimate in most all contexts.

We should note parenthetically that Populist Trump is doing no more to slice these sinister bonds than will Populists Sanders and Ocasio-C. As these individuals exist mostly as figures of personal masturbatory devotion for economic- and policy-illiterates in the electorate, lumpen goofballs who can't imagine an principle of wealth more nuanced than Get Rich Quick!, we ought not be surprised that this fundamental (and growing) corruption is unaddressed in the years ahead.

But it fucking well ought to be.

So the question becomes, exactly how much cleanliness will we demand of Caesar's wife, right?

Well, I'll demand a lot. But we absolutely must have more innovation, and that will require support for playful thinkers who take risks... At least some of them with their own money, and not just yours and mine.

Musk is a playful guy. Consider the 'flame thrower': See the first few minutes of the Rogan podcast.

And, quite seriously, the deeply personal, weeping butthurt of the torpid Snoopy-types over Musk is a strong mark in his favor. Just as they've selected a shameless & rote rule-breaker as their champion, the rule-CHANGERS demonstrate the vacuity of their worldview.

So, mixed feelings about Musk... But I have metrics to apply for his past, present and future.