In L.A., this kind of construction would take 13 years.

January Madness.

https://twitter.com/ComfortablySmug/status/1218223460620488705

In L.A., this kind of construction would take 13 years.

Where is the environmental impact statement? the permitting process? rezoning? feedback from the local neighbors? the "campaign" donations to the local hacks, errr, politicians? the union's cut? the work stoppages?

Oh.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/breaking-fisa-court-admits-spy-warrants-against-carter-page-not-valid/

IRA, on the FISA courts, so what? I mean really so what? It isn't like this is the first example. Nor the second. So a judge will issue yet another 'strongly worded letter'. Wow. Maybe someone's feelings will be hurt.

If the FISA court doesn't bring contempt charges and actually put people in jail for well documented perjury then they are obviously and irredeemably corrupt. They should be shut down.

With a 98% approval of all requests just replace them with a rubber stamp and reassign the workers to more productive jobs.

Oh, my!

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/355736/

Or we could just deep six FISA courts all together.

The best time to do this is when you notice a bunch of middle-aged men "exploring" these abandoned buildings mwahahaha

https://mobile.twitter.com/InterestingSci1/status/1219621132866850817

?

Coronavirus arrives in the USA

Mmmm. Corona. Now if we could just get a guacamole and chips virus we could have a real vacation!

Keep this story in mind...

"The Story of a Weird World I Was Warned Never to Tell"

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-story-of-a-weird-world-i-was-warned-never-to-tell?utm_source=pocket-newtab

SPOILER

...whenever you're tempted to believe that "rational" people are just that.

Hint: C.S. Lewis was flat-out lying, in a way, when he had a certain fictional character say: "One has only to look at her and talk to her to see that she is not mad."

Either that or he was just ignorant, as many educated people in the 1950s were.

Btw, the story is from BBC News.

> Keep this story in mind...

Edge case. It feels like most people, whatever their age, would detect the corruption in this kind of family fable. We all have presumptions about our 'singular' sorrow in life… Exagerations which, if we are courageous and stimulated, we are readily disabused. The Universe says often, to those who will listen: 'No, your sorrows are not especially poignant or crippling. Get over yourself.'

The story this girl was being told about her heritage was more extreme than even the tawdriest cable teevee series, let alone the typical life narratives she would see in those around her. This delusion lasted so long because it was secretly flattering. To imagine that anyone cares enough to torment your family across decades and continents is to imagine yourself to be more more important than you could possibly be.

Thanks for the link.

At last, a prequel to the Hunger Games series of books is soon to be on the market, and some preview text has been released. Unfortunately, some of the faithful are dreadfully unhappy.

Apparently, the book has to do with the origins of Evil President Snow, which has put some readers off. No word yet on whether the book will explain in a convincing way what the Hunger Games were actually supposed to do.

Oh, Lizzie. Not a great campaigner.

“My daughter is in school,” the man said, as captured in The Hill’s transcription of the exchange. “I saved all my money just to pay my student loans. Can I have my money back?”

“Of course not,” Warren responded.

“So you want to help those who don’t save any money and the ones that do the right thing get screwed?” he responded.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/01/warrens-joe-the-plumber-moment.php

11:17 AM Typos. Sorry.

Heard on the radio an hour ago that CoronaDeath is up to 800 (still much less than auto accidents in the same interval), and that many civic monuments and New Year's celebration across the nation are being shut down.

?

Crid at January 24, 2020 10:09 AM

If you're asking about why I said that about the mini drone flying though the abandoned buildings..

Here's a hint word: Cruising.

The "nation" being China, of course. NY celebrations in the United States were winding down anyway.

Here's a hint word: Cruising.

? Not hint-y enough.

"a bunch of middle-aged men" in abandoned buildings?

Crid, I think that's pretty harsh - and jumping to conclusions.

After all, the mother wasn't the one who was mentally ill, strictly speaking. More importantly, it's a centuries-long tradition that you don't doubt anything your custodial parent or guardian teaches you, because only "unloving" or "ungrateful" offspring would do that. (Given that the father they fled WAS in fact a violent alcoholic, it would be pretty hard for the daughter to rebel against the mother's teachings or actions.) Besides, the fact that the mother kept her mouth shut for so many years implies a certain level of self-discipline one just doesn't expect from an irrational person.

Not to mention that the mob IS everywhere - and no, they don't only kill their own members. (Ask the family of the man who accidentally hit and killed John Gotti's son.) So that part wouldn't sound too implausible.

That special moment when you hit a nerve:

https://mobile.twitter.com/stillgray/status/1220756304861335552

Lenona- I didn't say anyone was mentally ill. But when a story like this comes with "keep this in mind" at the top, the first impulse is to consider how big the threat is, and how one might be equipped to resist it. I think most people could deal with this one in early days.

It has been a tradition —not for centuries, but since the dawn of humanity— that the first thing a child does with his independent mind is distrust what Dad's telling him. If Mom says the sun is coming up tomorrow morning, adolescent daughters will pick up some extra candles.

I don't think I've ever been around the mob. Well… I haven't been around country music, either. IJS, "everywhere" is a stretch.

It has been a tradition —not for centuries, but since the dawn of humanity— that the first thing a child does with his independent mind is distrust what Dad's telling him.
____________________________________________

I find that hard to believe.

For one thing, while disobedience and distrust are different things, they were both often heresy in the eyes of the law, so it would have been far scarier even to THINK differently than one's parents or religious leaders. Especially when it came to matters of social class.

(In modern times, small kids rebel all the time against, say, having to eat with utensils, but do they really doubt that there ARE rules against eating spaghetti with your hands, however much they might hate that rule? What's more, does it not usually take YEARS for kids to rebel against, say, their parents' racist teachings, whether the teachings are subtle or not?)

After all, even the IDEA of individuality wasn't really acknowledged, let alone celebrated, until maybe long after "individualism" became a word - and that was in the 1830s.

From one source:

"Individualism is an ideology that privileges and celebrates individuals over the group. Individuality is the recognition that individuals are different from one another. Individuality, in other words, is a fact. ... Individualism, on the other hand, as an ideology, is a very different matter."

Btw, my mother very seldom talked to us about religion or politics. Of course, she wanted us to have the same attitudes she did - but I suspect that one reason she didn't talk about them much was that she figured we'd be more likely to follow her lead if she allowed us space to think for ourselves. I'd say it worked.

> it would have been far scarier
> even to THINK differently than
> one's parents or religious
> leaders.

In the 70's and 80's, when this kid was going through her weirdness?

Individuation by young spirits, often with awkward and mildly destructive incidentals, is eternal. Children have always thought of themselves as at least incrementally improved from the character of their parents: This is necessary for the continuation of the species.

But again, my larger point is 'How could a kid protect him or herself from this kind of lunacy?' And it's quite obvious that most of them do, in every culture. Human nature protects most of us from stuff like this. Ask Amy or me or any ten people in this comment crowd if they had to make a break from important family patterns in pursuit of their own fulfillment, or if they failed to do so... I wouldn't want to predict any responses, but the number wouldn't be trivial.

Indeed, consider your own links here: This kid was being sent down a path that had nothing to do with the surrounding community (i.e., "religious leaders"), which would have been bluntly disapproving had she discussed it with them.

> After all, even the IDEA of
> individuality wasn't really
> acknowledged, let alone
> celebrated, until maybe
> long after "individualism"
> became a word - and that
> was in the 1830s.

No. Individual men, and occasionally women, have always made history. So they've always been the first topic of discussion.