This Thanksgiving, between expressing our thanks that both the era of Obama and of Clinton will soon be over, and enjoying some tasty turkey, let us eschew politics for at least one day while we enjoy the company of kith & kin.
Here are kids trying 100 years of Thanksgiving dishes.
The following was from one of the 873,035 voices crying out in terror and suddenly silenced following a terrorist attack by “rebels”…
Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, R.I.P.
Our beloved Emperor has wisely abolished the chaotic nature of “local control” in order to establish peace and prosperity throughout the known galaxy. We even abolished the provincial representatives who kept filibustering the enlightened wisdom of out centralized government! The Imperial Senate is no longer of any concern to us. Why, I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away forever.
After your planet is conquered by peacefully welcomed to the Empire, we will need loyal collaborators intellectuals to help you all dismiss your silly provincial notions and accept the high culture of out beneficent guiding light; an opinion writer for your “Washington Post,” one Lawrence R. Samuel, is a prime candidate for recruitment to our higher ranks!
His logic to abolishing such provincialness and thus the need for any Senate is infallible:
“Why does any of this matter? Quite a bit, as the problem with states goes far beyond their illogic and irrelevance. State governments are expensive to run and taxpayers are forced to foot most of the bill. We can’t afford them anymore — and we don’t need them.
“A federation of states was a wonderful idea in the late 18th century, but represents an unnecessary and costly burden in the early 21st. Two layers of government — federal and local — offers a cleaner, more sensible and much more affordable system than our current one, a notion not unlike cutting out the middle layer of an overly bureaucratic, inefficient company. Eliminating this middle layer would save the American people billions of dollars a year, the kind of money that could go a long way toward paying down our national debt or preparing for our looming crises in Social Security and health care.
“Would abandoning the ‘United States of America’ for something different present challenges? Absolutely. The dismantling of anything more than two centuries old would naturally require considerable effort, a step almost as radical as the uniting of colonies to form states. Not just the political system, but the legal system would have to be overhauled. (Probably a good thing in itself given the vast inconsistencies in laws across state lines.)”
In the long tradition of segregationist such as George Wallace, Social Justice Warriors at the University of California, Berkeley have demanded segregated “safe spaces” for students of color as well as “queer” students. And to get their point across, they decided to block entry to White (and Asian) students to campus:
We’ve come full circle and now racial segregation and trying to prevent, or at least impede, people from going to an institution of learning has gone from a paragon of racial injustice to a paragon of racial justice. Even the police were powerless to stop this blocking of students!
News of the Week for November 20th, 2016
Despite incentives to kill off expensive patients, attempts to get mothers-to-be to gestate organ donors, and otherwise try to put off actual healthcare service that is touted as a “right“, the Brititsh National Health Service (NHS) is on the bring of financial collapse:
“In an unprecedentedly bleak assessment of the NHS’s own health, NHS Providers, which speaks for hospital trust chairs and chief executives, tells ministers that widespread breaches of performance targets, chronic understaffing and huge overspends by hospitals mean that it is heading back to the visible decline it last experienced in the 1990s.
“‘Taken together this means the NHS is increasingly failing to do the job it wants to do and the public needs it to do, through no fault of its own,’ Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, writes”.
That’s right… just blame everyone else—especially the Kulaks!
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: You can check out of the European Union anytime you like, but you can never leave.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
The European Union is quickly becoming the Politically Correct version of what both Napoleon and Hitler tried, but failed, to achieve:
“The elitist of the European Union (EU) have seen a rise in nativist protest movements throughout the European continent. The voiceless people of the states of the European Union have been forced to adopt multiculturalism and political correctness as their new civil religion, and their dissenting voices are now being squashed by a series of measures that amount to the curtailment of free speech.
“Earlier this month, the European Commission, a powerful and unelected European Union’s executive branch, announced plans to combat ‘illegal online hate speech.’ The same European Commission unveiled a code of conduct that will ensure that online platforms do not offer opportunities for ‘illegal online hate speech to spread virally.’ Unsurprisingly, it is the European Commission that will determine what constitutes ‘illegal online hate speech’ and not the people’s elected representatives in the individual European countries that make up the European Union (EU).”
Is it any wonder, then, that the U.K. voted to leave the European Union?
If anyone knows how to run a secret kangaroo court, it’s Columbia University.
“Columbia University is making it harder for students to hold it accountable for how the Ivy League school runs ‘gender-based misconduct’ proceedings.
“It has previously banned students from bringing a recording device into the proceedings, and now Columbia has stopped accusers and accused students from even ‘transcribing’ what happens during proceedings.
“The restrictions are being criticized by both a victim-rights group at Columbia and a lawyer for accused students.”
Yup, it’s a regular Star Chamber, complete with targeted enemies.
Not only are the accused students allowed to take notes, but there aren’t even any verbatim transcripts.
The truth is whatever the investigators think it is, and they can claim what ever facts they fancy, be they intentional or purely “wishful thinking” upon the part of the inquisitors.
There is no recourse; there is no need for evidence; there is no justice.
This gets normalized in colleges, and people will be more comfortable with it happening.
Democracy, to Socialists and the Progressive Left, is not about people and expressing their individual will. It is, in the socialist point of view, an attempt to divine the Volonté Générale, even if—or especially if—it conflicts with the individual wills of a majority of the voters.
The perfect case in point: Venezuela, where Constitutionally mandated elections are not being held. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Maduro acolytes, make their contempt for elections, that might not go Maduro’s way, clear:
“‘We don’t have a date. We are committed to collecting the expressions of the people’s will,” said council member Socorro Hernández, referring to the collection of signatures needed to start the referendum process — a convoluted process that, according to the opposition, is being manipulated by the Electoral Council known as CNE.
“Four out of five of the CNE members have close ties to the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro, who inherited it from late President Hugo Chavez in 2013.
“The opposition believes the increasingly unpopular Maduro and his Chavista followers have no interest in celebrating the regional election this year and risk losing the 20 governorships it now holds. Only three of the 23 states in Venezuela are currently headed by governors who are not affiliated with the ruling party.”
Even the Soviets weren’t so shameless as to not at least hold rigged election.
This is just another example of how the Left and other assorted budding dictators view democracy as a tram ride one rides until arriving at their destination.
A professor of geology at Brooklyn College was almost fired without ever being told the reason why, let alone by whom. What for? Free speech and triangles, but mostly triangles.
“I teach geology at Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). And luckily I have tenure, an important protection in case of Kafka-like trials at a PC college. What had I done wrong? See for yourself. Here is the offending phrase from the grading portion of my syllabus: ‘Class deportment, effort etc……. 10% (applied only to select students when appropriate).’
“Can you spot the alleged offense? I bet not. For reasons that escape me too, that phrase was perceived as a prelude to sexual harassment. And the phrase was so clearly problematic to the administration that they directed me to change it.
“As it turns out, my syllabus almost crossed another invisible line of acceptability in the politically correct world at Brooklyn College. Here’s the problematic part:
“‘This classroom is an “unsafe space” for those uncomfortable with viewpoints with which they may disagree: all constitutionally protected speech is welcome.’ I had been using warning triangles sardonically instead of ordinary quote marks when referring to foolish PC terms. All my department chair would say is, ‘The triangles are the problem.’ I never found out what made the triangles a problem. They were ready to act on a problem without saying what the problem was.
“My guess is that some administrator thought the warning triangles were reminiscent of the pink triangles that the Nazis made gays wear. I wonder how long the administrators deliberated before deciding that the clip art street signs I’d included in my syllabus weren’t Nazi symbols.”
The only reason this professor wasn’t fired without even being told why was because of tenure.
News of the Week for November 13th, 2016
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