Glibertarians.com 2018 Archive

Blog

  • Tuesday Morning Links

    Man, I wish I hadn’t have been unexpectedly tied up yesterday.

    Now that’s what I call an accommodation! (Also, this is my daughter, so tread lightly in the comments)

    I could have shared my glee at Duke getting bounced by Kansas. Alas, I had work to do to get ready for an auction next Thursday where I’ll be selling nearly 5000 cubicles and offices.  Yeah, 5000 of them.  Oh yeah, and a chair custom built for an enormously fat person.  Seriously. It has 8 legs and casters and is big enough for the three-headed knight from Monty Python to sit on for his tea and biscuits. Have a look:

    Anyway, if you need any cubicles, office sets, conference rooms, training center setups or the like, let me know. Its safe to say I have plenty of them.  Ooh, and the proceeds, less my cut, are going to Habitat For Humanity. Which is pretty nice of the good people at TD Ameritrade, I have to say.

    Nine games on the ice yesterday. The Sabres dumped the Leafs. The Panthers blanked the Islanders. The Hurricanes beat the Senators. The Caps doubled up the Rangers. The Dead Wings lost (again) to Les Canadiens. The feeble Coyotes actually beat thew Lightning. Army/Vegas pounded the Avalanche. The Kings blanked the Flames. And the Blackhawks continued their losing ways, this time falling in OT to the Sharks. Sorry Swissy.

    Oh yeah, and speaking of ice, the Frozen 4 is headed to the Twin Cities next weekend. Or is it the Big Ten Tournament 2: Electric Boogaloo?  Meh, pretty much the same thing.  The Buckeyes will face Minnesoooooda-Duluth in one semifinal and the winner will play the winner of the Michigan-Notre Dame game for all the marbles. Well done, boys.

    In soccer friendlies, the Checks beat the Chinks. And the Dutch drilled Portugal. But the big games are today, as the Limeys and the Cops face off and the Krauts try to wax the Brazilians, among other matchups.

    Donald Trump must have been in the front row with a shower cap on

    That’s all I’ve got for sports.  I’d like to make note that today is the birthday of race-car driver Cale Yarborough, violent-filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and pants-pisser Fergie. And now I can move on to…the links!

    Some son of a bitch is running for student government president at the University of Michigan. LOL, a fucking therapy dog.  Jesus, when we needed therapy for our stress, we found a 12 pack of Natty Light or a friend to shoot the shit with.

    Hey, where was this asshole when the last census (under Obama) asked all kinds of invasive questions and even threatened to have people jailed for not answering them? Meh, I’d be fine with a compromise that had a census form with one simple question: how many citizens and permanent resident aliens reside at this address?  Sorry, but I don’t think people here illegally, visiting temporarily, foreign students or vacationers should be counted for representation.

    ^^Wishes it was a Whataburger^^

    A restraining order seems over the top. Just sue the asshole for lost revenue and have him charged for assaulting a customer and trespassing.

    Anybody know who some dude named “Chance The Rapper” is?  My son said he’s pretty popular.  I’ve never heard of him until he recently decided to stick his head up his own asshole.

    Cults are so 90s. And so are those glasses.

    Damn, dude. there’s gotta be an easier way to get and keep chicks than this. Although its probably safe to say those days are over for Mr Raniere.

    Perhaps we should shelve the tech for car batteries for a while. Its time we invest in better body cam battery technology or just abandon the pretense that they’re there to make sure the truth comes out. Because the excuses are getting ridiculous.

    That’s all I’ve got. Except for this bit of genius.

    Now go have a great day!

  • Monday Afternoon Super Links!

    Hooray for working from home this week. My pessimism regarding FSU finally paid off after a lackluster showing Saturday night. I have links for you all today and how the hell is your Monday? Give up on pretending to work and come play in the links!

    When America needed to test a supersonic ejection pod, we stuffed a goddam BEAR in there and tried it out. But as this is an American story and not a Russian one, the bear survived.

    While collusion between the Trumps and Russia continues to lack evidence, the FBI continues their reputation for colluding criminals who murder people rather than arrest them.

    P.T. Barnum reincarnated

    Kim III makes a run to China. My favorite part of the article: “Nobody answered the telephone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday evening.” Probably too busy not being the first one to stop applauding at Dear Leader’s speech.

    In keeping with the traditions of British Socialism, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is accused of anti-semitism in open letter. He responded by blaming the Rothschilds for Brexit*

    *That last sentence is completely fabricated and untrue, but would be funny

    Hey look, new Monster Magnet. They’re still fun.

     

  • Victimhood as Social Currency: A Case Study of Victimhood Culture

    Moral Cultures

    A couple years back, a paper made the rounds through the daily “science” “journalism” blogs. It discussed three types of moral cultures that exist: honor cultures, dignity cultures, and victimhood cultures. In the context of the US, the country started as an honor culture, evolved into a dignity culture in the early 19th century, and is in the process of evolving into a victimhood culture now.

    As a background, honor culture is a type of culture where small slights are amplified into grievous insults, and are addressed with direct retribution. For example, a cad insinuates that your wife is his paramour and you slap him across the face with your glove to challenge him to a duel. A dignity culture is a type of culture where small slights are ignored and larger conflicts are elevated to a paternalistic overseer like a court or an administrator. For example, your neighbor builds a fence on your side of the property line, and you take them to court to resolve the issue. Finally, a victimhood culture is a natural outgrowth of the other two. Victimhood culture amplifies small slights into grievous insults (microaggressions) and elevates these small slights to their overseers, usually campus kangaroo courts, social media censors, or advertisers.

    Victimhood as Social Currency

    Campbell and Manning, in the linked paper, discuss the virtuosity of claiming victimhood status in a victimhood culture:

    When the victims publicize microaggressions they call attention to what they see as the deviant behavior of the offenders. In doing so they also call attention to their own  victimization. Indeed, many ways of attracting the attention and sympathy of third parties emphasize or exacerbate the low status of the aggrieved. People portray themselves as oppressed by the powerful – as damaged, disadvantaged, and needy. This is especially evident with various forms of self-harm, such as protest suicides and hunger strikes. Other such gestures include the ancient Roman practice of “squalor,” where the aggrieved party would let his hair grow out, wear shabby clothes, and follow his adversary through the streets, and the Indian practice of “sitting dharna,” where he would sit at his adversary’s door. But why emphasize one’s victimization?

    Certainly the distinction between offender and victim always has moral significance, lowering the offender’s moral status. In the settings such as those that generate microaggression catalogs, though, where offenders are oppressors and victims are the oppressed, it also raises the moral status of the victims. This only increases the incentive to publicize grievances, and it means aggrieved parties are especially likely to highlight their identity as  victims, emphasizing their own suffering and innocence. Their adversaries are privileged and blameworthy, but they themselves are pitiable and blameless. To the extent that others take their side, they accept this characterization of the conflict, but their adversaries and their partisans might portray the conflict in the opposite terms. This can give rise to what is called “competitive  victimhood,” with both sides arguing that it is they and not their adversaries who have suffered the most and are most deserving of help or most justified in retribution.

    . . .

    Appeals that emphasize the victimhood status of the aggrieved appear to arise in situations where people rely on authorities to handle their conflicts. Even relatively wealthy or powerful litigants might approach the court by presenting themselves as victims in need of assistance against a bullying adversary (see, e.g., Bryen 2013: Chapter 4). Most state propaganda, on the other hand, is not aimed at superiors or equals, but at subordinates. It seeks to inspire not sympathy, but loyalty, fear, and respect. This is also largely true of the communications between states, particularly those of similar size and military power. Warring states have no central authority to which they might appeal to handle their conflict or deter violence, and so they handle their conflicts directly through aggression and negotiation. In this respect states resemble individuals living in settings where legal authority is weak or absent.

    In essence, victims try to amplify the harm done to them, usually in an oppressor-oppressed context, to elicit pity from the authority, which they see as a parental figure. Usually, this results in an escalating comparison of grievances between opposing parties. Sound familiar? It should to all of you parents out there, especially parents of small children. Victimhood culture is the triumph of the tattle tale. One of the big themes of a victimhood culture is “actively retarding the process of growing up.”

    Victimhood Culture and Statism

    If you read the above excerpt carefully, you’ll notice something predictable, but rather telling. “Appeals that emphasize the victimhood status of the aggrieved appear to arise in situations where people rely on authorities to handle their conflicts.” Victimhood culture is a characteristically authoritarian culture. Campbell and Manning explain:

    In sum, microaggression catalogs are a form of social control in which the aggrieved collect and publicize accounts of intercollective offenses, making the case that relatively minor slights are part of a larger pattern of injustice and that those who suffer them are socially marginalized and deserving of sympathy. The phenomenon is sociologically similar to other forms of social control that involve airing grievances to authority figures or the public as a whole, that actively manage social information in a campaign to convince others to intervene, and that emphasize the dominance of the adversary and the victimization of the aggrieved. Insofar as these forms are sociologically similar, they should tend to arise in under similar social conditions. These conditions include a social setting with cultural diversity and relatively high levels of equality, though with the presence of strongly superior third parties such as legal officials and organizational administrators. Furthermore, both social superiors and other third parties are in social locations – such as being distant from both disputants – that facilitate only latent or slow partisanship. Under these conditions, individuals are likely to express grievances about oppression, and aggrieved individuals are likely to depend on the aid of third parties, to cast a wide net in their attempt to find supporters, and to campaign for support by emphasizing their own need against a bullying adversary.

    With the growth of authoritarian control factors in our society, whether through government, increasingly invasive social media, pussyfooting corporations, or university echo chambers, the flitting peacock dance of the victim isn’t truly focused on the so called offender, but is primarily signaling their virtue to the relevant authority. The demented offspring of the helicopter parent generation have choppered their way back home to roost. When somebody hurts your fee-fees, you tell your parental figure, and they will tell that nasty bully/teacher/coach/professor/employer/bigot/random internet person/wrongthinker what’s what and buy you an ice cream cone on the way home.

     

    Watching It All Play Out In Real Life: #NeverAgain

    As we deal with the political fallout of yet another school shooting, we can see exactly how this victimhood culture operates on a very public scale. In this case, the issue wasn’t a microaggression, but a legitimate tragedy. Of course, the backdrop of this entire charade is the fact that an activist authoritarian movement is working with a complicit media and a well-established community organizing infrastructure to ban guns.

  • Monday Morning Links

    Who let this clown in to do the Links?

    Sloopy is out this morning. I think he is exhausted from celebrating the exit of Duke from the NCAA tournament. I may have had a laugh or 30 myself. Bye Bye Dookies. Otherwise, I refuse to even look at the shambles that my brackets ended up becoming….so I beg sports pardon, and will skip on to the links.

    • Chicago’s Mayor becomes a back-door man. Were I better at weaving in music and such I would link something, right? What a mean, small man is Rahm Emmanuel.
    • Looks like the “Manning Method” of getting criminal penalties diminished has reached the UK.
    • And another government takes advantage of the ginned up “fake news” BS. Who would have ever guessed this would happen?
    • This is more what Russia is up to, rather than trying to install the Hat and Hair as puppets in the White House. Besides, the Hat is far too unstable to rely on.

     

  • STEVE SMITH SUNDAY EVENING LINKS

    ENNUI SET IN. TRY LINKS TO SHAKE IT OFF.

     

    STEVE SMITH STILL DOWN. BUT HIM TRY TO SHAKE LETHARGY/ENNUI OFF AND MAKE SURE FUNNY GLIBERTARIAN PEOPLE GET LINKS. HIM THANK COUSIN SEA SMITH FOR COVERING YESTERDAY. STEVE SMITH LIKE HE FRIEND NINGEN. HE ALWAYS BRING GOOD SAKE TO PARTIES… HE BEST JAPANESE CRYPTID EVER.

    SO HERE LINKS TO READ:

    • STEVE SMITH ASK, YOU KNOW WHO ELSE THOUGHT JEWS WERE HOSTILE ENTITIES/CLASS ENEMIES?
    • IN SAME SPIRIT – YOU KNOW WHO ELSE HAD GERMANS HELP WITH TROUBLESOME CATALANS? STEVE SMITH SAD, THINK THIS TURN VIOLENT SOON.
    • STEVE SMITH NO ACCEPT APOLOGY. HIM GET RID OF FACEBOOK INSTEAD. MAYBE SHOULD HIT ZUCKERBERG ON HEAD WITH BIG ROCK?
    • STEVE SMITH THINK THIS SPEED UP DEATH SPIRAL. STUPID LIGHTWORKERCARE MAKE STEVE SMITH PREMIUMS HIGHER THAN REDWOOD. GRRR!
    HIT CONGRESS ON HEAD WITH BIG ROCK!

  • And the Stars, like Monocles in the Sky: The Horoscope for the week of March 25th

     

    The big astrological news this week is the infamous MERCURY RETROGRADE. So you know, chaos, gremlins, dogs and cats living together, bad made-for-TV-movies, all that sort of thing.

    However, the fortunate thing is that Ceres (in Leo) went station direct by the time you read this, so if you’ve been having difficulties with griddle-cooked breads (pancakes, crepes, tortillas, crumpets etc.), this week you should have better results.

    Jupiter (planet of rulership, happiness and good fortune) has been retrograde for a while and will remain so until July tenth or thenabouts, so expect about four more months of general political wackiness. But this week, we get a Sun-Mars-Jupiter alignment (in Scorpio-Pisces-Capricorn respectively), so expect a military fuckup on a rather grand scale. This relates to an existing war, so don’t misread this as [insert boogeyman here] starting WWIII.

    That Mercury-Venus conjunction in Ares? This week, the sun joins them, energizing everything and making this week the Best. Week. Eva… You know what, this joke has gotten really played out. This is the problem with astrology – the planets move SO GODDAMNED SLOWLY that you’ve got the same fucking thing set up week after week, and it just gets BORING. This is why professional fortune tellers are all alcoholics. You’ve got to constantly come up with new gibberish to keep the suckers clients coming in, and that imagination needs a lot of lubrication.

    Where were we? Oh, yes. Something NEW. This week we do have that. The moon is in Cancer, which–being the ruler of that house–means we get that whole exaltation thing that gives you a +1 stacking bonus to secrets, emotions, variability, and horrible, incurable, terminal diseases.

    A holdover from last week (sigh) is the conjunction of Mars and Saturn in Capricorn. Fighting for stupid reasons leads to loss. Not bad advice generally.

  • Sunday Morning Links of No Particular Distinction

    I have taken some flak recently about putting too much spice into the links, and requested to tone down the flavor. And eliminate the wine, which is a horrible beverage having distractingly large amounts of flavor. So today, I’m keeping it soft and bland, just to not offend anyone. If the prose is disturbing, then look at the nice, bland images to relax and calm the sensory overload. And I will not mention the delightful Dolcetto d’Alba that SP, Webdominatrix, and I drank last night with their welcome home dinner. That said, on to the news of the day, with the usual snark, though toned down out of consideration for sensitive Glibs.

     

    As astroturfed high schoolers get wall-to-wall media coverage in their desire to have kind and gracious government calmly and reasonably disarm it citizens in complete defiance of the constitution, they unsurprisingly claim that their voices are being stifled. Yeah, the cops came in and quashed the demonstrations immediately and TV news crews stayed resolutely away. Suuuure.

    “I don’t like fearing that I’m going to die walking into school every day and I don’t like telling my mom that I’m afraid I’m going to die walking into school – I feel like change should happen,” 14-year-old freshman Alex Barbro said.

    I agree, Alex. And the first change I’d suggest is mandatory courses in probability theory and a good dose of training in Pareto analysis. Some reading of Hayek might be nice, but that might be a bridge too far.

     

    There’s a stereotype that (((we))) tend to be smarter than average. If you want a counter-argument, look no further than this. A sample gem:

    In the US, while gun advocates say weapons are needed for self-defense, it is hard to avoid the impression that guns have become something of a hobby or a sport. Shooting is an activity many brag about. Just witness the many videos posted on social media showing Americans at gun ranges shooting all types of firearms, and in their backyards, demonstrating the merits or drawbacks of a recently acquired handgun.

    The horrors! Of course, there’s all the usual stupidity- the assumption that school shootings are epidemic, the conflation of random nutjob stuff with targeted killings over girls and drugs, the culture of inner cites versus rural… but the shock and surprise that there are people who find guns to be fun is absolutely precious.

     

    Here’s a tale of a happy family with multigenerational togetherness. Surprisingly, it’s not Florida.

     

    Do NOT fuck around when people in a state with legal weed get the munchies.

     

    Those wacky scientists, always getting baffled by the stupidest shit.

     

    Old Guy Music! I’ve recently discovered Courtney Hartman, who does fantastic country, bluegrass, and folk, while having an image that is not exactly mainstream Nashville. That’s a compliment. Anyway, here’s a delightful solo cover of a Tom Petty favorite, and for my usual embedded video, a duet with the great Robert Ellis. I really love how smoothly and effortlessly they trade off the shredding. Sorry, this one isn’t bland.

     

  • SEA SMITH SATURDAY EVENING REPENTANCE LINKS

    SEA SMITH SORRY HE FORGET LINKS LAST WEEK. HE SPEND TOO MUCH TIME HANGING OUT WITH FRIEND NINGEN.

    NINGEN SAY “BLOOP”

     

    NINGEN IS SILLY, BUT GOOD FRIEND. SEA SMITH TELL HIM “MUST DO LINKS, WE HANG OUT AFTERWARD.” BY HANGOUT AFTERWARD, MEAN FIND SHIP CREW TO RAPE. SO YOU GET LINKS NOW:

    1. WAIT, WAIT…SEA SMITH KNOW THIS ONE. “F#$% OFF, SLAVER” RIGHT? SEA SMITH NEVER SMOKE ANYTHING…NO CAN SMOKE IN WATER. MAYBE SOMEONE SEND HIM EDIBLES? IF ENGLISH PEOPLE CALL POLICE, SEA SMITH DEAL WITH IT. BY DEAL WITH IT, MEAN RAPE NOSY NEIGHBORS.
    2. SCHOOL NO HAVE TO SUSPEND STUDENT IN SKIN COLOR QUOTA ANYMORE? SEA SMITH VOLUNTEER TO BE SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER. BY RESOURCE OFFICER, MEAN RAPER OF DELINQUENT STUDENTS.
    3. SEA SMITH STAY AWAY FROM RIO. THIS NOT TURN OUT GOOD.
    4. SEA SMITH THINK THIS STOP HE FROM VISIT HOUSTON. BUT THAT OK. NOT WANT HOUSTON PEOPLE GET WASHED AWAY. SEA SMITH WAIT TO SEE THEM ON CRUISE SHIP OR FISHING BOAT. BY SEE THEM, MEAN RAPE.

    LINKS ALL BETTER NOW? SEA SMITH HOPE SO – HE GO SEE IF NINGEN FIND CRUISE SHIP OR FISHING TRAWLER YET.

     

  • A Word on Glass

    Since this question was raised, now is as good a time as any to go over basic glassware.  Like nearly anything else, beer tastes better when served in a glass; preferably a clean one.

    This is my review of–wait I don’t have a beer to review today.  Let me check the archives…

    Stone Xocoveza! Hat Tip: Yusef drives a Kia a.k.a Russian Kia drive Yusef.

    Since the type of beer many brewers put out have been increasingly become more complex, with some styles becoming some sort of arms race to see who can put the weirdest, hoppiest, or highest gravity beer to market, it helps to have a suitable glass.  Much like a pistol needs a proper holster, the right golf club to get the most efficiency from the shot needed, knowing why a mallet exists and why you might want to use it instead of a hammer, or even picking the right pair of socks–you get the best result with a tool built for task.  I will focus on the basics since there many out there that will over-complicate this.

     The Snifter

    If you drink a lot of Barleywine, Imperial Stouts, or if you are one of those people that are obsessed with bourbon barrel aged ales, this is your best bet.  Chances are if you are the type that likes a good cognac, you probably already have one on hand.

    Because of their high ABVs and strong, aggressive flavors, imperial stouts and barleywines are meant to be served in small pours at cellar temperatures (around 55° F). This makes them perfectly suited for a short-stemmed, globe-shaped snifter like the kind you’d use for bourbon, brandy, or cognac. The balloon shape focuses volatile aromas that would otherwise dissipate in an open-topped glass while allowing the beer to unfurl and develop as it warms in the glass.

    If you only occasionally drink this type of beer, the next best thing is a chalice.

    The Chalice

    No, it’s not pretentious to put beer in a wine glass! Especially if you’re drinking a fruity, light-bodied, highly effervescent saison or farmhouse ale like the ones brewed in Belgium and France where wine glasses are de rigueur.

    This is true, it is not pretentious to put beer in a wine glass–but if you do, make sure to wear a Rush Limbaugh brand necktie with your favorite polo.  Preferably in clashing colors, which will likely be a given due to the garishness of the tie. It is this way, everyone around you will assume you are a one of the world’s “special people” and will not pass judgement on you as a courtesy.  Get a chalice.

    This is probably the most versatile glass, being that it will suit also suit IPA, pale ales and nearly any other effervescent beer like many West Coast Amber Ales.  It does not however, do as well for malty beer.

     

    The Pint Glass

    No need to differentiate between English type with that ring near the top, the Irish version with the svelte curve, or even the ubiquitous tumbler, they’re pretty much all the same.

    This does better with malty beers.  Think English ales, stouts, porters, and brown ales. The idea here is your hand is intended to warm the beer slightly over the time you spent with it.  This link has an exhaustive list of suitable varieties.  I will concede the existence of a variant called, “the stout glass” which is really just a pint glass with a wide shoulder.  I have never used one.

    The Stein/Mug

    How I decorate my cubicle.

    Lagers go in a mug.  The thick glass and handle is meant to keep your hand from warming it.  It is also handy for those times when you had too many but are still toasting your friends with too much force or need a handy melee tool.

    Many like these because you can have a lot of fun with them.  These are suitable for all lagers with one exception:

    The Pilsner Glass

    Pilsners go in a Pilsner glass.  Unless it is dirty or all you have is a mug, this is not a polite suggestion.

     

     

    Das Boot

    This has its roots well before the movie Beerfest.  There are a few different versions of how this came to pass:  both versions begin with a Prussian General making a wager to his men prior to a particularly hard battle ahead to drink beer from his boot should they win. Turns out they did.  Here’s where it deviates:  the first is he actually drank from his boot, and the glass was made to commemorate the occasion.  The other is that he chickened out and had commissioned the glass be made.  Either way, the article linked below, says the boot shaped glass actually has its origins in England but eventually became popular in Germany.  So much so that by WW1/WW2 the glasses were sought after as war trophies by allied soldiers.  Personally, I’d take a P-08 Luger.

     

    So how was Stone Xocoveza?  It was actually pretty good.  It’s a chocolate stout that like Mexican hot chocolate contains various spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and red chillies.  It isn’t overwhelming at all, they actually keep everything in balance.  Served of course, in a pint glass.  The only downer, was the price.  Over $12 for a six pack…otherwise, good call, Yusef.  Stone Xocoveza 4.0/5.

  • Saturday Morning Return To Links

    After two weeks in Florida, SP is coming back today. This has put me in a fury of scouring the house, making sure there’s no tell-tale evidence of my activities while she was gone. You know, stuff left behind “accidentally.” Like the last time, when she discovered some Barbie dolls that weren’t hers. That took creative explaining…

    Anyway, that does not slow down the rush of news, nor my obligation to post links no-one will read, with snarky comments that will fall flat without knowing what they’re about. But there’s plenty of room below for telling the world about your newly-discovered genital warts, how your cat just puked up half a squirrel, and links to numerous photos of the art made possible by Dow-Corning. Because, to paraphrase the sadly-still-with-us Barack Obama, that’s who we are.

    Let’s start with a rather remarkable contrast. In the US, when faced with a gunman who is killing people inside a building, the cops will cower outside until it’s safe to go in. In France, nation of cheese-eating surrender monkeys, this is what the cops do.

    Truly, I am a horrible human being for just not caring all that much about shit like this. I have to admire the minuscule fraction of soi disant “trans” people, who in the past few years may have set new records in amount of media and government fretting per capita.

    OK, I was going to snark about the self-indulgent meaninglessness of this, but on reflection, it’s just as effective and far less cruel than advocating for putting people in cages and allowing others to suffer extreme pain for your own feeling of moral satisfaction.

    Team Red shows its dedication to principle yet again. And again as well.

    Epic trolling, and all I can think about is shakshuka.

    A new meaning for “to Godwin someone.”

    Old Guy Music! Famous band, but not a famous song, and I have no idea why not. As a teenager, I spent many evenings around various smoking appliances with this as a soundtrack.