Man, I hate it when a sale day gets close and the more I look at the weather, the more I realize its gonna rain and throw my entire layout off. So it looks like I’ll be spending today setting up tents rather than items. BOO! I feel like the Colombian soccer team. Uh, hey guys, don’t you remember what happened to some of the 1994 team members after that failure? Yeah, let’s try not to repeat that, ok Colombian fans? Also, Poland fell to Senegal and Russia locked their place in the Round of 16 after beating Egypt. Uruguay can lock their place down today as well. And Portugal and Spain both get a chance to get a win, as they face some weak opposition.
Now that’s a soldier!
Well the Astros were bound to lose eventually. But it seems to happen all too often that their bats go to sleep when Verlander is on the hill. Way to go guys. And in the CWS, we will have to wait yet again to see Arkansas-Texas Tech after another day filled with delays. Texas was bounced from the tourney and Mississippi State advanced in their winners bracket by drilling North Carolina.
Guitarist Chet Atkins was born on this date. As was super-fucking-badass Audie Murphy, National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Beach Boy Brian Wilson, Commodore Lionel Richie, brilliant actor John Goodman, Speaker Of The House Munster Butch Patrick, high-flying wrestler Koko B Ware, actress Nicole Kidman, and possibly the second-best real wrestler of all-time Cael Sanderson.
I don’t want to hear one negative word. Not one!
It is also the date on which the Romans and Visigoths joined up to defeat Atilla the Hun on the Catalunian Plains, Oxford received its charter, Queen Victoria ascended the throne at the age of 18, the telegraph was patented, Andrew Johnson announced the purchase of Alaska, Lizzie Borden was acquitted, the NAACP was incorporated, Jesse Owens, running for The Ohio State University, set the 100m indoor world record, Muhamad Ali was convicted of refusing induction into the armed forces, Juan Peron returned to Argentina from exile, “Chinatown” debuted at the box office, so did what is arguably a perfect movie in “Jaws”. Jesus, so did “Blues Brothers”, and OJ Simpson was arraigned in the murder of his wife and her “friend” Ron Goldman.
Heady stuff there, even if the birthday roster was a bit “meh”. Anyhoo, on to…the links!
More adventures in the World Cup. Colombia couldn’t overcome a very early intentional handball to stop a clear goal. Japan won 2-1, and the 1 for Colombia was a gift from the ref. I missed the Senegal v. Poland, but I hear there was some controversy on one of the goals. Russia came out of the 2nd half and are just destroying Egypt, although the VAR official gifted Egypt a penalty kick. Also, Egypt is playing dirty as fuck. Not much going on here at the home front. I’m reliving a bit of the past as an Azure deployment runs over an hour. That is how I started reading the internet in the first place. **Pours out one for the Slashdot of 15 years ago**
Tesla builds tent for ad hoc assembly line, ars technica creams their jeans. They’re probably lining up to lynch Musk’s “saboteur”.
In the never-ending philosophical debate over whether consciousness is material and emergent or universal and existing, one scientist-philosopher brings in brain scans from multiple-personality disorder patients to make a complex and interesting case for and ideal and universal consciousness that can be experienced differently by different beings.
I’ve been on a bit of an article hiatus since my laptop died. I have a desktop (which I’m on right now), but I built it 8 years ago from the clearance section of NewEgg, and it sounds like it’s about to die. In the last 12 months, we’ve had 3 computers go, and this’ll be the 4th once it kicks the bucket…. fun times.
Anyway, I know that y’all are just dying for some Trashy insight, so I’m gonna try to make the concepts of this article come together. This is mostly a “look at the cool razors I have” post, but I’ll try to shoehorn libertarianism in there somehow. I love these stream of consciousness articles because it doesn’t involve any planning!
I started my post-pubescent life like most other men and women. I got a free version of the latest Gillette razor in the mail, and I ran that trial pack of blades until they weren’t even sharp enough to cut tissue paper.
This showed up in adolescent trashy’s mailbox
I heard the common refrain from everybody. “They’ll give you the handle for free, but they’ll gouge you on the blades.” Turns out they were right. Gillette had a virtual monopoly, with Schick in a distant second, so they could charge anything they wanted for their blades. Add in a small psychological ploy to rely on consumers’ sunk cost fallacy, and you’re set for life.
There were three problems that cropped up. First, I was a broke high school/college student, so I was running the blades until they started to rust. Second, the shaves were absolute shit. Third, the shaves were a chore. Slather on the disgusting canned foam, scrape 5 dull blades across your face, have razor burn for 2 days. My skin is a bit sensitive, so a poor shave meant a couple days of sore face. How did I cope? By growing a beard. Yes, in high school, I had mutton chops and a circle beard because I hated shaving.
This seems like a good time to go on a social/libertarian tangent. There’s something about products like this that irk me, and I’m not entirely sure why. You have people with 1000 different needs from their razors, and you offer the same blades and the same orientation with the same lotion bar at the top. It strikes me like the perfectly beautiful, but completely tasteless tomatoes you can get at the grocery store. Sometimes, giving up choice in favor of the lowest common denominator results in absolute shit product, and that’s what the modern cartridge razor has become. If your cartridge razor works well for you, count yourself lucky. The cool thing about the free market is that you don’t have to follow the fickle trends of the masses. You don’t get stuck with the Comrade 4 blade because Supreme Leader Bernie decides that nobody needs 32 kinds of razors. You’re free to experiment with different types of product, both from now and from the past.
Back when razor makers were artisans
Speaking of the past, those guys really knew how to shave back then. It was a small luxury to get to shave, and it’s something that I have found immensely enjoyable, both from a “gotta do it, so might as well enjoy it” standpoint and from a “hobby that connects me to the past” standpoint. I shave with a 1957 Gillette Super Speed.
It cost me roughly $15 on ebay, and my razor blades cost a few pennies each and last me 5 or 6 shaves before they dull. Both men and women used to shave with safety razors like this.
Let’s dive into the hobby aspect of this stuff, and some of the nuances will start to come out. You’ll quickly understand why a single blade type at a single preset angle isn’t preferred.
At a macro level, we’re talking about wet shaving. Just as a quick disclaimer in case some woman happens to stumble across this site (because we know there are no female liberatarians) and wonders what the hell is going on… I’m talking about shaving one’s face, but my understanding is that it translates fine to doing legs, too. Wet shaving means that there is water involved. You don’t just slather canned goop on your face and start scraping. You don’t fire up some gizmo and hope it gets close enough that you look like you actually shaved today. Wet shaving is about preparing your face to get a close shave with comfortable results. In broad generalities, there are three phases to a wet shave: skin preparation, shaving, and skin protection. You prepare your skin to be lubricated enough to allow a razor and a blade to glide across your face without catching on the skin. You also prepare your stubble to be as erect as possible so that you lop it all off when you pass the blade through each hair.
As an aside, one reason why irritation is so common with cartridge blades is because the multiple blades act to pull the hair up out of the follicle and trim it below the skin line, resulting in irritation and a higher chance of ingrown hairs. It’s a very “close” shave, but it’s really too close.
You will find that most traditional forms of shaving involve a single blade, thus reducing the likelihood of such . . . uncomfortable . . . consequences. There are four types of shaving. Cartridge blade razor (including disposables), electric trimmer, safety razor, and straight razor. The bolded ones are the ones closest associated with wet shaving. Yes, you can wet shave with a cartridge razor, but you’re only getting partial benefits in that situation.
Some of the guys who make custom straight razors do some great work!
I’m sure we’ve got some straight razor folks here in Glibertopia, but I’m not really experienced with them. Besides the barber cleaning up the back of my neck with one, and the rare barbershop shave (which is shit once you figure out how to properly wield a safety or straight razor), I’ve never really even seen one in person.
However, the principles between safety razors and straight razors are much the same. The muscle memory is different and the stakes are higher with straights, but the process involves lubing up your face, holding the blade at a certain angle, and dragging it across your whiskers.
I’m big on connections to the past. Things may be “better” in the present, but often the consumerist impulses of today result in bland mass-produced products. There’s nothing beautiful about the latest Fusion razor. It’s an uninspired amalgamation of neon plastic and chromed plastic. However, I’ve seen some straight razors and safety razors that are works of art! Craftsmen made the shaving tools of old. Assembly lines stamp out today’s shaving tools.
There’s something about using a 60 year old work of art to do a mundane hygiene task that makes it less humdrum. When you add in the other components of a wet shave, it adds a small luxury to your morning. Back in the day, men didn’t mind taking a minute and enjoying their morning routine.
Pre-Shave
Before starting your shave, it’s important to prepare. Preparation is as important as execution in wet shaving, because your razor doesn’t have training wheels anymore. You can push pretty damn hard with a cartridge razor and not be worse for the wear. Safety razors reduce the chance of slicing your face open in comparison to a straight razor, but both types of blade are very unforgiving to mistakes.
There are two types of pre-shave preparation. 1) Skin preparation, and 2) Mapping your beard.
Skin Preparation
It is important to do two things to your skin prior to shaving. You need to lubricate your skin so that the razor glides along and doesn’t get stuck. You also need to get your hair follicles to stand up as much as possible to get a close shave. There’s a simple way to do both… hop in a warm shower. Many people shave in the shower to get the maximum benefit of the warm water. I’ve never found it particularly attractive an idea, but you do you. If you didn’t just hop out of the shower, a warm, wet washcloth to the face will do the trick. If your skin tends to be dry, or if you’re a beginner prone to making mistakes, you can use a pre-shave oil or a pre-shave cream to supplement the warm water. It also adds a pleasant aroma to the beginning of your shave. Like I said, small luxuries.
In the pic, I have one of each. There’s a Truefitt and Hill pre-shave oil with a citrus scent. Next to it is a Proraso pre-shave cream with a menthol finish. I don’t really use them very much any more. Occasionally I’ll use the oil because it is the closest to real-deal citrus as I’ve ever found in a citrus scent.
Anyway, you take a sparing amount and rub it into your skin, and all of a sudden you’ve got a slippery face.
Mapping your beard
Unlike a cartridge shave, where the blades are equal opportunity offenders, single blades are quite sensitive to the grain of your beard. If you go with the grain, it’s the least uncomfortable and it’s the least close shave. If you go against the grain, it’s the most uncomfortable and the closest shave. Usually people will do 2 or 3 passes in order to get a close and comfortable shave. For example, they may do a with the grain pass, a cross-grain pass, and an against the grain pass. If you properly do three passes like that, your face will feel like a baby’s ass.
The thing is that the grain doesn’t just go in one direction. Just like your hair on your head, your beard has whorls and direction changes and all sorts of unique challenges. For example, my left cheek grain goes down, but my right cheek goes backward. Knowing which way the whiskers go helps you avoid accidentally going against the grain in some areas on the first pass.
Lathering Up
You can see in the above picture the two brushes that look like huge weird makeup brushes. I’m not sharing the bathroom with Mrs. trshmnstr, so they’re not hers. Those are my shave brushes. They’re made from badger hair. Yes, they literally pluck hairs from badgers to make these brushes. You can also get boar hair brushes or synthetic brushes (think paintbrush bristles). I’ve never used either of those, but I like my badger brushes. The one on the right is a normal badger hair brush. It has enough resistance to stand up to vigorously rubbing your face, but the hairs aren’t irritating. The one on the left with the frosted tips is a silvertip badger brush. These are premium brushes due to the nature of the silver tipped hairs. The hairs stand up enough to be able to make a good shaving lather, but they’re quite soft at the tips, making for the perfect balance.
The purpose of a brush is simple, you load it up with shaving cream and you apply the shaving cream to your face. I should be more precise. You can use shaving cream (roughly the consistency of toothpaste) or shaving soap (a hockey puck shaped bar of specially formulated soap). This is where wet shaving completely leaves normal shaving behind.
You can see in this next photo a few shaving soaps. On the left is TSE Texas Leather Tallow Shaving Soap (yes, tallow as in animal fat… the best shave soaps are made with tallow), which literally smells like my cowboy boots. In the middle is Proraso Green, which has the same menthol hit like the pre-shave cream. On the right is Gentleman John Sandalwood Soap, which is my current go-to for everyday shaving. The left two soaps are a little bit creamier and aren’t really in puck form, so I use them directly from their containers. The Gentleman John didn’t come with a container, so it’s in my shave bowl.
There are two primary ways of lathering up, face lathering and bowl lathering. They’re both perfectly legitimate, but they yield different types of lather. The face lather tends to be more of a wet, slick lather, whereas the bowl lather tends to be fluffier and drier. Depending on your preference for lather, you can choose the appropriate technique.
Face Lathering
Face lathering is my go-to. It’s easier when you don’t have a ton of space, because you don’t need additional bowls and you don’t make a foamy mess all over the counter. Face lathering is two steps: loading the brush and lathering. First, to prep for the shave, you need to add a few drops of water to the soap to “bloom” the soap (meaning that the soap absorbs some of the water and the top layer softens up. Also, I like to leave the brush in warm water while I shower. If that’s not an option, just run some hot water over the bristles, because the brush will absorb some water. Then, give the brush a single shake (you want to get rid of some water, but not all), and start swirling the bristles over the soap puck. The soap will begin to foam, but you’re only loading the bristles with the soap, so you don’t want to go too long.
Once the brush is loaded, you proceed to swirl the brush on your cheeks until a foamy lather builds. Once the lather builds, you can paint it on other parts of your face until you have built up a nice slick, cushiony lather on all the places you’ll be shaving.
Bowl Lathering
Bowl lathering is very similar, but instead of taking the loaded brush to your face, you put it into a bowl and start swirling. Because of the fact that the bowl doesn’t have any moisture in it (as compared to your lubricated face), the lather tends to dry out, which makes it fluffier. Once you have a good lather built, you can just paint it on your face with the brush.
Want an added touch of luxury? Pour some hot water into a shave scuttle and heat up your lather while you make it!
Shaving
I’ve written an entire article’s worth of info, but we haven’t even cut a single whisker yet. In reality, once you get a hang of things, the pre-shave portion takes 2-3 minutes at most. Now it’s time to choose a razor and blades (for the safety razors). As mentioned above, my experience is with safety razors, so that’s what I’ll talk about.
Razors come in all different shapes and sizes, but there are three most important attributes: weight, balance, and aggressiveness. The key to shaving with a single blade razor is to avoid pressing. The blade should glide over your face, and even the slightest pressure can make for a bad shave. As such, the right weight razor keeps you from having to exert pressure to get the razor to cut. Too light, and your blade will skip right off your face. Too heavy, and you have very little control and feel as you cut. Balance also influences the control and feel. A well balanced razor can be held by two fingers and you can almost feel every whisker yield to the blade. Aggressiveness is about matching your style and skin sensitivity to how much the razor tries to take off on each pass. Some folks like really aggressive razors. Some (like me) like less aggressive razors. It’s all about getting a close cut without causing razor burn. Certain safety razors have adjustable aggressiveness. You twist a selector, and the blade bends to a different angle, reducing or increasing aggressiveness.
The blades themselves are also seen as aggressive or not. Feather blades have a reputation for aggressiveness, but I happen to like them in my Gillette Super Speed because it mellows their aggressiveness. Others are less aggressive. Most likely these differences are due to minute differences in the manufacturing tolerances, despite the fact that the blade’s form factor has been standardized for 80 years.
One of the great things about shaving with a safety razor is that besides the initial investment in the razor (about $10 for each of mine on ebay), the blades are super cheap. I’ve gotten deals under 10 cents per blade, and each blade usually lasts 5 or 6 shaves, if not more. However, like any other hobby, you can get lost in all of the options and spend hundreds of dollars on shave equipment. There are some rare vintage razors that go for over $100.
Shaving is very much an exercise in muscle memory. It’s quite similar to knife sharpening in that you need to find a proper angle, hold it at that angle, and make smooth strokes. You know it’s right when you can hear the blade cutting the whiskers. It’s a soothing sound. Unlike what you’ve likely learned shaving with a cartridge razor, it’s not about pushing down and dragging across half of your face. That will end with blood everywhere. With a safety or straight razor, it’s about smooth short strokes with almost no pressure. You only exert enough pressure to keep the blade from skipping when it hits the next whisker. I’ve found that when in doubt, you’re using too much pressure. The goal is to “reduce” the hair rather than “eliminate” the hair. This is why you do two or three passes. The first pass takes the stubble down lower, the second even lower, and the third down to the skin.
Also, this is a literal razor blade. Razor blades cut you if you drag them sideways along your skin. Your short smooth strokes should be directly perpendicular to the blade’s edge. Turning corners is an advanced move for when you stop cutting yourself.
After a bit of practice, you start to be able to feel when a blade is getting dull. Before then, replace your blade on a regular basis. Usually 5 or 6 shaves is about as much as you can get out of a blade. If you have an old house, there may even be a blade depository in your bathroom. It dumps all the used blades into your wall for the contractor to find when you decide to remodel the bathroom.
Finishing Up
After you shave and wipe off the excess lather, you’re not quite done yet. Your face is in an “open” state due to the warm water, the lather, and the razor. One refreshing way to close up your pores is to splash your face with cool water. If you have a couple tiny nicks that are thinking about bleeding, sometimes this step will convince them not to bleed.
Once you’ve rinsed your face with cool water, it’s time to apply after-product. This is purely optional, but I find that my face thanks me. I have extremely dry skin, so this is the perfect time to add some moisture and avoid redness, cracked skin, etc. In come two categories of after-shave. In front is Clubman Pinaud, which is a traditional Home Alone aftershave. It’s alcohol based, and it’ll let you know if you nicked yourself. To me, this is the smell of a barbershop, and it lingers with you for the rest of the day.
Behind the Clubman is some Tea Tree leave-in conditioner. I forget who recommended it to me, but this stuff is the absolute best at moisturizing my face. I just rub it in like lotion, and my dry skin issues go away within a couple hours. It doesn’t linger like Clubman, but you can still smell it a couple hours later.
Also, while you’re cleaning up, rinse out your brush and get as much water out as you can. I hang mine alongside my razor to air dry the rest of the way. I also leave the soap container open to air dry.
But what if you got a boo boo? Bleeding is a part of learning to shave, and it sucks. Rather than sticking toilet paper to your face or bleeding everywhere, get yourself a styptic pencil or an alum block. They both contain chemicals that help your blood clot up and stop the bleeding. They aren’t magic, so don’t start rubbing your jugular while you’re bleeding out, but they’ve stopped cuts where the blood was dripping down my chin before.
I’ve never found out the right way to clean the styptic pencil. I usually rinse it off under the faucet, but the pencil doesn’t play well with water.
All of this to say, nobody needs 32 different kinds of razors. In Progtopia, we’re all gonna be stuck with shitty off-brand disposables and silly-string for shaving cream.
Its Juneteenth, Texans. Time to celebrate the ending of slavery in the state and in the south. Of course, slavery was still legal in some states that didn’t secede. But historians would prefer people believe slavery, once ended in the former confederate states, was ended for good much earlier that year. And it still goes on in much of the world, of course. Today is also the day we celebrate birthdays for the following: mathematician Blaise Pascal, divorcee Wallis Simpson, fucking GENIUS funny man Moe Howard, Iron Horse Lou Gehrig, author Salman Rushdie, “singer” and vodka fan Paula Abdul, hilarious Top Gear guest and former mayor of London Boris Johnson, actress Mia Sara, Maverick Dirk Nowitzki, and mean-as-snot child Justice Forall Sloopy Juneteenth Spicer. Its also the day the Metropolitan Police in London were formed, the British royal family dropped their German name and adopted Windsor in order to throw people off the scent of their ties to those filthy Huns, Max Schmeling knocked out Joe Louis, Rommel occupied Cherbourg, Cheerios was unveiled to the disgust of children everywhere, Lewis and Martin ended their run together, that bastard Jim Davis subjected the world to “Garfield” for the first time (and may God have mercy on his soul), drug lord Pablo Escobar surrendered to police, “Batman Returns” was released, and Cherry Garcia hit the shelves.
Looks like the right amount of flopping
England barely pulled out a win over Tunisia, after a dozen missed chances and a lot of crappy play by their attackers. No word yet on whether or not Harry Kane will try to take credit for Tunisia’s goal as well. Belgium thumped Panama and Sweden bested South Korea. Meanwhile, in Omaha, Oregon State sent Washington home in a losers bracket game. No other games were completed, meaning three are on the slate today, with Arkansas taking on Texas Tech in the nightcap. In the big leagues, the Yanks and Cats split a doubleheader, the Dodgers-Cubs was postponed, the D-backs won and the Houston Firstros took their current win streak to 12 with a walk-off win against the hapless Rays.
I was wondering why James Comey hadn’t tweeted in some time and the wave of supporters he had from the intel community seemed to have dried up a bit. I suppose now I know why. He belongs in jail for admitting to leaking classified information in the name of self-aggrandizement. Even he knows that, which is why he chose to double-down in an attempt to win the PR war. Doesn’t look like it worked.
Morris Dees: asshole
The SPLC took a financial hit and will have to pay $3.375 million for wrongfully labeling a reformer an “anti-Muslim extremist”. Not to worry, Morris Dees and his little slush fund will continue to shake people down and slander them.
So lets see, Sweden survive, Belgium does their job, and England are trying to give away what should be a win — oh wait, Harry Kane wanted it. Nice header. That’s what I’ve got today. Its feeling like summer in Florida, so I can’t tell if I was sweating or I was just a convenient spot for condensation. That’s all I got.
Florida people doing Florida things. Man goes to separated wife’s place to dispute an air conditioner, gets shot in the nuts, his brother chokes the wife out. Lovely.
White men suck, am I right? I mean think of it. Hitler. Stalin. Kristen Stewart. What did they have in common? That is right… Is it any wonder most libertarians are white men? I think not. Which raises– no begging allowed – the question. Why are all libertarians scumbags white men? Or, to rephrase, why are there not more women / higher melanin / pansexual / gender fluid libertarians? And the diverse ones we do get tend to be posting unsettling things… What does this say of men? What does this say of libertarianism? Who can address these burning questions? The answer to that is the second greatest philosopher of our times, the humble Pie. I will leave the identity of the greatest philosopher as an exercise for the comments.
White men all the way
It is pretty much a meaningless question for libertarians and a meaningful one just for those who use it as a line of attack. The group identity of libertarians is attacked as much or more as the ideology itself. It is as if people still think ad hominem is a valid argument, which is surprising, given the high quality public education that teaches the masses critical, independent though.
If significant part of white men were libertarians, maybe this would be more meaningful. But the vast majority of white men are not libertarians, just like the vast majority of <insert random group identity here>. Libertarian white men are an outlier among white men.
No the question is: why is the small percentage of libertarians from one group higher? Is the evil higher among white men? Or is it that they are less immersed in collectivist thought from a young age? Or maybe it is genetic. Who knows? Who cares? Well libertarian men who wish there were more libertarian wymmin care, but they are sad nerds.
Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired said a dead white Man. Most people do not reach political conclusions through a thorough process of thought and analysis. Not unlike religion, most people get their politics from their community, their social group, the schools and universities, the media. Otherwise you would not see, as in most countries, strongholds of this or that party in a region for generations. Often times, partisanship is more important than principle, as often seen in multiple psychology studies in which people are asked whether they support a certain policy, and the answer differs based on the party they are told suggested it. To be fair, that does not necessarily mean that libertarianism is right or that the mainstream ideologies are wrong (they are though) or that there is such a things as a right ideology. To be sure, it is possible to adopt some correct ideas by conformism.
Libertarianism, being a relatively small ideology, has little mainstream exposure, and most of it, being by rivals, is negative. It is quite clear educational and intellectual circles are dominated by people very hostile to libertarianism. So it requires either a strong natural instinct for liberty or a higher level of intellectual curiosity and effort to be exposed to libertarianism rather than the straw man versions that are more easily accessed. Usually a bit of both.
More diversity needed
I know this because the first time I read something libertarian I was already in college while supporting the Nordic model, and my first thought was: this is nonsense. Just my natural curiosity and wish to understand things by reason led me to persevere and, in time, convert. Although, to be fair, I had a mean personal responsibility streak as a child. I remember there were times of heavy snow when high mountain trails were closed to hikers. Sometimes determined hikers kept on going, were inevitably stuck on the mountain and needed a dangerous and expensive nighttime rescue during a blizzard by the mountain rangers. I remember hearing one in a TV interview saying “yes we were told not to go and went anyway, but they couldn’t have just left us there to die” and I remember asking my parents why not, and not fully in jest. So there is that.
In the end it may be more an issue of values, of feelings, of instincts. And these, in most humans, can lean to collectivism, to choosing perceived safety over liberty, to wanting free shit, to envying those with more, to the need of order, to ban things they find icky or just to mimic the peer group. There is little room left for inquiry. After all, there ought to be a law.
Our favorite libertarian feminist who writes for a libertarian rag about sex a lot blames, among other things misogyny and sammich jokes for keeping the female touch away. Some of the more diverse group blame the fact that some libertarians are racists. Is this believable? Maybe to a point, but I don’t fully buy it.
To be sure, there are misogynist and racists everywhere in every party and ideology. Also plenty of weirdos. Are there more in libertarianism? As absolute numbers, I doubt it. But being in a smaller group, they stand out more and do not get lost in crowds. They may also be more open, because libertarianism as an ideology allows them to think and say whatever as long as they live and let live.
The biggest obstacle to liberty
People who are libertarians believe in liberty, principles, small or no government, free association, non-aggression or self-ownership or negative rights or something similar. If your beliefs are solid, I cannot see how you are dissuaded from them by someone saying something you don’t like. You don’t see women renouncing a mainstream party and ideology despite plenty of sexual assaults committed by high ranking members of them, and all parties had such incidence. So why renounce libertarianism because one guy said something sexist? If you do, well your principles were not very strong in the first place.
Seeing libertarianism in bad light because some of its members is well, unlibertarian. To be fair, that does not mean that libertarians should not criticize racism and misogyny in their ranks, although this should be a general thing and apply universally, as these are some of the worst manifestations of collectivism and tribalism which plague peoplekind.
To be sure, there is a case to be made that people who are undecided, just dipping their toe, if you will, in the waters of liberty, can be turned off by some things and may need a bit of finessing to get them over the line. We do have many years of propaganda to overcome and heal. So yes, there is a case to maybe express opinions in a way others find appealing. You can say the same thing in different ways to get different reactions. But libertarians are a fairly diffuse, decentralized lot and it is hardly possible for them to police every asshole on the internet who claims to be one and somehow stop him from saying shit others find unappealing. So if people are turned away from libertarianism by random opinions on twitter, well there is no solution really. So might as well relax and have ourselves a nice sandwich and a cold beer. Also convince more models to be libertarian. Otherwise the terrorists win. And by that I do not mean kidnapping to attempt brainwashing. So you know, don’t do that.
Hope all you dads out there had a great Fathers Day weekend. And I hope the USGA are proud of themselves for killing the greens on Saturday. Looks like they are, because they spent all day yesterday patting themselves on the back for “fixing” the problem they created in the first place. At least next year is at Pebble Beach. They can’t ruin that as well, can they?
Way to go, Germany. You too, Brazil. Hell, throw Argentina in there. They all gave points away, Germany most of all. But I think all Americans who follow soccer can unite in our contempt for Landon Donovan. I especially like in his tweet toward Carlos Bocanegra where he says to “stand for something.” I guess “something” is Wells Fargo dropping a small pile of money in your lap. Douchebag.
Firstros!
Hey, look. The Astros just completed a 10-game road trip. And went 10-0. They have their streak at 11 right now and are finally looking like its coming together. Now about that bullpen…
And speaking of baseball, your CWS early round winners were Texas Tech, Mississippi State, North Carolina and the Arkansas Razorbacks. And speaking of Razorback fans, of which I know we have a couple here, get a load of this genius in Omaha.
“And this is for our German friends.”
That’s it for sports. Hey, famous mountain climber George Mallory was born on this date. He shares it with (should-be) basketball legend George Mikan, base-stealer Lou Brock, musician and scold Paul McCartney, blowhard Roger Ebert, one-time hottie Isabella Rossellini, (possibly the best) defensive end (of all time) Bruce Smith, former ace of hearts Uday Hussein, and spitter Sandy Alomar. Its also the date when William Penn founded Philadelphia, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, Susan B Anthony was fined $100 for voting, the 1st Amusement park in America opened its doors in Atlantic City, Ameila Earhart proved that women can do anything men can do (several years later) by flying across the Atlantic, Winston Churchill gave his “this was their finest hour” speech, Brezhnev visited the US and Nixon, Sally Ride travels to space, Boris Yeltsin visited the US, and Unabomber (and possible Glibertarian) Ted Kaczynski was indicted. Fine stuff, some of that.
Meghan Markle’s father is a really weird dude. I, for one, look forward to him making an ass out of himself and the royal family he’s now technically a part of. This is gonna be like Billy Carter on steroids.
And Ted Cruz beat Jimmy Kimmel in a game of 1-on-1 basketball for charity. I can only imagine that it was a near shot-by-shot remake of the “cripple fight” scene from South Park. Come on, you two. Settle your spat by strapping on gloves and beating each other to a pulp. 1 on 1 is boring and lacks the violence we crave in out politician-vs-talk show host disagreements.
Since I can’t get any Cryptid support this weekend, and I am not trying call ZARDOZ on his CB any more today, you get my links again. I guess the folks in the home office won’t be very happy when they have to come to work on Monday morning. Too tired from celebrating the ultimate neutral result.
A draw. How…exciting.
I feel for them. I got food poisoning Saturday evening… but managed to go see my Dad today, have a couple of Swedish pancakes and drive home…whee.
Sheesh, OK Conan. Here are your links:
You know what other extremist group threatened to bring down a Czech government?
My Dad died almost two years ago. He farmed while my mom taught special ed, and so he was the one who took care of us when we were sick and he did a lot of the cooking. He frequently made things like fried chicken, sourdough pancakes or eggs and fried cornmeal mush at breakfast (must use bacon fat), Swiss steak, or pan fried walleye. It’s Father’s Day and I’ve been thinking about him and wanted to share one of my favorite dishes of his.
Dad used to make chicken soup with homemade noodles. My siblings and I always wanted Dad to make it instead of Mom because he was much messier with the flour and the broth would thicken until the dish was no longer soup, but not quite stew. We called it Dad’s Chicken Stoup.
Start with the noodles. Put a cup of flour in a bowl and add about 1 tsp salt and stir well. Don’t put the flour away, you’re going to need it later. Make a well in the center of the flour and add an egg.
Stir with a fork until it comes together in a nice ball that cleans the sides of the bowl.
If it is too dry, add a little water. Just a little – you can always add more. If you added too much water, add a little flour; this isn’t a precise recipe. The dough ball shouldn’t be sticky.
I often add frozen spinach (thawed, drained and well squeezed) with the egg or dried herbs to the flour (½ to 1 tsp depending on the herb – ½ tsp for sage, 1 tsp for marjoram), but Dad never did, so I won’t today. If you do add spinach, you won’t need any water and will need to add extra flour. Set the dough aside to rest.
Next, make the soup. This is your basic chicken soup. Chop onions, garlic, carrots and celery.
If we had mushrooms, Dad would sometimes add them, or green beans, otherwise, just the basics. I’m doing just the basics today. Sauté the chopped vegetables in a little oil until they start to soften. Sprinkle with a salt. It will help the vegetables throw off liquid and improve the flavor of the soup.
I usually add the onions and let it cook for a while, then add the celery, carrots and garlic.
When the onions are nicely translucent, add chicken broth and cooked chicken meat and bring to a boil. Add about 1 tsp or so of dried thyme. Dad always used leftover roasted chicken, and so do I. I also make my own broth from vegetable trimmings and the leftover bones from roasting a chicken.
Let the soup cook until the vegetables are done. While the soup is cooking, finish making the noodles.
Split the dough into two balls. After it has rested, it will be sticky because the moisture from the egg and any added water gets absorbed into the flour. Put plenty of flour on the board and roll one of the dough balls in it.
Roll out the dough very thin, using more flour as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin or the board. When you are done, sprinkle the dough with more flour, then gently roll it up into a cylinder.
This will prevent it from sticking to itself.
Slice it into strips and then unroll the noodles.
Put them back in the bowl and toss with yet more flour.
Repeat with the second dough ball. I usually skip rolling the dough into a cylinder, cutting it, and unrolling the noodles. Instead, once I have it rolled thin, I cut it into strips using a pizza cutter. Today, I’m doing it Dad’s way.
When you are happy with the doneness of the vegetables, drop the noodles into the soup a few at a time.
The noodles cook fast (about one to two minutes) and swell as they cook.
This is my true comfort food because it reminds me of Dad every time I make it.
Note that if you have leftovers, the noodles will continue to soak up the liquid and the broth will continue to thicken. I like it best the next day when most of the broth has soaked into the noodles and what is left is thick and stew-like. If you want it to still be soup-like, you will need to add more broth when reheating.
There are two alignments in the skies this week. The first is quite auspicious: Earth-Mars-Venus-Luna. Mars+Venus = the lovers, the Earth places them domestically, and the moon is romance. So for those of you with a spouse, this should be a good week to rediscover how good home cooking can be.
Ottawa Public Art
The second alignment is Saturn (retrograde)-Earth-Mercury. New portents, a boost to creativity, hangovers reduced, and artistic successes. While this alignment also includes the Earth, it doesn’t have any major relationship to the first alignment.
What does have a relationship to the first alignment is the fact that half of it (Venus and Luna specifically) are in Leo. In that context, it just reinforces the domestic bliss aspect and indicates that the more dominant partner will have a particularly good time. By itself, it indicates that your cat will go into heat if you haven’t had it fixed. So get the vicious little hate machine fixed already.
Speaking of hate machines…
The sun remains in Gemini, increasing the likelihood of revelation and discovery. Speaking of discovery, Ottawa seems like it can be thoroughly explored in a day or three. In a way, it’s a lot like DC in that goods are of relatively high quality but more expensive than you’d expect. It is vastly smaller than DC, and much, MUCH whiter. Like, you know the joke about there being no black people in Canada? It’s actually true of Ottawa. On the other hand, it’s vastly superior to DC in the sense that it was built on top of a mountain next to a scenic river as opposed to the middle of a swamp. When you’re on Capitol Hill, you see– DC. When you’re on Parliament Hill, you see woods, a river, boats on said river, roses, it’s really very nice. And the buildings I think are prettier than Federal Neo-Classical, but de gustibus and all of that.
The Great Sept of Balor
It’s also pleasant to look over the river at Gatineau, and note that if the Quebecois get uppity, you can just lob some cannonballs down at them and they can’t really much but curse at you in an amusingly silly accent.
Jupiter (retrograde) in Scorpio. Same Stars, Different Day. Although, when it comes to misrule, there are some interesting examples in Ottawa. For example, we stayed in an AirB&B next to the Greek embassy. Posh neighborhood, right? …no. Behold:
If your embassy is located in a student rental unit, you’re not really trying very hard.
There was a Hyundai Elantra in the drive and a fat crumpy tomcat walked by and sprayed it.
In DC, the various countries at least made an effort with their consular offices. Here, you could tell that nobody really cared about being there, but some countries were interested in showing off. The DC-typical Embassy Row is visible from the river, and clustered next to the PM’s official residence/eyebrow storage facility were France, the UK, Indonesia, Some wealthy petrostate which I forget, and then The US, with the biggest, classiest, most abassadorrific embassy in the whole capital. The Foggy Bottom crowd would give their very best pair of striped pants to be in that embassy, I’ll tell you.
Mercury is in Cancer. Mercury is the planet of news/tidings/announcements, and Cancer is the sign of secrets, so this could be a problematic week for you if you have something to hide. Also, call your mother.
Ottawa built a memorial to the Stanley Cup. I don’t know when exactly. I assume they’ve resigned themselves to the fact that the real thing will never be here again.
Mars is still in Aquarius. Mars of course, is the planet of war, and I can’t quite figure out the Canadian military. When I was in Quebec City, I saw soldiers at the Citadel, and they were in British ceremonial dress: scarlet tunic, bearskin hat, the whole 8.23 meters. The fact that they were wearing that uniform while shouting orders in French hurt my brain, but here at their War Memorial/Tomb of the Unknown Soldier combo they are wearing something similar to a US army uniform, not at all similar to a UK service kit:
Note that the only tourist brave enough to approach the guard is an American
Yeah, June in Canada is pretty fucking gorgeous.
Saturn retrograde in Capricorn. In my despair to come up with anything novel to glean from this never-ending astrological feature, it occurs that this might be one of the most self-referential situations ever. You’ve got Capricorn, the stubborn, change-resistant sign, and into that you’ve got Saturn (Chronus, Father Time, the Grim Reaper) the sign of endings flipped so that it’s negated — it will never end. Of course, this is also true because retrograde motion inhibits/reverses the progress of a planet through a sign, keeping it there longer. Couple that with the fact that Saturn is an outer planet with long orbital lengths, and we wind up with what we’ve got today.
TL;DR on Ottawa: all the cost of Montreal, half the charm. Still a hell of a lot better than Ennis, TX.
Razors come in all different shapes and sizes, but there are three most important attributes: weight, balance, and aggressiveness. The key to shaving with a single blade razor is to avoid pressing. The blade should glide over your face, and even the slightest pressure can make for a bad shave. As such, the right weight razor keeps you from having to exert pressure to get the razor to cut. Too light, and your blade will skip right off your face. Too heavy, and you have very little control and feel as you cut. Balance also influences the control and feel. A well balanced razor can be held by two fingers and you can almost feel every whisker yield to the blade. Aggressiveness is about matching your style and skin sensitivity to how much the razor tries to take off on each pass. Some folks like really aggressive razors. Some (like me) like less aggressive razors. It’s all about getting a close cut without causing razor burn. Certain safety razors have adjustable aggressiveness. You twist a selector, and the blade bends to a different angle, reducing or increasing aggressiveness.
