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Saturday Review 3


And he hasn’t even reached his final form.
 

For some reason, many Righties are allergic to learning from the Left. THAT’S NOT HOW THE RIGHT DOES THINGS, they bellow, by which I assume they mean unpleasant stuff like “winning.” But you don’t have to do everything the way Lefties do it to learn some of the lessons they’ve learned. The Left has been working hard for decades, and they’ve been good enough to put some of their knowledge and experience into books that anyone can read. If you’re going to oppose the Left, it’s useful to know how the Left actually works. A lot of Righties have an inaccurate view of how the Left works, in part because our press is astonishingly incurious about one of the major power centers of our time. Radical Book Club: the Decentralized Left | Status 451


If the media became unhinged in the adulatory Obama years through hubris, it might have earned back its respect and professionalism by covering Trump in even-handed fashion. But Nemesis does not work that way: those it destroys, it first makes mad. America’s Media Meltdown | 

‘Dunkirk’ review in USA Today warns ‘no lead actors of color’ in WWII-inspired film –    A USA Today review of “Dunkirk” is under increased scrutiny from industry peers for warning viewers that it lacks women and minorities.

Identify Anything, Anywhere, Instantly (Well, Almost) With the Newest iNaturalist Release    The app’s users upload photos of all manner of creature, with both a date and a place accompanying the photo. Other users help with identifications, and once two users agree on a species an observation is elevated to “research grade.” iNaturalist recently passed five million observations, 2.5 million of which have reached research grade.

We make judgments about one another based on our writing skills. It’s why gold plated phonies like George Will can pass themselves off as deep thinkers. Essential Knowledge: Part XII | The Z Blog

 


Two days in an underwater cave running out of oxygen  Gràcia lost track of time but after what felt like days he heard a loud noise above him. He realised Mascaró must have made it out.”I thought at first I could hear the sound of tanks being filled with air for the rescue team. Later I realised they must be trying to drill through the rock.”I was really happy as I realised they were looking for me.”But then the noises stopped and Gràcia faced his darkest moment.

Who says there’s no good news? : “A letter from Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division asks “44 states to provide extensive information on how they keep their voter rolls up-to-date” in a strike at what the administration perceives as ghost voters. State Department layoffs under Tillerson and probes into Post Office use of employee time to campaign for Hillary suggest blows to the heart of the Democratic public sector base. Reports that “Trump’s lawyers and aides are scouring the professional and political backgrounds of investigators hired by the special counsel, looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation — or even build a case to fire Mr. Mueller or get some members of his team recused” mean the administration is prepared to fight fire with fire.”  The Cold Civil War

One Cʘsmos: The Essence and Form of Political Truth The left of course wants to have its crock and force us to eat it too. Its guiding principle is that Truth Doesn’t Exist and We are its Prophets. Or better, Enforcers. For example, there is no such thing as human nature but women have an absolute right to a dead baby. Or, marriage is just a piece of paper but homosexuals are deprived of the dignity owed human beings without it. The list is pretty much endless. We’re especially seeing the drama play out with regard to freedom of speech, about which the left is no longer even trying to conceal its deadly hostility.


 Hippies, Guns, and LSD: The San Francisco Rock Band That Was Too Wild For the Sixties | Collectors Weekly   Around the time of the Charlatans’ first paying gig, in June of 1965, the Grateful Dead were still playing pizza parlors as the Warlocks, Jefferson Airplane had yet to take off, Big Brother was a year away from handing Janis Joplin a microphone, and Quicksilver was not even a gleam in anyone’s eye. By 1966, the Charlatans had a record deal with the same label that had released the 1965 smash hit “Do You Believe In Magic?” by the Lovin’ Spoonful.


The Mystery Of The Mexican Suitcase: A Trove Of Unseen Photos :   This is the story of a mystery. It’s called the Mexican Suitcase. But it’s not Mexican. And it’s not a suitcase. It is three yellowing boxes of old negatives, 4,500 of them, that were lost to the world for more than half a century. The contents are presently on exhibit at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan.Courtesy of the International Center of PhotographyAlmost all the negatives are searing portraits of war, and of ordinary people living in the Spanish towns and countryside held by the anti-Franco forces during the Spanish Civil War. The photographs are by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour known as Chim.

No, John, Let’€™s Talk About Race:    If it’s “implacably oppressive” slavery you want, then look no further than black-on-black slavery in Africa or, better yet, Muslim-on-black slavery. According to M. A. Khan in Islamic Jihad, Muslims herded over 2 million black slaves out of Africa in the 19th century alone – a far cry from the 400,000 black slaves brought to North America along the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in a span of over 400 years.

With their rocketing movements and jewel-like plumage, hummingbirds seem like a hybrid of flesh, feather, and fireworks. The wings of some species flap up to a hundred times per second. Their heart rate can exceed a thousand beats per minute, and they gulp nectar with a near-invisible flick of the tongue. In gardens or at backyard feeders, they’re the definition of fleeting beauty. So who could resist the temptation to slow their motion, to dissect their movements—to inhabit, even briefly, the hummingbird’s world? Unlocking the Secrets Behind the Hummingbird’s Frenzy

The Shura – brushbeater     Many of you out there dismiss the Afghans as backwards, inherently inbred losers; easy to beat. You know you do. I used to as well. Until I went there and shot a few of them. And I respect them a whole lot more than some of you out there. Yep, I said it; I mean it. They don’t run their mouths, make idiotic memes, repeat stupid catchphrases made by a 12 year old or have an unrealistic expectation of the world. They go and do with what little they have, right or wrong in our eyes, and the Tribe comes first, accepting full well the consequences of their actions.


UPDATE:

My theory is that Munch’s scream is his father’s likeness. The Scream, one of which is made in the pastel medium, is the Mona Lisa of the 20th Century because of its renown. And it’s not a realist work. ahem. It sold for a record $120 mil. Another historical note: Edvard Munch was considered the best looking man in Norway, never married, and had naked women knocking on his door to model for him even into his later years. Once, the sauciest babe in Berlin shot the end of his finger off in a love spat. She was later murdered by her hubby; not Munch. His life is certainly worth a look. — Casey Klahn

An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret life of a USC med school dean – LA Times   Shot in 2015 and 2016, they show Puliafito and the others partying in hotel rooms, cars, apartments and the dean’s office at USC. In one video, a tuxedo-clad Puliafito displays an orange pill on his tongue and says into the camera, “Thought I’d take an ecstasy before the ball.” Then he swallows the pill. In another, Puliafito uses a butane torch to heat a large glass pipe outfitted for methamphetamine use. He inhales and then unleashes a thick plume of white smoke. Seated next to him on a sofa, a young woman smokes heroin from a piece of heated foil.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • ghostsniper July 22, 2017, 12:35 PM

    Shaves his skall, wears a shirt 2 sizes too small, and wraps some shades and he still acts like a starved cuck. You can take the boy out of the cuck but you can’t take the cuck out of the boy.

    Now, the hottest days of the year, and the hummingbirds are OUT OF CONTROL.
    I had to leave the porch awhile ago for the onslaught of the tiny WW2 flying aces threatened my very welfare. Maybe I should stop putting a tablespoon of instant coffee in their nectar.

  • Snakepit Kansas July 22, 2017, 3:04 PM

    RE cave diving: I went on several dives in the Philippines in Palawan and Batangas Provinces where we dove into caves. For technical diving you will be told again and again “Plan your dive and dive your plan”, meaning that you know how much air you have and how long it will last. It is all a mathematical calculation which is checked and rechecked prior to getting wet. If you are under water changing levels and spending different amounts of time at those levels and you have not planned that, then you cannot calculate how much air you will use or how much carbon dioxide you body as accumulated. Even with mixed air (higher amounts of oxygen:nitrogen blend) you must know what is happening to your body as you are under water. The deeper you are, the more compressed nitrogen you put into your blood stream. As you raise in water level that gas that is now within your body tissue will start expanding. One must breathe it out over time with a controlled assent. Half of the dive time on a 150′ dive would be spent at the end of the dive at about 10 meters under water, breathing out nitrogen from the blood stream.

    So it sounds like these cave divers were not that deep since there were air pockets. The guide line that was ALWAYS run with us into a cave was treated like our daughter’s virginity. Kicking up silt was highly frowned upon and we trained over and over to control our bouancy (sp) regardless of depth. The guide line was not to be used to pull yourself forward but to put your thumb and index finger around making an “OK” on the line and only feeling it. Even in silted water, if one kept his/her wits, one could feel the line and follow it to the cave exit. With 150′ dives we would commonly take three or four tanks (one or two on the back, two strapped to the front), dropping two from the chest, at the entrance of the cave. Of course we would pick them back up upon exit and use them for the assent and decompression period.

    I would never imagine going one click into a cave under water, regardless of depth. I never went more than 150 feet although some of the cavities were quite constrained. Sometimes we ran into air pockets that could be very large to quite small. The tide would change the size of the air pocket, of course. As for sunk Japanese ships around Caron Island were concerned, we only went in as far as we could see daylight outside. All of them that I saw were less than 80′ down. Very likely there were sailors still there and we certainly did not want to disturb.

  • Casey Klahn July 22, 2017, 7:01 PM

    My theory is that Munch’s scream is his father’s likeness. The Scream, one of which is made in the pastel medium, is the Mona Lisa of the 20th Century because of its renown. And it’s not a realist work. ahem. It sold for a record $120 mil. Another historical note: Edvard Munch was considered the best looking man in Norway, never married, and had naked women knocking on his door to model for him even into his later years. Once, the sauciest babe in Berlin shot the end of his finger off in a love spat. She was later murdered by her hubby; not Munch. His life is certainly worth a look.
    Dunkirk. I told this panel before that the libs are out to change the heroic morality tale of World War Two, and this minorities and women crap is a foot inside the door. Tell them to cram it. Better yet, crush that besandled foot like an egg. I was watching The Atonement movie scene, re: Dunkirk, the other night with my wife, and I told her we were watching an historic miracle. A classic example of losing your way to winning, and history is full of those stories.

  • Vanderleun July 23, 2017, 7:45 AM

    GOOD observation, Casey. Added it above.

  • ghostsniper July 23, 2017, 5:21 PM

    That Scream attrocity is not art. An 8 yo could do that. No adult of upright character would ever present such a thing under any seriousness.

    When an object is traded for that kind of money it is just another investment vehicle.

  • Casey Klahn July 23, 2017, 6:32 PM

    Thanks, Gerard.

    Ghost, you’re just being knee-jerk about Munch, who fathered the Expressionist movement (German Expressionism, Norwegian Expressionism, French Expressionism, and much of Modernity). I gave all of the evidence of his greatness in my comment.

    I didn’t mention how the Nazis condemned his art, but after he died of old age, in occupied Norway in 1944, they dug his body up and parade him around Oslo. You have to give something to a guy like that!

  • ghostsniper July 24, 2017, 9:30 AM

    If you take a piece of trash and tack a fancy name on it does that increase it cred and value?
    Apparently.
    The thing looks like a child did it and anyone that says otherwise is retarded.
    It’s not kneejerk when sane people have been saying it for decades.
    Movement indeed.

  • Casey Klahn July 24, 2017, 12:05 PM

    On the contrary, my Ghost friend, the people who’ve said The Scream is valuable have made good on their statement, and the fact that you recognize it and react to it proves merit. Now, forgive the language in the following quote by Munch’s contemporary, the artist Marcel Duchamp, who gave us a urinal as art. “Not everyone is an artist, but everyone is a fucking critic.”

    All my best.

  • ghostsniper July 24, 2017, 1:34 PM

    I hafta qualify this, I just hafta.

    We built our Florida house in 2002 for the express purpose of displaying our art collection, specifically, paintings and prints. None over $1,000.00 in cost, but all original. When we put that home on the market in 2006 well over 1000 people came through and just about all of them were in awe of the display. It was the first time Century 21 SunBelt had ever sold a home for MORE than the already high selling price. They are convinced the artwork and staging did it.

    We now live in what is coined as “The Artists Colony of the MidWest” and artistry is every where.

    2 years ago, with encouragement from me, and after thinking about it for a long time, my wife started painting. Her beginning stuff was as you can imagine but with each new start she got a little better.

    Since she is a full time business owner she paints when she can, a little here, a little there. A couple weeks ago she completed a small (12″x17″) painting of a pair of hummingbirds in flight in a landscaped setting. She had worked on it off and on for over a month. I was very impressed with her progress. This was wallable material. I lavished praise upon her and promptly took that painting downtown and had it professionally double matted and framed at a cost of almost $200., and it is now displayed in our stairway.

    With desire, dedication, vision, and perseverance, just about anybody can do just about anything and get better and better at it.

    Though amateurish, my wife’s very first painting demonstrated far more aptitude than anything Munch ever could muster, and when you look at his long history he never ascended past the level of that of any elementary school kid.

    Calling something a made-up word and then attributing it to a silly notion of a *movement* is just that, silly. Read any of the glossy art rags out there and you’ll see the same gobbledygook you see in the wine magazines. People inflating molecules to the size of dirigibles with unlimited numbers of ninnies out there all to ready to throw castles of money at it to give creedence to the emperors imaginary garments.

    I’ll have none of it and will hold bluffery down by it’s rotten neck every single time.

  • Casey Klahn July 25, 2017, 8:27 AM

    I’m torn between just letting the comments hang up there, and riffing back with quotes. I’m constrained to letting these quotes of Munch’s contemporaries say it.
    Picasso (described as the greatest artist of the 20th C/highest price art sold for $181 mil) quote. “I could explain the picture to you, and you would understand the explanation, but you still wouldn’t understand the picture.”
    Marcel Duchamp (artist who gave us the urinal/top 3 Modernists 20th C.). “Not everyone is an artist, but everyone is a fucking critic.”
    All smiles.

  • Casey Klahn July 25, 2017, 8:28 AM

    I’m torn between just letting the comments hang up there, and riffing back with quotes. I’m constrained to letting these quotes of Munch’s contemporaries say it.
    Picasso (described as the greatest artist of the 20th C/highest price art sold for $181 mil) quote. “I could explain the picture to you, and you would understand the explanation, but you still wouldn’t understand the picture.”
    Marcel Duchamp (artist who gave us the urinal/top 3 Modernists 20th C.). “Not everyone is an artist, but everyone is a f^cking critic.”
    All smiles.