People often wonder how to respond when some obnoxious social justice warrior comes up and starts making very cogent and well reasoned arguments (and by that I mean they call you a racist). I think this guy handles it very well. I have used the same technique before (although I usually try to yawn and just not respond), but there are a lot of moments here when I would not have been able to refrain from saying something — especially when the girl starts up with her “love you long time” voice and tries to mock him.
But he just keeps his cool and the predictable result is that his tormenters come off looking like the intolerant SJW twats that they are. I think at the end the fellow who was with the girl starts to twig to the fact that maybe, just maybe they weren’t going to come out of this looking so good. Self-awareness is not a big virtue of these people. I always get a big kick out of how they record the event thinking they are the heroes.
And the nice thing about this is that they got the response they deserved — none. They made no serious arguments, they just started in with the insults. So why waste time even engaging with such people? I have a relative who does this sort of thing and eventually we all just got to where we either wouldn’t respond or would just get up and walk out.
People like the ones in the video really should be an object of derision and pity. Look at the woman here. I believe she may be borderline retarded — not just in the “haha, you so dumb” or the “I want to insult you because you have different beliefs” sense, but in the real “Holy Shit there isn’t much going on up there, how does she function” sort of way. She actually thinks that going to college, or having a degree is relevant in this situation, and that it is in some way a validation of how smart she is rather than a condemnation of how poor the curriculum and standards must be there. I am sure her college very much wants to keep any affiliation with this woman a secret.
But this is all she has to work with since the guy won’t give her anything. She has to fantasize about who he is, and what might hurt his feelings. And when she does so she just projects her own fears and inadequacies. Since she mentions being dumb it is pretty clear she has some experience with how hurtful it is for people to think she is dumb. I bet she actually has a lot of experience with that. And she mentions free wifi, which is frankly just bizarre. But it shows how much she values money and thinks that this guy will be hurt if she (the moral arbiter of all that is good and holy) thinks he is poor. So basically if you combine all of the arguments the two antagonists make you get the pejoratives racist, dumb and poor — because the people making the charges are obviously racist, dumb and quite possibly poor.
And if that isn’t enough at one point the evil guy asks the victim if he is a Jew. I shit you not! The people whose first sentence includes the charge of racism asks the guy he is trying to bully if he is a Jew as if that has some bearing on what happened there. If you presented this as a parody no one would believe it.
Anyway, if anyone has the number of the Vatican you need to call them up and ask if they have an opening for a patron saint of patience, because this dude could teach a master class in it. He is like the big dog who continues napping while the little dog nips at him — safe in the knowledge that he is the big dog.
Seriously, the only mistake the man made was not using a firearm to get the kangaroo to let the dog go. He was there hunting pig with a friend who was terminally ill (and has since died) so there would be a gun handy. I guess maybe he was afraid he would hit the dog? But you don’t want to get in a fist fight with something which has claws like these.
So really, the guy showed great restraint and put himself at risk to a far greater extent than he needed to.
And contrary to what PETA says, it was the kangaroo which advanced on him. He presented a distraction so the dog could get away and then he backed off a couple of steps once the animal was free while maintaining a defensive posture. Then the kangaroo advanced and he clocked it. The funny thing about it is how human the animal’s reaction is at that point. It is stunned. At one point it looks like it is trying to look around and make sure none of its friends saw what happened.
I ran across an open letter to the new Department of Health and Human Services head Tom Price. It is one of the more repellant things I have read in a while. It is everything you would expect from a “a reproductive justice activist, abortion storyteller, and board member at NARAL Pro-Choice America.” Yes, you read that right — storyteller. I am going to refrain from mentioning the woman’s name because really, how could I shame her any more than that description which she herself approved?
The gist of it is that this woman claims she got pregnant because she could not afford birth control rather than from the fact that she let a man inseminate her. Let’s do a bit of fisking shall we!
Congratulations on your recent selection by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as his secretary of health and human services.
I wonder if she would also like her insurance to cover capital letters, because she doesn’t seem to be able to afford those either. We are off to a roaring start. Let’s see what else is in the first paragraph.
As a Black woman, I am distraught that your opposition to the Affordable Care Act will leave many of my sisters without basic health care.
Ooooh…. the race card…. I certainly didn’t see that coming. Did you? And apparently she can capitalize the things she really cares about, such as her race. I think we have reached the point where the old sort of racism has been all but completely stamped out, and the word is more appropriately used now to describe someone who sees everything in terms of race, the same way a Marxist sees everything in term of class. In this sense (and probably in the classical sense as well) she is a racist.
But what’s deeply troubling to me are your comments on abortion and birth control, and your misunderstanding of why access is so crucial.
I refuse to see the word “access” abused in this manner. It implies that someone is being denied something for illegitimate reasons. If I go to Wal-mart and am stopped by security when trying to carry out a TV I did not pay for then I am being denied “access” to the TV in exactly the manner as this woman is describing here. What NARAL and their ilk mean by access is not that they can’t buy something the same way anyone else can, but rather that something is not given to them for free. They don’t have “access” to birth control the same way I don’t have “access” to a bank vault. That is their complaint. They feel they have a right to the possessions of others without having to provide compensation of an amount willingly agreed upon by all parties. Slavers thought the same thing about labor as this woman does about property.
And it really doesn’t matter to them if there are alternatives. I could borrow a TV. Or I could watch with someone else. Or I could borrow the money for a TV. Or I could amuse myself in a fashion which does not involve a TV… which is a key point here is it not? But by their definition I would still have suffered an injury if mommy refused to buy me one.
in 2012, you doubted the very existence of people who have a difficult time affording birth control. “Bring me one woman who has been left behind,” you told a ThinkProgress reporter at the time. “Bring me one. There’s not one.”
Oh, the drama! If only there were sound effects that would play when your eyes read over certain sentences — or when they roll. She goes on to tell a story of how as a 19 year old she ran short on funds and let her birth control lapse for a week or so while she awaited her next paycheck. You can see where this is heading, right? Well she didn’t. She claims she did not understand that the efficacy of the pills would be lessened IF SHE DIDN’T TAKE THEM. She seriously argued that she thought not taking the pills would be just as effective as if she took them.
At the time, I didn’t realize that I could get pregnant if I missed a week or two of pills. In my high school sex-ed classes, the teacher preached about his kids and their purity vows and showed us slides of STDs, rather than giving us helpful information about sex and family planning. Like most teens, I turned to my friends to fill in the gaps, asking them the questions that I didn’t feel comfortable asking my parents, or looking for answers I didn’t get in class. And, like many teens, I didn’t know how to negotiate consent or condom use in my relationship, which later turned abusive. Eventually, I became pregnant.
If only there were a universally available repository of knowledge to which one could turn for reliable information about sex. It would need to be something easy to navigate which is completely private so that someone would not have to face the embarrassment of broaching the subject with their parents. But alas, all we have is the internet. And we all know that access to the internet is strictly controlled by race and gender.
So, to the list of things this woman does not understand we can add how to get “access” to the internet, how to drive to the local health clinic for free condoms, how to satiate sexual desires in a way that does not end with semen in her vagina, and how to use the active voice in describing things she has done. She did not “become pregnant.” She engaged in intercourse and allowed herself to be impregnated. She wasn’t just playing hopscotch when a stork came along and gave her a magic bean. She wasn’t just some spectator to the event. It wasn’t just fate. It was a clearly foreseeable result of her actions.
I knew I wasn’t ready to become a parent. So I made an appointment at the abortion clinic, and maxed out my first credit card, which had a $500 limit that was supposed to only be used in emergencies.
Ah, so she was NOT so bereft of resources that she could not pay for birth control. She had a credit card with at least $500 of credit, enough for a whole year’s worth of birth control at even the inflated rate she quotes in the article. And so although she concedes her entire argument, she does so obliviously.
She goes on to describe how the ACA contraception mandate has done away with all of these problems. No longer will young women be forced to take responsibility for their own actions, or suffer the consequences of their bad decisions. They can remain infants for life as others strive to provide them with everything they need while insulating them from their own stupidity. Which will leave them more time for truly important things like complaining about how people try to mansplain reproduction to them. They can do as they please, content in the knowledge that the taxpayer will be picking up the bill. Isn’t it grand? Or judging by the increase in price of my insurance under the ACA, several grand!
There is also some stuff in there about how black women are prone to painful fibroids which can be treated with birth control pills. She doesn’t mention that health plans paid for these treatments long before the ACA came along. I know because my wife had hers covered. Maybe there were some plans which did not, but that is why no one was forced to buy a particular plan… until now. And boy, am I happy that if I ever get fibroids in my uterus that it will be covered.
It’s true that Black women have abortions at a rate higher than other racial groups, and it’s because we lack consistent access to birth control and have higher maternal mortality rates. In some cases, abortion is the safest option for our lives. Black women know what’s best for our bodies. Trust us, Rep. Price.
Black women have exactly the same access as women of every other race to birth control. No one is standing behind the counter checking someone’s race to see whether anyone can have birth control. All they want is $4 at Wal-mart. For fucks sakes, we aren’t going to rearrange 1/6th of the US economy just because someone is too lazy to panhandle $4 in the parking lot… oh, wait a minute… yeah, we did just that didn’t we?
After this there is some rehashing of grievances and some arguments that are so hopelessly irrational that rather than parse them I will give you something of equal rhetorical content.
On the bright side, this woman is getting absolutely savaged on Twitter and in the comments of the site on which the letter is posted. It is kind of sad really because she obviously isn’t all that bright, and is being used for a purpose that she isn’t really capable of understanding. But it is a marked improvement from when Sandra Fluke trotted out this same crap. People are less fearful of speaking up now, and the press has lost all of its ability to bully. If Trump does nothing else, he will have set people free to speak the actual truth again. Maybe someday we will once again reach the point where none of our women have penises.
This woman’s principle faults are that she is unable to understand cause and effect, is shiftless, and has an inability to feel shame. The pill will cure none of these ailments. And I don’t mean shame over having had sex. I mean shame at wanting others to fund her frolics. She can screw the entire roster of a college football team for all I care. It is none of my business. But the moment she wants me to pay for it then it most definitely becomes my business. I have a lot of hobbies, and it would never occur to me to have her pay for my inflatable…. um… rafts. Nor would I blame the government if I try to get by without a patch on one of the rafts because I am short on funds and end up drowning as a result.
The cause of her getting pregnant was by her own admission not a lack of birth control, but a lack of knowledge. And she tried to acquire that knowledge by asking that renowned expert on sexual reproduction “someone in my class” rather than the teacher whose job is to answer those very questions. The taxpayers already paid to remedy her problem by providing her information, even though it is information which is already widely and easily available. Yet she scorned that resource. Just how often does she want us to intervene in her sex life? Should we send a proctor to observe that she takes her pills, or applies the condom correctly? I mean, if we are responsible for her bad decisions then why just the decision to skip her pills and still have sex? Why that particular one out of all of the dumb things she did, and will do?
She might need a windshield wiper on her car one day and decide to go without it which leads to a car crash. Why shouldn’t we pay for a windshield wiper for everyone? If we follow the ACA model then we could mandate that those be part of auto insurance. And gas too. Someone might run out of money and try to drive too far on fumes, only to have the car break down leading to them being run over, or abducted, or stranded, or, or, or…. being denied “access” to literally everything since they can’t get there. Access to access is the most fundamental human right of them all.
The same argument can be applied to nearly everything we purchase. So why birth control pills? Why is that the rallying point? I confess, I don’t have the slightest clue. And neither does this woman. All of these things have nothing to do with insurance. Insurance is meant to pay for rare, ruinous events that people pool their money to cover. Having insurance pay for maintenance items makes no sense. If auto insurance has to cover wipers then the policy premiums will go up by the cost of the windshield wiper plus a small expense and profit margin. You will come out worse than if you just paid directly for the damned things.
But the ACA is not insurance. It is a wealth redistribution plan masquerading as insurance. This woman doesn’t know much about anything, but she understands that much. She understands freeloading. And instead of asking her boyfriend to help out, she would prefer to ask strangers… no scratch that… she would prefer to compel strangers to pay her way. And that is where the shiftlessness comes in. In fact, she would rather use force against people who have done her no wrong than she would to refrain from sating her carnal desires until she can prepare for the consequences, or understands the risks she is taking. She is demanding that we subsidize not her health, but rather her bad judgment. And there is just not enough money in the world to cover something that enormous.
The kindest thing that could be done for her is exactly what happened to her. She experienced the consequences of the choices she made and now has incentive to make better ones. She may not do that. She may choose to whine and berate others. But at least the incentives are correct, and that is the best we can do for her because we can’t be there to make every decision for her over the course of her entire life even if we wanted to do so.
I got this off Twitter so it may be a parody account, but if God ever answers the prayers of agnostics then I pray, “please God let this be true!” It would be the most ironic thing in the history of irony.
Soldiers push the jeep and trailer carrying the ashes of the late Fidel Castro after the jeep briefly stopped working during Castro’s funeral procession near Moncada Fort in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. Castro’s ashes will be interred Sunday in Santiago, ending a nine-day period of mourning that saw Cuba fall silent as thousands paid tribute to photographs of Castro and sign oaths of loyalty to his socialist, single-party system. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
Ah yes, nothing signals a sincerely held belief free of all coercion like a loyalty oath does. I think I will write one up for my wife and see what she says.
I also think the lesson we can all draw from this is that the difference between heaven and hell is that in hell the air conditioners are all manufactured by socialists.
Update: Apparently the story is true. It is on the AP wire, but none of the bigger news outlets are covering it. You can scroll through the AP pictures here and find it.
The left is just absolutely losing their shit over every little thing since Trump won. No sooner had the votes been counted than they were complaining he went to dinner without telling them — because it is absolutely imperative that we know whether Trump had chicken or fish. It is the Paparazzi Amendment in the Constitution or some such shit.
Tonight I have decided to start bringing you some examples of how far off the deep end they have gone. I start with Joss Whedon, best known for producing superhero movies featuring barrel chested, stout-hearted men…
@joss Your hysteria is the most entertaining thing you have ever produced. More please!
…who are nothing like his whiny, little ass. Yeah, I am sure Captain America would break down in tears because his party lost a free and fair election. Captain America would absolutely support the peaceful transition of power in the manner prescribed by the Constitution. Why he would…
… let us down completely. If you read his Twitter account you will see a bunch of ridiculous and uninformed gun control propaganda, which I guess makes a certain degree of sense if you are the sort who runs around in your underwear fighting villains with nothing but a snazzy shield, even if the shield is bulletproof (link is to video of actual reproduction shield being shot at). But you would think that he would at least have a 7th grade understanding of why we have an electoral college. Maybe he is in the wrong franchise. Maybe if he had been in the Hunger Games he would have a better appreciation of what it is like to have an effete and insulated population of self-centered city dwellers rule the hinterlands for their own benefit while subjecting them to cruel tortures for entertainment.
“This country was founded on immigration and today the only people that feel safe, that their rights are recognized and respected are white men,” — Jennifer Lawrence.
Or maybe not. As a white guy I would just like to say to Jennifer Lawrence, fuck you and your racist attitude you stupid cow. You think you get a pass for your hatred and prejudice because you are spewing your venom at an unprotected group. You think the fact that you can repeat what someone tells you to say for a living somehow makes you better than the plumber who doesn’t see a bit of difference between your shit and anyone else’s shit. It is safe for you to abuse us because you know that of all of the groups in the country, white men are the least likely to ever cause you a moment of grief or fear. It is absolute and abject cowardice on your part to pretend otherwise. And you know what I resent the most? That you make us say this now. Generally white guys don’t want to compare races, or think less of one over the other. But when they are unrelentingly and unfairly attacked at some point you are going to get called on your bullshit and it is not going to be pretty. Would you like it if instead of excuses being made for how violent young black males are that everyone started to demand that they behave themselves and explain why if they are the most violent cohort the rest of us should feel guilty? Would you like it we started to point out who really has privilege in this country?
I really hate this sort of race baiting. It is why Trump won. People are tired of this in your face sort of racism where leftists substitute the ad hominem for any sort of argument. Just which rights are not respected Jennifer? The “right” to be here illegally? Do you think being white would keep someone from being deported if they broke the law? Or is it being male? Just what exactly are you saying? Hell, a family of Germans who were really being persecuted for wanting to homeschool their kid couldn’t even stay in the country despite being the enormous privilege of being white. No one set up any sanctuaries for them.
And why would the most vilified group in the country be the group to feel safe? Why would the only group which the government sanctions discrimination against be the group whose rights are respected? WTF is wrong with you? Have you ever even been to America? I don’t mean Hollywood parties, or enclaves of fellow believers who fill their rich and empty lives with an assortment of guilts that they try on in a quest to be the most fashionable in their affiliations. I mean families in trailer parks who understand that their son will have to score much higher on the SAT if he is white and that there is not a single HR Department, or college admissions office anywhere in the country looking for more white males. No matter how hard they work, or how hard their son studies, he will be discriminated against. No less an entity than the US Supreme Court has ruled exactly that on several occasions now. What does any other group in the country have to compare to that? Black guys can’t attack cops and not get shot? Women can’t make choices that lead to them making less money and then not, you know, make less money? No one will believe your fake rape statistics which libel men, or believe that cops are hunting people based on race despite all statistics and facts to the contrary? Well boo-fucking-hoo sister.
And of course, like all white males, it doesn’t matter what Trump does. He will still be wrong.
@robreiner Wow, how dare he talk to the only elected representative of the Chinese people. Your hysteria is amusing. More please!
Here Meathead is complaining that Trump talked to the president of Taiwan recently. I happen to think this is an absolutely brilliant move. Taiwan is the only legitimately elected Chinese government. It makes perfect moral sense that we should favor them over the slave masters on the continent, and the time is long since past when there was any reason for strategic engagement in trying to liberalize mainland China by allowing them the benefits of free trade. That was solely a Cold War strategy and we have taken it about as far as it can go. The Chinese have been dicking around in the South Pacific taking advantage of the fact that Obama doesn’t really even care if the interests of the US and its allies are threatened. Calling the Tawainese president is very mild pushback on that front and signals that the days of the Red Chinese having a free hand are over. This is precisely the sort of signal that they will understand, and is much better than having to use the Navy to send a similar message.
Not only that, but it is negotiating 101 to have two suitors and make them bid against each other. The Chinese want favorable trade deals and access to our markets. If they think the Taiwanese may gain favor then they are less likely to take a hard line since they will see themselves as in competition. The leadership in China damn wells knows that the government there is in no way legitimate. It is just easy for them to forget that fact if the free world does not remind them of it. And frankly, this move will also hearten our allies who have spent eight years watching enemies of the US, from Iran, to China, to Russia, to ISIS, get everything they want. Whereas our allies have gotten nothing.
What incentive does China have to liberalize if we demand no concessions and keep filling their pockets?
But of course, one cannot make such an argument in a Tweet. The character limit pretty much amps up the name calling. I only like it because where else could I say something to a council member in England and have an off chance of their responding?
So anyway, we have 4-8 more years of this sort of hysteria over absolutely nothing. And Trump will bait these bastards from sun-up until sundown. They will not know whether to shit or go blind by the time it is all over because they just can’t bring themselves to shut up and see what he does. Nor as we saw with Reiner, can they think rationally about anything. If Trump talks to Taiwan first that will be the dumbest thing ever because it will piss off the Chinese. If he talks to the Chinese first then he will be endorsing their predations. And the left will never be able to articulate why any of this is so. They still do not understand that their basic inhumanity, bigotry, lying and irrationality is why the lost the election. And that is just fine with me.
This is one of the most maddening videos I have ever seen. The Italian government is forcing people to take Muslim “refugees” into their homes and businesses. Supposedly there should be compensation, but in typical Italian fashion it will come way too late to be of any help to anyone. I would bet the man in this video will see the grave before he sees a penny of it… which is likely the plan.
The government is apparently intent on arresting anyone who resists and is planning to send up to 2000 soldiers and police into certain areas to quell any resistance. You can see a translation of an article in the Italian press here, and it has a link to the original source so you can judge the veracity for yourself. I am not familiar with the Italian news outlet in question so this should all be taken with a grain of salt. I can see someone in Italy for instance stumbling upon the New York Times website and thinking it is a legitimate, unbiased news source if they were not familiar with the US.
But in either case, this provides a reminder of the proper and limited role of government. The main reason we humans invented government was to prevent the tribe over the next hill from coming and raiding our own tribe. Bad things can happen then, like your stuff gets taken, or you get killed or forced out of your home. Preventing these bad things from happening is one of government’s two or three legitimate functions. And it is not that what the government does is all that much different than what the other tribe would do — it certainly uses force to extract the personal possessions of those it purports to serve for instance — but rather we form governments in the hopes that our own tribesmen might be more likely to leave us more of what is ours than outlanders who have no stake in the community. But nations are large and unwieldy things and this does not always work, especially when as we have seen over the last 8 years people are encouraged to form up their own tribes within the larger one. Then instead of raiding they just use the government to go collect things for them.
That is bad enough, but when the government actively starts importing the rival tribes, and confiscating our stuff to give to them, then just what is the purpose of having a government at all? We are perfectly capable of being invaded all on our own without their help.
And this is why we used to have a Bill of Rights which provided we would be able to arm ourselves and that the government should consider our homes and possessions to be sacrosanct. The Kelo decision, and asset forfeiture laws pretty much shit-canned most of that. Which just goes to show that we should always be vigilant because those who would do evil, like the policemen in this video, will always be with us. Just because government is in some cases the lesser of two evils doesn’t mean that it is not evil. The more unconscionable the laws are then the lower the ethics must be of those who enforce those laws. This is how nations become corrupted.
And at some point, you end up like the poor man in this video — impotently threatening to sue the very government which is supposed to protect you for doing the very thing it was supposed to prevent.
It is interesting to see how world leaders are responding to the death of one of the worlds worst dictators.
Noted boy band member and Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau had this to say:
Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century.
I am unfamiliar with the definition of “served” which includes a leader imprisoning all opposition, not standing for election, looting his country, and ruling by fiat. Canadians should remember this when he uses the word again.
A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.
Yes, their education system was so effective that their starvation industry was one of the most efficient in the world, second only to North Korea, although Venezuela has been making a strong bid of late. Seriously, how the fuck do we know what sort of education people were given in Cuba when there is no evidence that they turn out anyone who is capable of producing anything? And we know from history that Cuban doctors are so good that Angola made them return home during the conflict there because the Cuban trained doctors were killing more people than they were saving.
While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for “el Comandante
A deep and lasting affection — lest they be jailed. The nice thing is this line can be recycled for all dictators and still be equally as absurd.
While a controversial figure, both Mr. Hitler’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the German people who had a deep and lasting affection for insert snappy nickname here der Fuhrer.
OK, so that was Trudeau, who has to be about the dumbest, little sniveling shit out there amongst the world leaders. Let’s see how some of the others did. Jimmy carter anyone?
Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We remember fondly our visits with him in Cuba and his love of his country. We wish the Cuban citizens peace and prosperity in the years ahead.
Again with the love of country. If Castro loved his country he would not have enslaved it. And if Carter wished prosperity for the Cuban people he would have had Castro’s head on a platter when he had the power to do it. Of course, Carter is also known to be a bitter and evil man. So maybe we can find someone better.
How about Obama?
At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans — in Cuba and in the United States — with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.
Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro’s family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people,” he continued. “In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America.
Alright, this is the sort of sleazy bullshit you would expect from Obama. There are a whole lot of words which are carefully selected to say nothing. He refers to powerful emotions and the ways Castro altered the course of individual lives without saying those ways included, torture, imprisonment, starvation etc… So while he doesn’t praise Castro, he doesn’t chastise him either. This seems typically Obama. He just has no moral basis on which to judge anything — which is likely why he always falls back on his own self-interest in the end.
Gorbachev also had something stupid to say.
Fidel stood up and strengthened his country during the harshest American blockade, when there was colossal pressure on him and he still took his country out of this blockade and on a path of independent development,
So just what the fuck has been “developed” in Cuba since the revolution? They are still trying to drive the same cars and the buildings are crumbling. They have made no advances in science or industry. And he absolutely did not make his country independent. He made them a vassal of the Soviet Union while it existed and since its demise Cuba has relied upon one benefactor or another, the most recent being Venezuela from who they got free energy supplies in return for sending experts to help persecute the opposition to Chavez and his merry band of idiots.
Even the Pope made a fool of himself.
Upon receiving the sad news of the passing of your beloved brother, the honorable Fidel Castro Ruz, former president of the state council and the government of the Republic of Cuba, I express my sadness to your excellency and all family members of the deceased dignitary, as well as the government and the people in that beloved nation.
There are cases where using the word “honorable” is not acceptable even as boilerplate.
Francois Hollande channels his inner Obama, but blows it at the end.
He embodied the Cuban revolution, in the hopes it aroused and the disappointments it provoked,” Hollande wrote. “Actor of the Cold War, he represented a period of history that ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. He represented, for Cubans, pride in rejecting external domination.
The last line is simply farcical. One, because as discussed Cuba chose to be a client state of the Soviets rather than an equal amongst western countries, and also because of the stupidity of making a meaningless distinction between whether your oppression comes from without or within. “We are sooo proud we grow our dictators locally instead of importing the GMO, factory farmed sort from afar.”
The only person to come close to getting it right is our president elect who tweeted;
I would have preferred something involving Castro enjoying the barbed cock of Satan, or at least something more condemnatory — but the palpable excitement and lack of pretending to evince sadness over the death of a monster already put Trump on a higher moral plane than any of the others.
And that is in a nutshell why we have the worst ruling class since Roman times. None of these bastards have the slightest inclination to stand up for western values or human decency. Anyone who belongs to the world leader club automatically gets respect no matter how he came to acquire his power. Which shows you what is really important to these people — power.
If you want to know why Trump won, and why populist forces are surging against the globalists, it is because our leaders are so morally bankrupt that they engage in virtuelessness signaling.
The SOB lived to be 90 just out of pure spite. And it is one of the most shameful marks on US history that we allowed a man to enslave his people so close to our shores.
Had Obama only held out a short while longer we could have at least made sure that when he died Castro knew his nation was still a pariah. But then the Obama presidency has been about nothing if it is not giving succor to tyrants.
Communism was the great reaper of humanity during the last century, and now it is finally Fidel’s turn. Would that it had come sooner.
Lots of good stuff on Twitter tonight. You get the usual stupid lefty stuff where some gays are lamenting the death of a man who put gays in gulags. But then you get sublime stuff like this that makes you glad to be alive.
Fidel Castro dying on Black Friday proves that God has a sense of humor and capitalism always wins.
I came across this video on Youtube where a dialog coach has a go at critiquing some of the performances that actors have given. He is very magnanimous by saying that usually when there is a bad performance it is because the actor has not been given enough time to study. But we all know that just as there are movies which are made on a shoestring or which are rushed, there are also people with tin ears. But he obviously can’t say that if he wants to work. And I imagine lobbying for more time=more payments for him.
One thing I will quibble with here is that there really is no generalized Tennessee accent. He would probably agree with that even though he says otherwise in the video. Tennessee is a long state. The accent you will hear in the eastern portion near the mountains is substantially different than what you will hear in the western end near Mississippi. And here is something that people in other regions of the country absolutely do not appreciate about Southern accents — they vary between city and county.
I can remember being horribly embarrassed by my father’s “country” accent when I was growing up. He had been raised in the county and I was raised in the major city situated in that county. I grew up and came to understand how horribly bigoted my attitude was, but much of the rest of the country still doesn’t understand how flexible our accents are. Most of us raised in the city can “talk country” when we like and thicken or leaven our accents as the case requires.
When Walton Goggins was preaching on the show Justified he demonstrated one way in which it can be done. There is a theatrical accent that can be affected by southerners which is more sing song in nature — it rises and falls, demanding attention. And there are lots of other ways in which we can vary our accents. So when an outsider tries to do it they hear all of this and just spit out a mishmash where inappropriate choices are made. But when a native like Goggins does it then it is a thing of sheer and unadulterated beauty.
As I have discussed on here before, the cast of Justified by and large did a good job with their accents. Walton’s of course was authentic. You could tell Art was from a city in North Carolina somewhere (which I think is true of the actor) and the female DA was definitely from Texas. Ralan’s accent, though it got better, was always a bit sketchy with elements from lots of places. It is easier to get by with that these days though because people move around so much that they can pick up elements from everywhere they have been.
The Walking Dead cast on the other hand does an absolutely horrific job at producing anything close to an authentic accent. I cringe every time I hear them and it put me off the show for a long, long time. I swear to God, I had no idea where those people were supposed to be from or where the show was set when I first started watching, and none of them have really improved. The only one who sounded right was Merle.
But at any rate, it is interesting in that this video is like what they say about newspapers. You run upon a subject you know something about and can spot just how far off the article is from reality, then you turn the page and just have to accept the rest of it with a grain of salt. I don’t know who this dialect coach is, or if he is any good. I am sure he is. But I also know that I wouldn’t characterize anything as a “Tennessee” accent when there are so many of them. Being a dialect coach would be a very challenging profession and require a good ear like a musician, or mixing engineer so I am sure he kind of dumbed things down for a wider audience.
Now here are some Germans trying to pronounce “squirrel.”
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