God's Own Crunk

As a straight man, I never thought I’d have an occasion to link a piece at Out. Then again, I never expected Bret Easton Ellis to publish the most interesting piece I’ve read in the last few weeks there:

The Gay Man as Magical Elf has been such a tricky part of gay self-patronization in the media that you would by now expect the chill members of the LGBT community to respond with cool indifference. The Sweet and Sexually Unthreatening and Super-Successful Gay is supposed to be destined to transform The Hets into noble gay-loving protectors—as long as the gay in question isn’t messy or sexual or difficult. The straight and gay sanctimoniousness that says everyone gay needs to be canonized when coming out still makes some of us who are already out feel like we’re on the sidelines. I’m all for coming out on one’s own terms, but heralding it as the most important news story of the week feels to me, as a gay man, well, kind of alienating.

Read it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Captain Capitalism urges readers to take public assistance in this post:

The issue is no longer one of morality or independence, but practicality and mortality.  The idea of an “independent” person is laughably long gone.  How many women’s studies professors are there that claim to be “independent women” but still suck from the government tit via their state-subsidized professorships?  How many “bankers and finance professionals” are there that only owe their careers to a bail out or FDIC over-regulation that mandates their job?  How many government employees have you heard COMPLAIN that they really don’t do anything on the job?

This stupid, idiotic, idealistic nostalgia of the 1950′s is long gone.  Nobody in America has the desire nor loyalty to adhere to some kind of over-arching purpose, or country, and are therefore completely and totally in it for themselves (consciously or not).  So stop being naive, stop being idealistic and just take the god damned check when you can.

via Captain Capitalism: The Moral Difficulty of Going on Welfare.

I assume he’s joking but who knows – maybe he’s trying to Make a Larger Point. Although I rarely comment anywhere, I commented, and it awaits moderation.

I guess the obvious point is simple – just because many moochers mooch does not justify the act of mooching. I know such statements are fertile ground for satire, but I find little humor in it. But then again, the shit I find funny wouldn’t be funny to most, so to each his own.

I assume his satirical cover is blown by adopting the observational style of Dominque Francon (stating obiously absurd things in a meta-obvious style) but I’ll be curious to see his reaction to my pedestrian observation. Fun times at times and such…

More common than Mr. Goad – or I – think, I suspect:

Born in 1961, I caught at least two decades of the so-called Red Scare, but what’s going on now with political correctness, AKA the bloody afterbirth of the civil-rights movement, is the most egregious moral panic I’ve seen. This is far more than a battle for the “right” to interracially date or to engage in same-sex soixante-neuf. This goes far deeper than such trivialities. This is a war of attrition to control thought and language and culture, to demean and ostracize anyone who doesn’t fall obediently in line, to declare certain subjects beyond discussion and maybe even one day to make it impossible to think differently than the herd.I often wonder what quotient of the population feels effectively silenced. How many Americans fear speaking their minds in the workplace because they don’t want to get fired or sued? How many people feel like a pithed frog, mute and helpless, their brain severed from their spine? I suspect that it’s quite a few—perhaps even the majority. Although I don’t like the feeling, I have a firm sense that it is not me, but rather the whole world around me, that is rapidly going insane. But unlike the modern, deeply indoctrinated, progressive hive-mind robot, I allow the possibility that I could be wrong.

via The Tolerance That Is Only Skin Deep – Takis Magazine.

For someone who represented herself as the acme of philosophy and individual strength, Ayn Rand could be remarkably touchy.  Whittaker Chambers’s famous review of Atlas Shrugged in National Review infuriated her, to the point that she would not be in the same room with William F. Buckley ever after.

via Rand Versus Lewis: It’s No Contest | Power Line.

I don’t get Powerline’s occasional forray  into dogging Ayn Rand. Steven Hayward does it this time with an almost nonsensical piece about Rand’s marginalia regarding a work of C.S. Lewis. Hayward says that someone’s marginal comments shouldn’t have too much read into them, then he proceeds to do just that.

Hayward calls Chambers’ review of Atlas Shrugged “famous,” but “infamous” would be more likely. After reading through the comments – mainly from Rand fans – only one gets Rand’s fury at Bill Buckley half-right. She was indeed furious about Chambers’ implying a Nazi-like desire to send people to gas chamber dripped off every page, but there was that other little matter of it being questionable whether or not Chambers, a Communist, actually read the book. He gets numerous names and plot points wrong, and anyone who has read the book (whether they liked it or not) would conclude no, he didn’t read it, or much of it.

This is a producer’s note that precedes/intros a letter from a Marine to Sen. Feinstein RE her proposed gun legislation. I’m not a grammar fuhrer regarding the Internet, but seriously? Seriously? The Marine’s letter is good, but the text that intros it is … lacking. I italicized the mistakes I found – I’m sure you can do more:

CNN PRODUCER NOTE     joshdb50 was a Marine and was deployed to Afghanistan between the years of 2004 through 2005. Although he is no longer in the military he acknowledges that he owns gun. He says he does not believe the government needs to what guns he owns because he believes registration would lead to confiscation. He says the laws that are in place for gun control are plenty, and adding more laws will remove a means of defense for people. ‘I own the guns I own because I acknowledge mankind’s shortcomings instead of pretending like they don’t exist. There are evil men in this world and there just may be a time when I need to do the unthinkable to protect me or my family,’ he said.

via No ma’am. – CNN iReport.

Please tell me this was written by a producer who speaks and uses English as, I dunno, a fourth language, or a hobby perhaps. /brex

Mr. Quick writes:

Anyway, if you want to know how to stage your own March Through the Marxist Institutions, buy yourself a copy of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, read it, learn how to do to them what they’ve done to you so effectively, and then start doing it.

via Yes, You Can Fight Back | Daily Pundit.

Mr. Quick was reacting to a post by Mr. Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection. If you’ve not read Rules for Radicals, read it. Mark it up. Dog-ear it, sticky-note it, and learn it. Forget how repellent you may (or may not, as the case may be) find Saul Alinsky’s tactics – the man was a master of amoral tactics, and his advice to the Left has been followed for two generations. Instructive, for example, was his waving off the nihilistic manner of dress and speech of the 1960s counterculture – he smartly noted that you’ll not reach the mainstream of America dressed like a bum and talking like a hood. Do note that our government, especially the Executive branch, is run by well-dressed men using thug tactics to get their way.

If that interests you, drop the hundred bucks or so and get copies of all five titles in Robert Green’s series on amoral tactics: The 48 Rules of Power, The 33 Laws of Warfare, The Art of Seduction, The 50th Law (co-written with rapper 50-Cent), and his latest, Mastery, which I just got for Christmas. The books are studies in successful movers and shakers throughout history, whether they be clever lovers, military geniuses, political savants – if I were to start a private secondary school, all of these books would be taught extensively. 

Amorality is not about what’s right or wrong, it is about what works, especially in complicated times. Alinsky’s work, though reviled by many, is grossly effective when used properly.

I don’t mean publishing deals, I mean out of pocket paid by collectors:

Our top 25 sales from 2012 illustrate the broad nature of rare books. There are modern first editions of iconic books, significant religious and theological works,and pioneering books of science and discovery. Our most expensive sale was a copy of Johann Bayer’s 1603 celestial atlas with 48 lavishly illustrated tables portraying the constellations identified by the Greeks and a 49th table showing 12 newly discovered constellations – it sold for $47,729.  This was the first star atlas to cover the entire celestial sphere, and introduced a new system of star designation known as the ‘Bayer Designation.’

The second spot is occupied by one of the most successful media franchises in history, James Bond.  When Ian Fleming first put pen to paper and wrote Casino Royale in 1953, there was no way he could have imagined the enduring popularity of 007.  This inscribed first edition of Casino Royale sold for more than $46,000 and would grace any rare book collection.

via AbeBooks: AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales in 2012.

I’m not a wealthy man and probably never will be. Were I wealthy, the only expensive taste I can fathom indulging beyond global travel is rare books and letters, especially First Edition First Printings. The first five books that would go into that list would naturally be FEFP’s of some of my favorite novels, including:

1. The Fountainhead
2. Abasalom, Absalom!
3. Ulysses – no, not one of my favorites, but a good rare collectible
4. Moby Dick
5. The Sun Also Rises
6. Less Than Zero, preferably autographed
7. As old and rare a copy of The Canterbury Tales and Piers the Ploughman as I could find (and afford)

Just for starters. A lot of people who fill out their rare book collections get into rare letters, hand-written speeches and so forth, but I’m to understand that this area is rife with fraud.

Whatever – interesting list.