Saturday, January 19, 2019

The Truth According To Your Weltanschauung

This point of view might work for amateur art critics:

Image result for i don't know anything about art but i know what i like

But the amateur journalist equivalent - “I don’t know anything about truth, but I know what I believe…” doesn’t work as well. Art is intended to be subjective but journalism is supposed to be based on truth, which is intended to be objective. Yet here we are, living in an inverted reality where art is “truth” and truth is “art.”

Allan Bloom tried to warn us over 30 years ago in The Closing of the American Mind about the dangers of abandoning truth to the vagaries of relativity but few listened. And now we have arrived at a tenuous place where anyone can define “their truth” which stands completely apart from what once was known and accepted as objective truth. Hence if Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s truth is that she was sexually attacked by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when she was 16, and we are to accept it at face value, as the media did.

Because, remember, when today’s liberal journalists see “truths” they don’t like they are free to ignore them, but when they see “truths” they really, really like they will hype them endlessly, true or false, as truth is an anachronistic patriarchal concept that doesn’t work in our postmodern world. All of which explains yesterday’s Busted Buzzfeed Blockbuster:

There’s a bright line between objective journalism and propaganda and the American media jumped it a long while back. Big media, accompanied whole heartedly by Big Education, has accepted and propagated relativism disguised as tolerance for so long they no longer recognize the difference. Along with our lock-step political class we can blame these institutions for the social and spiritual malaise blanketing the country. The lot of them refuse to even identify the truth let alone uphold it. That leaves “artists” everywhere to paint “their truth” according to their weltanschauung.

Image result for calvin hobbes art

Friday, January 18, 2019

FLOTUS Friday: Government Shutdown Edition

Two stories headlining the news this morning:
Wouldn’t it be fun if  Melania were part of that North Korean envoy? “FLOTUS stands in for furloughed ambassador and saves the world from a nuclear armed madman.”  Wouldn’t that just…


fry the cupcakes off the MSM? I think I’ll go with that and just spread the rumor around. It’s as likely to be true as anything else you’ll hear on Fake News all day.

Caution: FLOTUS at work, deranging America’s newsrooms one Network at a time

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Gillette: Get Back In Your Lane

You would think that everything to be said about the new Gillette ad has already been said. But honestly, this commercial is truly a sign of the Times. Casting men as as a clear and toxic danger to women because of the bad behavior of a few is more propaganda than pitch, and seems an odd way to woo (male) customers. In fact I think there’s a word for that type of stereotyping, what is it again? Oh, yes, “profiling.” Isn’t that supposed to be a bad thing?

I don’t think the “new Gillette” is going to have much staying power. Already the backlash is beginning to look a lot like the customer reaction to the “New Coke.”

Image result for new coke ad disaster

Unfortunately it’s not as easy to retract a cynical virtue signaling campaign as it is to go back to your original formula

Gillette has a huge problem on their hands, and it isn’t toxic masculinity. People are sick of being hectored about things they are neither guilty of or responsible for. For example I do not know one white person of “privilege” who has ever owned a slave, taken a Native America’s land or given anyone typhoid (although if we keep our borders open that last one probably won’t stand for long). By the same token men who have never lifted a hand to a woman other than to offer them stability while getting out of a car in 5 inch heels are tired of being assumed to be untamed animals. And Gillette has inadvertently presented them with a target to lash back at this injustice.

Oh sure, there will always be some amenable toady-men who will take their side and think that those who take exception to the ad’s message are the ones out of line:

“I am truly flabergasted by many of these comments. The ad basically says "don't bully, don't sexually harass women, stand up for those who are weak, be the best man you can be."…I say congrats Gillette on stepping out of your lane and challenging men to be men of honor and grace.”

If I were advising Gillette I’d say “get back in your lane.” Men are looking for a close shave first thing in the morning, not a life coach. Remember when consultants obsessed over getting your company to identify, nurture and improve its core product? Now they are seemingly unconcerned with your product and want you only to adopt politically correct core values and impose them on their customers. Doesn’t work well for governments, works even less well in business where you have to contend with the wishes of a fickle public.

Which is why I offer this old fashioned, unsolicited advice to Gillette: You make razors, and razor blades. For men, with beards. Men like to watch sports. If they want a sanctimonious lecture they’ll go back to school. So just shut up and get back in your lane; give your core customers what they want: a clean shave and sports.

And if anyone finds this post offensive I would like to invoke Matt Walsh’s non-apology:  

I have decided to officially and formally not apologize. I'm not sorry at all, even slightly.

Indeed, I especially want to convey my absence of remorse to anyone who was offended by what I said. If you are the sort of person who gets twisted into knots when someone articulates a point of view that differs from your own, then you are exactly the sort of person who should never receive an apology for a differing point of view — if I were offering one, which, again, I'm not.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Let’s Take the Benjamin Franklin Challenge

I can’t believe I missed Benjamin Franklin’s birthday yesterday [ed. it’s been brought to my attention that I’m actually one day early – so unlike me] but it’s not too late to honor one of the country’s most influential founding fathers. The man who once wrote

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worthy of reading or do things worth the writing.”

in his own life did both.

As CDN notes though this truly Renaissance man has never been adequately recognized for his remarkable contributions to this great country. He was known as an entrepreneur and a businessman, a meteorologist,  scientist, inventor, musician, librarian, humorist, economist, philanthropist,  philosopher, diplomat, and statesman. He puts most of today’s government “leaders” and statesmen to shame as they are mostly nothing more than lawyers and fundraisers.

In an age where political midgets and other ignoramuses suggest the Constitution is outdated and no longer relevant we have more reason than usual to be concerned with Franklin’s warning to Mrs. Powel:

a-republic-if-franklin

In honor of his birthday I propose we dedicate the year to taking the Benjamin Franklin challenge, and try our best to keep this Republic that was carefully crafted and designed – some say guided by the hand of God.This will be no meager challenge as we have to contend with the likes of Beto O’Rourke and his ilk who consider the U.S. an “empire” that has grown beyond the controls of the Constitution.

"Can an empire like ours with military presence in over 170 countries around the globe, with trading relationships...and security agreements in every continent, can it still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago?" - The Blaze

In many ways his comment is helpful; it solidifies the otherwise seemingly suicidal policies and positions of the new lot of Democrat-Socialists.

In order to preserve Franklin’s conclusion about the sun carved into George Washington’s chair at the Constitutional Convention we must be very diligent indeed.

Sun-Rising Washington's Chair

“I have often… in the course of the session… looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length, I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun.” – Benjamin Franklin

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Democrat’s Fight Club

Now that has Joey has told top democrats he’s willing to throw his hat into the 2020 ring I think they’re going to need a bigger ring.

koegel ring bolognaMy, that’s a big ring of bologna!

It seems that every Democrat in America who’s not a convicted felon is considering a run for the Presidency. And that’s not even counting Hillary.

According to The Hill:

Since Donald Trump’s election to the White House, Democrats have been anxious to pinpoint potential candidates up to the challenge of taking on the combative New York real estate mogul in 2020. Media speculation has run from the usual suspects like Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, to those outside the political system, e.g., Mark Cuban and Oprah Winfrey.

for2020story_getty_1The Democrat Apprentices

While only one major, serious candidate has officially declared themselves for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Congressman John Delaney of Maryland, identities of at least some of the remaining 2020 contenders were revealed by Politico Monday in a report citing sources with knowledge of meetings each had with former President Obama.

According to the piece, at least nine potential candidates have met with Obama, eight of whom visited the 44th president at his World Wildlife Fund office in Washington, D.C., as early as mid-2017.

I read the whole article and all I came away with was the question “WTH does Barack Obama have a World Wildlife Fund office in Washington, D.C.?” On further reflection though, I guess it makes an appropriate place to meet with Democratic presidential wannabes. It will likely be a very big cat fight.

demand a bigger ring

I say they should throw a few more celebrity apprentices into the mix – let’s make the Democrats fun again!

appprentice2Pictured: (l-r) Omarosa Manigault, Stephen Baldwin, Lisa Rinna, Dennis Rodman, Brande Roderick, Lil Jon, Penn Jillette, Donald Trump, Gary Busey, Bret Michaels, Claudia Jordan, Trace Adkins, La Toya Jackson, Dee Snider, Marilu Henner

We know they all know how to obstruct, now let’s see them fight.

baby fight club gif.2laughgif

Monday, January 14, 2019

Next!

I’ve lost track: what day of the ‘Trump Shutdown’ are we in now? Everyone losses track after the record has been broken.

Yes, people are being inconvenienced. Yes, people have been furloughed and are not getting their paychecks (yet). My brother-in-law is among them. Yes, it’s tough. Things are tough all over.

 The Guardian writes a sympathetic article titled ‘It's ruining people's lives”: federal workers count cost of shutdown.

White-collar workers face blue-collar blues.  Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said, “This shutdown isn’t funny anymore. Right now, it’s ruining people’s lives.”

epa

Do you know what else is ruining people’s lives? Don Suber does:

Not having a border wall ruined a few lives as well. Ask the Angel Moms.

And by ruined I don’t mean seriously inconvenienced, I mean ruined.

officer singh

Don’t worry though, it seems the Democrats are all over this “manufactured crisis” and will get on it as soon as they get back from their scheduled all-paid vacay in Puerto Rico.

menenedez

“This year’s winter retreat promises to be our most widely attended yet with over 220 guests, including 39 Members of Congress and CHC BOLD PAC supporters expected to attend and participate!”

Trust that the remaining 171 “guests” are lobbyists. Nothing telegraphs concern quite like attending a “winter retreat” on a tropical island where rooms go for over $450 a night to rub elbows with lobbyists looking to buy your vote for their client’s pet projects.

Trust me furloughed Federal workers, the Dems feel your pain, as they always have. Which is to say… 

judge painNext!

Sunday, January 13, 2019

May the Light Be With You

It’s Sunday and when the sun comes up I’m confident it will be a glorious day in Park City. But for right now it’s pitch black and I’m feeling extremely lazy, so I offer today as an official open thread, accompanied by a few shots from residents published in the Park Record, the town’s newspaper of record. And let the Record reflect that the Record’s man-on-the-street survey this week asked “who do you think is responsible for the government shutdown?” The responses indicated two people thought that all the politicians in D.C. were responsible whereas everyone else reported with great enthusiasm that it was President Trump’s fault, alone. Just so you know what sort of town I’m living in. I’m actually surprised they found 2 people who thought the blame was to be shared, I suspect they were out of towners who just came to ski.

Anyway, here are today’s offerings: for those who love snow from a distance.

park City morningFirst light somewhere along the Willow Creek trail, h/t @saltau1

promontory park cityPre-sunset at Deer Valley, taken from Promontory, h/t @Promentoryclub

May the Light be with you all through the day.