From John Hawkins:
“Preference falsification eventually leads to a preference cascade, and the worse the falsification, the more unapologetic the correction.”
Put another way: build lies upon lies, and when the final straw comes, the back-breaking will be catastrophic (for the liars).
Following from the Quote Of The Day above comes this observation about the political scenarios following Charlie Kirk’s murder, in order of awfulness:
Read the article to have each explained.
I’m not so sure that the last two options are realistic in the United States, because at the end of the day I think that the non-hysterical-Lefties (i.e. most of the country’s population) is too civilized for the second scenario (the appearance of a Franco/Pinochet type as the head of government), and indeed the Constitutional subjugation of the Armed Forces to civilian authority is a great deal stronger than in other countries, especially the volatile Latino ones. I’m aware that Hitler’s rise to power came in an ordinarily-orderly society (Germany), but then again we’ve not just lost a World War and had to pay crippling reparations either.
In fact, I would suggest that Donald Trump is the closest we’ve ever come to a “strongman” head of state, and compared to (say) Augusto Pinochet, Trump is a complete softy. And I think he’s unlikely to turn into a modern-day tyrant because he has only three more years in power and he’s getting old.
As for the third scenario (when the switch gets flipped, so to speak):
…it’s not gonna happen. If the second scenario is unlikely, the civil war thing is exponentially less likely.
I know, I know, it’s a little disappointing as we all want to experience the Glorious Day (as Mr. Free Market describes it), but let’s be honest here: it’s been over a hundred and fifty years since our last exposure to that little game, and frankly, I think we’re out of practice. We still vote, for one thing, instead of manufacturing fake ballots.
Plus we have jobs to do, families to raise and laws to obey — unlike those assholes on the Dark Side.
But “highly unlikely” does not mean “impossible”. Something the Left needs to be aware of.
And a modern classic:
And on with the usual manner o’ things:
And speaking of work:
And if that’s what’s waiting for you at work, what the hell are you still doing here?
This is quite a resume. As a professional dancer, she danced all over Europe and at the Folies Bergère in her hometown of Paris, acted in a couple of French movies… and then Olympe Bradna emigrated to the U.S., getting a seven-year contract at Paramour Pictures — at age 16. She starred in a few musicals, then graduated to more dramatic roles and proved to be a really good actress.
Then, at age 21 — no doubt to the consternation of studio executives — she got married and quit the movie business forever, preferring to raise her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in California (back when it was still possible to do so).
Almost all the pictures featured below, therefore, are of Olympe while she was still a teenager. Remarkable.
She passed away at age 92.
While New Wife was off doing girl-shopping the other day, I decided that instead of hanging around the department store looking bored (a.k.a. the Husband Exile), I’d go over to a nearby bookstore and browse some second-hand books because I’ve run out of fiction to read.
I have written several times before how much I enjoyed the wonderful Stieg Larsson “Millenium” TV series — The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest — and I’ve watched the series several times.
Anyway, I decided to read Larsson’s original novels, just to see for myself how bad they are — yes, he’s a filthy socialist but then again #Swedish so that’s not entirely surprising — and I discovered something quite rare: the TV series is actually better than the novel series, but not by much.
What the TV show of Dragon Tattoo did was to cut out, for example, the relationship between Lisbeth Salander and her boss, as well as Mikke Blomkvist’s affair with one of the murder suspects — both of which were quite extraneous to the plot.
More importantly, the sexual encounters between Blomkvist and Salander, which were numerous in the novel, were pared back to a only a couple in the TV episode — making their relationship much more fragile as a result.
I’ve only read the first novel so far (Dragon Tattoo) because I didn’t want to buy all three in case they sucked terribly and I would be stuck with two unread books. But now that I’ve read that one, I think I’ll go back and get the other two because once I’d learned to ignore the rampant socialism, I rather liked Larsson’s writing style.
If you’re really stuck for some reading material (as I was), you could do a lot worse.
Better still, though: buy the Extended Cut DVD version of the TV series*.
And do not repeat NOT buy the non-Swedish version with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, because Noomi Rapace (Salander) and Michael Nyqvist (Blomqvist) are both beyond-words brilliant while the other two aren’t. We won’t even talk about the stunning Swede MILF Lena Endre…
*Be warned that the current version of Millennium available through Netfux has been severely edited, and it’s terrible: whole scenes have been deleted and even some characters erased, making the show almost incomprehensible, not to say less enjoyable. (Netflix delenda est)
Ask me again why I love the Swedish M96 Mauser in 6.5x55mm… in the hands of Henry Chan.
…or the model (M/41B) actually used in the video:
Of all the rifles I’ve let go in my life, this one ranks near or if not actually at the top.
And Henry’s post-range commentary parallels my own thoughts on the subject, precisely.
Incidentally, viz. his earlier comments on the Lee-Enfield counterpart, Henry shooting the the No.4 MkI (T) can be seen here.