Why Identity Politics / Social Justice Warriorism is driving me mad

Genius? Dunces? Him? CONFEDERACY???

Mainly because it's killing satire. What would Jonathan Swift have said to all the craziness going on in North American society these days? Possibly, nothing: he'd have been hauled before some human rights or social justice tribunal for writing Gulliver's Travels (alternately, he'd have been given an award by Planned Parenthood for his essay "A Modest Proposal" wherein he --satirically-- suggests that society solve the "overpopulation" and poverty problems in one go by eating their children.) It is satire. He wasn't serious. You have to explain that these days.

When satire is dead, comedy is dead. Also drama, poetry, song, fiction and film. I avoid Hollywood movies for the most part, because  they are no longer interested in telling entertaining and exciting stories. Most of them contain lame preaching on trendy topics, and thus have become the equivalent of medieval morality plays  (in fact, they're probably far worse, becuase at least back then, people knew how to write).  It's the same reason why some Christian ghetto novels and films are so bad. The story must come first; the moral or lesson must be incidental, not central to the purpose of the artwork. But I digress.

I enjoyed this essay/article by Lionel Shriver. I must admit I had not been interested in her work until I saw her interviewed by Mark Steyn, back when he had a TV show on CRTV. Those videos are also worth checking out.

It doesn’t take much parsing to conclude that protecting all and sundry from the terrible experience of having your feelings hurt is the end of free speech altogether. Since nowadays “you can’t argue with what people feel,” umbrage is freed from rational justification. Given that the better part of the human race is crazy, stupid, or both, there’s nary a thought in the world whose airing won’t offend somebody. Doesn’t Darwin offend creationists? Furthermore, in granting so much power to woundedness, we incentivise hypersensitivity. If we reward umbrage, we will get more of it. We do reward umbrage, and we’re buried in it by the truckload.

If you feed me, I will grow.

Trigger warnings/Microaggressions

More from Ms Shriver:

Yet these days, straight white fiction writers whose characters’ ethnicity, race, disability, sexual identity, religion or class differs from their own can expect their work to be subjected to forensic examination—and not only on social media. Publishers of young adult fiction and children’s literature hire “sensitivity readers” to comb through manuscripts for perceived slights to any group with the protected status once reserved for distinguished architecture.

Good heavens, what hope do aspiring writers have, unless the culture regains its sanity?
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Want to understand the Middle East?

Graph representing historical alliances, wars and grudges in  Middle East.

Good luck. A friend recently told me that it is nearly impossible for most westerners to comprehend what's going on "over there." And after reading these two pieces (by Ben Shapiro and David Warren), I believe him. God help us. Going to pray for Our Lady's intercession with my olive-wood rosary from Bethlehem, and then make some chocolate chip cookies. 

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"Now we have 'airheads'"

Lib-lefty politician: Vote for me and you will get lots of free stuff!
Electorate: Yay! 

I feel so vindicated (and affirmed) when I discover I've been thinking the same thoughts as a smart person. Of course, it's a tragic thing to feel affirmed when cultural and civilizational collaspe is in the offing. I really hadn't planned to post about the election, because it's too depressing. (Like Mrs. Beazly, I'm planning not to watch the news for the next decade or so.)

However, if you need our new Prime Minister (T-who-cannot-be-named) summed up, look no further: David Warren's "The Triumph of Drivel." The money quotes are just too numerous, so you should read the whole thing.

Much as I despised his Liberal predecessors, they also knew what a budget was, and could discern differences between large and small numbers. [...]

In addition to snowboarding, his experience includes nightclub bouncer, and teaching high school in Vancouver. To many (me for instance), his father was a devil in human flesh, his mother demonstrably insane, yet the lad was not really exposed to politics until it came into his head, or into the heads of Liberal Party organizers, that thanks to his family connexion, he could probably get elected to Parliament, in Montreal. This happened in 2007; he now has approximately eight years of bewilderment under his belt. [...]

His sincerity shines when it comes to a small range of policy enthusiasms, such as the legalization of marijuana and brothels, and he is visibly convinced that peace is much nicer than war. [...]

So how did this happen? Mr. Warren explains:

As I’ve mentioned before, the overwhelming majority of the general, voting population have been morally and intellectually debilitated — “idiotized” is my preferred term — by post-modern media and education, and by spiritual neglect within 

Amen, brother. 

Hands-down, Theo Caldwell wins the prize for the most engaging epithet: "ridiculous ballerina," but when he's not being funny, he too is struggling to wrap his head around how the majority of Canadians can be so utterly clueless as to elect someone even more shallow and incompetent than Barack Obama (audio for this vid not great, unfortunately).

At this point, I really am unsure whether to go gently into that horrific night, or to rage rage against the dying of the light. The latter is so exhausting. Perhaps there is a third way. If I wish to retain my sanity and my hope, I must continue to believe it. 

Laura Rosen Cohen's advice (snippet below) is remarkably similar to that of Bl. Mother Teresa: "Deal with what is at your feet." 

Thus, my post-election advice:
In my view, the important thing in times like these is to focus on the micro. Let the Liberals expend their hot air (and your money of course) on the Big Picture Save the Planet stuff and let them really knock themselves out. Focus on the small stuff because the small stuff is really the big stuff. 
Keep raising your children well. Speak up for what you believe in. Take on the battles that you can, (not what you can't). Live well, tell jokes. Tell your family and your friends you love them. Sing. Dance. Paint. Pray. Give thanks. Give hugs.
It's always darkest before the dawn

Amen, sister. 

Time to shower and get ready to take the kids to music lessons. Jesus is our saviour, but Chopin, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven certainly help.

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Can't they BOTH lose?

The Clintons vs the Obamas. Could also be filed under "The Left eats its own." I don't know whom to cheer for, but I wish they could both lose. And "top aide" Valerie Jarrett? BWAHAHAHAHA. That's like saying Jim Henson was Kermit the Frog's top aide.

Today's Gospel

John 2:13-25: where Jesus unexpectedly shows up at the  annual diocesan $300 a plate fundraising banquet temple. We were reminded this week to take part in Share Lent (though now--quelle surprise!-- Development and Peace has expanded it to Share Year Round. They despise rich captialists, but are always happy to take their money). A letter was read that quoted a Brazilian bishop who used "root causes" and "solidarity" in the same paragraph. He lost me at "root causes."

The bishop from Brazil lauded his local Pastoral Land Commission, which is “acting against hunger, violence and the concentration of ownership of land, all of which oppose God’s plans for a more just and compassionate world.”

I'm curious to know how that 'concentration of ownership of land' comment went over with the ladies and gentlemen in the pews who would be considered "big farmers." I'll bet they had no idea that they were opposing God's plans for a more just and compassionate world. Oh well, they can make it all better by giving generously to D&P. (I'm glad the Church stopped selling Indulgences.) 

I am all for peace, justice and development, but the path to that is not via socialism and/or bureaucracy. 

Besides, when it comes to D&P, I'm still not quite over this. I prefer to donate to Catholic charities that have not, do not, and will not, ignore church teaching.
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Barack Obama is Mr. Collins with nukes and drones

There is a reason for studying great literature. It gives us insight into human nature, with the hope that we will learn something, especially about ourselves, and thus attempt to remedy our defects. I'm willing to wager that President Obama has never studied (or even read) Pride and Prejudice. 

Man enough to admit he is not perfect; fuller self-awareness (and repentance) achieved by plot denouement

Eariler in the novel...

Mr. Darcy: "I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding."

Rough translation: I want to appear just muscular enough not to be mocked.

Americans who support Obama have truly gone down the rabbit hole: they are willing to start a world conflagration so that their self-delusional leader won't look like a fool. Hint: that ship has sailed. 

Americans don't agree with my policies because they are too stupid to understand them. Do they not realize that I have much to recommend me, and that  it is by no means certain that another offer of such a president may ever be made to them? I must therefore conclude that they are not serious in their rejection of me and my war-mongering; I shall chuse to attribute it to their wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of inelegantly obtuse subjects and serfs. 

Jane Austen would have known how to deal with Obama: "Nothing so easy...laugh at him."

There is no point in crying about the destruction of America

So we might as well laugh. From the One. (Steyn, of course.) We are all doomed, LOL!

[T]he president... insists with a straight face that he had no idea that the Internal Revenue Service had spent two years targeting his political enemies until he “learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.” Like you, all he knows is what he reads in the papers. Which is odd, because his Justice Department is bugging those same papers, so you’d think he’d at least get a bit of a heads-up. But no doubt the fact that he’s wiretapping the Associated Press was also entirely unknown to him until he read about it in the Associated Press.

There is a “president of the United States” and a “government of the United States,” but, despite a certain superficial similarity in their names, they are entirely unrelated, like Beyoncé Knowles and Admiral Sir Charles Knowles. One golfs, reads the prompter, parties with Jay-Z, and guests on the Pimp with a Limp show, and the other audits you, bugs your telephone line, and leaks your confidential tax records. But they’re two completely separate sinister entities. So it’s preposterous to describe Obama as Nixonian: Beyoncé wouldn’t have given Nixon the time of day.

Tragedy and/or crime lead to increased regulation

Except when they don't.  Matthew Archbold at CMR.
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Hahahahahaha

The Obamacare Flow Chart.
But I shouldn't laugh. Canada's would look just like it. I haven't studied this too closely, but I wonder if there's a box labelled "Dying while on a waiting list."

h/t  Michelle Obama's Mirror
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Warrior babes, free speech and the CBC

In honour of International Women's Day, that celebration of feminism, empowerment and above all, political correctness. 

I don’t work for the CBC, but if I did, this would be a serious new story, and it would be titled: “CBC Host Sexist Misogynist Warmonger!” Except that the CBC, like most left-of-centre media outlets, never reports on its own incongruities.

The times they aren't a-changin'.

Bob Dylan says it,  so it must be true!

He then said he thinks Obama will be victorious Tuesday. Don't believe the media," he said. "I think it's going to be a landslide."

What media has Bob been watching? Is he getting his forecast from Rainy Day Woman #12 or #35?

Throw the bums out, America, no matter what their political stripes.
Not Bob's most brilliant lyrics, but true nonetheless.
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Emphasis with nothing to emphasize!

Soon, I promise I'll stop comparing him to The Steyn and just bow before the Sultan for his own sake. In the final hours, Daniel Greenfield sums up the Obama campaign.

There could hardly be a better sample of the style over substance politics of the style over substance candidate than a press release issued touting the energetic qualities of its exclamation point. Sure the Romney campaign might be gaining in Florida, Ohio and Virginia, but Team Obama is getting vigorous with its punctuation...

[...]With the first debate, Team Big Bird realized that wouldn’t work, and Valerie Jarrett got out the cattle prod and put an exclamation point at the end of Obama.

Heh. Read it all.
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I love him cuz he uses "rhubarb" as a pejorative term

And with good reason.

Moreover, when he uses the phrase "boy howdy" you know you're in for a jolly ride. My buddy Theo at the Daily Caller.  "The presidential race is over, cue the conspiracy theories"

while there are some smart people on the left, it requires almost no thinking to be a liberal. Simply absorb the political sentiments you hear in almost any Hollywood film, or on most any television program or newscast and, presto, you’re in. Repeat these nostrums at school or work and you will be rewarded. Augmented by the emotional satisfaction of the left’s perpetual righteous indignation, this dynamic becomes self-fulfilling and very cozy.

And of course, it begs the question: will 'rhubarb' soon be classified as a dog-whistle racist code word?
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Peanuts as political satire

Just change the following: 

Great Pumpkin to "Mr. Obama"

Halloween Night to "November 6"

Linus Van Pelt to "gullible leftist voter" or "Mainstream Media"(your choice)

Cartoon strip from my delightful Peanuts 2012 tear-off desk calendar (thanks, girls!). Order the 2013 calendar here. 

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A fate worse than JFK's

Daniel Greenfield. Words fail, except to say that he rocks. (Were he to see my posts, I hope he would not take amiss my constant comparisons with Mark Steyn. I mean it as the highest, highest praise.)

Obama will not be immortalized by a Communist with a rifle. Instead he is doomed to be mortal, his hair turning white and his musical tastes turning worse. Any day now he will admit to a fondness for Kenny G and after that there will be no saving him from the dread ravages of time.

[...]

Obama has gotten desperate. His fundraising emails walk the thin line between emotional blackmail and hysteria. Increasingly they read like Cousin Larry phoning for bail money from Tijuana.

I really don't expect anyone to watch this video, but if you do (and you last more than seven seconds)... doesn't it just take you right back to the 80's, to those times when you rode that elevator?

Dear President 'Snippy and Sneering'...

The Marines still use bayonets. That is all.

  Unless you want more.

And of course, I'm holding my breath waiting for The Steyn's response.
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Bureaucracy comes from hell.

The Sultan rocks.

Large operations tend toward greater degrees of inefficiency due to the diffusion of responsibility and accountability. Large systems respond to inefficiency by creating more redundant structures which only increase the inefficiency.

Bureaucracies cope with all problems by adding new layers of paperwork without recognizing that paperwork is itself the problem. The world outside comes to be modeled through paper so that rather than interacting with problems, the system interacts with a paperwork model of the real world that is detached from the real world and requires ever increasing resource of paperwork handlers to maintain.
[...]

 The problems become institutionalized and unsolvable because the institutionalization of a problem creates a bureaucratic mandate for the survival of the institutions dedicated to solving the problem and the institutions dedicated to solving the problem seek to survive by not solving the problem.

(This is, incidentally, why we will never see an end to poverty, aboriginal issues, drug abuse, or any garden-variety disease for which we need perpetual 'awareness' campaigns.)

It's hard enough to endure this with everything that is touched by the government, but a thousand times more horrifying when one sees the church at various levels sink deeper into this mire. A certain Cardinal (I think his name was Ratzinger) said it best about 30 years ago: "The Church needs saints, not bureaucrats."

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I can't say this because I'm white.

I'm also not American. So I'll let Perry Drake say it.

Obama is not the first "black" man elected president, no matter how many people think so. I'm "black," and I can tell you: "black" in this context is more than the color of my skin. It's a shared experience, a purely American experience -- if you will -- which stretches back to when the first Africans were brought in shackles to our shores in the mid-1600s.

Nothing in Obama's background speaks of the American experience. It's not difficult to understand why. Obama is the son of a white woman with jungle fever and a commie Kenyan. He was raised in circumstances that almost all Americans -- let alone blacks -- would find foreign.

Obama is best described as an "African in America." (And no, I'm not a birther, despite the earlier "Nairobi" joke.) The difference between Obama's actual identity and an actual "black" person's is no small distinction. It explains how he could hold such an outdated view of the violence plaguing black communities across the nation. It explains why you never see him campaigning in black communities or dropping by for photo ops. (Well, that and because he knows that 95 percent of "those people" are going to vote for him anyway.)

It's also explains why Obama's first instincts are always to blame America first and profusely apologize for past American actions. 

h/t Deborah Gyapong
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Reason #3040595854837366 to homeschool

The Steyn:

Yet somehow a bureaucrat in the Department of Agriculture wound up with a monopoly on what your kids eat.

If only we could opt out of Big Government and its attendant demonic bureacracies as easily.

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David Letterman: prophet or Freudian slipper?

His first question to Obama the evening after the terrorist attack in Benghazi:

"How much do you weigh these days?"

Apparently, not much.

Breitbart:

With middle class incomes deflating, four Americans recently assassinated by al-Qaeda, poverty and gas prices increasing, and the debt already saddling our children and grandchildren with mortgage-sized debt, Americans aren’t likely to be any more enamored than the media with Obama's non-stop "smallness."

SUN's Ezra weighs in (sorry) too. 

The debates revealed Obama as a lightweight. But they also revealed that for four years, the mainstream media has covered up that fact.

Well, maybe not all the media. This photographer seems to have caught the gist.

Bad optics? He looks tiny even in relation to the prompters-- 

which is another unfortunate metaphor all on its own.

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