Uncouth Reflections

Weekend Linkage

Posted on January 26, 2019 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

The Daily Telegraph eats a huge amount of shit for mistakes in its recent feature about Melania.
Has the FBI become our very own Gestapo? Heartiste thinks so.
Best commentary I’ve read on that Gillette’s disguting “toxic masculinity” ad. I don’t know about you but I’ve thrown out my Gillette equipment.
A sensible response (IMHO, of course) to the Covington-kids incident.
Why are English cops coming down on the author of a limerick?
Our beautiful rainbow future.
1125 Christian churches in Nigeria have been destroyed by Boko Haram. Why aren’t we hearing more about this? Anyone?
Will Ireland survive its current, reckless, drunk-on-multiculturalism moment?
A very lively Dave Rubin conversation with the wonderful Heather Mac Donald. Rubin has become the Dick Cavett of our age. Interesting and impressive that he’s done it without the backing of any of the major networks or pubic outlets.
Some details about how Google manipulates search results. Any guesses about which political point of view is manipulated against?
If now isn’t the moment for a great Steve Sailer column, then when will be?
Every crime commited in this country by an illegal alien is a crime that didn’t have to happen at all.
Bu-bu-but … The transgender moment we’re currently living through isn’t just some crazy fad!!!
In the wake of this week’s journalism layoffs, here’s a funny (and very vulgar) “you had it coming” anti-MSM rant.
An uncharacteristically decent short Vice doc about young black conservatives.
Why have pedestrian deaths in the U.S. been climbing? I’ve never understood why we tolerate the number of car-related deaths and manglings that we do.
A porn star becomes a mother.
Does modernist art have to suck?

Posted in Linkathons | 1 Comment

Elsewheres

Posted on January 26, 2019 by Fenster

Fenster writes:

Mostly on Mommy and Daddy themes.

“As a human being we should pay attention to fear and not logic”. As a friend puts it, pathos beats logos any day of the week these days.

Kirsten Gillibrand seems to be cornering the pathos market. They used to refer to the Republicans as the Daddy Party and the Dems as the Mommy Party. She is pushing things pretty far towards the Mommy pole, though of course that particular term is now verboten. In any event, a heart-uber-alles approach to national policy could well be a wise politically–for a time at least.

Though she may have to deal with Nxivm in her past. Talk about Bad Daddies!

The Daddy Party still has purchase in Israel. One has to hope that Benny Gantz is overreaching, but you never know. Jewish values appear to play out differently in homeland mode than they do in diaspora mode.

And on that point, Israel’s willingness to give in to Daddy urges does not sit all that well with a lot of Americans of a universalist persuasion, many of them Jewish. Michelle Alexander–herself not Jewish–recently took Israel’s Daddy side to task. In the New York Times. That seemed to unearth some native tensions. Will she be at the New York Times a year hence? Betting window now open.

More tension between Mommy and Daddy. Recently at UR Paleo linked to a Joanna Williams essay in Spiked pointing out how virtues such as Stoicism have become deeply unfashionable. But even the New York Times will concede that “the Stoics are wildly popular among readers (predominantly men)”.

And here is a link to Modern Stoicism. Free courses, Stoic Week and Stoicon, an annual conference. A guy thing mostly, looks like.

Mommy is not always to be supported, especially if she kowtows to a Bad Daddy. That’s Melania’s curse as a First Lady. After bashing her with what amounted to lies the UK Telegraph has formally apologized to Melania Trump for an article about her. It contained what the American press might choose to call inaccuracies but which the Telegraph, to its credit (even if under legal duress) acknowledges as “false statements that should not have been published”. A money settlement, too. Interesting that we don’t hear much about this in the US press, which is as good as or better than the Telegraph at fake news. The UK just has tougher libel laws.

Finally on to the epic Mommy-Daddy battle of Pelosi and Trump. What is Trump up to with the Shutdown and the Wall? Is he really backing down or is he preparing the battlefield? Does he really have three weeks to save his presidency? Is Q relevant to any of this?

Posted in Linkathons | Leave a comment

Notes on “The Island at the Top of the World”

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

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There is little build-up to the adventure story presented in the 1974 “The Island at the Top of the World.” Almost immediately after their initial meeting, an aristocrat and an archaeologist set out for the Arctic and a hidden isle, where the former hopes to find his missing son. The picture has a flat, TV look, which works against the fancifulness required to adequately present a Verne-style adventure. Fortunately, the special effects offer partial compensation. Matte paintings and optical effects abound, some of which are successful in spite of (or perhaps because of) their obviousness. The scene depicting various species of whale swimming towards the cetacean graveyard is one that children are likely to remember long after they’ve forgotten the movie’s shortcomings. And there are some lovely images: the explorers’ airship emerging from a barn as children tend sheep in the foreground; the airship, wounded in a collision, slowly careening off into the clouds; the explorers, in a faux distance shot, picking their way through an enormous underground ice cavern; the interior of a Viking hall decorated with huge fire-lit statues. The climactic fight against killer whales is novel but something of a letdown. Why not give our heroes a real sea monster to battle? Director Robert Stevenson and his Disney team are smart enough to keep the incidents flowing; the action never grows tiresome– not even after it’s revealed that the inhabitants of the much-sought-after island are movie-lot Vikings with silly beards. You can see what drew Disney to David Hartman: He has the puppy quality required of the studio’s leading men of this period. But it’s disappointing that the screenplay doesn’t give him more to do. Mostly, he provides “archaeological” background details. Disney would have done well to allow his character to develop an attraction to Agneta Eckemyr’s luscious Norse maiden. Then you might feel something when he’s forced to remain in the land of the Vikings. Instead, you think, “Good, stay there.”

Posted in Movies | Tagged adventure, Agneta Eckemyr, David Hartman, Disney, Film, movies, Robert Stevenson, The Island at the Top of the World | 2 Comments

Weekend Linkage

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Interested in podcasting? This cool cat is sharing a lot of helpful tips.
Getting some sun: the upside.
Despite their history of screwups, I’m absolutely sure our health authorities have got it right this time.
Authoritarian power, neoliberal-style, stripped bare.
More.
The Woke Gillette ad inspires a good Joanna Williams essay.
Who can deny that we’re currently being subjected to a war on traditional masculinity?
A funny response.
Has the field of psychology become a “pink ghetto“?
Steve Sailer asks, “Which kind of white boys does the NYT hate most: Protestants or Catholics?”
Would it really be such a bad idea to be a little more choosy about who we let into the country than we currently are?
Do any of the students who typically rally in support of diversity and inclusion when a racist note is discovered on campus ever feel a little foolish once it’s been found that the note was a hoax?
I found this wide-ranging conversation between Dave Rubin and the quirkily brilliant evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller very absorbing. Interesting too to watch the way that Miller’s searching, offbeat thoughtfulness throws Rubin into a slowed-down, marveling-at-life mood.
Just as much fun, if of a different kind: a very relaxed yak with novelist and urban-design critic James Kunstler. Kunstler’s tales of being a young writer are down to earth and true to what many young writing lives are like, and his reactions to the current political scene had both me and my wife nodding in agreement.
Music of the week: a lovely, near-modal snapshot of melancholy by the great Richard Thompson.

Posted in Linkathons | 5 Comments

Weekend Linkage

Posted on January 13, 2019 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

By over-protecting our children, are we driving them crazy? Jonathan Haidt thinks so.
My wife and I enjoyed this Brendan O’Neill conversation with Jonathan Haidt.
The very smart Stuart Schneiderman responds to the American Psychological Association’s distaste for “traditional masculinity.”
Milestone du jour: The Alt Right becomes tabloid fodder.
Is the Obama administration to blame for all the financial-provider deplatformings that we’re witnessing these days?
Who could have predicted this development?
Although being a writer never made much financial sense, it makes even less sense now.
Loyalty-oath alert: Do we have any right to expect writers to be moral?
From Joel Kotkin: “Trends in American and to some extent European mass culture are beginning to look almost Stalinesque in their uniformity.”
On the ridiculousness of M.F.A. programs.
What is France’s gilets jaunes movement really about?
DNA co-discoverer James Watson gets Watsoned for a second time.
Sorry to report that I didn’t love ancient DNA specialist David Reich’s new book. Tons of fascinating and up-to-date information, sure, but Reich and/or his editor is ‘way more fascinated by the geeky detective work that goes into scientific discovery than I am; where reading about fresh science goes, I’m more of a “just tell me what you think you now know” kinda guy. And Reich’s determination to wrap up his very un-PC findings in cheery PBS-style platitudes is more than a little ridiculous, however understandable in a “Please keep my funding coming!” way. If you want to sample Reich’s mind and info without committing to a long book, there are lots of presentations and speeches by him on YouTube.

Posted in Linkathons | 1 Comment

Wither the Yellow Vests?

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Fenster

Fenster writes:

The American press has had a herky-jerk relationship with the Yellow Vests. The media avoided much mention of the protests when they first occurred, presumably banking on them fading away quickly. Then, when it became apparent that coverage could no longer be fairly avoided, stories began to appear.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged diana johnstone, Yellow Vests | 4 Comments

More on Sokal Squared

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Fenster

Fenster writes:

You’ll recall the so-called Sokal Squared dust-up: three academics who were able to publish a series of outrageously fake articles in peer-reviewed critical studies journals. Fenster wrote about it here when the story broke.

For many inside academe the hoax had the desired effect: it was seen as exposing not only the weaknesses in the peer review process but also the inanity of the critical studies field as a whole. Unfortunately for some it also reverberated outside higher education, putting all of academe in a harsh light just at a very brittle time.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Weekend Linkage

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Paleo Retiree

Paleo Retiree writes:

Coming soon from Mr. Finger-on-the-Pulse-of-the-West’s-Mood himself: a new novel by Michel Houellebecq. The book’s debut in France last week was “a national event.” The English translation will be released in November.
I loved-loved-loved “Submission,” Houellebecq’s last novel.
In case you missed it …
And quelle surprise to learn that Houellebecq is a fan of Oswald (“Decline of the West”) Spengler.
Are populists going to be the big winners in May’s European Parliament elections?
To cut to the chase: Is Europe dying?
Interesting that one runs across Establishment Brits who are capable to acknowledging that our current populist moment has validity and significance — that it isn’t just some terrifying outbreak of Naziism. Maybe our neoliberal elites have been overambitious and controlling, and maybe it makes some kind of undeniable sense that we’re now experiencing pushback, you know? See here and here. So why are Establishment American commentators completely and uniformly unwilling to make the same acknowledgment?
Why do idealistic young women from Europe keep getting decapitated while in Africa?
How many uptight right-wingers were actually obsessed with AOC’s dancing video?
Another step closer to Utopia.
According to a certain line of thinking, “This country’s history of slavery” deserves much of the blame for R. Kelly’s misbehavior.
Steve Sailer wonders why the NYTimes was making such a big deal out of one particular murder.
Because more diversity is always better!
How big a problem does it become when women start to outearn men?
Crazytimes.
Parody Twitter account du jour.
Old vs. new in Lille, France.
What Tokyo’s fish market can teach us about urbanism.
Great thread. I may be buying his book soon.

Posted in Linkathons | 1 Comment

Pinkerian Pollyannism?

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Fenster

Fenster writes:

Here in the Wall Street Journal we find more cheery optimism about the world. This could all be true. It could possibly just be Pinkerian Pollyannism. Or perhaps it is both.

As with disease, poverty is being eradicated not through technological miracles but basic rules of growth: Invest more in your human and physical capital, open yourself to markets and trade—that’s right, globalization is good—and incomes will rise.

This is the WSJ so it is no surprise that the happy measuring is mostly about money. And there the author has a point: even if a lot of wealth has been transferred from the US to the formerly developing countries things are inarguably better there, and worldwide measures built on economics will look good.

The author makes a small genuflect to things not going quite so well in the US:

(I)n the U.S., life is improving more slowly than in poorer countries, and in some places it is getting worse.

A small genuflect, too, to non-economic factors:

Money and well-being aren’t the same . . .

but this line is followed immediately by:

. . .but Mr. Kharas and Mr. Hamel note that moving from poor to middle class does correspond to a big jump in happiness.

I would rather have the optimistic view be correct. But as with Pinker I sense a pleading quality to this kind of argument: “if you would only grasp how much better things are getting you would stop all that caterwauling”. Alas, I don’t think things work that way.

Posted in Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged greg ips, Steven Pinker | Leave a comment

Notes on “Roma”

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Fabrizio del Wrongo

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

In “Roma,” writer-director Alfonso Cuarón rationalizes chic aesthetic loop-the-loops by pretending to social consciousness. The movie concerns an indigenous maid who serves a white Mexican family. Though critics have compared it to Italian Neorealism, its canned “poetic” content suggests nothing so much as a coffee-table book on the picturesqueness of poverty. It’s difficult to determine whose tone-deafness is more embarrassing, Cuarón’s or the critics’: Both are so eager to find nobility in brownness that they fail to detect the whiffs of condescension emanating from Cuarón’s conception, in which the maid is repeatedly compared — favorably, I suppose — to the family dog. What to make of the weirdly numbed manner in which Yalitza Aparicio’s Cleo is presented? Cuarón provides her with few qualities aside from the doggy attributes of steadfastness and loyalty. The charitable take is to assume that Cuarón is attempting to approach Cleo from the outside, to appreciate her as an other without diminishing her by interpretation; this is how Kurosawa treats the native woodsman in the great “Dersu Uzala.” But Cuarón has little of Kurosawa’s intelligence or wariness; ultimately, he’s a splashy filmmaker who’s good at “dazzling” set-pieces and swooshy kinetic effects. Here, he allows these predilections to take precedence over his heroine; Aparicio is so mobbed by style, her performance scarcely has room to breathe. Trudging nobly through the movie’s sets and locations, blankly reflecting our preconceptions back at us (she has nothing else to give), Cleo starts to seem like a pretext for Cuarón’s painstaking recreation of his childhood Mexico. If there’s something gross about the way that Cuarón asks us to take his arted-up vanity project as a courageous social statement, there’s something even grosser about the way that the critics have encouraged us to flatter ourselves by condoning it. By accepting this dum-dum thing as art we’re supposed to prove that we care about the people who tend our lawns and scrub our bathrooms. I think it’s more accurate to say that we prove our willingness to use them as moral tchotchkes.

Related

While watching “Roma” I repeatedly recalled Suzana Amaral’s 1985 “Hour of the Star,” a movie of similar bent that actually bears comparison to things like “Umberto D” and “Nights of Cabiria.” These days, no one talks about “Hour of the Star.” I think it makes “Roma” look pretty silly.