Lately, in politics, in publishing, even in industry, I keep wondering what rabbit hole opened up and swallowed me whole.
No, I’m serious. Listen to me.
We have publishers who choose to try to kill ebooks to “advantage” hardcovers, something that should be self-obviously out of the realm of sanity, because… well… for one we’re in a recession and hardcovers always do badly in those, second because people who’ve decided to go mostly e-book aren’t going to buy the hardcover. They’re going to wait then let it drop. By the time the ebook comes out, they won’t remember they wanted to read that book. So, it’s a huge fail. But the publishing houses are committed to this strategy.
And you wonder – are they insane?
We have journalists who don’t seem interested in investigating anything at all and who – please don’t argue with me. I’ve seen the emails from journolist and it’s disgusting – think their job is (just as the publishers think their job is) to control the outcome of things that should be beyond their power. To “push the right view” as it were, instead of the truth. They have to realize (round ’bout the second summer of recovery malaise they should have realized it, but even the WSJ was buying into the hype and singing from the hymnal) that even if people wanted to believe them, they’re going to believe their lying eyes FIRST.
And you wonder – are they insane?
Don’t get me started on our government, which seems to have crossed entirely into the realm of fantasy, thinking that wars can be stopped by apologizing to people who want to kill you (listen, dork, this is not your freshman seminar. In reality people who want to kill have other issues with you than that you might have been a little too forceful with them, mkay? In the case of America the problem they have with us is that their kraptastic leaders have convinced the people of some countries that WE are responsible for their misery. This keeps the leaders in power and the masses howling against the Great Satan. I think the leaders of those countries might run some publishing houses too. See behavior to Amazon.) Or thinking that we can conjure money out of thin air and this means we’re CREATING value. Or thinking that taxing “the rich” means more money, instead of “the rich” leaving for other countries or stopping money-making activity. (Hint, taxing doesn’t happen in a vaccum. It changes behaviors. That’s the whole point.) Or thinking that they can support a fast-aging group with a shrinking youth when the youth has neither jobs nor enough numbers.) Or…
And you wonder – are they insane?
Then there’s Hollywood. Even accounting for the fact that they get a lot of money from overseas, surely it wouldn’t be that hard for them to make movies that appeal to both? And even overseas, frankly, certain types of flicks sell better. Instead we see the politically correct take over and over again, and – as in books – it’s boring and it no longer sells, and yet they keep doing it.
And you wonder – are they insane?
And I’m sure ALL OF YOU – all of you – with expertise in fields that I don’t know are observing the same effect.
And wondering – are they insane?
They can’t be, right? Even accounting for third-generation stupidity — meaning that in many fields for three generations the “search” has been for people with certain political opinions, not the best at whatever the field is – even with the fantasy land most of our education has become, people can’t be THAT stupid. They have to realize what they’re doing isn’t working or is having the opposite effect of the desired, right?
And then it hit me: they’re not trying to adapt or adjust to the future – they’re running out the clock.
You know what I mean. There’s a football game where one team is barely ahead and the time is running out and instead of pushing for scoring, the team is just blocking and running out the clock.
Seen from this perspective the picture suddenly makes sense.
No, this is not a boomer-bashing post, but it is undeniable they are the largest age-cohort to come through in a long month of Sundays. And here statistics don’t lie and the trying to co-opt my age range doesn’t work. The boom stopped around 53/54. And they are… shall we say clannish? For a long time it was a more or less open secret they preferred to hire their own cohort. Now, I’m not sure because I don’t care anymore.
What this means is that when I started getting published most of the publishers/editors were ten to twenty years older than I. Their interchangeable assistants (Baen always excepted in these things) were ten to fifteen years younger than I. Most of those are gone, and there are other bright, doomed and clueless faces there. BUT the main editors/publishers are still the same. Still making the decisions. Still… running out the clock.
I’ve heard comments to this extent once of twice. Most of them are now either at or past ages when they could retire. Their stocks aren’t doing too well, but if they keep the houses going to a point they can retire, then they’ll have their pension or whatever. And what happens to the industry/government/art when they’re gone is of remarkable little concern to them.
This is not an effect of the boomers being evil. It’s an effect of a massive bump in the population that was then followed by a contraction in birth rates. It means that the people who are now in control are in their early/mid sixties, with a few older ones.
It means both they have trouble adapting to new situations and catastrophic change – which we’re surrounded by on all sides – and conceptualizing or caring about things in the future in ten, twenty, thirty years. This is compounded by the fact that in my field at least most of them are childless. (And in other fields a remarkable number of them are childless. Both the demands of a career and economic pressure did that and account for the baby bust following the boom.)
So, in enlightened self-interest, people who have no investment in the future are running out the clock.
What I think they’re failing to take into account is: what happens when the last tick echoes?
According To Hoyt 
Sarah, I think the last SF hardback I bought was one of yours. Since then it has been, nook and only nook. That goes for all my other books also. Currently I have something like 300 e-books.
If I came across a book I wanted for reference I would try to find that as a hardback.
I am telling you the bald truth because I have too much respect for you and your ability to try to mess with your reality.
Ron
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Well, that’s what I do too. I’m getting rid of paper as fast as possible, because we might/almost for sure will have to move. I’m buying kindle UNLESS it’s research. Yeah, research is ALWAYS better on paper, but that’s a specialized thing and might change over time as I adapt. Who knows?
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Sarah,
Let me add a comment that will help either you or someone else.
I have one of those learning disabilities for which it is very easy to find “work-arounds.” nook plays straight into my hands.
nook and perhaps other e-book readers have a feature that makes it easy to highlight notes. It also picks off those notes and places them in a file that is easy to reference.
I am now searching for an app (I have reason to believe it exists) that allows me to pick off those saved “highlight” files and transfer it to my PC, then onto my word processer.
I am also offering this in the hope that another of your fans already knows how to do what I am aiming for.
After all as a classical liberal I don’t believe we are either dependent or independent — we are interdependent.
Ron
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Speaking of Hollywood – saw parts of the Emmy’s last night (wife is in the biz). Most of it was inoffensive (though Colbert’s one-note schtick gets tired, fast, and John Stuart showed an expected lack of class), but what stood out for me was when the lady who played Sarah Palin in “game change” expressed pride in getting a thumbs down from the person she portrayed.
Think about it a minute. Ignore for a minute what anyone here thought about Palin personally, one way or another.
An actress gets up on stage, and feels utterly comfortable in taking pride in her role deliberately trashing a political figure that over a third of the country has respect and liking for, and pride in that figure being upset about it, AND gets solid applause. No audible boos. This in an audience composed of the movers and shakers of hollywood and the entertainment biz.
Leaving aside the lack of concern for the half of the potential TV audience that may politically disagree with her, can you say “echo chamber?”
Adding in the chick-fil-a reference in one of the sketches as well, how about “disconnected form their audience they’re entertaining” – even though I can see some of both sides of THAT issue?
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Yep. Running out the clock.
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Dancing on the promenade deck of the Titanic.
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I saw that disconnect recently myself in the form of a cover blurb for a book I was going to buy. It’s one that my brother recommended; I trust his judgement almost completely. He and I had talked about the paradigm-shifting things he had read in it, some of the book’s biases and errors and such, and I decided I really wanted to read it. When I looked it up on Amazon (you can find it here), the description was a mass of progressive buzz words. Clearly the publisher never imagined that one of those people would ever consider reading this book. I still plan to read it for the value of the information therein, but it sticks in my craw.
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Publishers tend to use the words and phrases that would make them want the book. Except when they do the equivalent of walking into a bait’n’tackle and asking “Is this where I get me a huntin’ license?”
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Well, at least that tv movie was so behind the times it was useless, the movie and the bookfull of lies it was based on were part of an effort to destroy the Palin presidential campaign. Yeah, Julianne Moore, used to be a favorite actress of mine. I’d still go to see something good if she’s in it, but she has dedicated herself to political diatribes only, and an actress can stay a millionaire doing that. She starred in “Blindness,” based on a novel by Sarah’s I think least favorite novelist in the world, Saramago.
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Don’t know if he’s Sarah’s, but he’s certainly on my list. We were forced to read “Blindness” in Grade 9, and a large portion of the class revolted at certain chapters, and got the parents to make such a fuss that we were excused from reading that part of the book. Our English teacher was surprised we were so upset, after all, kids watch this stuff on TV all the time, right? (13/14 year old kids and reasonably graphic rape scene, ugh!)
That made me never, ever want to even TOUCH one of his books.
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He’s a gross, disgusting little man and a devout communist. It gets him accolades. Makes me think of a quote about adultery (From, I think, Three Soldiers by Lucia Benedetti?) about how a man builds a house entirely out of dung and his acquaintances applaud and cheer the stinking mess, till it falls down on his head. I’m not sure it will fall down on his head in his life time — but I wish.
He’s close to Gabriel Garcia Marquez — Castro’s Friend! — in my list of despicable and overblown “because considered ethnic” writers.
I don’t grudge “literary” — I even read some and enjoy them. I grudge excrement.
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Oh lord. Marquez.
My wife is ethnically Colombian (parents came over) and insisted I read it as he’s a famous literary author and I love to read, etc., etc.
Unfortunately, my first book of his was News of a Kidnapping. Unfortunate because on the whole it was an interesting and balanced non-fiction book about the drug lord kidnappings. (I read it at roughly the same time as Bowden’s “killing pablo”). Unfortunate because it lead me to try some of his fiction.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold was miserable, and absolutely dripping in its condescension for villagers, and those who weren’t modern, progressive, “with it” people.
I could not make it through “Memories of my Melancholy Wars” . It was added to the handful of books I simply could not finish. While some were simply added as a matter of “I couldn’t deal with the style but it was well written” (Wheel of Time) most aren’t.
A bitter, miserable set of books. It did not surprise me – due to various hints and frame-of-reference stuff that made it through the english translation and hispanic cultural frames, to discover later that he was a devout communist.
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My sons were forced to read Chronicle in school. I have one thing to say for this “progressive” education — the kids are learning to perceive even hints of communism and react to it as I do. I think it could be called “vaccine”.
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Whups – that was supposed to be “Melancholy Whores”
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Seldom have I agreed more with one of your posts. I’m a Boomer (1954 vintage, even though born in another country), and I can see the clock-running thing everywhere among my contemporaries. “I just have to keep this thing going for another 5-10 years, and then fuck it, I’m outta here” (to some place where their dollars can buy more than they will here).
Myself, I’m hoping for a Boomer-specific plague which kills off 50% of this revolting generation. (Yeah, I’ll take my chances.)
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ROFL on the boomer specific, Kim.
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Ah? You want a Boomer specific plague? We got one coming. It is called Obamacare.
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I want a Boomer-specific plaque. It will read, “So Long And Thanks For All The Money”.
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Yes. And you know the worst part? Most boomers are for it, because they think it will shift the cost of their later-year care to the next generation. I keep telling them “No, it will JUST kill you. We are trying to save your life.” But I don’t think they’re listening.
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No, I don’t think my Vasculitis group is listening either. We can hardly pay for our costly care now. If the healthcare progressively taxes every time we go to the doctor (there is an excise tax in there) then we will not be able to afford the care. Plus the government already has a panel who can deny care right now. I had a situation where I went in for either a bacteria or stomach flu (it lasted more than two weeks). When I talked to the doctor she was typing to Washington DC and came up with the care they could do.
I am already under-impressed.
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You neglected to mention the tax on medical devices (broadly defined, too — eventually covering anything that can by any stretch be defined as a medical device (with waivers for manufacturers with sufficient foresight to bribe* politicians and regulators.) Geeze, what could possibly go wrong eith that?
*Bribe is used here as a colloquialism and no improper remuneration should be assumed on the part of those whose palms get greased. Lobbying expenses, campaign contributions and hiring of retired regulators are all legitimate and appropriate methods of encouraging and retaining subject specific expertise.
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Eventually if you need a lot of medical care your devices, medications, and care could be taxed more than it is worth. IMHO
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I keep telling people that there have been set guidelines for treatment. Your doctor is to diagnose and then treat according to these procedures or face fines. You have a bad reaction to the proscribed treatment? Sorry.
Try a new one, taking effect at this time: The 30-Day Readmissions Rule:
http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-1/FIN-278312/30Day-Readmissions-Rule-Under-TwoPronged-Attack
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It’s already happening with Medicare. Medicare turns down more claims than all the other insurance companies combined.
The Canadians are terrified America will go the same way they have, since a lot of them are only alive because, rather than die while waiting years for testing, they paid out-of-pocket at American hospitals.
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Facts against the narrative are not allowed and will, once the regulatory framework is fully in place, be properly classified as hate speech, disrupting the march of the sheep into the abbatoirs.
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“No, no, it’s– it’s just that we wanted a block of flats and not an abattoir.”
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You’re just being a killjoy. OF COURSE giving medical coverage with fewer doctors to more people will reduce costs! We’ll achieve savings by economies of scale and computerized medical records and unicorn farts.
BTW – I have noticed a spate of news stories (NY Times? WaPO? I forget/DGAD*) on how server farms are “dirty” industries, polluting and driving up electricity demand. Who’da thunk?
*Don’t Give A Da–
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Hey – I wanna unicorn fart – I hear they have medical properties that are out of this world.
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Not only that, they reportedly* smell like floral sachets.
*Reports are varied and may not be reliable. I have applications in to the Departments of Energy and HHS for grants funding research into the energy and medical and therapeutic potential applications of unicorn farts. When my monies are allotted I will be taking applications for research assistants and all commenters at AtH will be granted consideration.
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Sarah,
There is already talk going around about the purpose behind the “caring” professions being so solicitous in asking about any pains we feel. Supposedly the pain killers they prescribe reduce our ability to get oxygen.
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Good luck with that to them. I don’t take pain killers unless in ACUTE pain and what I consider acute is a bit past what other people do.
OTOH I’ve heard that rumor for fifteen years, so…
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Sarah – it’s amazing because I quit taking painkillers after my disease– NSAIDS kill the kidneys a piece at a time and I don’t have enough pieces to be killing mine. So yes, I take a lot of pain until I have to do the painkillers and it is usually after surgery. Last time was when they pulled a tooth.
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I don’t know if it actually lowers your ability to get oxygen, but I do know that there’s a big to-do about folks actually following Obama’s famous suggestion about giving folks a pain pill instead of the more expensive treatment to FIX the problem.
It’s well known that long term or high levels of pain killers will shorten your life.
The flip side is the folks who really do have chronic pain that requires treatment, and keep getting cut off by doctors afraid of being targeted by the “drug war,” or doctors who want to do treatments the patient doesn’t want when a higher dose of pain killer would probably shorten their lives BUT make it so they could do something besides be in a bed the rest of their life.
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Recall the not-so-famous-as-it-should-have-been quote of Obama’s when he told the lady with a 103 year old (not sure on exact age but that is the number that sticks in my mind) mother, when he told her maybe she should, “give her a handful of pills”?
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Often. Especially when family needs treatment that’s expensive but not life threatening, or older relatives need any treatment at all. (Thank God for Shriner’s.)
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This is one of the things that makes my eyes cross and then bulge out of my head. No matter how many times you point to language in the blasted thing that will cause reduced care and sometimes even refusal of care that is currently covered by almost every insurance, they do the equivalent of putting their hands over their ears and singing, “Lalala! I’m in my happy place! HAPPY PLACE!”
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The most important thing to remember is that much of what is in Obamacare is a deliberate attempt to flush corporate memory of any time when the United States was different.
I’m a baby boomer – born 1946, just a little more than nine months after the war ended. I hate Obama, Obamacare, and most everything else the Democrats passed before the Republicans re-took the House. Frankly, I see the United States erupting into civil war if Obama wins a second term. There are just too many people who know our freedoms will not survive another four years of Barrack Obama.
I’m not sure whether it’s “running out the clock” or just plain blind inertia — the people in the front offices across the land (not just politics, or publishing, but in the auto industry, oil and gas, power, and especially in education) who don’t have the intellectual capacity to CHANGE. Change scares the he$$ out of them. Most of them know they cannot survive a change in their current position, so they fight against it tooth and nail. But as the Chinese proverb so aptly says, all things change — it’s inevitable.
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I have a simple rule of thumb that generally explains human behavior.
Humanity, taken as a whole, IS insane.
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“Of course! What other possible use does the universe have for a planet crawling with psychotic, hairless apes?”
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So, in enlightened self-interest,
I’d give it credit for pseudo-enlightened. Wishing the world worked like you want it to and going through decades of explanations about why your version of reality is the real one (while simultaneously dragging the rest of us along with you) doesn’t necessarily make one enlightened.
I think true enlightenment requires a robe and the ability to make clapping noises with only one hand.
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You might try looking for a book “Tower of Babel.” It is available at B&N and Amazon. I believe it is also available on line for free.
That way you won’t have to learn how to clap with one hand.
Ron
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Does it come with a free robe?
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I thought it required a partner to get the clap.
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No, you can get it with one hand.
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I hesitate to speculate what you are doing with that hand to acquire the clap, but assume at some point it must involve another person.
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I shake a lot of hands.
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um. was going to ask… am not… am just saying right now: EW
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Yup. I wish I could say you were wrong, but you aren’t. Sadly, there’s a lot of people in the business world who are thinking, I’ll get mine, the crash happens to the next group. Or in the political world – yeah, I’ll run up all this debt, get my city on the line for unsustainable pensions, but I won’t have to deal with the consequences, that’s for the next guy.
Though these are the smarter ones, the ones who realize this. A whole lot of the rest are, well, not insane, just really dumb. (If I want an opinion on how something works or how to fix anything, the last person I’m going to ask is a journalist. I remember journalism majors back in college; the dumbest major on campus. A friend of mine wanted to go into journalism; she was told in her freshman year to forget about it, because she wasn’t pretty enough. )
In reality people who want to kill have other issues with you than that you might have been a little too forceful with them, mkay? In the case of America the problem they have with us is that their kraptastic leaders have convinced the people of some countries that WE are responsible for their misery.
I was just saying to a friend, this has nothing to do with that idiot film, this doesn’t even have anything to do about Islam, this is about cultures. This is about an insecure irrational little Chihuahua who gets into a frenzy because a Great Dane walks into the room, even if the Great Dane isn’t bothering anyone.
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Even if the Great Dane hasn’t noticed him.
I’ll paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke, because I don’t have time to find the book, “We’re an insanely beautiful 20 year old woman, they’re a pimply, insecure 13 year old boy. They love us and they hate us at the same time. They think about us ALL the time and can’t stand the thought we never even give them a thought.”
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A friend of mine had a hound that wasn’t a bit mean and he kept tied on a chain, in a fenced yard. The neighbors chihuahua dug under the fence, came over and started a fight with him, after being chased into his doghouse and bit on the nose, the hound grabbed the chihuahua and started shaking it. My friend ran over and made him let go of the chihuahua, and it limped off. After it healed up the chihuahua strutted around like it was KingKong, apparantly because it had survived a fight with a bigger dog. A couple months later it again dug under the fence and attacked the hound, this time my friend didn’t get there in time and the hound killed the chihuahua.
Moral of the story, just because the hound didn’t want to fight, and didn’t kill the chihuahua the first time, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t if cornered in his house by the little pipsqueak. Maybe I should go to New York and tell Achmadeanajad (spelling anyone?) that story this week.
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Amadjihad. Well, that’s how I spell it, because Stinkingpieceofcrapinhumanshape doesn’t sound like his name!
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Charles
I keep picturing “Dr. Strangelove” with Buddy Hackett playing Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper.
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I’m partial to Ahmadinnerjacket myself.
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Someone, I forget who, refers to him as Ahmadinanutjob.
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Ahmadinejad – but it is a transliteration from another script, so whatever. The MAD remains…
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He’s going to be too busy meeting with OWS, speaking at the UN, and sorting out all the lovely kosher delicacies in the gift basket the NY Post gave him. (I kinda like “Achmydinnerjacket” as an alternative spelling.)
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excuse me but when I don’t like someone, their names suddenly change to shitforbrains. ;-)
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achshitforbrains works for me!
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I see someone here listens to the same radio shows as me. Now if I could just remember which one I heard “Achmydinnerjacket” on.
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I seem to remember Armstrong and Getty using that when I lived in California.
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I go with nicknames. I think it was VodkaPundit that crowned him “The Mad Midget”? Or maybe Bryan Suits on the Dark Secret Place radio show….
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Stephen Green is an unsung genius. (And a friend.)
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I was wondering how he found out about your blog!
(Note: not why he linked to it, pretty obvious once I got here, but how he found it in the first place….?)
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actually when he did that we’d just met. He’s a very nice man, though, and his dog is kinda sorta the model for Goldie In A Few Good Men (March.)
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The “he knows you” matters more than the “a friend” part– meeting someone and talking to them is a vector for finding a blog that has results unlikely to be found on the web!
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Another quote from PJ which is apropos of something:
“They were trying to scare America and what they just cannot understand is that America doesn’t get scared. America gets scary.”
(This always reminds me of another great quote: “I don’t get mad. I get stabby.”)
Alas, this is no longer the case, but we had a good run.
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“I don’t get mad. I get stabby.”
Thank you, Donbot.
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Marc,
I am old enough to remember the Pearl Harbor attack and to have read “ad Nauseum” of the run up to that day. When this country is making up its mind to go to war; it gets chicken hearted and concillitory. Then when the US has tempted the bully into provocation beyond all tolleration the US gets even.
I also remember the days immediately after Pearl Harbor and have read about our reaction after earlier provokation; ie, the sinking of the Maine, the Lusitania and 9-11. Watch these SOB’s when they start to sing together.
Ron
BTW, go to YouTube and listen to “Lets remember Pearl Harbor.” It has almost no melody and only simple lyrics but it filled our need for something to sing together. Naturally when it became obvious that we were going to achieve exactly what we set out do we lost interest in the song.
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My grandfather was supposed to be in Pearl Harbor (he was in the Navy) when it was bombed. Fortunately their ship had broken down and they were nine hours out. But I remember as a little kid, hearing him talk about how spooky it was coming into the Harbor the next night. Rumours there were subs in the Harbor, everybody on a hair-trigger, and the only lights those from burning derelict ships, some of which were floating around.
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Isn’t there a song about that– “Coward of the County”?
We do tend to have stories about folks who control themselves so well that Bad People mistake them for safe targets.
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I used to have (lost it in a move) a little button which read, “I don’t like violence, which is why I’m very, very good at it.” It’s funny because it my case, it’s true. :) I don’t like it so if I have to engage in any I want it to be over as quickly as possible.
And yes, there are a lot of stories like that. The problem is that the people who need to learn from them are the kind of people who don’t learn from stories.
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I used Ted Roosevelt’s saying “speak softly, but carry a big stick.” I don’t like violence either, but if you gotta, you gotta. And another saying, “anything worth doing is worth doing well.”
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I have been moved many times since 9/11 2001 to ruminate over the irony that a perceived willingness to engage in violence often obviates the need to. For example, earlier non-responses to attacks (the 1993 WTC attacks, Khobar Towers, the embassies and warship, etc. etc. etc.) made the 2001 attack more likely because they were confident there would be no real effort at serious reprisal. By not treating “Broken Windows” we were conditioning them to push harder.
Similarly, a perceived willingness to engage in torture reduces the likelihood of actually having to engage in torture. The prisoner, confident that Americans “don’t torture” has every incentive to doubt we will, which increases their willingness to withhold information that might be vital. The bad cop being credible enhances the good cop’s ability to elicit information without the bad cop having to do much more than glower.
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RES,
I don’t want to take issue with your position. I want to enlarge the toolbox, to steal from Sarah.
Victor Davis Hanson says that Western Civilization has never lost a war to non Western forces because we fight what amounts to an unusually savage war. Possibly we need to let the anger and justification build up before we set out to completely savage someone. Just a thought.
Ron
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This is worth a post in itself. Maybe we should give the savages fair warning. It reminds me of the vampire character in Pratchett’s a monstruous regiment. He (no spoilers, guys) wears a sword he can’t use, because it serves as a warning to people who would otherwise get in a fight with him and get killed.
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Yes, to pay my way through engineering school I worked carrying a gun and a badge. I also carried a night stick because some idiots wouldn’t believe I would shoot them. They were wrong but somehow they seemed to believe I would konk them in the head with a nightstick.
As a result they didn’t challenge me and I got to go home to my wife and daughter in peace.
Ron
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Or Zebadiah from “…The Number of the Beast,” who wore fake zero-prescription glasses so when some drunken lout said, “Take off your glasses!” he could run away before the fight started.
(For the three misguided souls who might read this blog but not know the character, he’s a killing machine. But he has a peaceful soul.)
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I would be interested to know how he spins the definition of “losing a war” on that one. We’ve lost plenty, and not just in the modern era, either. Ever see pictures of all the lovely Islamic architecture in Spain?
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Um… and it’s much like the war we’re fighting. Attrition, sneak and population increase. Um.
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Sarah,
As Dr. Hanson points out we have changed our style of fighting and all to the detriment. Can you imaging we actually consult lawyers on the battlefield, or so it is said?
Remember the Roman style, you sold all the survivors into slavery. I remember hearing a WW2 soldier saying he much preferred the infantry because when they captured a town if there was anything to drink or _______ the infantry got the first chance at it.
Ron
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In a standup fight in the modern era, Western Civilization could handily defeat any and all forces the rest of the world could throw at it. If it came down to cases, and we were willing to settle for a Pyrrhic victory (or pyre-ic victory) the US all by itself could take the rest of the world or at least not lose. (This has not always been the case: military incursions from Asia have successfully taken and held large areas of Europe which would usually be considered the territory of “Western Civilization” for quite some time, and Western incursions into non-Western territory have been successfully repulsed over significant time periods.)
This is, of course, why only idiots and madmen engage the West in standup fights. If you expand the notion of “winning a war” to what I consider the eminently reasonable “forcing the other side to do what you want them to do through military means,” our record on winning wars is bad and getting worse. Cromer ruled Egypt with a thousand English civil servants. We can’t make Afghanistan and Iraq do what we want with tens of thousands of soldiers, hundreds of thousands of noncombatants, and more military expenditure than we used to win WWII.
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Sure, Marc,
The question isn’t so much what can our military forces do as what will they be allowed to do. But according to Dr. Hanson the rot goes much deeper. Traditionally the thing that made our Armies so deadly was the type of man enlisted in the ranks. You can either read Victor Davis Hanson for this or alternatively read the 4th verse of the National Anthem. In short, freemen standing between an invader and their homes will outfight peasants and slaves all else being equal. The charge is made that with the advent of progressive politics our freemen aren’t so free anymore. Our Founders didn’t design our Constitution for a sovereign people just to score style points.
Ron
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Certainly Marc,
We lost plenty of battles but how did the war end up? How many Muslim are living in that lovely Spanish architecture today? The Crusaders in the Holy Land seem like an exception also but mostly the Muslims have long since had to retreat from their high water marks in Europe. The exceptions, if there are any, are rather rare.
Ron
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A lot are living in that lovely architecture. They’re coming back as immigrants and living off the social services.
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Sarah,
How do they say it, “point, set, and match?” GRIN
Ron
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Functionally, what is the difference between what Sarah described (and it is going on in England & France, as well, and conquering and occupying a country? Sure, they don’t actually govern the country, but neither do they follow the government’s edicts. Most of the benefits with little of the work of ruling.
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RES,
I’m sorry I’ve lost the train of the discussion.
Ron
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Ronald:
Quite a few and more every day. If you’re not willing to accept a centuries-long occupation as winning a war, then I turn it right around and say that the war isn’t over now, either.
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We win wars, but we lose peaces.
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Marc,
Excepting when I unconsciously merge my opinions into Dr. Hanson’s I am defending his position. However I won’t chicken out on you — both he and I, I believe, will agree that we are, under progressivism, ignorantly surrendering our historical advantages. IMHO the progressives don’t realize they are changing for the worse.
Ron
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I agree that we are as slow to anger as we are monstrous in our wrath. My point is simply to find amusement in the irony this produces. Whether it is a good thing is irrelevant; it is our way and is part of what we are.
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If you want some specifics, the French Indian War and the Revolutionary War actually influenced our tactics greatly. We learned to hide and shoot instead of using the modern tactics of the time (stand and shoot at each other). We have continued to develop tech and other ways of killing that makes life safer for our soldiers (or we hope). We also stole a lot of the German scientists after WWII (Einstein I think before if I am correct), which gave us an advantage. We are not above stealing other brains if we have to do it.
Monstrous— probably. Would we do it any other way? We shouldn’t. We have found out what happens when we tie ourselves down to rules when the enemy has NO rules. Do we want history to say that we were good people so we couldn’t adapt to a changing war? –and that was the end of us?
I think not.
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Cyn,
The PC crowd has put one over on you. We didn’t steal anyones brain’s before, during or after WW2. The Germans chased Einstein and others out of their country (Germany) as they were Jews, etc. and slated for the gas chamber. After the war there was a so called “Brain Drain” due to trained brains wanting to get out of Europe and coming to the US for better working conditions and wages.
In their time most of our ancestors did the same. Heck, my ancestors have done the same several times but always voluntarily and never under duress. The last time was when my family left the cotton farm to seek our fortunes in the big city. That turned out well all the way around.
Ron
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Ron, Cyn can speak for herself, but I think her use of “steal” in that context was in jest.
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Noted.
Ron
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For that matter, during the ARW we had to learn the British way of war because with the weapons of war of the time, it was the best way to fight & win battles.
European armies weren’t stupid. Their way of war was the best method based on the weapons they had.
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In the end General Washington choose to fight what is referred to as a post war. While he initially hoped to win a decisive battle, he realized that playing out the clock was how we could win.
During the cold war we had a ‘primary’ enemy to point to and this we understood. Still, the truth was that it was a battle of ideas, played out in many places. We could view those as separate wars, or as parts of the whole. (I am not sure that the cold war is really over, but that is for another argument.)
Here is where I wonder about our modern situation. We have been viewing and therefore treating a long term engagement as a series of separate incidents. Hard to get the people galvanized over any single one, except 9/11. Meanwhile the enemy, which is not a single nation, but those representing a world view which has no wish to live with us in peace, just keeps reforming and chipping away.
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CACS, I read once that the Canadians had most of the early experience against the Indians. Supposedly they learned Indian tactics and taught us. We developed them against the British and have used that basis for our military every since — or so I once read. If you want a great tutorial on the Muslim tactics go to YouTube and listen to Robert Spencer. They are really different yet they do put their pants on one leg at a time. I don’t think they will not seem quite so formidable after the tutorial. As an ex-amateur boxer it seems to me they have two huge advantages: 1. A terrific left hander’s advantage — but that is soon overcome for a well coached fighter. 2. Because of item one an ability to buffalo an opponent into giving away an advantage before the opponent catches on. Again a good coach will put an end to that very quickly. BTW, has anyone seen that movie that supposedly lit the fuse on all the excitement lately? Have you seen the statement by the Libyan government that the movie didn’t ignite the protests? Have you asked yourself why a mob in Australia rioted over a movie from America that no one has seen? Under the circumstances why do we accept the various mob actions as a normal and acceptable reaction? I don’t know the answers or if the allegations are even true but isn’t there enough smoke present for us to start using our BS detectors? R
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Heck, reports are getting out that there was no riot before the attack on the place the Ambassador was at started.
Support for this includes people who were on the phone with him or his staff, I can’t remember which, when the crew weapons started firing. (He was there to set up a school; the head of the guys they were working with talked to either the Ambassador or his staff, and the guy’s staff were on the phone with whoever the school guy hadn’t been talking to. Powerline had it, I just can’t remember which way it was.)
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For those of us who remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident this fiasco has a certain redolence.
Emphasis added. The site remained unsecured for (at least) three days and all the State Dept. buttboys can do is chastise CNN for revealing their lies???
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It made them look bad. Of course they’re complaining.
You’ll also notice the articles complaining say things like “the state department and the family” and then have quotes from state department, but his family remains “the family.” That usually means that they either didn’t have any quotes that would support their claims or that the family was actually divided.
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It is a He11 of a note that we have to read our own news media with the same attention to nuance once applied to Pravda.
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Today, the month that average household income fell 1% across the nation, I notice our supermarket’s US news proclaimed “Incomes skyrocket in red states.” Dan had to drag me away. I was attempting to get at the newspaper rack and screaming “It’s pravda and there is no truth in pravda.” I’m afraid I’m going to lose it before this is done.
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“Incomes skyrocket in red states.”
They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
Used to I worried about what the stock market did; eventually I learned to worry about what stocks I owned did. Maybe, maybe incomes across red states are skyrocketing, mine ain’t.
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Sarah,
Don’t get mad – get even. In keeping with ancient Cherokee practice you can give Obama an appropriate name, “Running Bare.” This is truly a case of the emperor having no clothes.
May I tell you a short illustrative story? You have heard the term “trickle down economics” used many times to describe Republican tax proposals. Do you know where the expression comes from?
We once had an all time great comedian in the US. He was so well known that members of the Democrat Party ran him as a candidate for the Democrat Presidential Candidate — no, he didn’t win. His name was Will Rodgers. He was a great source of folk humor as well as wisdom. He coined the term “trickle down economics.” The term has never been us for a serious economic theory by either a professional economist or a Republican politician. Its provenance is purely as a source of Democrat merriment. It is based on nothing in the real world.
The president and his minions do the same so flagrantly today. Their facts are strictly from Pravda. They habitually walk a foot in the air disassociated from everything.
Ron
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Yes, but might I add that it was Will Rogers who explained why you could not fly over the capital? All that hot air made it too dangerous. While he was a Democrat, he had supported Coolidge. He saw the government and both parties as an equal opportunity situation when it came to humor, the following is a shot at the New Deal:
(If you get a chance visit The Will Rogers Memorial Museums in Claremore/Oologah, OK. The Daughter and I visited the part in Claremore,. Rogers was building it to be his retirement home at the time he died in the plane crash in Point Barrow, Alaska Territory.)
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RES,
We are facing an extremely multi-faceted problem that goes far beyond the immediate concerns with Islam. I am not diminishing the problem of Islam. Instead I am saying we similtaneously have several other problems that are just as big.
I think we have to start with Dineesh D’Souza’s movie 2016 and his contention that Barack Obama revealed himself when he wrote Dreams From My Father. He is not writing of his father’s dreams so much as the dreams that he, Barack Obama, received from his father. The dreams of an anti-colonalist that wished to identify the US as a colonial power and to bring an end to that power. Seen in that light even Obama’s background as a neighborhood worker and devotee of Sol Alinsky is only an apprenticeship in how to combat power.
Another part of the answer, in providing a techneque to use in achieving his ends, is the work of Cloward and Piven. C & P is easily available on Google so we won’t discuss it here. Never-the-less most of Obama’s work in office has been congruent with the theory of C & P. Those same works have gone a long way to collapsing the US as we have known it.
Tonight, I saw a Glenn Beck special regarding the infiltration of our highest government offices by the Muslim Brotherhood. I can’t believe that could have happened without the conscious assistance of Obama and Crew.
I have one other factor to include excepting that it is not triggered by the Obama presidency. I follow the work of Peter Diamandis, etal. I am also immersed in the economic theories of the classical liberals. I see our natural future as entirely too rich and glowing to tolerate this present crew of “not ready for prime time players.” Folks, we have a new Renaissance coming at us like a runnaway frieght train.
So what can we do? We can study the problems facing us. We all have family and friends that we can proselytise, we can vote and we can spread the word.
I think we have the most powerful anti-Obama, anti-progressive message possible that is available to us. When we understand what we are talking about, “The emperor has no clothes.” That guy does not pass the belly laugh test. He is a joke.
Ron
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Ron, my only reservation is due to a reluctance to attribute to malice what can by explained by willful blindness and stupidity. In practical effect there is little difference and I would be hard pressed to argue which is worse. There are none so blind to reality as those who think themselves highly educated.
I was reflecting the other day about the opposition to Bush’s effort to tap the ANWAR oil reserves back in 2001 rebuffing the project on the grounds that it would be ten years before we saw the first drop of oil.
Geeze, how handy would that oil supply be now, with Iran threatening the Straits of Hormuz and Venezuela’s oil industry collapsing? They dismiss the Keystone Pipeline as not producing a drop of oil for ten years; well, where will we get our energy ten years from now? Windmills, solar and unicorn farts are all far more than ten years from producing any significant amounts of energy.
This is a great and rich country if we just get around the intelligentsia who are “protecting” us from ourselves. It reminds me of the old story:
Back when human life began, there was just the body, and the body parts.
Well, the body parts were discussing which part of the body was to be the boss. The legs said, that since they enable the body to get around, they should be the boss.
The eyes declared, since we give sight, and without sight the legs aren’t a whole lot of good. The eyes keep the legs from stumbling around, and prevent tripping over something and falling down.
The brain then chimed in and goes, hey, you guys are very useful I agree wholeheartedly, BUT…in reality, I AM the control center here. Everything you guys would like to do runs through me. If the legs want to walk, or the eyes want to see, you send me a message. I then receive the message, and give the signal for you guys to start doing what you guys do. With this being the case, I should, and deserve to be…the boss!
Just about this time the a..hole applied for the job.
All the other body parts thought this absolutely hilarious, and began laughing uncontrollably… can’t stop uncontrollably! Well, the poor a..hole was embarrassed by this, and felt bad. But the other parts wouldn’t stop laughing about his applying for the job, and they kept ridiculing him for being, well what he was, and still applying for the job.
The little feller finally got mad, and closed up! After 2-3 days, the legs grew wobbly. This was followed by the eyes becoming crossed and unable to focus. This left the brain, and it fared no better. It soon became clouded, foggy, and confused, and by the end of another couple days, the other body parts conceded…and made the a..hole the boss.
So, the moral to this story being, if you haven’t already figured this out is simply…you don’t have to be a brain to be a boss, only an a..hole!
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RES,
I had never interpreted Obama in those ways. I had assumed that Obama was another little boy that idolized his Daddy and internalized what he thought was his Daddy’s message to him.
Is Obama sincere in believing the US and world would be a better place if America were brought low? I assume he is completely sincere even if wrong in my opinion.
As I’ve said I believe we have a new Renaissance upon us and a future almost straight out of Star Trek. I can believe that because I was born in 1934 and lived on a raggedy pants cotton farm until I was sixteen. During my lifetime I’ve seen this world turn upside down about twice or three times. The greatest of these started in 1973 according to Elizabeth Warren. Those who have come to adulthood since then have had a life that is way below the norm in my opinion. But that is only the accumulative effect of progressivism — until just recently. Now, even the post 1973 standard is becoming impossible to maintain.
Ron
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Tonight, I saw a Glenn Beck special regarding the infiltration of our highest government offices by the Muslim Brotherhood.
At one point, this would’ve made me roll my eyes and think you were out there among the X Control Everything folks.
Then my husband came home spitting nails about Anthony Weiner’s wife (, who is top hand with Hillary. Her mom, dad and brother all are or were involved in really flippin obvious Sharia and worse activities, with her mother founding the lady’s auxiliary of the Muslim Brotherhood.
My brother’s clearance involved interviewing half the teachers at our high school, I wasn’t allowed inside 50 miles of the Mexican border unless on orders, and this gal gets uber clearance?
(NOTE: all information is from public sources, including the limit I was under which was published for everyone who got a pass for the site I was at.)
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Foxfier,
I can only think of one response. My response is so fast it is reflexive but I have to take the time to set up my response.
Way back when “Master Piece Theater” did a mini series called The Original Churchills, which was taken largely from Churchill’s book The Duke of Marlboro.
In the mini series John Churchill was portrayed as almost Odyssesian in his brilliance and insight into people and events. When Sarah, his wife, would tell him of some really stupid gaffe by the Royalty of the day he would shake his head wisely and say, “Silly, silly.”
Foxfier that was my response to the situation you have found yourself in. In all empathy, “silly, silly.”
Ron
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I certainly do not think of the Muslim terrorists in general as formidable fighters. But, because of the nature of the engagement I think we are failing to recognize the situation and therefore are not becoming properly engaged.
We live in a world where fighting is not the only way to conquer. What I see happening in Europe is failure to remain European or viable. It is still drinking at the trough of demi-socialism. It is allowing, when not actually encouraging, the Muslim immigrants to set up their own enclaves. These have become colonies within the European countries, some with their own government and laws. If most of the population increase remains among Muslims, as has been reported, the Europeans will find themselves in the minority in their own nations. What happens after that?
Regards the recent movie, I believe only twelve attended the single screening. Seeing the actual movie itself is not necessary for the Imams’ purposes. The fact that such a thing is even allowed to exist unpunished in the Western world is used to fan the coals of the anti-western fires. How many who rioted before saw the Danish cartoons, viewed Theo Van Gogh’s work, or read Salman Rushdie? These items are used as a chance to posture or an excuse. Blaming these items serves to channel the frustration at the Imam’s lack of success to bring a better life and shifts the blame to us.
And a note to POTUS: these people do not believe in free speech, and to fail to fully accent to, no less to question or belittle their prophet at all, is viewed as slander by many Imams and their faithful followers.
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I don’t think “how many people saw it” is a valid metric for “how many people are allowed to be upset and protest”– the thing is that they are just wrong to do so in a Murder, Death, Kill form.
That’s why “eye for an eye” was such an improvement; rather than “kill those who verbally/visually insult my important guy,” it becomes “talk/show those who verbally/visually insult my guy into realizing that’s bad.”
Turn the other cheek, of course, defuses things even further.
My uncles have been complaining about the Vietnam War their entire life, that a lot of the problem is the enemy simply doesn’t have the same worldview that we do, and it was much more mild then. This has only gotten worse now that we’re dealing with folks who are still largely living in the worldview that the Jewish people were taken out of with eye for an eye, and so many people have THEIR worldview so invested in being “Rational” that they must deny anything that came from religion. And if restraint in response (among other restraints we don’t even notice anymore) is not from religion, then, well– it must be a basic human condition, and ignore the hell out of any counter-evidence like most of the middle east!
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CACS,
If you are saying that we face a threat to our very existance and that the threat is all-inclusive across military, economic and political fronts I agree with you.
The fact is that we have faced that threat since the time of the prophet himself. Furthermore we have faced that threat to our existance for 1340 years.
The Immams and their followers do not need an provocation, claim of provocation or excuse whatever to attack us. Their motive exists within the Koran and comes from Allah himself in their opinion.
The only real question is, “How are we going to respond?” Do we go to war and face death, do we submit to Dhimmitude and abase ourselves or do we convert to Islam?” All other responses are futile debating society responses.
Ron
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No, RES,
We are a free people with adequate resources to rule ourselves if we exert ourselves. We can determine the pros and cons of our national policies as well as change them if desirable.
I for one do not accept that we run our Armies for the comfort and convenience of those who start wars with us.
Ron
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Ron, you mistake my argument; I do not assert that this is desirable — I make no evaluation of the morality. I merely make note that it is ultimately self-defeating.
Regrettably, I think we DO “run our Armies for the comfort and convenience of those who start wars with us.” I do not think we should but we have driven out the sons-of-bitches and promoted the Courtney Massengales. To our detriment. And I fear we will be badly bloodied before we again exert ourselves to battle.
I hope I am wrong. The advancement of such men as Allan West and Josh Mandel as well as other recent combat veterans should bring a valuable and necessary perspective to how our military performs. These type of people will not accept a military and foreign policy that let us feel noble and enlightened; they will demand one that keeps us safe and with a minimal cost to our nation.
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There’s a sentence in Starship Troopers (the book!) that goes something like this “And then the veterans had had enough.” It has been much in my mind lately.
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Sarah,
You “ain’t” just whisling Dixie.”
Ron
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RES,
Now that I understand you better. Yes. As the famous Japanese sword fighter is reputed to have said, “The purpose of sword fighting is to cut your opponent.” And then of course ultimately to kill him.
Ron
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It was snarky Ron–
As long as we have a free country with opportunity, we will drain the brain power from other countries… RES you know me so well.
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Cyn, in fairness we should acknowledge the current administration is doing their best to counter this, having driven us down to number 10 (with a bullet) on the Index of Economic Freedom, behind Chile and Mauritius and barely ahead of Bahrain:
http://www.heritage.org/index/default
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RES,
Cloward and Piven anyone?
Ron
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Cyn,
Said a different way, A healthy classical liberal government will always provide a more attractive living environment than a progressive government.
Ron
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“Incomes skyrocket in red states.”
Sarah,
That’s funny, I live in Idaho (you don’t get a much redder state than Idaho) and it was on the news today that the average household income went DOWN for the third straight year in Idaho.
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BEARCAT,
When in actuallity your income has to go up just to stay even. Think about it, 3 years ago gas was slightly under $3/gal.
Bearcat, these generations since 1973 have had it much harder than when my generation started tip toeing into adulthood in 1951 and 52. In 1958 I matriculated at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. I had a wife, a daughter, the GI Bill and my tuition was $375/semester. The government gave me $135/Mo. under the GI Bill. I chased burglars for ADT and after working a couple of years my wife stayed home with our daughter. Later, just before my graduation my wife started college. Yep, and at about that time I bought a new car.
Ron
BTW, That $375/semester seems a little high. My memory may have slipped. Possibly I am remembering grad school at the University of Chicago.
Folks, I am dropping names on you because I want you to know the prices at some top schools.
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Go to a card shop or bookstore. Find the spindle of birthday cards on the theme “if you were born in 19XX.” Each of those cards will provide certain statistical information: cost of a gallon of gas, cost of a gallon of milk, cost of a movie ticket, cost of the average new car, of the average new house, annual average income, etc.
Compare the rate of change across time. Prices were remarkably stable until the mid-1970s; since then the slope has been steeper, in some periods much steeper.
One lesson tossed out in Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court expresses Sir Boss’ frustration trying to explain to two peasants that it doesn’t matter what you are paid, what matters is how much your pay can buy. It is no gain to get Paid 100% more in County A as in County B if prices in County A are 150% of those in County B.
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Well, I’m in the red part of CO and let me tell you — it’s not going up here.
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Remember, skyrockets also fall to Earth.
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Yep, when Obama took office the national average for gas was $1.89 a gallon, I filled up this morning for $3.89 (and we are below the national average). Oh, but I forgot, gas and food don’t count when you a figuring inflation; which I find hard to comprehend since my monthly gas bill is fluctuating between $800 and $1000, by far my biggest expense (actually bigger than all my other normal monthly expenses combined).
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Wow, bearcat, I thought my gasoline bill was bad at $350-$400 per month.
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four cars. (Yes, I know, but it’s the only way the schedules work. I doubt we could get more than 5k for three of them. Actually I doubt we could get more than 1k for younger son’s.) What’s happening is that we have NO money for emergencies. Emergencies it the saving. Which means we’re down 30k this year DESPITE my income (because we’ve been hit with a major one every month.) I sure hope they have wireless under the bridge! And I cry at the grocery check out. Yesterday, mostly vegetables $150. And I DO NOT buy aragula. and yeah, we eat A LOT of vegetables since we’re keeping it low carb, and this was a week’s worth, but all the same.
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Foxfier,
Yes, sometimes I think our”cowarice” is a fancy way of picking fights. The technique leaves us feeling morally justified.
On the other hand, I firmly believe that we are justified in fighting only when there is no other choice. “Then set to with a will, Laddie.”
Ron
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Nah, there’s a difference between picking a fight and behaving in a way that makes psychotic bullies think you’re easy pickings. For starters, it is morally justified to fight back when unjustly attacked, even if they only attacked because they thought they’d win.
There’s no moral requirement to provide high quality information to HELP someone do immoral actions!
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Yes, my favorite Kenny Roger’s song. It isn’t just a song about that, but also a very pointed dig at the Gatlin Brothers (who were accused of gangraping a girl). But yes the main gist of the song can be summed up in one line,
“Sometimes you got to fight, when your a man.”
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BS it’s not the case. Just because we have an apologizer-in-chief doesn’t mean we’ve all been castrated. Some of us can’t be castrated, anyway and, oh, drat, there ISN’T enough estrogen…
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ROFL
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Once long, long ago when the world was young I was but a wayfaring youth I was reading Atlas Shrugged. I decided that if Objecitivism was right I should be able to find a means of going my own way, very successfully, even in the worst of governemts. Mind you that means starting small and not having to depend on raises, promotions, etc. Today, I believe I have found the way in this society. Comments?
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This is the generation that grew up with Joseph Heller’s Catch 22.
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Running out the clock or kicking the can down the road?
The military is probably the field with the most experience handling Short-timers, people whose time in a position is nearly up and who become extremely risk-adverse as a result. They tend to defer changes because they recognize their replacement will be the one to manage the effects and is entitled to choose which disasters they will manage.
We also see this dynamic in Hollywood, when a new regime at a studio tends to sweep aside all projects begun by the prior management, because they will catch the blame for any failures and their predecessors will receive the credit for any project that becomes a success. Sensibly, the new regime sees no benefit to expending energy on projects for which they will receive credit. And as the falling ax is observed, how many people working at the studio anticipating a new management will invest themselves in projects they know are doomed?
If you are a farmer and know you will be leaving the farm in July, before the August harvest, how much effort will you expend in April and May getting the crop started?
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Of course, the new executives can always revive promising projects that were canceled by their predecessor and get credit for their perception. The whole thing boils down to how to get all the credit you can while covering your ass.
The Spouse often observes that few people get fired for doing things the way they have always been done. Usually this is quite true. Time to let some publishers and some politicians know that this is not always so — there is such thing as a breaking point.
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Sarah – running out the clock makes a lot of sense. I have been using the “are you just stupid” argument, but it doesn’t quite fit (except in the most general way).
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My dad used to tell people that asked him to do something obviously stupid, “I may be stupid, but I’m not dumb.” Many of these people running out the clock are both stupid and dumb.
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Neither stupid nor dumb, just too d- lazy to reevaluate reality. They performed a correct analysis a number of years ago and are resisting acknowledging that things have changed (e.g., union bosses bargaining for business/industry crippling benefits.)
Those are the most dangerous: smart enough to ably defend their premium deck chair.
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In the case of America the problem they have with us is that their kraptastic leaders have convinced the people of some countries that WE are responsible for their misery.
Moreover these leaders do not want to make nice with us (or anyone else) other than for what goodies they can manipulate out of us. So long as those leaders can blame us for all the ills in their country they don’t have to produce improved lives for their people. That way they can keep the goodies meant for the citizens.
Meanwhile, we continue to be told that we have to give more and we have change so those willing to be bullies will like us!
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I’m 54, born in 58, and it’s an age/birthtime that sucks. for the most part I never fit with the boomers but, get lumped in with them and blamed for their failings. And you are right about the clannishness of the boomers in general and even more right about their refusal to retire. that is something I do share with them. Any retirement before necessity demands will require a diminished lifestyle, and mine is little enough as it is.
I say than knowing that the diminished lifestyle i would be going in to would be luxurious compared to the “retirement” of a few generations ago. I still wish to be able to afford a few of the luxuries of the modern age. Internet access, a not too out of date computer, and the ability to attend the occasional con and eat out from time to time.
So while i agree with most of your points, I also understand the unwillingness to get out of the way of the next generation. Besides, none of us want to retire and look forward to spending half our adult lifetime as a usless appendage.With todays life expectancies that is what you are facing if you retire at 65. living to nearly a hundred is common if you make it to 65, 20 to 65 is 45 years. 65 to 100 is 35 years. A long time to sit on the porch and regret a lack of honest work
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I don’t have anything against not retiring — it’s not in my plans. I have some thing about the short-term thinking of people who are running out the clock and planning to retire in the next ten years.
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My sisters. Currently aged 60 and 56. Their situations are going to be scary when they retire. One because of a huge mortgage _way_ underwater, the other because she’s depending on a public pension plan. In California. I worry about them. They’re all “Oh, once the economy recovers . . . “
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My parents live in a large house on 22 acres of undeveloped forest. For years I have been trying to get them to move into town before they retire and what did they do? They refinanced.
Recently, finally, they have decided to sell and use the equity to buy a house in town outright. What they get from my mom’s social security and my dad’s pension / 401k will handle their costs, but they never could have afforded that mortgage and all the physical upkeep that allows them to live in the country.
They’re Boomers, though not of the campus sort. Still…
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Which it will, if we don’t double down on stupid — but…
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Sorry forgot to check notifications
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I buy the majority of my books on Kindle now. Unless it’s a book I really really really want and have been waiting for, it saves space and is just much more convenient to get the e-book.
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I haven’t bought a hardback since the beginning of 2010 when I realized that the Kindle app worked on my smartphone. Since then, with the addition of a Kindle Fire, I’ve bought nearly everything in ebook format.
The authors that I’ve always followed, however, will still have their hardbacks bought…just through Amazon or some such at much reduced prices long after they have been released. I simply cannot allow my Stirling or Hamilton collections of hardback to go incomplete. That’s just silly.
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It was hard to convince me to get an e-reader (kindle) until my hubby said I had to great rid of my books because they were taking up too much space and if I kept buying books we would fall through our floor into the next apartment. So I bought an kindle (it’s old now) almost three years ago.
I have not been so happy. It is lighter than a normal book which is a help to me because I have lost a lot of muscle mass from the drugs. Plus they are cheaper. Plus I have found so many lovely authors that were not being published by the trads. I would not go back for any reason.
Also–Freedom to pick a story that hasn’t gone through the NY filter.
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I’ll need a water proof kindle, first. -.- I’m willing to risk a quick dunking with a book I spent four bucks on, but not an ebook reader!
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Umm – you live in the ocean? or you have kids… *can only think of those two explanations for a water-proof kindle (oh wait I used to read in the bathtub… another explanation) lol
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ziploc. It ain’t pretty, but it works.
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I use Stanza (and, to a lesser extent, iBooks and the Kindle app) on my iPod Touch with an otterback case. Still small enough to fit in a pocket, Turned sideways the screen is just a bit narrower than a standard MMPB so I find it relatively easy to read. And the otterback protects it against limited exposure to water (including immersion) although I wouldn’t want to take it SCUBA diving.
And being a convenient pocket size I can have it with me to read pretty much any time I have a minute or two (yes, even there, doing that).
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I can confirm that in a pinch, a large, heavy-duty Ziploc bag and a rubberband can achieve at least 90% of the utility of one of those thousand-dollar waterproof camera enclosures. I wouldn’t go diving with it, but I’ve taken pictures in heavy rain that turned out just fine and not a drop of water on the magic picture box.
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Kids, and hiding in a tub of warm water being one of my stress-releases.
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Agreed — Ziploc (or a generic thereof). Double-bag Ziploc for extra security if you have one of the button-to-turn Kindles instead of a touchscreen. (Touchscreen Kindle might still work through two bags, but I’m not sure. I know iPhone works through one; took it with me to the kid’s swim class… It didn’t fall in, but I didn’t want to Tempt Fate.)
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That’s why I don’t have a Kindle or Nook or other e-reader. I’d buy far too many books to remember what I had, where it was stored, and if I’d read it. :)
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On a bad day I read a half to one book a day. Every book I like I end up reading two-three times. The Lord of the Rings series I read four times completely through. On a good day ummm… I should be writing.
Even the books I don’t like I read once. So I have 300 books more or less and I have read each one of them at least once. I am still parched for reading.
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I am backreading Dean Wesley Smith’s blog and he pointed out something I hadn’t ever thought of before: anybody who can read fast enough to enjoy reading for fun can read WAY faster than an author can write. (Four to twelve times was the range he got.) So once there is demand for your writing there is literally INFINITE demand for it in that regard. Not for an infinite number of copies, but for an infinite number of works.
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I was a reader first and then a writer. I started reading for fun at six years old. ;-) And yes– I feel sad for the folks that never learn how fun it is to read.
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The iPad was my gateway device. I’d stopped buying new books because the house is full and I was actually getting some other stuff done. Then I bought th iPad, bought a few books from Apple, bought a few books from Baen, organized everything in Calibre, downloaded a few tools from the net, bought some books from B&N, bought some more books from Baen and now I have over 900 ebooks lying around. The other scary thing is I’ve actually read most of them. The garden is overrun with weeds, the finances are at least a year behind and the garage is full of junk but who cares? I have books to read.
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To paraphrase Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: Books will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of not books.
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But if you have money you can BUY books.
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Not in a time of no books. That’s the point.
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Consider that people (Boomers included) generally become invested in an interpretation of Reality. We are seeing one aspect of this in the Higher Ed Bubble: people who are bad at logic making the post hoc ergo procter hoc error of noticing that people with college educations tend to be more prosperous in life, therefore they try to eliminate barriers to getting a college degree, oblivious to the possibility that it is the very act of overcoming those barriers that results in the later life prosperity, and not the degree per se.
When publishers (or other industries) become invested in a particular business approach (and the more successful they are they more invested they become) they also become resistant to adaptation by changing their approach. Ironic, considering these are the people lecturing all of us slope-brows about evolution while they behave as if they can intelligently design.
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This is one of those times I really wish there was a LIKE button.
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This point is admirably made in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, when the Wizard awards the Lion, Scarecrow and Tim Woodsman not the attributes which they sought but, rather, emblems of those attributes.
Used to, a High School diploma certified achievement of a certain base level of knowledge and skills, serving as an entry to livelihoods not otherwise available; then they started giving out Certificates of Attendance while calling them Diplomas, devaluing the worth of actual Diplomas. Before long attainment of a college degree replaced the HS Diploma as an entry ticket; now we are seeing graduate degrees being necessary, all because they fail to recognise Gresham’s Law applies to more than currency. People are digging ever deeper holes of debt while building up the piles of BS (as well as BAs, MAs, MFAs and PhDs.)
Never encourage the pedantic.
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This is an excellent example of State regulated ‘capitalism’. To be licensed for many things these days; Surveyor, Electrician, etc. Regulations require a college degree, for a license that used to be available to those with a certian amount of on-the-job experience and the ability to pass a licensing exam. Surveying happens to be the one I am familiar with, having worked in the field for ten years, I can state definitly, positively, that those with ample field experience inlue (sp) of college classes all have much superior knowledge to those with a college degree and lesser field experience,(I have honestly seen at least 2 such college graduates with a 4 year degree that did NOT know how to operate a plumpbob or compass, much less the more sophisticated surveying equipment) but as 2012 in my state, if they have not applied and taken their licensing exam they are no longer eligible for it. Unless they want to go back to school for 4 years, very likely being taught by a Professor with less knowledge in the field than themselves.
But regardless of qualifications the State doesn’t get paid for on the job experience (other than state income tax) while they do if those same employees have to go to state run University.
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It used to be the conventional wisdom (and, for a change, usually correct), that a College education made you into a beginner who thought he knew it all and was almost impossible to train. I suspect the people who were treated badly in this situation are the ones who got the requirements in many fields changed.
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Yes, there are a couple of common terms for such people, the PC one is book-smart, leaving unsaid but understood that they are reality-stupid. I have also often heard them called ‘educated idiots’. I know of few things more frustrating than trying to teach someone a job, that they have a college degree stating they already know everything about.
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“You can always tell a Harvard man, but you can’t tell him very much” has apparently been broadened beyond the original school.
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That is where you are reduced to: you know theory, I know how we do it here.
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Dad said the way his firm handled the bright young things just out of college, who thought they knew it all and had nothing left to learn, was to just throw them some tough real problems. He said it was just amazing how quickly those kids thought that maybe the greyhairs might actually know something.
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I am often reminded lately of wisdom I learned years ago about business. The railroad tycoons, a wise man told me, failed because they misunderstood what business they were in. They were in the business of moving goods and people, but they thought that they were in the business of moving cars and engines on rails. They lost sight of the big picture.
Publishers should be in the business of selling stories and information; instead they think they are in the business of selling books. Governments, particularly those of the United States, should be in the business (as it were) of protecting the inalienable rights of their citizens; instead they are in a multitude of businesses, few of them relevant or legitimate and none of them done well. Ultimately all organizations will either adopt their appropriate scope or be supplanted. Here’s hoping for the former in all cases.
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Back in the 1970s (IIRC) the big trend in business was conglomerates, ever larger attempts to by businesses on the cheap and exploit synergies to reduce costs and increase profits. Some of the affiliated companies were ludicrously ill aligned, the only similarity being that both sub-entities were in business.
This would, in time, create quite a profitable niche for investors who understood “what business the business was in” to decouple mis-matched businesses and release profits trapped in the conglomerates’ amber.
Sometimes a business is not in the business it thinks it is in, such as the comic book companies who thought they were in the business of creating and selling 4-colour tales of adventure and excitement. Turns out they were in the business of creating characters for licensing and marketing by movie companies … who are apparently in the business of building markets for action figures and Halloween costumes.
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I took a publishing class in college summer school, around 1980, which had publishers and editors from New York come out to lecture, really interesting. What they told us then was that, while traditionally, publishing had been small, independent houses (often run by trust fund babies for the love of the business), in the 60s and 70s, the federal government authorized a lot of money for public libraries to buy books, which meant a whole lot of money was suddenly flowing into publishing, which gave them hefty profits. This made them attractive to large media conglomerates as investments, and that’s when you saw all the little companies being acquired. This also meant continued pressure to continue that level of profit by the new masters.
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I’ve gone on a couple of rants on the habit boomers have of being sure the world began and ends with them. (Sorry the format and the comments look horrible, I translated the blog over from google when they were randomly blocking a bunch of conservative folks’ blogs.)
Which is a long way of saying “I think you’re right.” I hadn’t thought of it in terms of running out the clock, but “get mine and screw the rest of you” fits quite fine.
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When I first got my Kindle, I had only worried I would buy too many books, now though as my illness has progressed, and I’ve tried to start reading dead tree format stuff again, I’ve found I can’t, not like I can on my kindle, it just hurts my hands too much to keep the book open, at least with my kindle I can lie it down on something, and tap one key.
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Do you have one of those tri-fold Kindle holders? The one I bought, purely on accident, wraps around it like a binder, but unfolds so that the Kindle ends up like a laptop monitor. You can lay down or recline with it on your chest, completely free-standing.
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I think you’re onto something. I’m reminded of the Keynesian economist who said, “in the long run we’re all dead.” The fellow who said it happened to be childless. Though I can see a half-dozen things that support your thesis, environmentalist fundamentalism would seem to undermine it. Moreover, current interest rates and monetary policies seem optimized to screwing over retirees–after the election.
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(The economist was John Maynard Keynes,)
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Suggested revision:
(The economist was John Maynard Keynes, deceased,)
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Suggested revision: The economist was John Maynard Keynes, deceased, but far too late.
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You are a bad man. (And we appreciate it.)
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Actually, Hayek said Keynes told him he was about to make a big announcement repudiating Keynsianism (since it was obviously not working), but he died six weeks later, so he really is deceased, but too soon.
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The most radical environmentalism involves everyone else being screwed over, and the next generation not existing….
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The problem isn’t insanity. The problem is that magical thinking is condoned and promoted by our culture and society. Magical thinking isn’t just for religion and the Tooth Fairy. It’s continually applied to many aspects of most adults’ lives. Hence the (mis)beliefs that carbon dioxide will destroy Earth, recycling will save the planet, antibiotics will cure a viral infection, lottery tickets are good investments, “natural” pills from GNC will cure serious illnesses, a no-substance Chicago pol spouting “hope and change” will be a great president, CBS and the NY Times present unbiased news, kowtowing to enemies will turn them into friends, doubling-down on a failed policy will work, talking louder will help a foreigner understand you, etc.
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To be honest my mom does speak loud to foreigners (my husband and kids) and it sure works. Mostly it works because she gestures too, and she is — Was it in the Emperor’s New Groove — “A little old lady, scary beyond all reason.” (And I say this with love and affection and not a little admiration, in case someone translates this for you, mom!) But yeah, for most other people the technique doesn’t work.
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Unless you are attempting to insult and denigrate them, then it works admirably well.
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Um… this is my mom…. however she wouldn’t do that to her grandsons who are OF COURSE perfect. So…
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“Talking loud to foreigners and using gestures” is an adaptation of “emphasizing certain syllables to babies and using gestures.” And yes, it’s been proved again and again that babytalking babies is a useful way to get them to pay attention to the important features of the language, and that you can’t stomp it out of adults caring for babies because it’s semi-instinctual. (Hence the sign-language “babytalk” used by native signers with their baby kids, drawing out important signs, etc.)
The problem is that adults talking to adult language learners aren’t always sure how to adapt babytalk, and the language learners aren’t always sure how to take it. On either side, there’s a lot more pride to get in the way. Also, a lot of babytalk doesn’t depend on the baby understanding a word right away, since you’ve got years of immersion ahead. With adult language learners, you kinda gotta give ’em something to understand, so there’s pressure. Mothers probably have an unfair advantage, however, since we’re programmed to pay attention to women’s voices, and since they may have a lot more experience with babytalk and with ordering people around. :)
And yes, it’s very hard to rationally stop yourself from raising the volume to increase understanding. Again, it’s pretty well programmed into us, so it’s more a human foible than a sign of someone being particularly ignorant. Sometimes it does help, actually, because the rise and fall of voices in a foreign language, and the system of pauses, often needs to be made very clear for language learners to be able to keep up and make words out.
So yeah, it’s maybe annoying if you’re the foreigner in question (especially if you think your accent has improved, but it really hasn’t), but it’s also a fairly normal, rational response by native speakers. I don’t know why it gets badmouthed so much.
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I don’t know why it gets badmouthed so much.
(Whiny voice) Because you’re treating them like baaaaaabies!
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I recommend taking it with a healthy dollop of Humour!. Humour! the wonder product that helps everthing go easier! Try Humour! today!
Seriously, as long as you’re going to look silly, look like you’re in on the gag.
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*priests grab each other in terror*
“Mrs. CAKE!”
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Well, DUH. Also “A model to aspire to.”
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And talking of “running out the clock”, here’s the PoV from the generation following the Boomers — the folks who knew they would never be in the majority, who would never get to run things they way they wanted to run them, and would be paying for the Boomers’ blundering:
All we have to do is Wait. Sit back, watch the inevitable crash — then sweep down on the burning wreck and shoot anyone who tries to escape.
“After the deluge — US!”
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Except we’ve been doing that all our lives, living in the wreckage.
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CF,
That is the beauty of the entire progressive/liberal political philosophy. Every time it has been tried in the past 200 years it has eventually collapsed. If you want an eye opener look up Ludwig Erhard of Germany. You will have to wade through a bunch of progressive/liberal obfuscation before you find the truth but . . . unbelieveably after WW2 Germany resumed the socialism of Hitler. From 1945 to sometime in 1948 (I believe) they went nowhere. Then Ludwig Erhard as chief assistant to the American high commander caught his boss with his head turned and issued directives that eliminated the grasp of socialism. Within a short while the long nightmare was over. By the early 60s when I was getting my first college economics course Germany appeared in the act of economically taking over the world. With-in a few years at the most the Germans decided they wanted to relax and enjoy a little socialism. That ended the threat of German domination.
The main point? It has happened many times. Just go back through American history since T. Roosevelts swearing-in in 1901 and notice the times we have had severe recessions and pulled out quickly without government intervention.
Also notice how often, it is invariable, that intervention has served only to lengthen the recession/depression.
Ron
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News from Sweden, found in this mornings paper: at least one library in Stockholm has removed the Tintin comics because they are racist. Mind you, not just the usual suspect, ‘Tintin in the Congo’, but all of them.
Keep fighting for your rights over there, at least you seem to manage some progress from time to time. Maybe your younger generations haven’t been totally brainwashed yet and you really do have hope.
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You guys have a different culture, though if I may say it, when Europe turns — and it will — it will be ugly. Europe is suffering of WWI and WWII didn’t help, but sooner or later they’ll catch on it’s existential and then… it will get very ugly.
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Well, at least when the demographics finish kicking in they’ll be used to censorship. It’ll just be a different sort, that’s all.
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This is terrible!
Thank goodness for the internet – they can censor all they want (and no one can censor like a librarian), but it just means people learn to go elsewhere.
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Until Achmydinnerjacket’s bosses turn off Google and YouTube, probably as a prelude to trying to block all ‘net access again.
“Can’t stop the signal!”
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Nothing stimulates interest in a subject so much as making it taboo. In olden times a glimpse of stocking was looked upon as something shocking, now Heaven knows …
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Stockings are just ankle burkas. Why do you want to oppress the lower extremities?
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Looks at Scott. Bucko, I ain’t ever seen no fishnet burka.
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As Marshall McLuhan said, fishnet stockings compel the gaze. Their incompleate latticework draws and holds the eye as it shapes and defines the leg, a swath of variable symmetry engaging man’s eye and woman’s legs in a dance of indescribable something or other.
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You completely lost me up until the genius of the last four words.
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Isn’t that just a fancy way to say they’re hot? ;)
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No, fishnets are not hot, unlike nylons which can be chaffingly sticky on a muggy southern summer day.
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and THIS is why I wore them.
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“Video or it didn’t happen.”
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I have pictures somewhere but I’m away from home. Actually until birth of #2 son my greatest clothing expense was what can be termed “fun stockings.” Nylons make me itch, so silk and lace ones were the norm.
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Suuuure. That’s the exact same excuse I give when people ask me to back up my fishnet claims. :)
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Scott, it is not the fishnet but the bustier claims that people want supported.
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Bustier claims are self-supporting.
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PICTURES!
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“I have pictures somewhere but I’m away from home.”
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I dunno. _My_ temperature sure goes up every time a good looking woman in fishnets comes near.
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Funny that the exact opposite happens if said woman’s chubby flesh is coming through the fishnet like the quilted lining of a heavy coat.
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Actually, when it comes to matching individual women with individual styles I am a believer in the adage, “A horse for every rider and a rider for every horse.
I remember the tent dress and my firm belief that it was the ugliest style ever known to man. Then one day I saw my friend Branca wearing one. She needed to take out a hunting license to protect men.
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Back in year 1-pre Robert, aka when I was skinny, I wore “dresses” that were just two very large squares of cloth folded “just so” — they looked like designer wear. Now… er….
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Yes, Sarah,
There were also the days in my teenage years, when I was very serious about amateur boxing, that my stomach was very flat and people on occasion described me a “gaunt.”
“Quote the Raven, ‘Nevermore.'”
I can remember having so much spring in my legs that if, in a melee, a guy swung at me, and I didn’t want to engage at that moment, I could be standing back another 3 feet before the punch got close to me.
“No mas, no mas.”
My feet are nailed to the floor, or so it seems.
Ron
GRIN
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YES, Exactly!!! McLuhan defined Hot and Cool media according to the degree to which they engaged the consumer, forcing them to complete the imagery presented by the artist. Fishnet stockings are Hot because the viewer’s eye is forced to fill in the gaps, to participate in defining the object of the gaze.
Utter tommyrot, of course.
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That is indeed some pretty impressive B.S.
(Now, see, this is why I could never make it in academia. I lack the proper B.S. skills.)
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You and me both.
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Academic B.S. is an art as well as a science. Although in some fields, all one needs to do is reach a certain critical mass of jargon and “bingo!” You have written a ground-breaking analysis of the reactionary semiotics used by subaltern populations to reclaim the linguisitic groundings of power. Or created a new frame for studying the history of the creation of whiteness within the debates over immigration to and within the so-called “Old West.” (The latter is a book that I skimmed part of yesterday. I recovered after a few hours, but I’m not sure I could have read the entire thing without making sounds that might upset the librarians.)
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Of course, it could be worse. It could be the US Tax Code.
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Fishnet burkas are worn by the wives of Unitarian Muslims.
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How do they get the fish smell out of them when they make them into burkas? I would think the smell would be well nigh intolerable in the hot sun.
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No, no. Fishnet breathes better than Egyptian cotton.
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Friend of mine worked in Afghanistan, there is a little panel of open weave in front, so the wearer has a bit of vision… Still, outside of the cold nights in the high desert, I don’t see the utility of carrying around your own personal one-woman tent on your head all the time.
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You’ve obviously never been in a cream pie fight before.
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Well, the Iranian gal who beat up the mullah probably relishes wearing hers for a few days, until things settle down and the vice cops stop looking for her.
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Did she hit him with a cream pie?
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Now you’ve given me the earworm of Eric Idle wanting to know about Point-ed Sticks.
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“You were gonna shoot me!”
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I was more tending to think of the Carol Burnett skit about the vampires (not an exact quote): “Hit him with this stick. If that doesn’t work, drive this Stake through his heart. And if all else fails, hit him with this cream pie.” A Stick, a Stake, and a Schtick.
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What I was actually thinking of when I made the original pie-centric comment was the commissary fight in Blazing Saddles.
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Release the tiger!
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With her feet.
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Foot pie? urrgh
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Hah! They took that back – Tintin can come back.
The Tintin comics have been insanely popular in all the Scandinavian countries, especially a bit earlier, our Boomers love them. According to the paper people got very noisy when they read about that decision to censor them. So one win here.
But one wonders how many less well known books and comics have already been censored.
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I have often wondered when the government do-gooders ordered the destruction of all children’s books published before lead free ink, and banned the trade in them, how many books were lost entirely. Moreover, I had a sense of distrust as to the true reason for the ban. This was not just books that small children might mouth. It was all children’s books of a certain vintage. As they are not so recent, these books might promote scary things like the Puritan work ethic, contributing to the household and patriotism. Why they might even portray children hunting with guns!
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yep. About half the kids’ high school library fell victim. The books were replaced with graphic novels! (I’m not actually joking.)
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The term ‘graphic novel’ as metamorphasized since I was in school. What was termed a ‘graphic novel’ then wouldn’t have had pictures, although we were far enough along into praying at the altar of liberal progressivism that they were acceptable in the school library; while anything hinting that Christianity wasn’t synonymous with Evil was not acceptable.
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This is the first I’ve heard of this! When did this happen? I love old children’s books, and fortunately my parents and grandparents bought plenty of them. (Unfortunately, a lot of the family copies for younger readers were passed to an uncle when his kids were old enough and we never got them back (and I bet his kids never read them)).
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Three? Four? years ago? Our favorite thrift stores ALSO destroyed the “lead containing” books.
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What’s the date cut-off? *still flabbergasted by this*
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I don’t remember. I think anything since before lead was banned in paint.
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Google revealed:
It wasn’t just books.Lead testing (expensive) became required for ANY product meant for Children. Books printed after 1985 were exempted, as it was decided that all books printed after then had lead-free ink. See this article
Many second-hand stores of various types threw out huge stockpiles of clothes, toys, and books, and many small children’s products makers closed up shop.
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Heck, my favorite second-hand-store went out of business because of that BS.
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In sympathy to the boomers (I’m one, born Xmas 1953) remember that many of them have lost their jobs, lost their homes, seen their savings vanish, pensions cease to exist, and face an uncertain job market in their late 50s and 60s. There’s not enough time left in their careers to recover to a normal retirement in that scenario. (One of the appeals of becoming a writer.)
The ones that are left are clinging like grim death to their jobs because the alternative is far, far worse. Sure there are well-off boomers, but it’s like the fabled 1% — many fewer than folks are willing to admit.
Indeed, quite a few are childless. Think what a lovely old age they have to look forward to: lonely and broke. They’re not all all on the political side that created the most recent messes.
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I won’t say they are… and I understand not retiring. My issue was with their keeping people like me out of the arts and other fields — not by squatting but by deliberately keeping US out. When they started hiring it was people my kids’ age. My generation wasn’t mature enough but the echo boom was. think on that.
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It helps in understanding their motives to keep all that in mind, but it actually makes them less sympathetic, because almost all of that is their fault in the first place.
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Insane doesn’t begin to convey how off the rocker most of them are. That is really an insult to the insane.
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I never wondered if publisher were insane. That was a given. I realized they were bat drop crazy when they tried to get people to buy an ebook for almost $30 when the hardcover was out of print when I bought the paperback about 10 years ago. There isn’t any amount of math in the universe that can make that add up. Insane doesn’t begin to convey how off the rocker most of them are. That is really an insult to the insane.
(Sorry for the double post, but WordPress messed it up the first time.)
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This assumes that their pricing was to sell the ebook rather than discourage that mode of book purchasing. [Insert finger-in-dyke/King-Canute metaphor.]
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Doesn’t the dyke object when you poke her?
/runs away/
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Object to poker? Only if you don’t have the winning hand. *ducks and runs*
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Speaking of Boomers:
“We— by whom I mean anyone over sixty— commit two offenses just by existing. One is Lack of Velocity. We drive too slowly, walk too slowly, talk too slowly. The world will do business with dictators, perverts, and drug barons of all stripes, but being slowed down it cannot abide. Our second offence is being Everyman’s memento mori. The world can only get comfy in shiny-eyed denial if we are out of sight.”
Mitchell, David (2008-11-13). Cloud Atlas: A Novel (pp. 360-361). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
(yes…I left the Kindle footer in place on purpose)
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Yes, once these discussions get down into the deepest levels of nesting they can become rather difficult to follow.
I had noted Sarah’s observation
and posed the question of how that is functionally different from those same Muslims occupying a conquered country. They live according to their own rules, largely ignoring the government of the nation in which they live, they exact tribute in the form of various welfare payments, and in general enjoy the benefits of conquering a nation without the inconveniences of waging war or administering a conquered state.
I am not arguing they have won a war against the West, anymore than the Saxons won a war against Arthur’s Britons. I am merely wondering whether the West is not in the process of losing a war for lack of fighting. There was a reason Pharaoh grew concerned about the Jews following Joseph into Egypt.
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I certainly hope we don’t continue down this path.
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