Keep Calm and Carry On

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

My son says  that we’re being told pretty much everywhere, from all sides of the political spectrum and from people who aren’t political at all “keep calm and carry on.”  The fact that we have the lowest workforce participation since 1978?  Keep calm and carry on.  The fact kids – and adults – are having trouble finding work?  Keep calm and carry on.  The fact that families are having trouble making ends meet?  Keep calm and carry on.  Europe imploding?  Keep calm and carry on.  The Norks rattling sabers?  Keep calm and carry on. The tech change reshaping so many of our fields so that somehow we’re all a lot more busy and barely making it – or have found ourselves having to retool entirely, or both?  Keep calm and carry on.

He told me in some exasperation that what no one ever tells you is HOW to keep calm and carry on.  And he asked me to explain.

The irony of this will be understood by anyone who knows me.  I have two modes: running around with my head on fire and THINKING I’m calm.  Thinking I’m calm is the dangerous one.  It’s usually when the stress has got so huge I decide to cope with it the same way I cope with other things I can do nothing about – like pain.  I pretend it’s not there.  And I’m so good at that, that I ACT calm and might not know I’m going bananas.  But my skin breaks out in eczema, my sleep pattern goes to heck, and my hair falls off.

HOWEVER publishing has been in turmoil since I came in, and G-d knows in terms of society, politics and government chaos has been normal for most of my life except maybe the years between 85 and 9/11.  So while I might not be GOOD at dealing with stress, chaos and implosion, I have a lot of experience and if you look at the fact I’ve neither dropped dead nor made anyone else drop dead, (yet) I must have developed some good strategies (amid all the bad ones.  Shud up.  Don’t mess with the excitable Latina, okay?)  I mean, it’s sort of like you might start out by being a LOUSY soccer player, but if you keep kicking that ball and not being thrown off the game altogether, you must at least have learned what to hit the ball with.

This, plus the fact that I’m naturally a depressive (not clinical.  The only times I came close to clinical depression was when I was either SEVERELY off kilter hormonally – the joys of womanhood – or physically ill and sleep deprived) in tendency and habit and that one of the things I HATE is insecurity means I’ve had to discover ways to cope, or I’d never get anything done.

So… Keep Calm and Carry On – suggestions –

1 – Stop thinking about it!

I don’t need to tell anyone that politics can terrify me.  In the back of my mind I start hearing the theme of Green Acres that went on the air whenever the Portuguese capital had been taken over by troops (which side?  You won’t know till they have full control or are defeated) and therefore the sub-station in Porto had to throw its one reel on the air.  (Yep, Green Acres.)

How do I cope?  I don’t hit political sites for a day or two.  Some days I put off reading instapundit till I’m done with my work.

The same goes for “what if my book doesn’t do well, and I tank big time?  What if something happens to my publisher?  What if—”

Can you solve anything by worrying?  No?  Then stop.  Just stop.  When the thoughts come around, turn them to something else, pick up a book, grab the phone and call a friend.  If it’s in the middle of the night, consider reading a book or getting up and having a cup of mint (or whatever) tea.

Yes, you have to think of your situation in order to solve it.  But obsessing about your own powerlessness will help nothing.

2- Strategize!

When you have time, not when you’re just thinking “oh, no, oh, ho, oh, no, bad stuff, bad stuff”, sit down and write a list of things you can do to deal with whatever is worrying you.  For political stuff it might very well be “get more involved with poll watching” or whatever.  “Write investigative article” – whatever you CAN do.  For your career it can be “learn new computer language” or “start working on indie venture” or “Start reviewing calculus, so I can go for my doctor” or “if my job goes away, is there some way I can turn this into an opportunity by finally learning to/starting a business…  building customized computers/making creative clothing/creating and selling music on the net…. Whatever.”  I.e. think of ways to turn a bad situation into “what I always wanted to do.”

Now, if these things were easy you’d already be doing them, so the ideas you come up with might be utterly absurd, but write them down anyway.  Don’t let your inner critic shoot them down.  At another time, when you’ve cooled off, shoot down and organize them from simpler to harder.  I mean, sure, you want to start that multinational publishing company, but you can’t do that when you’re in debt and might lose the house any minute.  BUT you can probably start putting stuff on the net, and working to figure out the field and to make money at the same time.

What you CAN in fact do might be very small, but TRUST it.  Go with it.  What I’ve found is that any movement in the direction you want to go is liable to create others.  You’ll meet other people with the same interests; you’ll be at events where you’ll figure out how to take the next step.  A lot in life is showing up.  Show up, even if you’re the short kid in glasses in the back.  A team desperately short on players JUST might pick you.

More importantly, from the psychological point of view doing SOMETHING is better than doing nothing.  When you wake up with your mind going like crazy in the middle of the night, you can tell it “shut up.  I’m doing all I can.”

3 – Work.

When I last posted this type of thing, Ori said in comments, effectively “if you can’t find work for pay, work for free.”

I am, of course, philosophically opposed to working for free, but, oh, shucks, yes.  And I’ve done it too.  If you can, work for free in a field related to the one where you want to work for money.  My apprenticeship writing Austen fandom (after I’d sold short stories, but when no one would buy my novels and then later, when no publisher but finally Baen would touch me) kept me from going stir crazy, helped me build techniques (commenters or lack thereof are a good indication of what you’re doing right or wrong.) kept me connected to a community, built my fandom and – unexpectedly – gave me something – A Touch of Night – to sell when conditions changed.

But even if what you find to do is in an area you aren’t trying to break into, do it.  Do something you think helps the situation or helps someone.  It will tire you out enough you’re more likely to sleep at night; it will give you the impression that you’re doing SOMETHING no matter how small, and it will give structure to your life.  Structure is important.  I know this as a freelancer.  It’s all too easy to let your life trickle away doing nothing when you don’t have any boundaries and any schedule.

4 – Connect.

I’m by nature an introvert.  I’m also averse to authority and I think “group work” is how demons spell “hades.” I think my first grade was “doesn’t play well with others” shortly before they kicked me out of kindergarten.  Add to this that my immune system appears to be made of Kleenex…

Am I really advising anyone – ANYONE – to be more socially active?

Yes.  I actually am.  No matter how bad you are at it, or how dysfunctional, you are a member of a social species.  There is a type of closed-in place you – or any of us monkeys – go when you’re too isolated.  It magnifies despair and increases anxiety.

My social life is mostly online, though – after ten years – I’m rebuilding a social life with people whose company I can tolerate with equanimity.  (It is perhaps telling I first met most of these people online.)

However one thing that Heinlein said in the letter to Sturgeon was absolutely true.  Writers need to cross-pollinate.    If I’m too isolated I can run down and become unable to write.

I suspect it’s the same for everyone else, creative or not, social or not.

So, bug a buddy on line.  Have an inconsequential poke-war on Facebook.  And if you can, if you can stand it, get involved in something that interests you and that has other humans – online or in person.  Limit it to what you can tolerate, and don’t drive yourself nuts, but do try to remember there’s  a world and other minds outside your head now and then.

5 – Get Perspective!

Get perspective on the scope of your troubles, the trouble in the world, how messed up you/your life/this time is.

For the religious, this will almost always include prayer and the sense of touching the eternal.  For the non religious, it can mean anything, including a walk by the sea (it’s really big.  Has been there before you, will be there after you) or reading a history book, or even a paleontology book.  (There is a reason, though, yes, I am religious, that I read books about dinosaurs when I’m flipping out.  So far so good – no asteroid.)

6- Help someone else.

This might be a little depressing, but his (which often combines with 3 and 4) is a good way to forget your own troubles  is to help someone with worse troubles.  Sort of puts yours in perspective, and helps you feel useful.

7 – Take a vacation.

Yes, I know, and I do know what the money is like here too.  Besides, my idea of a vacation is to hole up in a hotel room and write a novel in a week…  which isn’t possible right now, no.

BUT there are “vacations” that take remarkably little money.  Don’t think of it as going to another country or even another city, or staying somewhere exciting or…  I know, what type of cr*ppy vacation is that?

One that helps you stay sane.  One thing Dan and I were discussing was memberships to the zoo and a couple of museums.  Why?  Because it allows you to take a mini-vacation at a very low cost, throughout the year.  Played out for the day?  Head feel like mush?  Can’t work?  Can’t think?  Grab a kid/friend… well, probably not pet, and head to the zoo or the local numismatics museum .  Or watch a silly movie.  Or go mini golfing at one of the cheap places with fiberglass animals.  Or do all of those over three or so days.

To me, to be effective, a mini-vacation does the following: takes you out of your routine; lets you do something you enjoy; allows your mind to stop spinning over itself.  It can be as simple as curling up in bed for two hours with cats and a book or as complex as taking  two weeks off in a hotel – or at home with all the meals cooked and frozen in advance – and doing a bunch of things as a famiy… or anything in between (I dream of that two weeks in a hotel thing.  Or even at home.  Our last staycation was three days.  We can’t make all the schedules mesh longer than that.)  It doesn’t matter, provided it works for you.  (And if you can fly to Italy for five days, more power to you, and don’t feel guilty.  I wish I could and maybe some day I’ll be able to.)  The idea is to “unclench” and stop worrying/thinking/working.

An effective vacation allows you to come back ready to:

Carry on – and stay calm.  If you ruin yourself and your health and your mental balance, what will happen if the worst comes to pass?  You’ll be in no shape to fight for yourself or others.  And if the worst doesn’t happen?  Won’t you feel pretty silly having ruined yourself for nothing?

Keep calm and carry on.

I have an entirely different post over at Mad Genius Club.

UPDATE: If you click on the book links as your gateway to Amazon, I get money for the referral (thanks to a friend in another state who volunteered to be an Amazon associate for me.)  Even if you’ve already bought the books, if you click through there, then search whatever you want, I’ll get the credit for your other purchases ;)

 

359 thoughts on “Keep Calm and Carry On”

  1. Wow! An early bird today, Sarah.
    Many years ago I read a Peanuts comic, where Snoopy gave the sage advice to a bunch of campers:
    “When in danger or in doubt,
    run in circles, scream and shout.”
    If it’s good enough for Snoopy ….
    For myself, I’ve always resented people who counselled calm in the midst of chaos. It always made me think that they either had NO CLUE as to the seriousness of the situation, or that they were secretly gloating at others misfortune.

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    1. The panic reaction makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. When you’re neck-deep in a situation doing something can’t make things any worse, and might make things better.

      Better still is to analyze the problem and develop a logical solution, but that’s a skill set in short supply these days.

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      1. “If you can keep your head when all about you…” are not, then you can steal all the other people’s heads while they’re rolling around on the ground. And then you’ll have a really nice head collection to sell on E-Bay, or to display to all your envious samurai and Celtic warrior friends.

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        2. Speaking of taking heads, I have a t-shirt that shows Barney Rubble cutting off the head of the Barney dinosaur with the caption:

          “There Can Be Only One!”

          It made a kid cry in an airport once.

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          1. Please tell me where I can get that T-Shirt.

            I loathe that purple pile of brain cocaine with every fiber of my being.

            My all-time favorite hack of the old DOOM video game was one that would turn the final boss into Barney. Carving him up with a chainsaw was wonderfully therapeutic.

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    2. “When in danger or in doubt,
      run in circles, scream and shout.”

      A favorite family quote– along with the poem about trains and see who catches hell, and Kipling’s “If,” and probably a dozen others.
      It seems our response to panic is to quote poetry and make jokes. Preferably both.

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    2. When he’s golfing, he’s not doing anything else.

      Cheaper vacations might be nice. But then, if he spent his entire presidency on vacation, he might have been cheaper in the long run.

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      1. PJ O’Rourke on people b*tching about Carter taking vacations “Are you kidding? I give thanks the sob sleeps eight hours a day. It’s time he’s not screwing up the country.”

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        2. Less time, less damage? So, as some have already suggested, do we need to take the air conditioning out of the Capitol building and the attendant offices, under the theory that Congress will, once again, be driven out of the city every summer by the Washington, D.C. heat and humidity?

          Think of the energy savings! It would be greener! Weather is natural!

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            1. Exactly, we are counting upon this. That and the fact that few people want to work a full shift in a sauna. So they will have to take a summer break and go home.

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  3. On the ‘Connect’ thing…

    May have mentioned this before..

    I can go out there and go to cons (and trade show s and stuff) and be a ham and joking and talking to people and stuff, but after awhile i get irritable (i can hide that too) and need to get away from that mess. When i get back to my hotel room (or get home) I always feel emotionally drained because I feel like I’ve been faking it too long. (note: the two trade shows I did back to back, a week and a half ago, was the very definition of faking it too long, especially after dealing with SF BS for a week.)

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    1. Same here. I’ve learned it helps to have a room in the same hotel so I can take “rest periods” — but it helps since I’m not in the political closet. Most of the time I still don’t talk about it, because EVERYONE KNOWS libertarians (even small l) eat babies, and I don’t have time to give poli sci lectures, but at least I don’t feel I have to pretend to approve of or believe in Marxism.

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      1. They do? Now I don’t adore babies or anything, but eating them… njah, best just to keep them at a safe distance. Other side of the room. Next room. Another building. Perhaps I should make a big point about having at the very least a very strong libertarian bent?

        Okay, that might work only over there. The labels have a bit different associations here. Besides, since I don’t like to argue my normal strategy is to smile and fade into the background, and then sneak away, if the company or what they are talking about becomes intolerable. That can happen with people I agree with and like, too.

        One way to keep up some human contact, not direct contact but still sort of, for me is people watching. Go someplace busy, buy a coffee or something else cheap, possibly have a book or something else which makes you look a bit less creepy, and sit and observe. There is one big mall within walking distance (good exercise walking distance, about 3 km), so I often use that. Even if the damn place has no actually cheap coffee anywhere, and most what the shops there offer is not worth the price they are asking. Gr. The open air market in the middle of the city is a good one (and has cheap coffee), but with the local climate the times one cares to use that are rather limited, so I’m often stuck with the mall, or sometimes with the Ikea I live right next to (very cheap coffee, always lots of people, and don’t even need the book, just try to look exhausted from shopping).

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        1. I don’t eat babies or small children either.

          There are times when I can only keep from making a scene in public by retreating into myself and letting this song runs through my mind, reminding myself that the party(ies) by which I find offensive is/are/would be thinking likewise about me.

          My head can’t tolerate this bobbing and pretending
          Listen to some bullet-head and the madness that he’s saying

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            1. Oh, they’re okay roasted, if you stuff them with a melange of kittens and puppies, but I find them rather bland. If you want tender eating with a nice flavor, try toddler tartar.

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                1. That’s why you use the brandy marinade before adding the spices and egg. I admit I’d prefer toddler tart, but I have to watch the carbs.

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    2. When The Daughter and I go to con(s) we designate our room as a retreat zone. We both enjoy the chance we get to socialize at con; many of these people we only get to see at con. Still, enough, even of a good thing, is enough.

      (And yeah, there are also the people we see at con that convince us that we really want to be living on a piece of property which can post around the margins: if I can hear you I can shoot you.)

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        1. er… I started being stalked before I had any fame. Sometimes I daydream of having started the career in my twenties, when I was young and pretty. Then I realize that — argh — that would just have got me crazystalkers. Totally with you on “If I can see you, I can shoot you.”

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    4. As a note, by ‘SF BS’, i meant ‘San Francisco BS’. I couldn’t use my tripod at GDC because convention center rules said in order to have a free-standing camera, I had to hire a union camera operator from Local xx (don’t remember which) and pay them a full day even if the shoot was only an hour and even if it was my own gear. Definitely set the tone for the entire attitude of the city.

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      1. I have heard that if you have a booth in a cons in New York City you have to hire a union electrician to plug and unplug your equipment for you.

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        1. Chicago is definitely that way…. although they don’t mind if you do the work yourself as long as you pay them what they estimate the job would have cost. They get the cash and you get the time savings: Win-win!

          Extortion: it’s the union way.

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  4. It depends on where you are. My family seems to expect the end of the world. I’ll point out that it might be true for Portugal but that Portugal has lived in the end of the world for centuries. (Yes, my native land is a madhouse with borders. Any other questions?) OTOH my family also says “it’s not what the newspapers say” and their fears are slightly different — which is why I’ve been refusing to write on it until/unless I go there. I simply don’t know.
    I think I’m older than you and I was European then and listened to the talks leading up to the union. (Advantages of multilingual interpreters) Son, (do you hear that with appropriate voice?) it was breaking up before it joined together and I have been telling everyone that for thirty years. There are so many issues with monetary policy alone, that the Mediterranean countries have to drop or die. OTOH I don’t expect European war. That necessitates a burgeoning and young population, always, in Europe and elsewhere.
    And I don’t expect the sort of apocalypse that makes the place unlivable in most of Europe.

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    1. What you have to understand is that Portugal has been bankrupt since its inception — I was telling older son this, and his eyes kept getting huge. And they never paid debt even when the discoveries rolled money in.
      What I mean is some things are baked in the culture (and I could probably explain why but it would take a whole article.) Like Italy no one will starve (PROBABLY) because they’re used to dealing under the table. But I don’t think joining countries with that different a culture is viable long term. (I also think the tech is taking us to more local not taking control away from local, so I think the whole project is fifty years late.) I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. Some form of free passport system, etc might (?) make sense (mostly it means every cashier in Portugal are poor Russians) but financial union is a recipe for disaster. And btw in Portugal I simply don’t see how people LIVE (other than black market.) Supermarket prices are higher than here, and salaries are ridiculously low. (Even after our inflation and all, yep.)

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      1. Every family has a natural wheedler.

        These people are often derided, but are actually worth their weight in gold when it’s the lady down the street you’ve never heard of but your X traded something for Y that got her a Z and they all know her 2nd Cousin living in A2….

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      2. Italians will survive. When Italians captured in the battle of Stalingrad were sent to the Soviet POW starvation camps (5k Germans survived out of 100k) after the first three or four starved to death or died of wounds or disease, the rest would take the bodies outside into the freezing wind and set them in casual poses in chairs till they froze that way. Then, whenever they knew they were to be inspected and counted, the corpses were brought in and set behind the rest in the areas of poor light. The dead got counted as alive, and the living got the extra rations of the dead.

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  5. Another variation is to do something practical … not talking about professional stuff … say, finally get around to fixing that drippy faucet or building those shelves in the garage that you’ve been talking about for so long … that can give a shot of satisfaction no matter what else might be running through your mind … on, and DON’T listen to talk radio while you’re working in the garage … heh

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  6. I don’t doubt that people in Europe looking at the United States in the 1960 and 70s might have seen the race riots, the student protests, etc., and wondered if we had gone into meltdown. That is the funny thing about the news. The hundreds of campuses, unlike Colombia, where the student union was not taken over by the students don’t make the headlines. The inner city neighborhoods that did not burn, as had Watts, were not featured. So, I understand that we here in the States might not have a clear picture of what is happening in Europe.

    What we see in the news has been Greece and Cyprus. We have seen people riot in Greece, because they refuse to accept that their present system cannot go on as it has been. Knowing geography I can see that Greece is but a small portion of Europe. Knowing a bit about history and banks I think twice. (The financial reports on a number of other countries are troublesome as well.) You suggest Germany won’t let a collapse happen. The question is if Germany will, ultimately, have a choice.

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        1. Argh! Parts of this thread are threading properly, so silly me, I thought it was fixed. This:
          “Yes, but has anyone seen them hit what they were aiming at?”
          Is in response to Bob’s comment:
          “everyone watches MSNBC. Shoot.”

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          1. Shoot.

            From 1776, Scene 6:

            John: Jefferson! We’re back and we’ve got Maryland — that is, we will, as soon as Chase gets through telling the Mary-land what we saw in New Brunswick!

            Franklin: He’s in Annapolis right now, describing a ragtag collection of provincial militiamen who couldn’t train together, drill together, or march together — but when a flock of ducks flew by and they saw their first dinner in three full days, sweet Jesus! Could they shoot together! It was a slaughter!

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    2. One of the things you may miss regarding the gun issue in America, even doing that, is that there is a substantial amount of oral tradition that is a part of the decisions, and mostly off the record.

      For example, when prior abuses of gun control are mentioned, it is more popular to go on the record mentioning the NASDP’s gun control, gun confiscation, and resulting murder of minorities. I’ve heard that the language of modern Democrat gun control, and Nazi gun control both strongly resemble the gun control laws of the Democrats following the end of Reconstruction. It is likely that both were copied from the latter. Following the end of Reconstruction, Democrats implemented gun control laws that served as both an excuse and a tool for the murder of freed slaves.

      (More fully, the former slaves were significantly aligned with the Republicans. Murdering and terrorizing them, and other Republicans such as ‘Scalawags’ and ‘Carpet-Baggers’ bought the Democrats control of the South for, sixty to eighty, maybe ninety, years or so.)

      The American Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, are the basis for some of the conviction that private ownership of firearms is necessary. However, if a Republican politician mentions this openly and on the record, it antagonizes the Democrats for little real gain. Likewise, Democrats are unlikely to mention things that would interfere with current projects. Nazis are widely enough hated in American culture that they are safe to mention. Still, Republicans in the south may remember that part of what made it easier to live as a Republican in the south without being murdered is the end of gun control.

      Anyway, this means that if one looks at Europe from an American cultural perspective, European gun control can look like evidence that Europe is currently largely white supremacist and in favor of the murder of minorities. (Partly, this is treating the modern broader criteria for white supremacism as valid.)

      Regarding American Foreign Policy: In fairness to European media, if one looks at the original design intent for the United States of America, one of its core interests is being able to tell the rest of the world what it can do with itself. (I am bowdlerizing here an American idiom for ‘Go away and leave me alone’.) This can be seen in the office of the President, which sacrifices the ability to have sensible and stable long term foreign policy for a domestic advantage. (Americans fear the federal government, perhaps more than they fear any foreign power, and forcing rotation of Commanders-In-Chief hampers their ability to consolidate enough of the military behind them to cause problems.)

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      1. In point of fact, the USA has had sensible and stable foreign policies for quite long terms – multiple decades, in fact – despite the rotation of Presidents and Congresses. We don’t have one right now for the same reason we didn’t between the World Wars; the state system is changing rapidly because the gap between what people expect from governments and what governments can deliver is too wide to bridge.

        You may want to read Walter Russell Mead’s Special Providence to get an idea of the long-term continuities of American foreign policy.

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        1. Post Civil War, those periods look to me like situations where the Democrats mostly had no chance of winning the presidential election. Democrat Presidents have a correlation with people like Wilson, Kennedy, and Carter, who I think were fundamentally dubious, and out of line with the presidents before and after.

          On the other hand, for some time the white supremacist faction of the Democratic Party held a reliable portion of the house. Their main interest was in restraining federal power. They were a stable voting block, and didn’t have any axes to grind when it came to foreign policy. Once they got Posse Comitatus passed, a Republican President could not legally use the army to stop them from continuing to steal elections using power at the local and state level. It made sense for those Democrats to trade restraint in internal adventures on the President’s part for a free hand with foreign adventures.

          Looking forward, at best, I don’t think we can ever have more than four years of true certainty when it comes to foreign policy.

          I also think that the situation with the elections is in flux enough that it is currently hard to pin down where the factions fall out.

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          1. Eh. The Cold War Democratic Presidents didn’t really change our foreign policy; bad eggs like Carter or Johnson were just incompetent at carrying it out. Wilson, I grant you, went out on foreign adventures much more freely than his predecessors or successors; but Wilson was President when World War I started, and that’s the start of the last period of rapid flux in the state system, when nobody had a clue what would happen next.

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            1. I think there is a case that Kennedy also belongs on the incompetent execution list, at the least. I think he was to some degree taking the nation joyriding.

              Kennedy’s habits ordering assassinations, compared to Eisenhower, may be a fairly good example of what I was thinking. Or maybe I was originally sloppy in my word choice, and you correctly called me on it. I’m not sure what would be better to call it.

              Up through Johnson, and maybe Carter, the White Supremacist faction probably had enough of a power base to vet leading lights of the Democratic Party for problematic convictions concerning human rights, and to a lesser degree, foreign policy issues.

              I think I’m going to call Carter’s giving up of stuff in Panama, a policy difference rather than incompetent execution.

              Post Civil War Democrat Presidents that I have no problems with are Cleveland and Truman. Truman gets enormous credit with me for the bomb, and other things. If I know enough about Cleveland to have an issue with him, beyond the likely White Supremacism internal terrorism thing, I’ve forgotten. The latter is far from being a clear foreign policy issue.

              Clinton I’ll grant has the excuse of the ‘peace dividend’, however thin.

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                1. Actually, I’ve been mulling over the argument that they are still white supremacists. This goes somewhat beyond my statements in politics on the bar, that I am unconvinced that the Democrat Party has truly changed its nature from the Jim Crow era.

                  More tomorrow.

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                  1. Interesting– because do you see how the leadership says what they have to say to get the votes and then pats them on the head– there, there, and nothing gets done. Oh wow– the other party does it to their membership as well–

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                2. Rob Crawford,

                  You may have heard recent speculation about economic refugees from Blue states coming to Red states and bringing their Blue state political habits with them?

                  I’d note that with identity politics, the notion of authentic identity can merely be a measure of compliance with the inherited social and political culture of the group.

                  The white supremacist political culture in ‘Jim Crow’ areas was ended partly by the actions of WWII veterans returning. I think some of the motivation was revulsion and fear at seeing in the Nazis a mirror image of what was happening at home, and had been happening for generations.

                  However, there were refugees from the South before and during this process. They may have internalized the system to the extent that it flavored any political system that they had a hand in building.

                  But, one says, what about certain readily apparent, but perhaps cosmetic differences?

                  Well, during the nineteenth century, there was some debate over the best course of educational pursuits for former slaves. One school of thought, as I recall, focused on educating a small number of elites, as doctors, lawyers and the like. Viewed harshly, this can be considered merely a proposal to replace ‘masters’ with one skin color with those of another.

                  So, perhaps such a thing could have occurred.

                  But, one says, what about the fact that for many regular ethnic factions, leaders in the group can be trusted to screw over the group less than outside leadership would?

                  Well, it isn’t clear that said group is necessarily tied together so strongly. It is not clear that it counts as an ethnic group in the same way that, say maybe, they Kurds living in the Mid-East do.

                  I personally have no use for the idea of having kinship or common interests with others because of a shared ethnic background or color of skin. I can imagine others sharing that impression, especially if, by blood, they are tied mainly to wealth, especially wealth gained from nominal leadership, and they have few, if any, family ties to the poorer and less successful people in the group. We are, after all, assuming an American cultural context, where blood is sometimes nothing, and rarely everything.

                  Consider gun control, and all of those murdered regularly in places like Chicago.

                  Consider the Crips, the Bloods, and their ilk, and the possibility that, with the Criminal Rights portfolio of the Democratic Party, they may be a viable substitute for the Ku Klux Klan, and other obsolete military branches of the Democratic Party. Or consider the Black Panthers.

                  Consider the graft, the fraud, the corruption, the cronyism, the group dynamics, and the replacement of Sherman and ‘Tyrant Lincoln’ with ‘White Supremacists’.

                  Now, perhaps it is a matter of form following function, and American culture influenced areas where one party has a monopoly on government end up looking the same.

                  There is a final argument, weaker than all the rest, I think.

                  Consider Critical Race Theory. This states that certain populations are largely under the control and influence of white supremacists. Supposing that this is true, consider Occam’s Razor. It seems it would be simpler, and require less effort, conspiracy, manipulative power, and special pleading, if said white supremacists were directly and only in a position of control over the population in question. In short, if that branch of the Democratic Party were itself white supremacist. This happens to fit with some of the related notions, such a code word white supremacism, unknowing white supremacism, and so forth.

                  Gun control very similar to current efforts was created after the civil war for white supremacist purposes, to help murder and terrorize former slaves. Obama, Farrakhan, and Sharpton are involved in promoting current efforts at gun control.

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            2. Wait, I definitely has issues of wording upthread.

              I’m currently debating myself over whether I should said “sacrifices some of the ability” instead.

              On the one hand, as you say, there is a bunch of stuff we’ve managed to not reverse ourselves on. We haven’t declared war on the UK lately. Of the stresses we’ve had since WWII, we’ve been consistent in none of them being worth nuking someone over. The long peace with Canada. Freedom of Trade, security of the high seas, and so forth.

              On the other hand, I think the trade-offs compared to other systems might be significant enough to merit wording that suggests the whole degree of lost.

              One, a four year term is short enough, compared to some kings and dictators, that there might not be so much time for a foreign power to work with a president, after they’ve taken the full measure of them.

              Compared to a system where the executive comes from and continues to be empowered by a faction in the legislature, the office of president seems to have increased novelty, independence, and potential for obscurity. If, say, governor to president is more of a change than minister to prime minister, there may more chance of the position influencing severe behavioral changes. The president has a set term, unlike a prime minister. He can neither make the legislature happy enough to keep him in office longer, nor really sad enough to significantly shorten it. The legislature does not necessarily have a handle on the executive. Also, since the president does not have as strong a requirement for paying one’s dues as does a prime minister, it seems it is easier to get a weirdo from out of nowhere in the position.

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            3. When Wilson first ran for President he campaigned as a supporter of limited government. Once he was elected, Wilson became a Progressive’s progressive. With the Democratic legislature, he centralized power in a Washington bureaucracy. Ultimately, the ‘New Freedom’ he campaigned on in his first run for office did not allow any room for those who disagreed with him. (He ran for reelection with a promise of keeping us out of the war.)

              Wilson probably though of himself a supporter of limited government. He was a Dixiecrat before they became known as such, believing in the glory of the old south. A sometime member of the Klu Klux Klan, which, in his history of the United States, he treated in a positive light. He ordered the re-segregated Washington, D.C., for health reasons. (He suggested that blacks should be thankful to him as they would no longer be in a position to be forced out of their jobs by more energetic whites.)

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                1. I took history (in college) with German professors. Their view of Pres. Wilson was really interesting (they considered him ineffective and arrogant). One word- academic. He was ready to use certain academic ideas in politics. We know how that goes–

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                  1. President Woodrow Wilson was among our worst presidents. The general mythology around him in popular culture is quite annoying to me. A great polemic about him is Thomas Fleming’s “Illusion of Victory”.

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                    2. I recall reading L.M. Montgomery’s “Rilla of Ingleside”, which takes place in Canada during WWI. Frequently Susan would make some sarcastic remark about Wilson writing yet another note (yet not actually doing anything).

                      On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 9:40 AM, According To Hoyt wrote:

                      > ** > SPQR commented: “President Woodrow Wilson was among our worst > presidents. The general mythology around him in popular culture is quite > annoying to me. A great polemic about him is Thomas Fleming’s “Illusion of > Victory”.” >

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                  2. Frankly, the most interesting question about Wilson is “how much of what’s wrong with America today is his fault _personally_, vs how much is just him having been the ideal realization of the progressive zeitgeist of the times in which he was elected?”.

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                  3. In other words, your history professors thought Wilson was acting like a European (Limey/Frog/Kraut — I will acknowledge that the “lesser” European powers are not currently so arrogant) and presuming to lecture others without first establishing his ethos, expertise and amity.

                    Sort of like a blog commenter who busts in without observing a venues’s established mode, presumes to wag a lecturing finger at the regular customers, fails to recognize sarcasm when it is directed at him and accuses the group of engaging in stereotyping which is apparently a privilege he reserves for himself.

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                    3. Riled? Moi? Just letting some of the cranky out — I had to be up early for this month’s chiropractic adjustment (because, unlike most Europeans, I have a spine) and looking at an afternoon of errands I would rather not run.

                      Ahem. Back to the main thrust of your comment:

                      Yes, Wilson attempted to do to Europe what Churchill* did to North Africa and the Middle East.

                      *I will stipulate that it might not have been Winnie, but lack time or interest today to research the matter. I am already miffed because a typical European tantrum has broken the threading on this post, inconveniencing myriad others to no benefit of the tantrummer.

                      I was born cranky and have barely learned to conceal it in most social situations.

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                    4. Ummm– I get crankier as I get older (blame it on meds and disease– but it could be a natural disposition)– I just added a chiropractor to my team of healthcare providers and I am a much much happier person–

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      2. My reaction to loud sounds is to duck and cover my ears and I’m completely unable to hit the broad side of a barn. If anyone attacks, the guys are in charge of mowing them down in the yard. I’ll finish any who come through the door by whatever means necessary.

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        1. Oh, geez, now I’m imagining an Athena-type response: “Get naked to distract ’em as they come in the door, kill ’em while they’re staring.”

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            1. Oddly, considering the etymology, but I do not believe anybody has actually died of mortification.

              Mortification may sometimes be a contributing factor but it is not, in itself, fatal.

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              1. I also never got naked. However, my mom was CONVINCED I’d be a hard sell in the marriage mart (true) and therefore sweetened the pot by cutting my skirts extra high and my blouses extra low (she made most of my clothes. And designed them.) Depending on how insecure she was feeling about my prospects, I came close to violating decency laws. My husband found this hillarious.

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                1. That is pretty hilarious– my parents kept us in below knee skirts and high-neck shirts. What happened was that I was extremely bullied in jr. high school (12 at the time). I was also very small (hard to believe now) and didn’t reach my height until I was in my early twenties. Before I reached puberty I was flirting with the five foot mark.

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                  1. Well, the issue is, I’m a geek-girl. It took me a while to even realize how the sex thing worked (I mean beyond the obvious. I read clinical manuals. I could have lectured doctors on the obvious at nine.) I LIKED boys, but I didn’t know how to convey this and I think mom’s panic and her dressing me like a really classy slut didn’t help. For one I was likely to wear work boots with my slinky dresses (took me years to get over that) and for another guys assumed I at least knew what flirting WAS. I didn’t. So… it made things more difficult.

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                    1. We are definitely sisters under the skin. We were ranch kids so had at least seen how the sex thing worked, but I didn’t even get interested in boys as well, boys (played with them, threw balls, had many friends) until I was much older — 16. And then I didn’t know how to deal with it. My sisters were already good at the flirting thing. I had no clue.

                      So yea– you could be writing about me. I didn’t even get a handle on it until my late twenties– and then I met the hubby. ;-)

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                    1. AARRGGHHH! I really hate the way the threading malfunctions change everytime I look at or try and post on this thread. It really ruins the effect of snarky replies.

                      This is having the side effect of reinforcing and strengthening my prejudice against Europeans.

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                    3. Odd that so sophisticated a commenter apparently couldn’t figure out the “unsubscribe” function (AKA, the “don’t follow me” button.)

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                    4. WordPress doesn’t always er… do what it should. I accidentally followed an OWS blog, immediately unfollowed, and it was still on my follow page, last I looked. Fortunately I don’t get comments via email. (Though that too took creating a dummy account to get those, because WP would helpfully send them, even though I NEVER SUBSCRIBED.)

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                    5. Yeah, somehow I accidentally unfollowed this blog, but not the comments, but now I can’t seem to get it to follow again. I get notifications from the Diner.

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                    6. Do you have a wordpress account?

                      If yes, try the wordpress homepage; if no, try the accordingtohoyt.com page, and look for a spot to put in your email.

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                    7. I do, it’s just that nothing seems to reset it so that I get the notifications of posts directly. Strangely, I still get notifications of comments, because I had set that up some time ago as well.

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                    8. There are workarounds, such as telling your email program to slot a particular source as spam or drop it into a designated folder. Or simply deleting anything that arrives with a particular subject line.

                      Yes, it is a nuisance, but there is no need to impose inconvenience on others rather than clean up your own messes.

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                    9. I have never subscribed to your blog (at least I don’t think I have, I simply have it in the little add-on bar at the top of my screen) partially because I don’t want 1100 emails a day on public schools :) Although it might make following this posts threads less confusing. Possibly the ‘poor man’ ought to look into a second job as software tester, he managed to find a unique (and highly irritating) way to break this thread anyways.

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                    11. Lest anyone mistake my disdain for the presumed moral superiority of Europeans as anti-German, I recommend putting “Ikea” and “forced labor” into a search engine. (Skip over all the articles about their customers.)

                      IIRC, those denouncing the Bush ’43 administration as arrogant for not heeding their advice never recognized the irony inherent in such criticism.

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                    13. Oh, I’ve learned it. It’s a trick of the eyes and the voice. I only do it in public and usually at cons now — see Kate’s books ;) — It’s useful. Both for defusing arguments and for getting what I want. It’s called “bait and switch.” :-P

                      And I was never undersized. I was always a moose by Portuguese standards (finished growing at 5’7″ — though I’ve lost two inches — and a size twelve in clothes. Became aware of figure, went to size 7. Stayed there till I gave birth.) I USED to collect undersized friends though. Think huge turkey with a bunch of bantam hen chicks, and you’ll have it right.

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                    14. Well– I used to gather the oppressed to me because I had strategies to deal with the bullies. (They are always with us). ;-) But I was under five feet at the time so I knew that I would have to have people around me to keep the bullies (all girls btw) in line. There are followers and leaders– I had one of the followers apologize to me, but still ran with the bullies– I could never understand it.

                      Bait and switch– I guess I am naturally unable to do it. I know the premise– it just doesn’t work with me. Now the hubby says that I expect to be treated well, and so I am. I never thought about it– but if I am not treated well, I will cause problems (an enforcer type?). Then he says it is refreshing– well, at least someone likes me. lol

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                    15. In his biography Jimmy Cagney tells that his big bother used to handle people who threatened him by countering with the threat to stick his little brother on them. Size isn’t everything…

                      And, yes, before anyone in this crowd goes there, I know where some of you are likely to take this. Consider it done. So:

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                    16. My older son is massive, verbal and slow to anger. His little brother, until puberty, was tiny, skinny, inarticulate and a demon of fury.

                      Because Robert was so MASSIVE we trained him not to fight and told him to endure the school bully rather than “pop him one” because we were afraid he’d send the other kid to the hospital.

                      One day, Robert was in second grade, and I’m taking Marsh to Kindergarten. I didn’t see — but he did — across the kindergarten, the bully beating on Robert. All I knew is that Marsh wriggled out of my hold, dropped back pack, and went running with an inarticulate scream of fury.

                      When I caught up, he’d climbed up the side of this other kid and was biting/kicking scratching while screaming “no one beats on my brother but me.” The other kid, who was as massive as Robert was running in circles screaming “let him off, let him off.”

                      For the rest of their time in that school the other kid would run if he saw Marsh approach.

                      Interestingly we ran into the other kid at our doctor last year. A) he’s very polite B) while he’s still tall, he’s stringy. C) he asked EFFUSIVELY about Robert “who was a nice guy” (despite this kid having tormented him all through elementary and beginning of middle school.) D) then he said “Now, your other son… he’s crazy.” Which goes to prove. I don’t know what but it does.

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                    17. “then he said “Now, your other son… he’s crazy.” Which goes to prove. I don’t know what but it does.”

                      A) That he’s not very bright
                      B)That he doesn’t know insanity is hereditary.

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                  3. High-five on the “small before puberty” thing. I crossed the 5-foot mark at 14, and grew at least 4 inches after I graduated high school.

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                    3. So did Dan. And Marsh. Marsh was undersized and pudgy in sixth grade. In seventh he was two feet taller (I wish I were joking) and thin. Now he’s getting a little hefty again, and it worries me, but it probably shouldn’t. He’s still growing, it’s Spring. I expect there’s a jump coming. Okay, that still worries me. He’s now six three.

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                    4. Did they make Marshall give up active things that involved walking or running? That’s what they did to me, but I don’t think it made a difference. The first time I had the X-ray, I could barely tell there was a little shadow at the end of the bone, but the next time there were clearly little flecks of bone floating in the region near the end of the tendon. The doctor threatened to put me in casts if I didn’t stop, but I hadn’t really been that active since the first time.

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                    6. I meant to include: a few years ago, even though it’s rather rare in girls, a co-worker’s daughter had it, but they didn’t make her give up her sports, so I wonder if the recommendations changed since I was a teenager (I had to give up baseball).

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                    7. There was a young man in my circles who in the spring of his junior year of high school went from one of the shorter to one of the taller guys when he grew over 13 inches in height. His mother admitted to never washing his clothes but twice: once before he wore then, the next time before she gave them away.

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                    8. Yeah — that summer was kind of like that, too. The weird thing is that Marsh seems to have my dad’s growth patterns, and if that’s true, he’ll stop growing at twenty one.
                      Since he’s already six three this could be worrisome. Should I tie a brick ontop of his head?

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                    9. Doubt it would help keep the growth down. If you are lucky he might end up with excellent posture and strong bones from keeping it balanced up right.

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          4. Can’t speak for our host, but I suppose it would work in my case… though not for any reason that would help my ego!

            Likewise, a male relative got very good results when he heard something outside, looked out, saw some guys draining his gas tank, and grabbed what he thought was the “answer the door” bat from the closet and charged out to drive them off.

            In his, um, lack of night clothes.

            Further evidence that he wasn’t all that awake came about 30 seconds later when his neighbor made a joke about invading hordes, and he realized that he’d grabbed his SCA sword instead of the baseball bat…. (The neighbor had pants, and his battle ax of the same vintage.)

            Got something like 20 gallons of fuel from the deal, since for some reason the thieves didn’t pause to pick up their cans…..

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            1. Swords are definitely better than bats!

              I could stop people by showing up at the door naked, too, but I think that may violate the Geneva Conventions.

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            2. I will not comment on the use of the word “cans” in this context … I will not comment on the use of the word “cans” in this context … I will not comment on the use of the word “cans” in this context …

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            3. There was a story told on Baen’s Bar about a SCA gent who was house-sitting for some relatives/friends. Apparently he woke when some idiots tried to break into the house. He met them in the same sort dress with his sword. They left quickly. [Very Big Grin]

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              1. I’ve actually heard a story about a biker gang arriving at a park with an SCA event going on and being able to blend seamlessly and without being noticed in the crowd — told by one biker.

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                1. Strangely enough, there are some SCA groups that have biker overlap. I know this because my old SCA group was one of them.

                  Unfortunately, the night I invited my parents to come to Feast was the night the biker guy also invited his friends to come to Feast….

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        2. My personal reaction to any sound I can’t immediately identify is to reach for the axehandle I keep beside my bed. There’s no blood on it at the moment (the last washed off — it came from one of my daughter’s boyfriends). but I can change that…

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    3. Heh. Finnish media too. I mostly use that now to check what’s been going on locally – I suppose at least something like ‘local river ferry run postponed because of the ice situation’ has to be pretty straight up what is happening – and find any international news from internet. There are also a few places where the higher level local stuff, politics and so on, gets analyzed by people who are doubtful of the media spin.

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    4. ” In terms of foreign policy, the US is seen as arrogant, ham-handed and not giving a damn about any other state’s interest.”

      Dang, ain’t they glad I ain’t runnin’ the country?

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        1. If the Germans are aghast at the US actions after 9/11 re Afghanistan and Iraq, when considering Europe’s own positions the phrase “Do not make us come over there again…” could be useful in formulating a proper perspective.

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          2. You know, I used to feel the same — still do when I’m assumed to come from a small South American country OR the first word associated with Portugal starts with F (Which sorry, no. How come the Swedes are sainted for being neutral but the Portuguese are bad guys?)
            Then I saw it from this side.
            Look, you are a relatively nice kid, in a middle school and all the other kids sit around all day misinterpreting your every action because you’re a bit oversized, and saying bad things about you. They’re nice when they want anything from you but the rest of the time they treat you like dirt.
            The vaunted American xenophobia is a lot less than people think (like the American racism, sexism and homophobia, having seen both sides, it’s less than in Europe) and the American pride has taken a beating over the last century, but to borrow a quote “if you cut us, do we not bleed?”

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            1. If there’s any mistake, it’s mine. I should have known that commenting on this post was a mistake. I’ve long since given up expecting a ccivil discussion on the internet. Please remove all my comments from this post, I’ll unsubscribe and won’t comment again. No need to get all worked up. I’d prefer to finish a chapter and an edit of a novel. I’ll continue reading your post, but I won’t comment again.

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              1. Please don’t unsubscribe. And this is not uncivil. If it were, I’d have stepped in. Removing your comments would be interesting, giving my vaunted technical abilities :-P I too would rather be writing.

                But yes, when WWII is brought up — or worse WWI, which I think is where the real wound is — it’s easy to give and take offense. This is just proof that when all is said and done the wounds of the twentieth century are still very deep.

                Something I knew. My best childhood friend, the woman I grew up with, my desk partner in first grade married a Frenchman at the same time I married Dan. We managed to talk for another fifteen years, but we don’t now. We’re not… angry at each other. It’s just that anything — the future of the kids, our jobs, etc brings up those long, hurtful silences. So we stopped calling… little by little, even though we were like sisters through all our early life. We’re not mad at each other. Communication has just become difficult.

                What I meant to say when speaking of France, is that the French get upset and have reason to when we make constant jokes about France. Because we do. And we’re mean.

                But being in France and hearing them react in French to Americans, it’s no better. In fact, it’s worse because they’re NOT joking.

                That’s not your fault. It’s certainly not your fault, and it all started long before either of us were born.

                Do I disagree with you on the European Union — yes, but as I said I’m much much older and I come from a country that should never have entered. (Also a country that has inherent problems with authority. If you’ve ever been, you know in Portugal rules happen to other people.) Also, the EU always makes me ask Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? The Portuguese representatives to the EU — those I’ve known — are the scum of the Earth and the worst bureaucrats imaginable (or very good bureaucrats.) And distance makes governing harder (as Rome found.)

                But I also know for many people — not just Germans — this is an emotional project, the culmination of a centuries’ old dream. I think like most such dreams it’s doomed and will hurt people in failing, but I’m at a loss for how it wouldn’t be tried and fought for, when so much has been invested in it over the centuries. So other than writing a short story that got rejected everywhere, I stay quiet on it.

                Now, for the main part, do go write. Nothing is gained by turning over the wounds of the twentieth century which, d*mn I’ll now have to write about.

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                2. I still remember a column by a pundit about her conversation with a Frenchwoman about why Americans don’t care that the French think badly of Americans. She sadly explained that Americans think badly of the French, and the Frenchwoman was oh dear oh dear oh dear. . . .

                  Neither one noticed that they were stating that if the French think badly of Americans, that’s an American problem, and if the Americans think badly of the French, that’s also an American problem.

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                  1. As for the French, after our trip to Europe in ’07 my wife informed me that if I took her back to France, she would divorce me.

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              2. I think I may have given a bad impression from my comments. If I did so, I regret it. I was neither offended nor trying to be insulting. Perhaps I should have used some smilies?

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              3. I’ve long since given up expecting a ccivil discussion on the internet.

                When you come in with guns blazing, you should not whine about people shooting back.

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                1. He actually didn’t. He was commenting on the EUROPEAN press. This was lost on some commenters. I could have written that, too — though I’d probably make sure it was clear it was the press and not my view, because I know the knees do jerk.

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                    1. I was afraid of that, because the answer sounded personal to him. I considered defusing it yesterday, but having asked a couple of commenters what they thought, they thought it was sufficiently clear.

                      I should have gone with my instincts. He speaks and writes English ALMOST at the native level, but I know personally how long it took me past that to get the subtler nuances. Since the comment made me uncomfortable, I should have commented/explained.

                      As for the knee jerk answers — yeah, I saw both sides of that when I was in Germany. It’s not sane. It’s the wounds of the long war.

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                    2. Here I thought I was exercising restraint by not mentioning my six million co-religionists eliminated, nor the comparable number of my slavic relatives as well as the Romany and not especially Gay victims of the eugenic theorists.

                      But of course, the German Press clothes itself in intellectual smugness the way a reformed drunk dresses in moral sanctimony.

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                    3. It’s all of Europe at this point — and I don’t know how much of it is reaction to WWII or fear of the hammer falling.
                      Speaking of some number of the human race being despicable, I was in my thirties before I realized that people became communists (in Europe, often) because they were TERRIFIED of communism and convinced it would win.
                      The mechanism is alien to me. I’m more likely to react with “kill it before it grows” force to things that scare me than to co-opt them.

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                    4. That reaction is an inherently “American” one, although it appears to occur in Aussies as well. The apotheosis of this attitude is exemplified in the Alamo tale, but willingness to fight in an apparently lost cause — and win — is a critical part of the Foundation myth of the USA. For G-d’s sake, John, sit down.

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                    5. Yes sir. On the “John sit down.” My kids often shout that at me too when I’m going on on what we need to do. One of them shouts “Someone open up the window” and the other “For G-d’s sake, John, sit down.”

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                    6. From memory, apologies for any mistakes:

                      No, No, No,
                      Too many flies!

                      It is ninety degrees,
                      Have mercy John please,
                      It is hot as hell
                      in Philadel …
                      … phia.

                      I took The Daughter up to Philadelphia to visit Daddy and to see a major show of Faberge in Delaware. It was September, and the last heat wave of the summer. Even from the south the poor child found the combination of heat and humidity wilting.

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                    7. I think the Irish can take credit for a part of it– the “fight a hopeless battle” thing. (It’s probably Italian, too– whichever part got the Roman admiration of the Spartans.)

                      No idea where the “and actually win” part came from; it seems like the Irish are only happy when they’re losing.

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                    8. “No idea where the “and actually win” part came from; it seems like the Irish are only happy when they’re losing.”

                      Nah, that should read, the Irish are only happy when they’re fighting, it’s just that the tougher the fight the happier they are, and it’s always a tougher fight on the hopeless side.

                      Seriously though the Irish probably did engender the philosophy that; if I’m going to die for the cause, I’m going to make it mean something, and I’m dang well gonna make those dastards earn it! How many of those at the Alamo were of Irish descent, anyways?

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                    10. Speaking of some number of the human race being despicable, I was in my thirties before I realized that people became communists (in Europe, often) because they were TERRIFIED of communism and convinced it would win.
                      The mechanism is alien to me.

                      ….Having just hit 30: Huh?!

                      How the hey does that work? I mean, I can understand being scared, and thus investigating– that’s sort of how I got to know my husband– but going “you are terrifying, where do I sign up?”

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                    11. I think it goes: You are terrifying, you are organized, you are going to take over and I better join the fold before I get stuck on the outside, or worse.

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                    12. …. Must be a different sort of “terrifying” than I use; the only time I’d go for that is if they were intimidating, without the repugnance involved when I call something “terrifying.”

                      (Think kinda like the difference between the mindless-beast type werewolf, and the Belle’s Beast Just Before Breaking the Curse. A man becoming a soulless beast, terrifying; a man that looks like a big, scary monster, intimidating.)

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                    13. “… going “you are terrifying, where do I sign up?””

                      One of the themes explored by Tolkein in LotR. There are always those who will chose to live as dogs than die as wolves.

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                    14. *laughs* Given that the symbols are inverse of the wolf/sheepdog metaphor I’m more fond of, I had to read that twice to figure out what you were saying!

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                    15. Part of why I love the Hobbits is because they were small, not very strong, not very… well, anything— but even the petty little silverware thief bristled up and fought the really bad guys.

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                    16. And the promoting falsehoods about groups who were not only included in the targets if they weren’t quiet enough, but worked to smuggle folks out? (I still get steamed about Europeans parroting the Soviet lies about “Hitler’s Pope.” Not quite as pissed as when atheist, anti-Israel Hebrews do it, but still angry.)

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                    17. I admire the nations like the Danes, righteous gentiles who collaborated with the Jews to evade Germany’s solution.

                      As contrasted with France’s government (admittedly, Vichy) who, on being told the Nazis wanted to extract the French Jews inquired “When can you pick them up, or would you rather have them delivered?”

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                    18. I had a friend whose parents were hidden children during World War II. Her parents moved the family to the United States from France when she was eight. She told me that when the Germans paid war reparations that was supposed to be for the surviving French Jews the government seized it all as properly theirs.

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                    19. though it saved me from writing on the civil war in SF and since tomorrow is novel chapter, that means Saturday. A good day to set the nets on fire. Consider that dig at wiscon the warning shot.

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      2. I was trying to say that one of our core interests is not really and deeply caring about the interests of other nations. Respecting, for example, the German interest in continuing to sell stuff to Saddam would get in the way of being able to tell them what to go do with themselves.

        Like

            2. Again, see my answer. Going through France as Portuguese was bad enough. (Fortunately I was tall and had very dark red hair — mahogany red of the sort that looks black in shade. And I have an inexplicable German accent in French What I kept getting was “Isn’t it late to go seek the sun” — as I headed towards Portugal in September.) TRY going through France as American. Believe it or not it’s even worse — and no, we weren’t acting anything. I speak French even Frenchmen say is good. They were fine with us, until they saw the passports. Then interesting things happened.

              And at least here, we got reports of BOTH countries selling oil to Saddam. Now, what we get is our press and your politicians, and I’m completely in agreement those are unreliable. They write more fiction than I do. BUT I did read those reports, and not in yellow newspapers.

              Like

            1. I was specifically thinking of reports that I had heard, during the war, that some of Saddam’s bunkers had been built during the sanctions with the help of German, and maybe French, engineering/constructions firms with influence in their respective country’s government. There was some suggestion that this business was the real interest that American foreign policy had carelessly trampled at the time.

              There were also some claims made about various oil field contracts at the time.

              Like

            2. Sarah,
              I was specifically referring to how Saddam was still getting parts for the various Dassault aircraft he had, and Dassault insisting they didn’t know they were selling to a front company even though a *reporter* could follow the chain of custody back to Saddam.

              Like

      4. Me, too. For example, I’ve said before, that if they want to keep talking about things like, “American imperialism”, we should show them what “Imperialism” means.

        Like

  9. The marquee on my computer reads, “If crying were going to do any good, it would have worked by now.”
    So yeah, anything that gets you up and moving is good.

    Like

    1. Crying is an effective strategy for small children with parents around. If you are employing that as a strategy, G-d help you.

      Like

      1. My eleven-month-old niece is working on the big-eyes pout. Her father is doomed. Her mother is amused.

        Like

    2. Yeah – I agree with all Sarah’s points – for me, if I’m depressed, the things that work best are learn something, or do something nice for someone else. (And if I’m having trouble not thinking about whatever-it-is, I’ll resort to dark true crime stories or Hitchcock movies – stuff that grips my attention but has a good ending.)

      Like

    3. I find occasional sprees of profound self pity and crying useful, actually. Gets it out of your system. Do in private, and go far enough with it that it starts to sound funny to you, like listing all the grievances and bad luck and whatnot that have ever happened to you, absolutely everything you can think of until you are reduced to something ridiculously minor. Works for me. Usually takes quite a while after that before I start feeling sorry for myself again.

      Like

  11. Keep calm– is not one of my virtues. ;-)
    But, I have to force it because when I allow my natural instincts reign, I start having illness problems i.e. since the last election. Well– back to business. Putting out a short novella (around 10,000) then on to a couple of novels I have been procrastinating.

    Like

    1. same here on illness. I’m slowly wrenching myself around to where I can keep sort of an inner calm. Because I have to, or non of us will survive this. (Excitable Latina, remember? From an area raided by Vikings, so Excitable Latina with Repressed Berserker Impulses)

      Like

    2. I’m considering exposing you people to my short romances (started, never finished.) They’re fantasy, of course, except for medieval one I’m still afraid of reading. I looked at first chapter and I think it’s fifty shades of middle ages. Remind me NEVER to hit my head again m’kay?

      Like

      1. I have this sudden vision of Kate P.’s Con series, set at a RenFest or the Pennsic Wars. Except . . . yeah. I’m not going there this early in the day. No, no, I’m not, no, really. Bad imagination, stop that! *furiously trying to fend off story idea*

        Like

        1. The Pennsic War deserves Vamp Boy. And Vlad too. (And yes, I love the Pennsic War, but honestly it has a lower crime rate than it has any right to. And someday it will run out of luck and goodwill, or we’ll find out that the guy who committed suicide really didn’t.)

          The difficulty is in constructing a really sunproof tent that was large and cool enough; and frankly, a nice yurt with a white outer layer and a dark inner layer would probably do the job. Nobody would be particularly surprised if somebody chose to sleep all day and stay up all night, except for the part about keeping cool in the middle of a humid Midwestern summer.

          Like

      3. Not Latina (might have Roman though in the far past– plus I did say that even though I look Norwegian, I do have a couple of sisters who look Mediterranean so who knows what I have in between the X & Y).

        Like

    1. Keep Calm and Aim For The Head. Or in my case (Dan says if someone breaks into the house, he hopes I’m cooking at the time) Keep Calm and Use Knives. Or perhaps Go Berserk and use Massive Overkill.

      Like

      1. Oh yea– I am into massive overkill. People think you’re crazy and leave you alone. I made a rational decision (before I go berserk) to use overkill.

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          1. Hey– ever worked in a man’s world? (electronics, Navy– here) Respect is earned. lol Now women, sorry ladies in here, but there have only been a few women I have been able to work with or around.

            Like

            1. No offense. I get along better with guys, or with women old enough not to give a fig. Forced sisterhood sticks in my craw.

              Like

                1. I’ll throw in an “amen.”

                  Doesn’t help that the only gals who’ve ever tried the “sisterhood” thing on me wanted something– or assumed they already had it promised, simply because I squat to wee.

                  Like

                  3. Ah, the wonders of sisterhood. You ever notice how articles about why women don’t call themselves feminists never ever ever have the writer actually talking to such women — they are invariably the writer’s speculations? One wonders what they are afraid of learning.

                    Like

                    2. Next you’ll expect them to actually talk to conservatives who disagree with them!

                      (snark high hat on) Really, dear, what could these people have to say that is of any value? It is already obvious that their ability and/ to or willingness to think is sub par, and that they have embraced outdated and narrow minded unenlightened superstition that they are being fed by the patriarchy, I mean how else could a women come to a conservative standing on any issue? (snark high hat off)

                      Like

                    3. [Sits down, pulls off street shoes & socks, switches to athletic socks and running shoes]
                      Besides, doesn’t EVERYONE already know that those women (rolls eyes) only repeat what their husbands and their pastors have told them to say?

                      [Starts to run, knees go; settles into resigned trudge]

                      Like

                2. I grew seriously worried the day I realized I was now a female boss. Then I started researching and studying people in order to not be that female boss I couldn’t stand. It has helped; the coping strategies and attention to detail help me deal with my own female bosses too!

                  Like

                  1. As I’ve mentioned below, stereotypes set up things for difficulty both says. That said, other than Toni (and that situation is different, since I’m a contractor) all my female bosses lived down to the stereotype.

                    Like

              2. Exactly– I have the same problem TXRed– of course there were at least four times in my life that I had to go overkill with guys. With women, especially the ones in competition? I want to go overkill as soon as I see them. Thankfully I don’t give a fig now– ;-)

                Like

      2. 14 people at a college injured yesterday by wimpy redhaired berserker. He ran about screaming and cutting people with an exacto knife.

        Like

        2. ….An EXACTO KNIFE?!?!?

          I was feeling guilty because I always wonder how folks don’t have some kind of a plan, and picturing at least a decent kitchen knife.

          Now I feel guilty because I disarmed the idiot with a chisel before I was old enough to drive, and these guys somehow didn’t have that mindset…..

          Like

          1. “You’ve got to be carefully taught….”

            And they have been. By the educrat mindset that says no matter who started the fight everyone will get punished especially if you defend yourself.

            Like

      4. Keep Calm and Carry Heavy. Again a variant of Maxim 37; although I always like the saying, “If you need to reload, you need a bigger gun.”

        Like

      5. “Or in my case (Dan says if someone breaks into the house, he hopes I’m cooking at the time) Keep Calm and Use Knives. ”

        Here ya go, Mississippi, accuracy is overrated anyhows.

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      1. Maxim 34: If you’re leaving scorch marks, you need a bigger gun.

        Maxim 37: There is no ‘overkill.’ There is only ‘open fire’ and ‘I need to reload.’

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      4. And the only truly profound Maxim: “2. A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.”

        Like

        1. ” A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.”
          Can I steal this? In the new WIP, the main character is the daughter of a military man. I can see her quoting this in the middle of an action sequence.

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          1. You can’t get permission here. That exact quote is from Schlock Mercenaries‘s The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries.

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            1. #23 “The company mess and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart”

              I’d never heard of the Schlock Mercenary universe before–thanks for the reference.

              Like

            2. Okay, I just found the beginning of his archives, and I may never forgive you for this …

              I have to get back to work, I have to …

              Like

              3. They are available in handsomely bound* collections through Amazon and Howard’s site. For convenient access to Amazon you can just click on the cover image for any of Sarah’s books (this page, top right sorta) and she gets a small piece of the action.

                *i.e., bound. Dead tree and, for all I know, ebookery.

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        2. I personally prefer ARCLIGHT strikes. I think the only reason we still have problems in Afghanistan is that we haven’t had one over Miranshah. A mix of BUFFs and B-1’s, say a dozen of them, into a 4×12 box. Brute force delivered without warning from 40,000 feet, with the knowledge that we can do it again any da*&&^ time we please. Forget hearts and minds — when you’re dealing with a 7th Century mindset, overwhelming force is the key.

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          1. This.

            What I always find amusing is polls who ask if you’re unhappy with the conduct of the War on Islamicists without asking the follow-up: Are you unhappy because we shouldn’t be fighting, or unhappy because we haven’t started yet?

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  13. For vacations, I like to do mansion and castle tours. There are a ton of them around here, if you know where to look. Add in a defunct monastery or acting as barracks for returning WWI soldiers and you get ideas for days. Most sell postcards or books about the place, too, which can be a fun way to remember everything you were thinking while you were there.

    Like

    2. My favorite vacation is sitting beside a lake, fishing. If I’m really energetic, I may even bait my hook.

      DW doesn’t fish much, but she does like to sit in a quiet place and read a book, or listen to a book on tape, or just sit.

      Like

      1. Part of what’s depth bombing my mood is this protracted winter. I AM an outdoor kind of girl, even if it’s just a walk a day. But I hate cold. (For those outside CO — no, it’s not cold all the time, and I can endure the three or so months it is.)

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        1. Alright, if you ever visit Finland do it in either July or beginning of August. Any time of the year can be miserable here, I remember a few years when summer consisted of a week or two of sunshine, and the rest of the time it was either overcast or it rained and the temperatures hovered around + 20 C or under but late July or early August are often the best bets for at least sort of summery. Even then you should still pack an umbrella, waterproof shoes and some sort of sweater.

          We tend to think + 25 C or so can be called a heat wave (around + 30 C is about the highest you can expect).

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          1. “We tend to think + 25 C or so can be called a heat wave (around + 30 C is about the highest you can expect).”

            That settles it. When can I move to Finland? :)

            Like

              1. Record lows: like in the nicer parts of Siberia. But both record lows and record highs are uncommon. Mostly it’s either kind of cool or kind of cold. :)

                Like

            3. Okay, how well can you deal with gloom? Dark, darker and very dark, plus rain. Lots of rain. When it isn’t snowing. :D

              Personally I’m good with cold, or cool, it’s easier to deal with than heat, you just put more clothes on and turn up the thermostat, or put another log in the fire, and our houses are usually very well built when it comes to the question of retaining heat. The problems I have with my land are the dark, and the fact that it can rain a lot. Not in the sense of having downpours, just that it can rain all the time, a little bit or a little bit more, and even when it doesn’t it might at any moment because the clouds are there. Sun, at times, can become something which nearly makes people stop and point when it finally does take a peek.

              Probably explains the often noticed gloom and doom disposition of locals (more of a fall and winter thing, we can be almost human during the summer. Even smile from time to time).

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              1. Some people associate the absence of the sun with the presence of gloom. Whereas some people (like, say…me) associate the absence of the sun with not having angry-ogres-jabbing-icepicks-into-your-eyeballs-over-and-over-again migraines.

                I don’t drink blood and I love garlic, but otherwise I’m basically a vampire. For reference, see elsewhere in this very comment section, where numerous individuals derive some entertainment from the implications of me willingly admitting to being a sysadmin. :)

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                2. :D Lucky. I have the worst parts of both worlds – I can’t handle the dark, but I do also have problems with bright sunlight, I get the auras preceding migraines (but usually not the headache), I don’t tan and sunlight can give me a slight case of hives in the worst days.

                  I think something like a moon colony might be a great place for me. Artificial and fully managed lighting conditions.

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                  1. I have the weirdest eyes in the world. Dark hazel, but unable to handle bright light. Sunglasses are my friend, and in CO I wear them for driving EVEN IN WINTER.

                    Like

                    2. Especially if there is snow, and the sun is shining, only a fool wouldn’t. Now if you also wear sunglasses in the evenings and inside one might start to suspect some vampiric influences.

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                    4. The Daughter has extremely dark brown eyes, but is photo sensitive. She wears tinted glasses as a matter of course. She wears sunglasses outside in daylight whenever it is not very cloudy. Season has nothing to do with it. It can be worse in the winter when there is a snow cover to reflect the sun and increase the ambient light.

                      The upside is, having the habit of always wearing sunglasses out of doors, she may be less likely to develop cataracts later in life.

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                    5. Hazel eyes here to (actually people claim they change colors, from green to blue to hazel, but I think their eyes are playing tricks on them) and I do where sunglasses not all the time, but bright light, particularly sun on snow, can bother me(maybe it’s a hazel eye thing?) . I have excellent night vision however.

                      Like

      2. When I was at camp and working as a counselor in training I caught a truly fine bass with on unbaited hook. My intention that day was to not catch a fish, but to have an excuse for just sitting in a boat in the middle of a small lake for an afternoon. Sigh.

        Like

        1. …I caught a truly fine bass with on unbaited hook.

          Please, when reading, ignore the with or change the the on to an an.

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  14. An effective strategy for me is to go off and read a SF book, dive into a nice dystopian future world as opposed to our current dystopian current world.

    Hey Sarah, thanks for the free Super Lamb Banana. Not only did I really enjoy the story, I had to go Google it to find it’s real (and even uglier yet oddly endearing as described).

    Like

  15. For a cheap mini vacation, I go to art openings. There are usually several a month here at local galleries and other venues. They are free, catered, and I get to meet the artists. The art ranges from meh to breathtaking. Many of the local museums are free on Thursday evenings too.

    Like

  17. “I am, of course, philosophically opposed to working for free”

    I’m only opposed to doing work for free that’s worth money. And, being a capitalist and a libertarian, I trust the market to determine what’s worth money. (Of course, when you do this, if you’re honest, you have to factor in all the places something might be getting paid for. There’s no excuse for doing work just so somebody else can get paid, if you don’t get a cut.)

    But yeah, if (as the saying goes) every writer has a hundred thousand bad words in them, go ahead and start writing. Maybe you’ll produce something worth selling in spite of the saying. Or maybe you’ll just produce a whole bunch of dreck for a while, but in the process you’ll learn a lot about how to write non-dreck. Either way, you win, and so do your future readers.

    Or take me. I’m a sysadmin. (A sysadmin with the soul of a writer, I think, but nevertheless most emphatically _not_ somebody who’s actually done the bloody work that would justify calling myself a writer in public.) A couple of jobs ago, I worked for about a year for The Phone Company. (Y’all know the one. It’s the one that used to be the only Phone Company, and often still acts as if it were.)

    Before I got that job, I’d had a business fail out from under me, and we’d been treading water financially for almost 3 years. Bills were going unpaid. We were unconscionably behind on our mortgage. I couldn’t sleep reliably, because I was in near-constant terror about what was going to happen when the savings finally ran out and there wasn’t even enough cash left for food.

    But what was I doing? In between calls with HR departments and hiring managers and third-party headhunters, and indeed right before the call from the guys at TPC that eventually led to getting hired there? I was designing networks. I was configuring a cluster of Asterisk servers. (Why not? I already owned all the computers I needed to do it…) I was even reimplementing the software that the moribund business had been built around, to make it more resource-efficient, faster, and able to do more work while costing less money…if I had any customers left, which I didn’t.

    Nobody ever paid me a cent to do Asterisk stuff. It is extremely unlikely that anybody will ever pay to use that video-selling software again either. But when the manager from TPC called, I could tell him with absolute honesty about the stuff I’d been doing recently, and with genuine excitement about some of the improvements I’d figured out how to make, and in general talk like somebody whose life WASN’T entirely dominated by trying to get a job.

    I remain convinced that’s why he hired me. And while there were a lot of things about that job that sucked, it kept my wife and I alive and whole, and led to other opportunities that were way better.

    And “working for free” not only kept me out of the depths of only-very-technically-subclinical depression, it actually led to objective improvements.

    So yeah. Never, indeed, do for free anything you can convince people to pay for. But never let that rule get in the way of doing what you want and/or need to do to improve yourself and your situation, either.

    No rule should ever be followed off a cliff.

    Like

    1. “(A sysadmin with the soul of a writer, I think, but nevertheless most emphatically _not_ somebody who’s actually done the bloody work that would justify calling myself a writer in public.) ”

      Sysadmin’s have souls? Wow, you learn something every day …

      ;-)

      Like

            1. OK, I’d admit that I have one … its just very shopworn. And ignore that pawn ticket attached to it … I paid that off.

              Like

            2. My one and only “stuck in a drawer and unlikely to ever be let out” story is kinda like that, actually. Except the viewpoint character is, by the time he discovers he needs to get his soul back, only very incidentally a sysadmin and businessman. He’s got a much harder problem, in the soul-reclaimation department. He’s…a politician. (In some of the story’s ethical themes, it actually bears uncanny resemblance to “A Few Good Men”. But I’m not nearly as peeved at Our Beloved Hostess for stealing my ethical themes as I was at Osama bin Laden for stealing my big plot twist. Yeah, it’s been in the drawer that long.)

              Like

        1. What’s wrong with man pages? I find most of them useful. The only weird one is ‘top’ and that’s because they got too fancy with it. Most of it should have been stuck in an info page.

          Like

          1. At one time, I wrote my term papers in vi and formatted them with troff–the then-boyfriend, who turned into a husband–was a unix sysadmin …

            Like

      3. You will note lelnet did not claim to hold original title to that soul, nor specify its source (other than a writer.)

        Like

        1. Ah. (Thinks of some of her colleagues.) Well, there are a bunch of them walking around without one of course. This job wears them down to a nubbin, or at least did in the old fashioned model. He probably picked up that shriveled lost soul off the floor of a con hotel.

          Like

            1. “You mean I should go to a con to collect sanity and soulfulness?”

              It’s a good thing I had just swallowed my sip of wine, or I would have snorted it all over my monitor and keyboard. :D

              Like

      5. ps, I want to print out this thread and put it on my office door. I man a lone outpost of stuff-that-works among a horde of ululating developers, thumping their spears and flirting with the web designers ..

        Sarah? Can I do that?

        Like

    3. That free programming you did — afterward, did you say “I regret that I have but one Asterik for my family”? >;)

      Like

  18. The first thing I do is remember the wisest words ever said to me by an officer: “It could be worse. You could be on fire.” (If you are on fire, stop, drop, and roll.)

    Next I try and think of solutions to the problem.

    Then I think of solutions that don’t involve killing anyone.

    Then I think of solutions that don’t involve lighting anyone on fire.

    At this point I’m usually tapped. So I’ll have a drink or three, catch up on what’s going on with the internet, maybe pick a fight with some vile progressives.

    A workable solution usually presents itself while I’m walking to work (oddly enough, it rarely happens on the way back.)

    Like

  19. Hello, Mrs. Hoyt. I thought you might like to hear that a I bought a copy of Darkship Thieves recently, and mailed it to my nephew as part of his birthday present. The other part was Michael Flynn’s Firestar.

    Like

  20. I had that impression from what you wrote.

    I felt that ‘Americans can seem crazy to Europeans because of the cultural divide’ had been articulated.

    I wished to articulate a matching ‘Europeans, as well as some Americans, can seem crazy to other Americans, because of the cultural divide’.

    Like

    1. I lived in Germany for six years and there were things (like a fussball rally) that made me realize that we are not in America anymore. We didn’t talk because some of the younger Germans were giving us the evil eye when they heard English. lol

      Anyway– we have our own crazy things as well. I give everyone the benefit of a doubt unless it puts me in a dangerous situation and then I am out of there. If I can’t leave, then my brain starts looking for strategic overkill.

      I have been in France, Denmark, Holland, and various and a sundry places in Europe. I do miss the castles.

      Like

        1. That pack instinct is universal. I’ve seen it in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Europe, and had friends tell me it’s also prevalent in Africa. The Muddled East is a model of how such behavior can get out of hand, and what happens when it does.

          Like

  21. Ok, who broke the comments? It wasn’t me this time!

    Heh. Of course, it’s probably WordPress’s fault.

    Like

    1. Ok, who broke the comments?

      I expect it was the result of Aleksandr Voinov being granted his wish to be removed.

      As in the world of Witchfinder, you have to be very careful when you reach in to pull out a tread.

      Like

        1. BUT it’s your slips of the fingers that make you endearing! (Sarah says, hoping the same dispensation is granted her. Did I mention only ONE cup of tea this morning?)

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          1. Having missed a tread and descended the remainder of the stairway on my keister*, I found the metaphor apt.

            *In the ongoing discussion of spellcheck peculiarities, I note that it wants to correct the spelling of “keister” to “roisterer” — again, peculiarly apt.

            Like

          2. We’re pretty much all in the “fingers, let alone lips, don’t move as fast as brain when it gets going– there will be flubs that may require translation” group.

            Like

    2. I’m not sure I’ve seen a set of threads got as . . . whacked . . . as this post’s tail has been whacked. WordPress must have gotten the remains of my case of the Mondays. (Now I’m off to celebrate the release of my next story collection and to recover from someone else’s attack of *drumroll, flings arms* drama. Ah, students and spring.)

      Like

            1. Thanks (I think). :) I was not really sure how the concept would translate, but the artist did a magnificent job, once we sorted out how to keep it from looking like a fantasy romance cover.

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                1. If you take out the wiring and add more falling flowers, with the right font you get fantasy romance. Maybe a character looking longingly at the tree, or a be-ringed hand catching one of the falling blossoms? More pink in the sky would also work.

                  Like

              2. Not sure what you were aiming for (or what it would have looked like when it looked like fantasy romance) but it screams ‘Patriotic American!’ to me.

                I like it :)

                Like

    1. And as soon I as a make a comment about that it decides to rethread, incidentally placing the comment I made at the bottom somewhere in the middle of the thread.

      Like

  24. I believe you’re the victim of complete misunderstanding of the nature of the comments directed at yours. As Sarah said (in my opinion, anyway), your comments have not been a disruption, certainly not on a blog that digresses the way the commenters here cause it to do.

    Many people these days try to be Politically Correct all the time, and this doesn’t generally happen here. While most of the commenters do try to avoid a few of the more disruptive types of statements (such as calling people Nazis, certain ethnic slurs, etc), they also tend to be much more direct in their responses to people (without descending to name calling) than happens in other places.

    This can seem abrasive at first, because people are not generally used to it. They are used to internet discussions being either a consensus of agreement from like-minded people with an occasional mention of an alternate view, or a series of vicious attacks from people who have opposing views, and the direct style of disagreement automatically feels like the attack style, until you get used to it.

    If you stay and keep commenting, instead of stopping, you will likely not even notice the types of responses you got here as being unusual after a while, because you’ll get used to seeing it. Also, you will find that if you say something controversial, people will start asking for sources, because nobody will believe anything just because someone says it.

    As for deleting your comments, Sarah would have to delete everyone’s responses, too (to avoid confusion), and that would blow away half the comments on this post. No need for that.

    Like

    1. I did, and it’s a mess. Yes, I think Aleksandr overreacted. I’m not sure why, since I’ve known him on and off the blog (slightly) and he’s generally more thick skinned than that.
      It had never occurred to me that we might be rough-sounding to first time commenters. Yes, we can be rude and horrible — I have in mind the gentleman who came in announcing he listened to Public Radio. We probably overkilled that one, guys.
      I think with A. V.’s comments it was a mix of people misunderstanding his comments about European press to be HIS opinions (which they clearly weren’t) and directing some kill shots (we might have to learn to be better with our fire, guys,) and his not understanding the… uh… rough style of you lot. (There is also the cultural issue. Both American vs. European and this blog vs. sanity. I remember DIMLY being very offended the first time I was playfully told to “shuddup already”. The pronunciation and the tone were lost on me and it seemed OUTRIGHT rude. The internet has no tone, and this blog, like every family, has developed a series of in-jokes and snips that seem fine to us but not to the less experienced at our dinner table. Maybe more emoticons?

      Like

      1. I started using emoticons (oh when I first got on the internet– mid 1990s) because I realized that my opinions and statements offend a LOT of people. Yep, I am proud of it. ;-)

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        1. EVERYONE is entitled to my opinion.

          Eh. I’ve been called everything (including a gay male. NOT that politely, and while using a female name. Say what?) on the net. And at least one of the people I got into a horrible argument with first time I met him (we both misunderstood the other and got in kill mode) is one of my closest friends now.

          Like

          1. ROFL– well the woman who attacked me verbally in the Navy never became my good friend, but after we had to work together, she respected me a little. I think I told her that “it was just her opinion.” Yep– she was mad for months.

            Like

  25. Is wordpress intentionally designed to make everything as confusing as possible? Now I know why I have never seen comments removed on a wordpress* site before.

    *Does anyone know why wordpress doesn’t have the word ‘wordpress’ in its dictionary?

    Like

    1. Well, that would be because the spellcheck is in the browser, not on the site. What makes me wonder, though, is why the spellcheck doesn’t have “spellcheck” in its vocabulary.

      Like

  26. No, for such eminences it is vastly preferable to just intuit the reasons. This is a trait they learned from the ancient Greek philosophers who had dismissed Archimedes as a second-rate intellect because the poor chap had to (shudder) experiment and couldn’t work things out by pure reason.

    Besides, if they talk to conservatives they risk getting cooties.

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  27. You know, I just read the title of this article from one of the comments in my email as “Keep Calm and Carry Heat”, which sounds like a good philosophy to me.

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  28. I don’t have a grudge against the French people, whom I track separately from the government of France. The government of France pursues its own perception of its interests, and I expect it to do so. I have no more spite for it doing so than I have for a dog barking at me.

    As for Germany, again I track the NSDAP separately from the German people, which is separate from the government of Germany. Frankly, at this point, I don’t even have any especial degree of hatred for the NSDAP. They killed and abused far more Europeans than Americans, and I don’t have a whole lot more emotional energy for the former than I do for, say, the Interahamwe’s victims. I just don’t work up the whole head of steam anymore for every single atrocity. As for the stuff done to Americans, I feel that the effects of our war effort has largely squared that, and I’m not too bothered over the remainder.

    The main emotional heat on my end was over the gun control, and that was not directed against the personal opinion of anyone here. This issue has heated up lately in America, and I am mostly exercised over it in America.

    Yes, Europe has a bunch of socialist, leftist, and communist parties that I don’t like. I can disagree with a population’s political decisions without hating the population.

    Yes, I tend to lump much of Europe together on the gun control, because there are very many countries there that appear to have policies on gun control that are very similar from my perspective. (I don’t know if Switzerland is still an exception.) The UK is probably the most concrete example I could cite.

    There I two impressions I continue to have of those pieces the guy wrote. One is that there is some interesting and potentially useful information to store away mentally. Second is that the record of the German reporting tickles my funny bone and makes me want to make jokes.

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  29. The irony of joy; the joy of irony:

    THE SPECTACLE BLOG
    I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher
    By IAIN MURRAY on 4.12.13 @ 12:28PM
    The vile outpouring of hatred against Margaret Thatcher from the British left that saw celebration parties (and violence) after her death was announced has now morphed into a campaign to get the Judy Garland song from the Wizard of Oz “Ding Dong the witch is dead” to the top of the music charts. The music industry has changed so much that it now only takes about 35,000 downloads to reach the top of the charts, I am told, so this is distinctly possible.

    But Thatcherite belief in competition is not dead. Led by The Commentator, there is a conservative campaign to get a punk song from 1980, “I’m in Love with Margaret Thatcher” to the top of the charts as well. As I write, the song is on the verge of reaching the top thirty in the UK download rankings.

    Leftists have of course objected that the punk song is satirical, but do not have appeared to have noticed that the Wizard of Oz tune isn’t even about Margaret Thatcher, or that the ultimate beneficiary of their campaign is a mega-corporation, not to mention the sales via Apple’s iTunes.

    Perhaps the last word, therefore, should go to the newly elected head of Conservative Future, Oliver Cooper, who noted on Twitter: “The battle over Margaret Thatcher’s legacy has came [sic] down to who buys the most things from the world’s largest company. Thatcher wins again.”

    PS. If you’d like to try to get the song on the US charts, you can buy it from Amazon.
    http://spectator.org/blog/2013/04/12/im-in-love-with-margaret-thatc

    Emphasis added.

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  30. Since it seems a slow day here is an item sure to boost blood pressure, at least for persons of integrity whichever side of the abortion issue they stand (N.B., let us please not get into that argument! The issue here is the MSM cone of silence, veil of secrecy, secreting their collective heads up their collective …), an article which I put here because it is a perfect example of the Left’s “Nothing to see here, move along now, move along” dance on the precipice while keeping calm and carrying on:

    WPost reporter explains her personal Gosnell blackout
    April 12, 2013 By mollie 61 Comments
    I’ve been writing about media coverage of abortion for many years. And so have many others. If you haven’t read David Shaw’s “Abortion Bias Seeps Into The News,” published in the Los Angeles Times back in 1990, you should. That report also explains why we cover the topic here at GetReligion.

    But the thing is that I’m getting kind of sick of pointing out egregious bias only to see things not just remain bad but get worse. Just think, in the last year, we saw the media drop any pretense of objectivity and bully the Susan G. Komen Foundation into funding Planned Parenthood. And then we had how many months of coverage focused on someone calling a birth control activist a bad name? And who can forget every pro-life person in the country being asked to respond to Todd Akin’s stupid remarks about rape?

    So our abortion-drenched media would certainly want to cover what is arguably the country’s most horrific serial murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, right? Well, far from the front-page, top of the news, daily update coverage you rightfully would expect, it’s been downplayed. Majorly downplayed.

    Inspired by Kirsten Powers’ USA Today column yesterday, I decided to start asking journalists about their personal involvement in the Gosnell cover-up.

    I began by asking the AP’s national social issues reporter why he hadn’t been tweeting to AP coverage of the Gosnell trial. I had to ask a few times and then …

    [SNIP]

    Then I decided, since tmatt has me reading the Washington Post every day, to look at how the paper’s health policy reporter was covering Gosnell. I have critiqued many of her stories on the Susan G. Komen Foundation (she wrote quite a bit about that) and the Sandra Fluke controversy (she wrote quite a bit about that) and the Todd Akin controversy (you know where this is going). In fact, a site search for that reporter — who is named Sarah Kliff — and stories Akin and Fluke and Komen — yields more than 80 hits. Guess how many stories she’s done on this abortionist’s mass murder trial.

    Did you guess zero? You’d be right.

    So I asked her about it. Here’s her response:

    Hi Molly – I cover policy for the Washington Post, not local crime, hence why I wrote about all the policy issues you mention.

    [SNIP]

    So when a private foundation privately decides to stop giving money to the country’s largest abortion provider, that is somehow a policy issue deserving of three dozen breathless hits. When a yahoo political candidate says something stupid about rape, that is a policy issue of such import that we got another three dozen hits about it from this reporter. It was so important that journalists found it fitting to ask every pro-lifer in their path to discuss it. And when someone says something mean to a birth control activist, that’s good for months of puffy profiles.

    But gosh darn it, can you think of any policy implications to this, uh, “local crime” story?
    [More: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2013/04/a-wapo-reporter-explains-her-personal-gosnell-blackout/

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    1. I note that this and the post just prior should have appeared at the bottom of this column and seem instead to have been tossed in above the broken threads. I strongly urge that the next time some pansy requests the removal of their posts that they be advised to perform an anatomically improbable act.

      If you feel inclined to extend unwarranted courtesy to such commenters, I suggest adding a warning that “comments, once posted, stay posted” to the blog boilerplate.

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      1. No, but he understood his reason for wanting them removed. He was using his real name and he sells in the US. Having been goaded into unwise “your mama” comments in a flare of temper (whether it’s justified temper or not, I’ll leave to someone wiser than I. I’m not G-d. I don’t know what is going on in his life. And as I said, I have reason to be grateful to him for attempted kindness in in another sphere) he doesn’t want them coming up in google. That of his work I sampled is quite out of tone with those comments, which is why I believe they were just a flare of temper. Heaven knows I’ve depth bombed people in blog comments with the thing most likely to irk them, whether I believed it or not. Most of the time, though, I’m wise enough (or cowardly enough) not to use my real name on those occasions.

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        1. I sympathize with his dilemma. There are reasons I only use RES as my virtual cognomen. Discretion has its purposes especially in times such as these when people will use the most underhanded bases for attack (cf: Ben Carson, Orson Scott Card.) The political can get very personal indeed.

          One reason to not put your real name to your posts, one reason to carefully consider what you do post when using a name employed in professional pursuit.

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        2. One simply wishes that there were a way to put up something reading this post was deleted as a place holder in the threading.

          But, as that would be helpful, I am sure that it would not be possible within the WP platform. Which, while we are thankful for its existence, as it home to your bolg, we, of course, being who we are, attack for anything we cannot otherwise blame on a lack of caffeine, ongoing illnesses and their treatments, late night thick fingeredness, etc. etc. etc..

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    2. YOU RES, YOU have done this. UPON your head be it. Not tomorrow, when I further my parriahdom (it totally is a word) by writing about the civil war in SF, but SUNDAY I intend to make myself unacceptable to all right (or left) thinking persons by writing “What Is A Human Being.”

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      1. Pfagh. Human Being is easy defined. Is ME and peoples like ME and peoples and things I like. Others is not being human and not being anything I be worrying about.

        Why you needs to always be making things diffikult?

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      2. I don’t know about “unacceptable”, but it is certainly a topic with potential to equal the 1000+ comments reached a few weeks ago.

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        1. I would rather appreciate that particular can o’ wyrms being done on a Monday, now as I think on it. Sunday, for a variety of reasons, I am off the computer until late evening. Beloved Spouse accepts some aspects of my OCD but staying up all night to finish reading/commenting/troll-bashing a AtH post is not likely to keep me out of the doghouse.

          Now suppressing cathouse quips.

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        2. 1000+ comments reached a few weeks ago

          ‘Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets!”

          I am not sure that this would be something to repeat so soon again. My poor computer cringed each time I loaded up that page toward the end of that one’s life.

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        1. I commented on the post at voxday, because someone was saying that Baen was not very good and just accepted everything. (Rolls eyes.) I’ve been edited twice. One was for political correctness (which is why books need to be re-edited.) The other — an ongoing process — was Baen. Baen has been beating plot into my head. (I think AFGM was the only one that had no plot edit.) I KNEW before Baen there were problems with my plots. The other houses didn’t care so long as the words were purty. Baen cares. And the purty words? Take them or leave them, they’re about story. Unfortunately what twits identify as “good writing” is the purty words. Perhaps I disdain purty words because I get that for free…

          OTOH I got the distinct impression the commenters would hate my books. They seemed pretty opposed to “super chicks” and “fags”. Eh.

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  31. Pingback: Gaming Notes April 14, 2013 | Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog

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