Such Are the Memes of our Lives

Like sand through an hourglass indeed!

120 thoughts on “Such Are the Memes of our Lives

  1. Regarding Target…

    Bomb threats in Utah and Ohio over Target’s decision to not be so flagrant with its new LGBTQ and Satanist clothing.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12129925/Utah-Target-EVACUATED-received-bomb-threat-turning-LGBT-community.html

    As for unusual tank variants, there are two models of the T-54/55 (essentially the same tank) that were created for firefighting. The GPM-54 was a T-54 with a dozer blade, a water tank, and a water cannon mounted on the front of the tank.

    The fun one, however, was the Hurricane. It was a T-55 with a MiG-21 engine replacing the turret assembly. Water was fed into the jet engine, where it was converted to a spray mist that was meant to be used to help put out fires.

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        1. Curious (not really, spit!) how they mentioned the threat was a 3 sentence email, while carefully neglecting to post the email, and doing everything they could to blame Deplorables.

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          1. “The moms are all in an uproar about our line of tranny-friendly clothing for toddlers”
            “Don’t pull it, or we’ll bomb your store”
            “How does this help?”
            However, if your point is that the terrorist-minded are friends to no one, I can do nothing but agree.

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    1. They’re sooooo afraid of America going Nazi but they’re doing their damnedest to make it go Weimar 🤔

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  2. “Ven come the Revolution ve vill all eat strawberries!”

    “But I don’t like strawberries?”

    “Ven come the revolution, ve vill like strawberries!

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    1. Rousseau’s “true freedom is conforming to the General Will.” Which was bad enough, then some German philosophers modified it, Marx made up his own definitions for it, and well … See 1917-today.

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      1. Bluebottle was perhaps wise beyond his years. Or more likely, they’d run into folks just like that.

        I need to go find if the old Goonshow radio shows are archived anywhere. Those things are so memeable. We need to farm them, and reintroduce them to the latest generations. Sad they have mostly been forgotten.

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          1. Unless I’m missing something, it appears to be free. You need an account, with email, password, country, identifying tattoos, and shoe size.

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  3. “Don’t put your trust in revolutions. They always come round again. That’s why they’re called revolutions.”

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      1. And nowadays they don’t seem to learn at that school, either.

        One of the core principles of Wokeness is that you’re never responsible for your own actions. It’s always someone else (or some nebulous handwaved thing like “white supremacy”) that’s responsible.

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      2. “Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that.”

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    1. “They kill a lot of people, overthrow their corrupt rulers and replace them with a new batch of corrupt rulers. Viva la revolution! Yesterday’s oppressed become tomorrow’s oppressors.”

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    2. Revolution IS the Hell of It

      “For those radicals whose vision of freedom is a new government run by themselves, revolution is not a totally unreasonable strategy, although they may be overly optimistic in thinking that they are the ones who will end up on top. For those of us whose enemy is not the government but government itself, it is a strategy of suicide. Yet it is a strategy some anarchists advocate. What are their arguments?

      “One is that civil disorder is educational. A government threatened by insurrection becomes more and more tyrannical, revealing itself to the populace in its true colors. The populace, thus radicalized, rises and abolishes the government.

      “Experimentally, the truth of this argument — that revolution leads to repression and repression to freedom — is demonstrated by the thriving anarchist communities now occupying the territories once ruled by the oppressive governments of Russia, China, and the German Reich.”

      David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom (2nd edition)

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      1. David Friedman needs to brush up on his James Madison….

        “If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”

        Anarchy is not in the cards (not even after the Second Coming; there will still be a King) and never was. The trick is to have the post-Revolution government not repeat the excesses of the original, and the principles of Mr Madison and his fellow Revolutionaries offer the best chance for as min an archy as possible.

        The whole purpose of having the Revolution for USAians will have to be to remove those who work to undermine “the moral and religious people” that minarchy requires. Yes, we are probably inadequate to the task…. but the USAians the only ones who are trying to be adequate to it.

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      2. David Friedman is not terribly sensible these days. And I always preferred his dad, except for SCA purposes.

        I mean, yes, everybody wants to be different from their parents, but his son is not an improvement on David, and I think David is suppressing his sense to keep in contact with the grandkids. So I don’t know how that will work out.

        Just a guess, though.

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        1. Obviously you don’t understand anarchocapitalism, which is not surprising because most people don’t. I would have thought some of the posters here were intelligent and courageous enough to follow the logical arguments that demonstrate its correctness, but maybe not.

          To put it in the briefest possible way: It is logically impossible to force the government to control itself because it has the monopoly of “legitimate” violence. If you could force the government to control itself, YOU would be the government. This is an obvious logical fallacy.

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          1. It has nothing to do with being intelligent (pshaw, really? You’ll use that HERE? At this time, in this place? Define your terms, sir) or brave.
            It has to do with having read an awful lot of history, and no one here knows more of that than suburbanshee.
            I wouldn’t assume she doesn’t “understand.” I’d assume she tested and found it unsound.

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  4. The Reader assumes the picture of the cat dealing with the alien was taken somewhere in the Hoyt residence…

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        1. Who didn’t come along to the colony in “Aliens” so that’s why the mission ended so badly.

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    1. Do like my group did with the huge smoker after we did 100+ racks of ribs and 80 briskets (brisket – 15-18 pounds of meat each). We hired two college-age guys, provided the hot water pressure washer and soap, and paid them well. Problem solved.

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    2. Honest work at least. I would have tanker trucks behind them and then spray the offal all over fields in the fall, by spring instant fertilizer, good for the economy good for the environment. Besides it would fulfill the leftest wishes to recycle. That way you keep the smell and rats down in the cities.

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  5. If that poll about 25% wanting to take up arms is true, and even if it represents the maximum number (stop laughing), that’s the most optimistic thing I’ve read in years. And I come to this blog for the optimism.

    And now apparently the memes.

    Sarah’s meme game is stronk.

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  6. And after you watch the Take on Me video, watch the literal video version. AFAIK, that was the very first literal video and it’s still one of the best.

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  7. The Patriot Post Great Wall meme doesn’t say what it thinks it’s saying.

    The Great Wall was a boondoggle. Impressive engineering, yes, but it never kept anybody out, and was a tax sink meant to show the people that the government was “doing something”. You know, like most modern government programs… except for the “impressive engineering” part.

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    1. Especially, since the lowly paid gate-keepers of the Great Wall had plenty of reasons to let the “barbarians” through the Great War.

      For one thing, they had friendlier relations with the “barbarians” than they had with the distant Chinese government. :wink:

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    2. It was aimed at the nomad tribes who lived in the wastelands beyond, and who spent much of their lives on horseback. Any wall – even a poorly maintained one – causes chokepoints for men on horseback, and is a problem for them that will slow them down. After all, horses don’t climb walls.

      The wall was constructed over the course of multiple dynasties. The earliest work was done during the Seventh Century BC, with a series of largely disconnected forts. The first emperor, Qin Shi Huan, began to build walls between those forts. Subsequent dynasties added to the work, turning it into the structure that exists today.

      Yes, it was useful. When properly maintained (which could happen when the corruption level was low, typically the case early in a dynasty’s reign), it could turn back a group of raiders on horseback. And even when the government had grown more corrupt, it represented a way for the central government to keep track of who was moving back and forth between China and the northern tribes, as records were kept of people who crossed the wall for the cross-border trade.

      The latter is more or less the purpose of the wall that exists (in an incomplete state) at our southern border. It won’t stop an actual invading military. And no one expects it to. But it can be used to stop those who would try and sneak into the country instead of using the established checkpoints.

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      1. It was constructed several times over the course of multiple dynasties. The current Wall is solely of the last building, and heavily reconstructed at that (where it works as a tourist trap).

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        1. AOC knows almost as much about history as economics. :-P
          ———————————
          Not everybody should go to college. Some folks, you send ’em to college and you just wind up with an educated idiot.

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            1. Again AOC has a Foreign Relations degree with a economics focus. This required precisely 2 economics course taught by the Foreign Relations department. Although I suspect the Economics Department at Boston University would not be an improvement as it is probably a shade of red darker Than Obumbles diapers where and thinks Keynes was a reactionary.

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            2. You’re saying AOC might have been taught less anti-history than anti-economics? :-D
              ———————————
              They’re the Experts! They only sound stupid to you because you’re not as Educated as they are.

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            3. I respectfully submit that I know more about both micro- and macroeconomics than Occasional Cortex, simply from living and watching the government.

              Maybe one day I’ll finish the popular economics book I promised Holly Lisle 18 or so years ago to prove it.

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                1. Just for interest… it turns out that Meghan Markle did not graduate from Northwestern with a double major in Theater and International Relations. No. Her bachelors was in Communications.

                  Somebody bothered to go look up the graduation program.

                  Not a reporter, mind you. Heavens, no.

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    1. That is going to have one hell of a kick. Maybe get an Ogre or Storm Giant to fire it.

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        1. Trained as a “light weapons infantryman”

          Was -good- at it.

          -enjoyed- it.

          Drafted into HHC as mailclerk.

          Sigh…..

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        2. It is what I use as a gamertag, It also relates to my (rarely posted on) blog https://tregonsee.blogspot.com/ . Why 314 you may wonder? Long ago in the 90’s when I decided to use the tag on Steam someone had tregonsee. I was going to have to add a number. 1-7 were taken (and likely further, I gave up checking at 7) and I needed a number I could remember 3.14 is of course pi to 3 places… PI I can remember.

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          1. Pi is an easy number in that regard. But of course I also highly respect the source material for the base of your handle.

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            1. Thank you. E.E. “Doc” Smith is always fun. Stumbled onto “Lensmen” in 7th grade when I found a copy of Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol (along with Skylark of Space) at a used bookstore I frequented (constantly)/ They were cheap as the rule was 1/2 cover price for the used paper backs. I think these three all had $.45 cover prices so I didn’t even blow a whole dollar on them. Triplanetary was OK, Galactic Patrol was superb. It then took my until 9th grade to fill out the rest of Lensman and Skylark series as I had to wait for them to come back into print again. Tregonsee I always kind of liked and to be honest a blocky superannuated boy scout is far closer to home than I might like to admit.

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              1. Just downloaded the Astounding versions of GP, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensman, Children of the Lens and Masters of the Vortex from Gutenberg. Having a ball.

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                1. I’ve only read the published book versions vintage 1960/1970, I think there is some minor retconning of them from the Astonding serials to fit Triplanetary (which I believe was originally not exactly part of the Lensman stream and itself retconned in) and First Lensman into things. I think Masters of the Vortex is set in the universe, but outside the main stream of flow. My copy of that fell apart long ago.

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                  1. Triplanetary was retconned by replacing a side character with Virgil Samms, then adding the six introductory chapters. First Lensman was original to the cannon. I think the original novels were edited somewhat lightly other than the new introductory material for consistency with the changes above. Have not read the magazine serial versions.

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                    1. Ah looking here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series) you are correct. First Lensman was not retconned but rather a valid prequel. First Lensman appears not to have been serialized like Galactic Patrol – Children of the Lens were. Looks like E.E. “Doc” Smith brought all of them out in book form in the late 40/s through the 50’s. An author has to eat :-) .

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                  2. True. It was originally separate. I have heard recommendations to read it after the original series for that very reason.

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                    1. Masters of the Vortex takes place between Srcond Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens but makes no reference to events in the main series beyond that. Does explore several alien species referenced in the main series in more depth.

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                  3. “Masters of the Vortex,” takes place in the 20- odd years between, “Second Stage Lensman,” and “Children of the Lens.” There’s a reference to Kinnison thrown in.

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      1. I liked the earlier one. Alas, you had to have read the book to make sense of the shorter version of the movie, and it was limited because of the SFX available at the time, but it did work.

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        1. So far Dune has had 3 iterations, the 1984 David Lynch version, the SciFi Dune and Children of Dune miniseries, and the current Villeneuve iteration. I presume the Lynch one is the one you’re talking about. Yes the released version is confusing without background knowledge. Unfortunately towards the end it goes off the deep end a bit with the concept of the weirding modules (Borrowed perhaps from the bizarre Jadorowsky attempt) and the closing rain. It’s special effects were of course all physical, and worked well enough for the period. One amusing feature is Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck.

          Part of me longs for the Jadorowsky version. It would have had Orson Welles as Baron Harkonen, Salvador Dali as the emperor, Mick Jagger as Feyd Rautha, H.R. Giger for the art. It’s script was insane (c.f. the junk Lynch borrowed) and it would have be a Charlie Foxtrot of epic proportions, but it would have been an epic Charlie Foxtrot for the centuries going down in very stylish flames…

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    1. They’re all in the Democrat PPP — Pervert Protection Program. When somebody at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting reported on Bill Gates traveling to Epstein’s Island, he was arrested and hauled out in handcuffs.

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  8. Oh by the way, the only smooth bore I want is a magnetic rail rifle that gets to a good enough fraction of the speed of light that a plasma reaction occurs when the projectile strikes the target. I get that it is still just throwing rocks, but hey what a way to throw rocks!!!

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    1. I could settle for 35 pounds of DU dart at well over 5000fps.

      On impact it shatters, but is self-sharpening. Thus, it pushes through in, and often again out.

      Meanwhile, the shattered bits are incandescent hot, and when they reach air burn vigorously.

      Anything in the path of that hot mess is shattered and incinerated. Combustibles burn. HE detonates.

      Kinetic burner.

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  9. I had several of those smooth bores back in ’76. Well, it was in my platoon, so I had signed for them. They wouldn’t let me keep one, though.

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  10. I don’t recall that Paul Atreides looked like that in the books.
    I recall the books used a serif font.

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    1. Ok NOW I have to see if I’ve still got my vintage 1968 (Ace I think) Dune paperback. I think I tossed it as its binding was breaking (paperbacks were not meant to be nearly 700 pages long). It got replaced by a SciFi Book Club edition mid 70’s, and these days I read it on my Kindle (at which point I can use one of many fonts, though I tend to use Bookerly which is a serif font :-) ).

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      1. And to answer my (silly) question my copy of Dune seems to be AWOL (on loan I think to younger daughter, she wanted to read it before the 2020 movie came out). Dune Messiah (A Sci-Fi book club edition obtained at the same time as Dune in their joining get N books for 4.95 or such like deal) has a serif font of some sort. Quick sample of same vintage paperbacks all show Serif fonts. I am not font specialist enough to guess at even the font family but all look similar to my untrained eyes.

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          1. Spacing is is clearly proportional (these are typeset after all not typewritten :-) ). Whether it is kerned, well it is not proper to ask that…

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