oldgrouch.mee.nuThe future home of oldgrouch.mee.nu.2015-11-23T17:38:48ZOld Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu/atom.xmlAnd besides, it’s ‘‘cultural appropriation’’2015-11-23T17:38:48ZAlinsky Rule #4 Dept The Telegraph:Ban Christmas ads if you don’t like religion, Church tells cinemas Cinemas should ban all Christmas adverts after refusing to screen a commercial featuring the Lord's Prayer because of its religious content, the Church of England has said. The Church is threatening to take legal action against Digital Cinema Media (DCM), which handles adverts for cinema giants Odeon, Vue and Cineworld, after it barred an advert featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury encouraging prayer. DCM told the Church the advert risked ‘‘upsetting or offending audiences’’ and pointed to its policy document barring commercials that advertised ‘‘any...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//and_besides_its_cultural_appropriation‘‘How many people do we have to kill around here to finally get our message across?’’2015-11-18T01:00:28ZMonty Python meets Islamic militancy. (A reader reacts: ‘‘Is it bad that I found that to be the funniest thing I’ve read all day and probably all week?’’) (More at --and via--...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//how_many_people_do_we_have_to_kill_around_here_to_finally_get_our_message_acrossClipfile - November 17, 20152015-11-17T04:06:24Z‘‘For years popular culture has spread the lie that Peace, Love, Togetherness and Teddy Bears trump all the evil things that men do. If we all hold hands around the Christmas Tree like the citizens of Whoville, singing carols and swaying together, we can re-start the Grinch’s heart and make it all better. ‘Violence never solves anything’ is one of the biggest lies ever told. The ability to make judicious use of force in defense of yourself, your loved ones and your social group is a primary sign of maturity, adulthood and independence. That’s why governments and socialists want to...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//clipfile_-_november_17_2015Forecast: Same old same old2015-11-17T03:44:16ZMike Hendrix on what follows:...Hey, we’ll get to have who knows how many cute little parades showing how we’re all Charlie Hebdo Paris now, and how we’re ‘‘Boston Paris strong,’’ and how we ‘‘stand in solidarity with the people of Paris,’’ and how our ‘‘universal values’’ (which aren’t universal at all) will triumph in the end even if we can’t be bothered to actually defend them beyond crying a lot and lighting some candles and building those maudlin memorials to all the people killed by our fecklessness, cowardice, and inattention every time another of these Moslem slaughters even occurs. So...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//forecast_same_old_same_oldBeyond talk?2015-11-15T21:50:14Z‘‘CBD,’’ blogging at Ace:Last night, barely 24 hours after the cowardly Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris claimed the lives of so many innocents, I experienced something that was both reassuring and oddly disturbing. I was eating with family in a French bistro in Manhattan (A good one. If anyone wants the name I will e-mail it.) when, half way through the meal, to a packed restaurant, one of the waiters, a late-middle-aged woman, climbed the stairs to the second floor and belted out an excellent rendition of ‘‘La Marseillaise,’’ the French national anthem. All of the patrons stood, and many...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//beyond_talkClipfile - October 14, 20152015-10-14T18:20:41Z‘‘The problem with slash and burn leftism is that eventually you run out of other people’s culture.’’ - ‘‘JCStephens,’’ commenting at...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//clipfile_-_october_14_2015Clipfile - October 1, 20152015-10-01T17:25:09Z‘‘Because true education has been replaced with third-rate credentialing and fourth-rate political propaganda, modern ‘sophistication’ is nothing more than a set of pre-packaged political & social views and a set of pretentious, often poorly thought out, fashion preferences. There’s really nothing sophisticated about it.’’ - ‘‘wdalasio,’’ commenting at...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//clipfile_-_october_1_2015Organizational capture at Wesleyan2015-09-24T18:34:08ZSJWs Always Lie Dept Daily Pundit:That train is never late…. There’s a kerfuffle going on at Wesleyan University over an op-ed piece the student newspaper, The Argus, published recently... The response — a petition signed by roughly 150 students and faculty — is predictably rich in the variety and inanity of its demands, yet as fascinating as these details are, there is a leitmotif that runs through the outrage — one as familiar to us as the sound of coins clinking in a pocket. It appears that, in the eyes of the petitioners, the Argus is insufficiently diverse, in part...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//organizational_capture_at_wesleyanStock up on coal?2015-09-18T22:37:02ZYour Government Inaction Dept Trains:BNSF Railway’s chief executive, Carl Ice, said September 9 that BNSF would in effect shut down most of its network rather than violate a federal law mandating that positive train control be operational by December 31. CSX Transportation has said it, too, questions whether it should violate federal laws, and other Class I carriers are likely to follow suit. This set up the real possibility of a national transportation crisis at the beginning of 2016... ... BNSF reads the law as saying no train can legally operate on a PTC-mandated line if PTC is not in...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//stock_up_on_coalHow they lie2015-09-16T21:34:40ZPassive voice, missing details, spontaneous happenings:HEAD: Jewish Man Dies as Rocks Pelt His Car in East Jerusalem ... COPY: A Jewish man died early Monday morning after attackers pelted the road he was driving on with rocks as he was returning home from a dinner celebrating Rosh Hashana...Etc., etc. Oh, it’s the New York Times. ‘‘Unexpectedly.’’ Elsewhere: Instapundit: Politics and The English Languagefrom Skeptical Thinker’s comment: In the left-wing Hebrew press, the distinction in even greater than in English, because ‘‘progressive’’ writers don’t even use the passive voice, which at least implies somebody threw the rocks or fired the shots....Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//how_they_lieCrony Capitalists ‘‘Endorse’’ Trump?2015-09-15T21:07:32ZIndirectly......A key group of business leaders is pretty clear about who they think will come out on top, according to the latest CNBC Global CFO Council survey. The CFO Council represents some of the largest public and private companies in the world and collectively manages more than $2 trillion in market capitalization across a wide variety of sectors. Of the 34 council members, 19 (or 56 percent) of the council responded to this quarter’s survey. More than 72 percent of members of the council surveyed earlier this month say Jeb Bush will in fact win the Republican nomination.That was June....Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//crony_capitalists_endorse_trumpClipfile - August 29, 20152015-08-29T15:25:28Z‘‘One problem with rewarding the lesser of two evils is that the lesser doesn’t learn that it is evil.’’ - ‘‘anamax,’’ commenting at...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//clipfile_-_august_29_2015Clipfile - August 16, 20152015-08-16T18:56:44Z‘‘The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected’’ - G.K....Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//clipfile_-_august_16_2015Clipfile - July 12, 20152015-07-12T18:31:20Z‘‘Where do we stop? We stop when we stop offending liberals/progressives, of course. The fact that there is no stopping point with these microaggression-paranoid, politically correct totalitarians doesn’t matter. We don’t stop altering our "offensive†ways of life and accoutrements until they say so.’’ - Elizabeth Price...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//clipfile_-_july_12_2015Political Illegitimacy2015-07-10T20:00:40Z‘rdbrewer,’ in the Ace sidebar:In 15th century England, Courts of Chancery developed when people became unsatisfied with remedies found in increasingly rigid and corrupt common-law courts. They petitioned the king, and Chancery Courts were created. Similarly, we are in a position of needing a new court devoted exclusively to public corruption, because when the Department of Justice will not investigate or prosecute the most heinous public corruption--and, indeed, when they’re in on it--there must be another place to turn: another investigative agency, another court. This banana republic reduction in political legitimacy in America cannot be allowed to...Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nu//political_illegitimacy