It looks like one single juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial is refusing to acquit. The defense wants him removed. The judge gave instructions that push the sole resisting decent juror to acquit. It’s extremely hard to stand against a crowd. I pray that this one brave person has strength and stays firm, giving us at least a hope of a subsequent retrial for the murder.
A woman from church has a daughter who started high school this year. She has to be at school at 7:15 a.m. If she wants to take the school bus, she has to be outside waiting for it at 6:05 in the morning.
Can anybody explain to me why high school has to start so early? Why can’t it start at 9 a.m.? It’s not like the children are learning much there anyway. I understand that in earlier grades, school acts in the capacity of a glorified babysitter and has to start early so that parents can get to work on time. But high schoolers can be at home alone in the mornings. They don’t need their parents there, so if the parents have to leave for work earlier, that’s not a problem. Why are teenagers tortured with these ridiculously early risings?
I know another woman from my work who also has a teenager in the same high school. Her kid is very smart, and she takes either advanced placement classes or something similar. For some reason, she has to do them before the school day begins. The poor child is up at 5:00 every morning in order to be able to make it to school on time. Lack of sleep is terrible for teenagers who have growing bodies and need adequate rest. It leads to weight gain and depression. There is no practical reason that I can see to start high school classes so early.
What am I not understanding? I ask this question in good faith, and I am very grateful when people explain the realities of the American culture with which I am unfamiliar.
Women were displaced from the top of the oppression pyramid by a large number of other groups. White heterosexual women in particular can no longer successfully claim victimhood status because non-whites, transgenders, and Palestinians have pushed them out of the running. Victimhood is the currency in liberalism. If you don’t have victimhood, you are status-poor.
White heterosexual women are staging a comeback at the ongoing oppression Olympics. Lindsay Clancy is their mascot. Her value to them is that she holds no other traditionally pitiful identity. She is white, wealthy, and married. Her supporters claim that she is a victim solely because she has female physiology.
It is not in the least irrational to act in the interests of your group. The cause of the dysfunction lies in the mentality that rewards victimhood. If being pitiful is rewarded, people will claw each other’s eyes out to prove that they are more pitiful than others. What bigger victory in the status game of victimhood can you possibly want, than getting your mascot off for a triple murder that carries not a tinge of self-defense?
During yesterday’s show, I spoke about the profound breach that formed in the early 1990s in the post-Soviet space between the people who had managed to inscribe themselves into capitalism and those who hadn’t. The capitalism that came to the post-Soviet space was fully neoliberal. It was nothing like the capitalism that at that time existed in developed countries.
Neoliberalism was tried at first at the peripheries of the global economy. It was done, introduced slowly, into the center. It accelerated after the global economic crisis of 2008 everywhere. We are now experiencing a similar split here in the United States between those who are inscribing themselves into the neoliberal economy and those who are not managing to do that.
I am a lot kinder and understanding towards the non-inscribed Americans than to the non-inscribed post-Soviets. The non-inscribed post-Soviets were clinging to socialism, a system that did not work and could not work. The non-inscribed Americans today are nostalgic for a system that did work. It was a kinder, gentler capitalism of nation-states. The non-inscribed Soviets want something worse than what they were getting. The non-inscribed Americans want something better, something that they used to have and that is being taken away from them.
I’m completely pro capitalism, but I’m pro the previous form of capitalism than the one that is currently coming into existence.
My mom and me, age four.
My facial expression in the photo is not accidental.
Klara is making plans for the week.
“Today I’m going to be Blizzard the Dolphin,” she says ponderously. “Then tomorrow I will be Squirrel Nutkin.”
What an amazing age when you can be Squirrel Nutkin and commit to the bit with complete seriousness.
On the way to school this morning, we talked about how different parts of the Bible resonate with each other and how some things that appear later in the scripture are introduced in the earlier books of the Bible. Klara started the conversation, giving some examples that her teacher discussed in class. And then I gave more examples, and we analyzed them together.
This is why ten is such a wonderful age. On the one hand, there’s still the unselfconsciousness of declaring yourself to be Squirrel Nutkin, but on the other, the child is grown enough to have truly interesting, deep conversations.
Speaking of tapings, I’m going on live in 30 minutes about the midterm elections in the US:
One thing that slightly exasperates me in my career as a pundit is that people pay a lot of attention to my physical appearance. I’m not trying to position myself as a beauty blogger or a fashion guru. All I ever talk about is politics. But people notice and comment incessantly on every detail of hair, makeup, and outfits.
Here on the blog, I like and appreciate when readers make comments about how I looked during my appearances. Here we talk about everything, and we’ve got a cozy family-like environment. I don’t mind coming off as goofy and weird or making mistakes on the blog.
But outside of this space, it’s different. For instance, I have two tapings one after another with two different shows. I need two completely different outfits because one show is live and the other will be published the next day. If I appear in the same clothes, it will be discussed until the Second Coming that I go around in the same clothes for a week and what a shame that such a smart, interesting person is a total slob. Then somebody will call my mom with these comments, and I will really never hear the end of it.
We are such a backwater. It’s really cute. These baggy pants that have been insanely popular among young girls are finally going out of fashion:
But in our town, I saw them for the first time on a teenage girl yesterday. She is now undoubtedly a fashion icon in her middle school. We always catch up with these fashion trends two years after the fact, looking like a cute little time capsule.
OK, this is going to be a first:
I never get a chance to say this, so thank you for the opportunity, but no, I haven’t read the novel. I’ve seen the movie, though.
To be honest, I had no idea there was a novel. The David Cronenberg movie is a masterpiece. It’s one of my favorite movies. Strangely, I never investigated where it came from, and it’s a bit of a shock to discover after all this time that there is a novel behind the film.
Hah! There’s actually a book, wow. I don’t think I’m going to read it because I’m too attached to the film. Plus, what’s great about the movie is that there is no story. It’s all about the image, the sound, the feel. It’s also such a perfect 1990s movie.
I want to watch more movies, but nobody makes masterpieces like Crash any longer.
A conservative literary critic and college professor
No, it was proper for the judge to do that it’s called a Dynamite Charge, it’s supposedly meant to encourage…
I listened to the instruction the judge gave to the jury. It’s probably not illegal, but he came very close.…
Well, Kid, we have all seen the behavior and the polls, and it should not surprise anybody. We have had…
The kids would certainly get more out of school if they ditched the “social emotional learning” and other idiotic waste-of-time…
https://www.newsweek.com/lindsay-clancy-verdict-judges-jury-actions-may-be-dangerous-expert-12402400 Judge seems to be on shaky legal ground in this particular case. It is not that uncommon, from what…
Yes, that’s the one! AP History. I completely agree that classes shouldn’t end later. My suggestion is that the overall…
I know the exact school you are referencing and the class he is taking at 6 AM is AP US…
How can a judge push a juror to make any decision? Isn’t it against the law? (maybe I’m naive).
11 stupid bitches of both sexes, more like.
That’s… disheartening. Even pre-internet, our local Catholic school was basically the same as public school, but with tuition and a…
No, definitely don’t cut sports and extracurriculars. Those are good. The hours of instruction should be cut. For example, this…
Sort of the converse of “Twelve Angry Men”
It sounds as though the school may be using a schedule with shifts. My HS long ago did this: 10th…
It started in the fourth grade. The system is glitchy and stupid, but the school purchased a subscription, so now…
Online homework? At her age? Ugh. I’m out of the loop, not having kids in school. We could have started…
I started on the screens, and that’s really getting to me online homework platforms that we managed to avoid last…
For socialization reasons alone, I would consider homeschooling through the middle-school years ;) In our state, kids who can test…
The problem was that the apartheid succeeded so well that the majority of whites became middle class and there just…
Well, as Rhodesia/Zimbabwe demonstrates, the problem was never race as much as culture.
SA military in WW2 were all volunteers. It was the apartheid military who were conscripts. I heard from an SA…
But Kid, surely we are all equal in every way manner, shape. and form ;-D
It’s mostly so the school day can end earlier, allowing teens to have time for sports, clubs, and other extra…
Yes, “streaming” at high school was actually the norm until the ’70’s which to some degree helped. But unless you…
Oops, missing sentence: … working-class Whites were left to their inglorious destiny.
Wasn’t the White (Afrikaner) working class the backbone of the whole system? Without the White working class underpinning the whole…
We will never need a school bus, but still having to be at school by 7:30 in the morning is…
I’ve heard people explain that even though everyone knows teenagers biologically need later start times, the schools insist on earlier…
“It leads to weight gain and depression.” That’s your practical reason. Alas.
I’m looking at the public opinion polls, and it’s deeply concerning how often young women say that they don’t like…
In SA, the laissez faire model of Smuts failed because it couldn’t deliver for white working classes. The post apartheid…
They use the same buses for elementary/middle/high schools, in most places. This means they have to stagger the start times.…
I’m starting to reach the same conclusion: there is simply no other explanation for these ridiculous policies. If somebody sees…
When I go looking for these stats, I cannot find them. You can get overall rates, victim rates by gender……
A lot of American ‘educational’ policies only make sense if you assume that the school administrators insisting on them actually…
“The non-inscribed Americans today are nostalgic for a system that did work. It was a kinder, gentler capitalism of nation-states.” …
In SA, the brutal laissez faire model of capitalism died with Smuts in 1950. It was replaced by the even…
In SA, one of the legacies of apartheid is people finding other champions and cheering against the national team. https://observer.co.uk/news/sport/article/i-just-like-what-they-stand-for-the-cape-crusaders-welcome-all-blacks-to-south-africa
Oh yes. Stats on women rapists are on the rise. For some magical reasons, women got all rapey. It’s a…
I read the second link first and then saw Tamra’s photo in the first link. Which… yeah. Definitely makes an…
Addendum: Does he go in the crime stats as a woman, too? Like, did “female” crime rates just jump exponentially…
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