Profiles in Toxic Masculinity, Part 5
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
The fellow to the right looks like a banker, stockbroker, maybe a corporate executive of some type, doesn’t he? A solid, stable, reliable, boring guy, one you’d never find pulling off anything dangerous or exciting.
What he was, in fact, was something completely different. This character is Roy Chapman Andrews, one of the most groundbreaking scientists of the early 20th century, a pioneer in dinosaur paleontology, possibly one of the inspirations for the character of Indiana Jones, and a considerable badass in several different ways.
His Maculate Origin
Roy Chapman Andrews was born to Charles and Cora Chapman Andrews in 1884 in an unassuming house on an unassuming street in the unassuming town of Beloit, Wisconsin. He spent a good part of his youth wandering the hills and fields around Beloit, becoming a crack shot, a careful amateur naturalist and a taxidermist. It was his skill at that latter avocation that leveraged him into Beloit College and in part paid for that education.
He graduated that institution in the year of 1906, with a degree in English and classes in archaeology and evolution added to the mix. He was determined to move into the larger world. And so, on leaving Beloit College, the young Andrews made his way to New York City, where he determined that he would enter employment at The American Museum of Natural History. To that end he arranged to speak to the Museum’s Director, one Dr. Bumpus, who in the course of the interview dashed the young Andrews’ hopes – almost, as Andrews himself describes in his autobiography Under A Lucky Star – A Lifetime of Adventure:
At last he said, regretfully, that there wasn’t a position of any kind open in the Museum. My heart dropped into my shoes. Finally I blurted out, “I’m not asking for a position. I just want to work here. You have to have someone to clean the floors. Couldn’t I do that?” “But,” he said, “a man with a college education doesn’t want to clean floors!” “No,” I said, “not just any floors. But the Museum floors are different. I’ll clean them and love it, if you’ll let me.” [i]
He did indeed end up starting his career mopping floors. But young Andrews was destined for greater things, as his subsequent career proved beyond anyone’s capacity to doubt.
His One-Man War Adventures
For a man who is best remembered today for his adventures in various deserts pursuing dinosaur bones, it is surprising to some that Andrews first earned his adventuring stripes chasing snakes, lizards and whales.
Scarcely had he entered his employment at the American Museum of Natural History than the young Andrews found himself packed off aboard the USS Albatross to the East Indies, where he collected various reptile specimens and watched marine mammals at play. This led to an interest in whales, and soon Andrews was in British Columbia at a whaling station, where he went to sea on the schooner Adventuress to try to obtain a bowhead whale skeleton for the Museum. In this Andrews was uncharacteristically unsuccessful, but he did obtain some sterling film footage of seals, the best that had ever been available to the American public at that point.
But careering around the ocean in whaling vessels quickly grew boring for Andrews; something more exotic was in order. In 1914 he had married Yvette Borup, and in 1916, with his new wife along for the adventure, Andrews led an expedition across China’s southern and western provinces, cataloging the flora and fauna of that area.
It was in 1920, however, that the plans Andrews’ most well-known adventures began to take shape.
Bear in mind that the automobile was still kind of a brand-new thing in the early 1920s. But Andrews wasn’t afraid of breaking new ground in more than just looking for fossils, so her determined to take a fleet of Dodge automobiles west out of Peking and into the Mongolian deserts, there to seek fossils. The automobiles and personnel were assembled, and in 1921 the group set out.
Mongolia in those days wasn’t the most stable of places; armed bandits were everywhere, and so were corrupt provincial police, little better than bandits themselves. But the fossil pickings were rich. Andrews’ expedition uncovered fossils of indricotheres, a giant hornless rhino four times as heavy as an elephant, and the rhino-sized hoofed carnivore that was named after him, Andrewsarchus.
Human fossils were also a goal, as Andrews adhered to the then-popular “Out of Asia” theory of human origins, which posited that mankind’s ancient ancestors arose in Asia, but while fossils of the creature now known as Homo erectus were found in China in 1923 (then described as Pithecanthropus or “Peking Man”) Andrews’ group was not destined to find any early human remains. In fact, in 1924, anthropologist Raymond Dart found the first fossil of an australopithecine in South Africa, the “Taung child” later classified as Australopithecus africanus. It is not known whether this discover dissuaded Andrews from the “Out of Asia” theory.
Andrews’ adventures in Mongolia were not entirely peaceable. On one occasion he and a partner were driving down a desert valley when they were ambushed by bandits. The bandits fired several shots at Andrews’ automobile, but as befitting a man with a big brass pair, the heroic explorer from Beloit just wasn’t having any of it. As Andrews himself described it, he and his partner drove into a canyon, grabbed rifles and set up to ambush their ambushers:
Soon our potential murderers started to climb down the cliff, evidently bent on finishing off what they had begun. But we weren’t having any. Charlie picked one fellow silhouetted against the sky. I lined my sights on another in front. Bang, bang went our rifles. Charlie’s client sat down suddenly and rolled over. Mine did a magnificent swan dive right off the cliff. The other three ducked back among the rocks. It must have been a bit of a surprise to them. [ii]
Apparently, Andrews was a fan of Savage rifles. From the horseback photo here, it appears Andrews favored the 99 Savage lever guns, which gives me another reason to add one to my collection. In another photo he appears with what looks like a Model 20 Savage lying on a rock nearby. I have not yet found a photo that clearly shows the revolver he routinely carried, although he describes it as a .38. That covers a lot of ground, six-gun wise.
It was on July 23rd, 1923, that Andrews and his team made the discovery that he is best remembered for today. On that fateful day, one of the party uncovered several oval objects in Cretaceous strata and went back to camp joking about having found dinosaur eggs. Andrews returned to the site and determined that yes, these were indeed fossilized dinosaur eggs – the first ever found. Initially thought to be from the common Cretaceous ceratopsian Protoceratops, the eggs were many years later found to belong to a species of oviraptor. But dinosaur eggs they were, the very first; Andrews wrote about that day:
Then our indifference suddenly evaporated. It was certain they really were eggs. Three of them were exposed and evidently had broken out of the sandstone ledge beside which they lay. Other shell fragments were partially embedded in the rock and just under the shelf we could see the ends of two more eggs. [iii]
In 1927, the first rounds of the Chinese Civil War began, wherein the Kuomintang-led government was battling for control of the country against Chinese communists. We all know now how that turned out, but at the time it was beginning to be very dicey indeed for a band of American dinosaur hunters. After some wrangling with bureaucrats and much difficulty in getting specimens released for export – and after one incident wherein Andrews and colleagues fled down a gravel road in their automobile with machine-gun bullets cracking past their ears, escaping only after a Chinese officer directed them to drive down the ditch to escape the worst of the fire. After this even Andrews had had enough. He described the aftermath of their narrow escape thusly:
It was a difficult job to navigate over the plowed ground, but somehow we got to the gate of Peking and into the city. The experience affected each of us differently. I had been so busy driving that there was no time to be scared; or at least not to give in to the feeling. I had got the other fellows into the jam and had to get them out. But once back in Peking I felt awfully weak and sick. One of the other men who was staying with me had been perfectly cool throughout the entire performance and afterward. At two o’clock the next morning he went into violent hysterics. I had a beautiful time getting him back to normal. [iv]
His Golden Years
Andrews returned to the United States in 1930. In 1934, he ascended to the Director’s chair in the Museum of Natural History, where he had begun his employment mopping floors. He had chronicled many of his adventures prior to this, but on his retirement to California (which was not nearly as nutty a place then as it is today) in 1942, he began writing in earnest, churning out memoirs and tales of adventure which were all the more gripping because he really lived them. His published works include:
- Monographs of the Pacific Cetacea (1914–16)
- Whale Hunting With Gun and Camera (1916)
- Camps and Trails in China (1918)
- Across Mongolian Plains (1921)
- On The Trail of Ancient Man (1926)
- Ends of the Earth (1929)
- The New Conquest of Central Asia (1932)
- This Business of Exploring (1935)
- Exploring with Andrews (1938)
- This Amazing Planet (1939)
- Under a Lucky Star (1943)
- Meet your Ancestors, A Biography of Primitive Man (1945)
- An Explorer Comes Home (1947)
- My Favorite Stories of the Great Outdoors Editor (1950)
- Quest in the Desert (1950)
- Heart of Asia: True Tales of the Far East (1951)
- Nature’s Way: How Nature Takes Care of Her Own (1951)
- All About Dinosaurs (1953)
- All About Whales (1954)
- Beyond Adventure: The Lives of Three Explorers (1954)
- Quest of the Snow Leopard (1955)
- All About Strange Beasts of the Past (1956)
- In the Days of the Dinosaurs (1959)
If time allows you to read only one, make it his Under A Lucky Star.
Roy Chapman Andrews passed away on March 11, 1960 and was buried in his hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin. He left behind him a legacy of adventure that few could match. Today’s batch of scientists seem poor stuff by comparison to the gun-toting, hellraising, fearless Roy Chapman Andrews.
[i] Andrews, Roy Chapman. Under a Lucky Star – A Lifetime of Adventure. Read Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
[ii] ibid
[iii] ibid
[iv] ibid
Comments
284 responses to “Profiles in Toxic Masculinity V: Roy Chapman Andrews”
Roy Chapman Andrews was born to Charles and Cora Chapman Andrews in 1994.
Possible error?
Argh. 1884. 1884! Edit fairy, please?
Don’t sweat it. Fun read.
It’s was a great read. Be careful summoning edit fairies. You never know which will appear?
John Titor confirmed
?
LOL, now he’s graduated from college at 12.
?
Doogie Hauser ?
!
Wings’ son?
“indricotheres, a giant hornless rhino four times as heavy as an elephant”
Damn that was a big critter. Awesome article, Animal. Moar, pleez!
One of the largest land mammals to ever exist; its relative Paraceratherium was the largest, upper estimates putting it at 15 feet high at the shoulder and up to 20 tons in weight.
“There’s good eatin’ on a Paraceratherium.”
Always a fun read, Animal.
I was fascinated by those critters and others like them as a child. What th ehell would you use to hunt something like that? Most likely just tip toe by and hope they don’t see you.
Man portable anti-tank – nothing organic is going stop a shaped charge. Or the indirect approach – poison, luring them off a cliff etc.
Roy Chapman Andrews was born to Charles and Cora Chapman Andrews in 1994
So bad-assed the time traveling bit is hardly worth delving into.
Late AND wrong. Congrats.
Hey Swiss, Sorry to hear about your Mum. Hope she’s doing better and gets back to health soon.
Thanks – It is … not going well. I will probably disappear for more days soon.
Sorry, buddy. Thinking about you and your family.
I’m sorry.
So sorry. Sending good vibes.
Hope for everyone’s sake the news gets better.
I see that development in a lot of people’s lives. Feel free to contact me if you think I might be able to help. Unfortunately, specifics (care facilities, etc.) are always very local, but I’d be happy to talk about what I know.
Best wishes, Swiss. I hope she has an upturn.
Sorry to hear this, good luck.
That’s a bummer. I hope it turns for the better.
All the good stuff has been pillaged by now. What’s a young man to do these days?
Call people racist on Twitter?
STEVE SMITH SAY – NO PILLAGE? STILL RAPE!
Added to my Amazon shopping list.
Interesting article. Thanks Animal.
Times have changed, haven’t they. Still adventure to be found I suppose. Question about this sentence: On that fateful day, one of the party uncovered several oval objects in Cretaceous strata and went back to camp joking about having found dinosaur eggs.
Picking up my English from Sherwood Schwartz has me thinking that “fateful” is for bad events. Why was that day “fateful”?
Fateful isn’t inherently negative; it just means something having momentous consequences. In this case, it dramatically added to our understanding of paleontology, even if the initial conclusions were wrong. As animal noted, the eggs were originally thought to belong to protoceratops, with oviraptor attempting to steal them, oviraptor itself meaning egg thief. Together with discoveries of miaisaurus this find indicated that dinosaurs actively brooded and protected their younghunting their link to birds and further removing them from lizards in both anatomy and behavior.
It’s the word’s connection with “fatal” that threw me off. The overall point wasn’t lost. Just getting clarity.
No worries, I was just filling why the find was important. I had a mock paleontology dig when I was a kid modeled after this particular find, where plastic bones where embedded in soft plaster ‘rock’ the same way they where discovered by Andrews; many hours where spent by a young caput digging them out and assembling the skeletons and reading the book that came with it, so this brought back nerdy memories.
The oviraptor in question likely laid those eggs and died protecting them.
That’s the current thought. We’ve got better technology now and with better x-rays the eggs definitely belonged to the oviraptor. So although the brooding and protective nature was attributed to the wrong dinosaur at first it was still there. Oviraptorans are now believed to have fed on hard shelled mollusks like clams instead of on eggs.
In this context, it is good.
Vitally affecting subsequent events; being of great consequence; momentous.
“Momentous” is what I was thinking. I simply haven’t heard “fateful” used in nonnegative situations for a while. Was wondering if I missed some context.
I would tend to naturally use phrases like “lucky day” for days where the fates shine upon one.
Nice article, Animal. Thanks. I like his telling of how he was fine being shot at in the moment, but many hours later had to re-acquaint themselves with reality.*
(*Can confirm said experience).
Bah. Why wait? I had my sphincter slam shut so hard that people though a church bell had rung.
But the eyes on the other hand…
Gaze, Narrowed, 1 each.
Ya know, Swiss, it’s weird. I’ve had enough of these near-death thingies to have noticed that while there are generalities that can be made, one never really *knows* in the moment how one’s body/mind will react. Or even later, really.
I’ve had incidents that required me to make a conscious effort to clench my sphincter to keep from shitting myself (Mailer’s “The Naked and the Dead” does a good job of capturing this, I think). I’ve also had incidents that happened so fast, it was over before there was any real time to process what happened, hence no sphincter-clencher, just limbic brain reaction.
And I have also had incidents that in the helo community we affectionately refer to as “sucking seat cushion up one’s ass.”
Good times!
This.
I think when there is some direct action to be taken, to mitigate the issue, you occupy your mind with the action rather than the fear. You get the shakes after it’s over.
But you never know how you’ll react until you’re there.
Ozzy and Frank speak the truth.
It was his skill at that latter avocation that leveraged him into Beloit College and in part paid for that education. – I know people who went to that college. bunch of lefties.
Yes. I grew up not far south of there….used to be a decent school…has gone to PC Hell now.
You know how Beloit got its name? The original settlers stopped there, and determined they should set up a village there…They were discussing the prospective name for it, when a Blackhawk Indian came out of the woods, and dropped a stone into one of their chamberpots….”be-loit!”
you don’t say….
I do say!
That’s far too common of the small liberal arts colleges. Many used to be intellectually challenging places that produced well rounded educated men and women.
They were the area Men’s College. Rockford College was for the ladies. Beloit College had turned out some high powered alumni…they have a respectable endowment for a school of their size. The original donors would be puking if they could see the place now.
Reed College nods in agreement.
Great story, Animal. Thanks for sharing this. It’s sad we don’t hear more stories about guys like this in the popular media.
Much problematic. So wypipo.
Too shit-lordy.
Well he did use guns to protect himself, so problematic.
And against brownpipo who were just defending their paleontological treasures from imperialist looters.
Cool article Animal! This warrants further research as this is my first introduction to this extraordinary toxic male.
OT: My google news feed gave me this gem which I’d like to hear a Glib perspective on:
https://unherd.com/2019/09/social-mobility-wont-bring-social-justice/
I can’t tell what they are really getting at other than maybe our TOP MEN need to rethink their position? Either way its evil social engineering all the way down.
force hot dumb chicks to fuck nerdy guys to spread the genes around
^THIS IS WHAT THE ALT-RIGHT ACTUALLY BELIEVES^
Third- and fourth-wave feminism’s subtext is to force hot guys to fuck them. Enthusiastically. And get rid of all those blonde bimbos.
something, something U-theory.
I hate to admit this, but I don’t understand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
The theory that once you go so far to the Left or Right, you reach a position that is indistinguishable from the other extreme.
Example: Feminists started out promoting free and open sex, but they have become more and more extreme over the years and now advocate these ideas that are sexually repressive: affirmative consent, claiming that porn objectifies women, etc. They have now reached Victorian-level priggishness about sexuality.
Oh, thank you so much!
FTFY
“nobody wanted to have sex with them”
Turns out being a dour harpy doesn’t drive men wild with desire……who knew?!
Greta would do well to take notice…..who am I kidding, she’ll find a skinny soi boi to make miserable and God help him if he ever stands up for himself
They turn into dour harpies after their best efforts to get laid come to naught.
Women can almost always get laid in a first-world country…if they accept their limitations.
That too.
It’s subtly done, Bob-Bob, but here are the “tells:”
und
Now, read between the lines. If you’re smart you’ll be expected to stay in your home village and live essentially the same life as the ditch-digger. It’s a complete justification for building the world Ayn Rand described in “Anthem.”
This is the one for me where she really tipped her hand. As Kinnath said; Fuck off slaver.
in other words easy movement of the clever and motivated
In other words: “You want to improve your lot in life? Fuck You you’re supposed to be a plebe”. Really makes you think about what kind of people these people are.
Yeah, it kind of confused me at first because Unherd seems to be a anti-SJW site (they even publish Titania McGrath). Which is why I thought I might be missing something. This just seems to be arguing for a slightly different flavor of social engineering and centralized planning.
That was another quote I considered using.
It is difficult to argue against meritocracy.
And yet, you’re going to do it anyway.
Fuck off slaver.
It is difficult to argue against meritocracy. – no it is not.
I have no issue with merit. I don’t like -cracies.
I like liberty. Merit is often taken as the right top men ruling. Or merit is taken as different from what the free market provides, hence all the lefty “intelectuals”
I never think of meritocracy in the Government sense. Much more in the social hierarchy sense. And even there its not perfect. In the Government sense there isn’t meritocracy, just technocrats trying to impose their grand plans.
And a bunch of lazy bureaucrats under them working just hard enough to not get fired, half-assedly implementing them.
To understand the argument against meritocracy, you first have to understand the term. Meritocracy is usually taken for meaning people are accorded opportunity in relation to their achievements or abilities. If that were the nature of it, I’d say it was mostly a good thing. But, that’s not really what the people who first proposed the idea meant or intended. Merit, or worth, wasn’t something that would be evaluated on an ongoing basis by ongoing observation of one’s accomplishments and achievements, at least in the original conception. It was something that would be determined by the state at the outset of one’s life and those with adequate “merit” would form a leadership caste that would rule society. It had a lot more in common with, say, a Confusion bureaucracy than the outcomes of a market free-for-all.
It’s not a good thing, at least in its original conception.
In kinnath’s meritocracy, everyone gets what they earn whether it be gold or steel.
Tiddies?
The point is that no matter how much people are able to rise or fall by their own merits, it won’t be justice until power is wrested from the people into the hands of the “benevolent” few. Naturally they will administer society like the good colonial rulers did.
This is what these proggies believe. They need to pick the winners and losers to make life fair…
The author also assumes that intelligence is the only predictor for success; it’s not. People of average ability from stable, supportive families who value education and upward mobility do very well in our society. They continue to believe that they can throw lots of other people’s money at the problem and achieve equality of outcome; they can’t. The moment that kids gets off the Head Start bus to her home at the housing project she is immersed in a culture of victimhood, hopelessness, distrust, and willful ignorance. They also feel that mandating “mixed-income” communities will also fix this through osmosis; it won’t.
Also success is subjective. what is success? Becoming President? Being rich? Having a happy and stable marriage? Not Murdering people? Having more orphans than the Glib a mile down the road?
Crushing your enemies in battle, driving them before you, and listening to the lamentation of their women.
/Raises drinking skull and harrumphs mightily
So you are saying nothin beats persistance?
No.
Talent can take you many places.
Drive can also take you many places (frequently different places).
The exceptional generally have both talent and drive (though rarely in equal measure).
That was a refference to a quote 🙂
oops
FIFY
True, and that makes the issue worse. Those that leave for opportunities in the wie world don’t just take their IQs they take their habits and outlooks.
I took a psych class way, way back in the old days.
They described an experiment where they put rats in a cage with an electrified wire floor. They could turn on the electricity to either end of the cage separately or to both sides a the same time.
First, they turned the electricity on one end only. The rats would scamper to the other end where they weren’t getting shock.
Second, they turned on the electricity to both sides at the same time. The rats would scamper about trying to find a safe place. Eventually, the rats would sit still and just suffer the pain.
Finally, the turned on the electricity to one side only. The rats would just sit there at take it without trying to find safety first.
This experiment was repeated with low-income communities and public housing.
Also, if they don’t struggle with mental illness.
Excluding many journalists who seem to keep succeeding to get published despite their lack of talent and apparent mental illnesses.
If you want to find mixed-income communities, they are alive and well – in rural America. You know, the places that progressives hate with all their passion because they are all unplanned communities.
Those places are also often racially integrated. Black dudes smoke meth with white dudes in peace in rural Ohio.
Same in Rural Ontario. I can see the PC culture slowly creeping in up here, but it isn’t yet dominant.
Beloit isn’t real Wisconsin.
yeah I hear those students can really hold their alcohol unlike the Wisconsinites
Yeah, they hold it until someone else wants a drink.
The world needs waiters and waitresses too!
Also, you mention Peking Man. There is an interesting documentary on the subject. The specimen disappeared and the grandson of the American who found it went to try and find it.
Is that akin to saying ‘not real socialism?’
“They hardly drink any brandy, their cheese consumption is pathetically low, and let us not even begin to discuss the paucity of Packers flags and Bucky Badger wear!!!! Can’t even find a supper club near there. Harumph!””
We drove past his house, and I genuflected.
Completely OT (because I’m in a workshop and can’t focus on the article): I’m in an “Implicit Bias” workshop. And the guest speaker just mentioned a discussion she has with someone at their host institute. Apparently, this other person asks the guest speaker on occasion about whether studies have been replicated. The guest speaker’s response is, I kid you not, to tell this person that the studies “have not not been replicated.” And, no, that’s not a typo.
yell bitches be crazy as loud as you can
Please. That’s not even the worst you could do. The best is to pretend to be earnest but asking a completly triggering question.
Ask, “What about when their are valid reasons to be biased? [INSERT COMMON STEREOTYPE IN YOUR INDUSTRY] is something i’ve seen and i was wondering how you account for that?”
I’m sorry for you Raven. Either the speaker is an idiot and really doesn’t know what replicability means and why that matters, or is a disingenuous shitweasel. Possibly both.
Replication would imply the need for validation. Once the “study” finally produced the result they wanted there was no need to do it again.
replicated studies = bias = RACIST!
Why would you need to replicate them? Do you think the studies might be
:Dons Sunglasses:
… biased?
“We’re so much better than our competitors, no one else can replicate us.”
Your implicit bias is clear from your asking about replication. Replication, like logic and evidence is a dog whistle for white supremacy. If you valued POC you would understand that you can’t expect them to use logic or evidence or replicable studies.
Although, to be fair, assuming POC are too stupid to do science is not implicit bias
F**K: now we’re into a privilege pissing match. The South Asians and the gay male are worried that they have “maxed out their privilege” because the presenter has been emphasizing women and African Americans.
gay
Let me guess the presenter is a White Woman?
You forgot unattractive.
New term of phrase I recently ran across – BAWL – Boomer Angry Women Liberals.
So several of my aunts are BAWLS?
I can start saying “I don’t want to go to the reunion if that one pair of saggy BAWLS is going to be hanging around”
Maybe. She’s older so I reserve judgment.
Yes.
I don’t know how the hell you don’t just get up and walk out of that.
Required because of specific circumstances in which I find myself this year.
?
Sounds like a real unifying experience that is sure to increase morale and productivity.
Yeah, that’s what it will do….
And yet they want to be taken seriously.
I’ve said before, a lot of people think these sorts are after money and power. I think that diagnosis is a little too emotionally and spiritually generous. I don’t think they want something so pedestrian being able to skim graft off helpless victims. At least then, there’d be some sort of actual material benefit to their actions. I think what these sorts want is unearned admiration, but more. They want to be above others, not for any benefit they can extract, but simply for the status of superiority. They want people to have to treat their idiotic ramblings like brilliant insight, knowing full well that the people doing so don’t believe a word of it, but reveling in the fact that others have to treat their ramblings as worthwhile, anyway.
I don’t really understand what creates that kind of person. I mean, the old-time machine pols, I could get. It was base and vicious. But, at least it was within the realm of normal human motivation. They wanted good things for themselves. What these sorts seem to want is just forcing bad onto others, even if their own misery is the price.
They’re also true believers. This is a crude representation of things but, basically, decades of affirmative action, etc. has not produced the results “we” wanted. Therefore, there must be deep-rooted issues that we’ve not yet figured out that are causing this. This is all despite the empirical challenges to the idea of implicit bias having very much impact at all.
Therefore, there must be deep-rooted issues that we’ve not yet figured out that are causing this.
Yup. They now point to unverifiable and essentially superstitious mysterious forces in the world like “white privilege”, “implicit bias”, “institutional bias” and the like.
Of course, these people are typically animists, as revealed by their “thinking” about guns, so it should be no surprise that they have other primitive belief systems.
In summation; people who love the smell of their own farts. It’s appears narcissism is being rewarded for it’s own sake.
I think it really is becoming a pseudo-religious cult. They’re doing self-flagellation and penances for climate change, promoting the need to cleanse yourself of the (racist) sins of your ancestors that happened ages ago, and so on. Really creepy.
I mean, everyone–everyone–is subject to their own personal biases about everything by virtue of the fact that we can only ever experience the world subjectively. Knowing that, it’s good practice to continually examine your perspectives on everything from the nature of the Chicago deep dish food product to the role of race in social dynamics, incorporating logic and objectively-verifiable facts wherever possible as well as other opinions, particularly conflicting opinions.
But that’s probably not what she means, is it?
If you chose a sammich over a bowl of soup for lunch, you discriminated against that bowl of soup…
Is there closed-captioning or a sign language assistant? Also, have any materials handed out been produced in braille? If not, point out the implicit bias that nobody is hard of hearing and nobody is low vision. Anything to make their costs go up.
Damn. Thats pretty crazy.
Of course now a days men are expected to call the Cops to come pick up their own dead bodies. Great article!
Considering the situation they were in…those might have been the cops.
and if you aren’t a dead body when you call they’ll make sure you are by the time you leave.
errrr…….*they leave*
To be fair, you’ll be leaving too.
Your corpse will still be wearing hand-cuffs when they load you in the ambulance.
“Charlie’s client”
That gave me a good chuckle.
Same here. Very reminiscent of current military lingo (as I understand it) with snipers, artillery, etc. “servicing” their targets.
I pick good heroes.
Great article!
“I pick good heroes.”
That is what Rand thought the main role of literature was – give us good heoroes. A person may not be able to articulate and apply a moral philosophy, but they’ll know what John Wayne would do.
Then in the same book of essays IRT to music she explained why Beehtoven was so awful and I stopped reading her.
Well, i mean, he was a red…
Morality and heroism look different to different people.
Rand would, of course, show you the correct way to view heroism. Which, with her direction, you would readily comprhend unless you were too immoral or stupid yourself
My idea of heroism isn’t too far off from hers, but she wrote fairy tales and fables, and I enjoy them as such.
But I write much better dialogue. And don’t have as many plot holes. And don’t have architects not paying their office rent and their landlords just kinda going, “Okay, whatevs.”
Neither are your characters – not even your villains – wooden.
Oh, speaking of wooden. Did you see that abomination of a movie? O.M.G. They had a chance to do something magnificent and they completely blew it.
You mean “Atlas Shrugged”? No, I didn’t, though I heard a fair amount about it. (IIRC, it came out before Neal Boortz retired from his radio show.) Is it good I didn’t waste time & money?
Yes, sorry, I did mean Atlas Shrugged.
It was awful. The acting was wooden. The script was…mediocre. I guess. They tried to make it a combo futuristic/40s period piece which didn’t work.
The storytelling was very “uncanny valley.” There almost, but not quite. So not quite that it was oogey.
BTW: I wasn’t around for much of the evening thread, so I missed the part about you writing about an accountant. I’m surprised you didn’t have him working for the Fuggers. 😉
That’s very interesting! I wish that had been around in 1420 because it’s closer to England than Italy (I think).
My dude is in 1420 and he would’ve been working for Medici for a good 10 years. I’m already anachronistic enough in that there is no documentation of double-entry bookkeeping before the late 1400s.
Part of my series plot point* is that there is no bank in England or France at that time. Heroine wants to send their money to Italy. Hero doesn’t (only because it’s so far away) (and he isn’t interested in buying insurance policies [“sea contracts”] to do so), but it’s his money, so they don’t.
*Meaning, it doesn’t come up again until book 2. Oddly enough, both my beta readers said, “So how hard is it going to come back to bite him on the ass that he didn’t send his money to Italy?” The strangest things catch people’s attention.
Well, I was just making a Fugger pun….
*sigh* My bad.
My brain is kinda mush today.
Very entertaining read, I had never heard of the guy, so thanks. I’ll add the book to my Christmas list.
‘Peach45!
Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said Monday on “Americas Newsroom” that President Donald Trump has already admitted to impeachable offenses.
Napolitano said, “The president has admitted to holding up nearly $400 million in aid until he got a political favor, his word favor from the president of the Ukraine. That’s arguably impeachable.”
He added, “This issue of the whistleblower’s complaint based on hearsay is now moot. The best evidence is the transcript itself. The president acknowledges those are his words.”
Quid pro quo, squid pro row. Tomayto, tomahto.
I mean… Anything is impeachable.
And if I were convinced Judge Napolitano would hold every future president to the same standards, I might take him a little more seriously. I’m no longer convinced he would do so. I’ve got a lot of respect for the man, but Trump is a blind spot for him.
I never thought much of “Judge” Nap, but his case of TDS is bad. Really, really bad. Occasionally a criticism of his might be correct, but I don’t have time to wade through the 50 lbs of TDS reality-changing he goes through now in order to find the occasional nugget.
Nap called for Obama to be impeached at least a half dozen times. but i’m not aware of Trump admitting to any squid pro row.
“squid pro row”
A former Vice President bragging about using U.S. foreign aid money to get an investigation into his son shut down – any problems there?
“The president has admitted to holding up nearly $400 million in aid until he got a political favor”
Did I not hear that the aid was already “en route” before this conversation ?
He never admitted that. Nap is channeling his inner Schiff.
My recollection is that it was on hold.
Until the Euros held up their end of support for Ukraine. Their sluggishness in doing so is obliquely referenced on the call, but no link is made to American aid.
The president has admitted to holding up nearly $400 million in aid until he got a political favor, his word favor from the president of the Ukraine.
Pretty sure he has done no such thing. He certainly didn’t on the transcribed phone call. Did the Hat get ahold of his Twitter account again?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487
And I saw this already on South Park
The FBI has a large presence on Facebook.
A recent report from the New York Times titled “The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong?” outlines the growing problem of child pornography online and how it has continued to spread in the digital age. According to the report, 12 million of 18.4 million, or two out of every three reports of child pornography online, come from the Facebook Messenger app.
The Big Tech Masters of the Universe have attempted to find ways to deal with this growing issue but according to the Times, many are falling short:
“But police records and emails, as well as interviews with nearly three dozen local, state and federal law enforcement officials, show that some tech companies still fall short. It can take weeks or months for them to respond to questions from the authorities, if they respond at all. Sometimes they respond only to say they have no records, even for reports they initiated.
And when tech companies cooperate fully, encryption and anonymization can create digital hiding places for perpetrators. Facebook announced in March plans to encrypt Messenger, which last year was responsible for nearly 12 million of the 18.4 million worldwide reports of child sexual abuse material, according to people familiar with the reports. Reports to the authorities typically contain more than one image, and last year encompassed the record 45 million photos and videos, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”…
The Times focuses on Facebook’s encryption plans for Messenger and other services, which could make the existing problem worse:
“Data obtained through a public records request suggests Facebook’s plans to encrypt Messenger in the coming years will lead to vast numbers of images of child abuse going undetected. The data shows that WhatsApp, the company’s encrypted messaging app, submits only a small fraction of the reports Messenger does.
Facebook has long known about abusive images on its platforms, including a video of a man sexually assaulting a 6-year-old that went viral last year on Messenger. When Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, announced in March that Messenger would move to encryption, he acknowledged the risk it presented for “truly terrible things like child exploitation.””
How many children are abused because the government doesn’t have cameras and microphones in every room of our homes. Won’t somebody think of the children?
my guess is FB will insert a backdoor for LEO investigations into the messenger “encryption” and that it will be used for drug busts 99.99999999999999999% of the time and child exploitation the remaining .0000000000000001%.
This
The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong?
Prolly a good chunk of it is law enforcement stings.
“We must publish child porn to eradicate child porn.”
“Shit, this old stuff ain’t workin’, we need some new bait!”
“How do we solve this problem?”
this is my second favorite series on here. SNP is #1.
What!?! No love for giant rivers of text, sans images, all footnoted and neatly packaged
to cure your insomniafor your reading pleasure?Disappoint I haz.
I have not read any of your posts. I do not lurk in the wee hours of the night. But I trust that it is riveting content.
Thanks, kinnath. It’s just a tale of being a new military defense attorney in the Marine Corps.
I was just teasing Raston. SF, SNP, CPRM’s animated Hat and Hair, and anything Animal puts up are all faves of mine, as well.
Someone needs to be scheduled for a mandatory vaccination.
I have the gist of the story from next-day call-backs to the late night post.
Some day, I’ll go back and catch up.
Cool article. What an adventurous life.
He’s very much what I aspired to be at 18 y/o. Unfortunately that type of adventure is much harder to attain in the 21st century :/
I should have saidthat level of adventure…..you can get it in small doses but not on that order
There is always Sentinel Island
OT:
I fixed up one of my animatronics by splicing in some longer wires to the switch and placing it below the welcome mat.
1) Kids walk up to ring the doorbell
2) Button depresses
3) Profit!!!
Thinking whether to do the same on the other one.
nice. do the kids get tazed or pepper sprayed?
Both are really good options. Tazing ’em is quicker and maybe initially funnier – because of how high they’ll jump and scream – but pepper spay might provide the longer, more satisfying lulz while they weep and cough and snot flies all over the place. I’m torn.
Both, then a trapdoor opens up, straight to the monocle polishing factory.
Mr. Mojeaux and I agreed that Halloween would not be done this year. Or any year hereafter.
What do you mean by “done”? No boudoir action?
No trick or treating. Our kids don’t go. We don’t hand out candy.
Egged.
I’ve got a 1000-ft driveway up a hill at the end of a dead end road. We’ve never had even one trick or treater.
Do you have a watchtower to snipe people too?
OMWC has an effective way to keep them away too.
A reputation in the neighborhood.
We live in the sticks. We decorate. We buy candy. I leave all the lights on. We get no ToTers….
I EAT THE CANDY! It’s awesome!
Why’s that?
For the last 3 years or so we haven’t had very many trick-or-treaters. The kids go to the rich neighborhoods and trick-or-treat there, and we have a moral problem with doing that. It’s just a huge waste of time for me and Mr. Mojeaux.
Now that he’s too old to go out trick-or-treating, autistic xy minion is indentured to hand out the goodies.
My development makes a big deal of it. Big outdoor party, noisy, frickin kids everywhere, and some dude sets up fog machines, sound effects, music, etc.
I HATE IT.
That’s a bit over the top.
I draw the line at excessive light and noise pollution.
I did consider getting a fog machine though.
Well, I think someone complained to the HOA (not me!), cuz they scaled it back a bit last year and went quiet before 9 pm.
We don’t decorate for Halloween, and we turn off the front post light & go out to dinner during trick-or-treating. Mr. GT got put off Halloween after years of his Catholic mom having the kids dress up as saints & go give recitations about same at relatives’ homes.
Man, what a fantastic article!
Is such a life even possible anymore?
My latest great nephew was born yesterday. I’m thinking about starting a collection of toxically masculine books for him (before they get banned).
Looks like Under A Lucky Star should be on it.
Thanks, Animal, for the introduction to the real Indy.
Congratulations on the family addition.
Discover card wants to monitor the “dark web” for my SSN information.
I have to opt in.
Good idea or bad idea?
The monitoring is already happening. You’re just choosing whether they notify you. It isn’t like it is possible to scan the data for one client and not see anything about others.
I have something similar set up with one of my accounts, and not surprisingly, my info is on the “dark web.” Like pretty much everybody’s.
Anyway, the new account notifications are useful.
IT’S A TRAP!!!!
I wouldn’t be concerned about it. Most credit monitoring services offer this feature now.
I assumed this place was the dark web. Or is it something racist?
No, all darkweb URLs end in “.dark”
Interesting theory about Pelosi’s 180 on impeachment:
Maybe her best play given her options, but I think that if they actually impeach Trump by the end of the year, it become a net minus for the Dems anyway.
I believe that the articles of impeachment are only good through the end of the current session and expire when this Congress is done after the 2020 election and before the new Congress is sworn in. That means that impeachment will absolutely be a campaign issue; with the current impeachment going nowhere, the Dems will have to promise to revive it in 2021 if Trump wins. That means Repubs will have to hold the Senate and ideally take the House to prevent the Dems from removing Trump. Impeachment is going to be in the rearview mirror during the campaign, it will be front and center no matter what Pelosi does. And it is a losing issue for the Dems, according to the recent polling I have seen.
And impeaching over Ukraine will just highlight how lunatic the Dems are, because man, talk about a weak pretext for impeachment. It will be obvious to all but diehard partisan Dems that this is about removing an elected President from office By Any Means Necessary. That’s not going to be well received.
I hope.
Impeachment is not going to be in the rearview mirror during the campaign, it will be front and center no matter what Pelosi does.
If i were Biden, i’d be more concerned about what shenenigans i did with Obama to help keep Trump out. Everything they say Trump did was done by the previous admin.
I think there is a very legitimate question about Biden’s threat to withhold aid if the prosecutor wasn’t fired:
Who was backing his play?
Vice Presidents don’t make those decisions, so if this wasn’t a Biden just making shit up and the aid was coming regardless, then either the President or the Secretary of State was on board with it. Did Obama and/or Kerry support withholding aid? If so, why?
I believe that Biden told the Ukranian president to call Obama if he didn’t believe Biden. Biden explicitly implied that Obama backed the threat.
Either that, or he believed Obama would back him.
Once again i think the best outcome of all of this would be that the Old Ukrainian President comes forwards and says “That Conversation never happened”. Only because it would be hilariously typical of Biden to have made the shit up completely .
If Biden is the nominee we are guaranteed LOLZ no matter who wins…….he’s a shitheel but the Gafs and medias attempt to spin them willl be epic.
Could have just been part of his bluff. But it sets the table for asking the question.
Biden explicitly claims in the video I watched that he told the Ukranians that Obama backed his play in response to their questioning his initial “get rid of the prosecutor or you don’t get the billion in aid.”
Now, in Biden’s “defense,” we do know that he is a serial bullshitting, self-aggrandizing, hyperbolic LIAR. (Consider this: the Corn Pop story appears to be, of all the ones I’ve heard, the one with the closest acquaintance with reality, and that’s mostly a nod by passers-by who might coincidentally commute through the same subway station in the morning).
Notwithstanding all of the above, this story sounds to me to be the most plausible tale I’ve heard him tell yet. It’s the closest in time to the events of the ones I’ve heard.
And here’s two kickers: (1) look at everything the Dems have said (and the media has spun) about Trump and it’s all projection, 100% of the time, from what I can tell. Go down the list, from election interference to compromising important intel to even the Ukraine bit and it’s all been the exact stuff they’re doing (either Team Hillary, Team Obama, or the DNC, which have not always been co-extant);
(2) Try a Google search on the exact quote from Biden’s video transcript and see what comes up: all of my first page is about “TRUMP ADMITS HE MENTIONED BIDEN IN CALL!!!!” or some variation on that theme. It’s fucking scary (and laughable) how slanted the results are and just how variant that is from what trump actually said and what Biden actually did.
This is all making me reconsider my view that Trump would win handily in 2020. The fix is in so hard against him – and he is Trump, after all – that I’m starting to have my doubts.
Didn’t Biden say he told the Ukrainians to call the President?
I have to think that Trump is actually looking forward to running against impeachment for the next 13 months or so until the 2020 election.
I don’t see how this helps any democratic candidate going forward at any level of government.
Someone on the Lions of Liberty podcast posited that this impeachment thing is a ploy by Pelosi and the more moderate contingent to literally destroy the party so that they can rebuild it with themselves in control and without the crazy socialist wing represented by “The Squad” and their ilk.
sometimes I wonder if I’ve bought into the scam and what’s actually going on is the Democrats are the controlled opposition…..I can’t think of better way to make Trump seem beleaguered and sympathetic than to have these batshit enemies.
See also; the Kavanaugh nomination
Mr. Lizard says yes
Where’s he been? I haven’t seen a post from him in quite some time, which is regrettable.
I assume on their moon base working on the next generation of skinsuit after all the problems with the Clinton model.
Hopefully there is a full scale invasion in the works, and he is in the vanguard.
Nobody knows, or if they do they aren’t saying. He is indeed missed.
I thought Clinton was impeached in December 1998 with the trial done in the new Senate.
People like to retcon history to fit the current situation. This is not 4d chess. This is not brilliant members of x party setting up fools in y party. This is what happens when you have a constitutional republic and the populace stops being responsible and moral. We are governed by arrogant buffoons and we let it happen because we were watching football and drinking beer. If those ‘running’ things can stay smart enough to let us have snacks and something to watch they have nothing to worry about.
“we were watching football and drinking beer.”
Hey, I resemble that remark!
In all seriousness though I think I most agree with this take. The phrase ‘A Republic, if you can keep it’ comes to mind.
Panem et circenses!
You are correct. Clinton was impeached during the lame duck 1998 session, and the Senate trial began on January 7, 1999, with the vote on February 12.
It strikes me as odd that articles of impeachment survive the close of a session. I don’t think any other Congressional action does – any other action taken by the House that isn’t voted on by the Senate disappears.
I don’t think that really changes my thinking on impeachment being a live issue in the 2020 campaign even if the House votes by the end of the year.
Whats the consensus on doing the Right thing for the Wrong reasons?
Better than the converse. Actually, if you are doing the right thing who cares what your motive is?
^CHAOTIC GOOD^
So not to be too hypocritical:
Generally i think that doing the right thing is good regardless of motive. However as a Matter of law, i do think having the right reasons is important because it has implications for what is legal going forward.
In morality (right v wrong), intent is often what determines whether the action is right or wrong. IOW, doing something for the wrong reasons often means that what you did was wrong, even if doing the same thing for the right reasons means it would be the right thing to do. The fact that something you do for the wrong reasons may have beneficial second-order effects doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
Example: I help a little old lady across the street. If I do this so that she can’t be a witness to the robbery I am about to commit, its the wrong thing to do. If I do this to ensure she doesn’t get run over, its the right thing to do.
Hmmm, I’m actually quite opposed to that point of view, because it lends itself very much to “Ends justify the means” thinking, and i can’t get behind selective morality like that. If something is wrong, then it is wrong regardless of the reasons for doing it.
I tend to agree, but sometimes motive is part of the action. For example killing a person who is attacking you or an innocent is not murder. Helping an old lady across the street is not an immoral action even if you do it to get her away from your robbery attempt. But, it would become immoral if you helped her across the street to allow your confederates to kidnap her.
Hmmm. I see. Generally i would consider those distinct actions, but i could see how that would be seen as being tautological. This has given me something to chew on.
^LAWFUL GOOD^
Don’t i get at least Neutral Good, i only say for a practical matter. I don’t want case law decided off of bad reasoning.
I don’t wannna be lawful good….
You can’t be a bard. You’re playing a paladin whether you like it or not.
Smite me.
I’ll need a sexually explicit example.
^ I’m with Bob.
…well, not with with…
Ok. So in this Example MikeS is …..
:2 Hours Later:
So even though He asked Bob Boberson to do that, and it felt good, and was certainly the right thing, His reasons for asking were clearly wrong.
ready for his colonoscopy?
You just made it weird!
/backs away Homer Simpson style
Does this have to do with the late links?
Also did the right thing
I been in the right place but it must have been the wrong time
I’d have said the right thing but I must have used the wrong line
I been in the right trip but I must have used the wrong car
My head was in a bad place and I’m wondering what it’s good for
I been in the right place but it must have been the wrong time
My head was in a bad place but I’m having such a good time
+1 Dr John
swoon
Quite the piano player, as well. He makes an appearance in Clint Eastwood’s documentary about blues piano. You can barely understand him speaking, but he plays piano at one point and it’s just sublime.
FIRST!
Oh, wait. Where’s the……
Damnit Brett!!!
Oh yay…
Between that and the 3,000 honorary PhDs they hand out each year for PR, they’re getting tiresome.
“Black high school student, 12, who accused three of her male white classmates of pinning her down and cutting off her dreadlocks, admits that she made it up”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7521717/Black-high-school-student-said-bullies-cut-dreadlocks-admits-up.html
I can’t believe how shocked I am that I’m not surprised.
I knew it was bullshit because no white kid would say “nappy”.
I’m confused. I thought that was an English word for a diaper.
In regards to hair, bro.
Not in Virginia, it isn’t.
Don Imus would like a word.
Imus isn’t white.
Oh?
I would. I would also use the word “kitchens.”
The best lies are built on a kernel of truth?
“‘He could vanish into Amish Country’: Experts theorize about how rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine could protect himself after testifying against members of his old gang”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7518751/Tekashi-6ix9ine-vanish-Amish-country-says-experts.html
I’m sure he’ll blend right in.
+1 Kingpin
My research suggests he would fit in pretty well.
I thought it might be this, but yours was good to.
When I read the cover of the book quickly I got ‘Whale Hunting with Greta Thunberg’.