Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, May 15, 2022
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41 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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And it happens again.
It ends in the usual manner:
And American society is entirely predictable:
@OzarkHillbilly:
I believe that the correct thing was for him to be arrested, not shot. But the arrogance of a lot of police is getting out of hand when the exception to the shoot first and ask questions later is for a white supremacist mass murderer with a gun in his hands.
@Pete S: It is always best for a suspect to be arrested rather than summarily executed.
A couple years ago there was a shooting in one of my old south side STL neighborhoods. A cop was shot and killed while responding to a call (I forget what started it) A 2nd cop responding was also shot and iirc survived. The shooter was eventually arrested.
Unlike John Crawford who was shot at a WalMart while talking on his cell phone and holding a BB gun. JC had time to say, “Oh shit…” before the bullets hit him.
This appears to be a bit extreme. I know most people want grandchildren, but…
http://www.wcvb.com/article/couple-longing-for-grandchild-sues-son-his-wife/40000955
@CSK: You beat me to it. Now top this:
Madonna defends decision to sell a 3D NFT model of her vagina
Just the thing for the man who has everything. I guess.
In other sexist news: Do species names perpetuate gender bias in science?
I have a feeling most women won’t object.
We were discussing Aleksandr Dugi, “Putin’s brain” here a couple of days ago.
Post just published a piece on him:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/12/dugin-russia-ukraine-putin/
It seems he isn’t appreciated only in Russia, people like Orban (Hungary) and Steve Bannon (U.S.) are on board with the guy also:
snip
Much much more at the linky.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Presumably what is modeled is actually a vulva, not a vagina. A vagina is internal, a virtual (like a pants pocket) hole that is only open when something is in it.
@OzarkHillbilly:
One wonders why Benito hasn’t done an NFT 3D model of his rectum.
@OzarkHillbilly: I thought Alanis Morriset had already crossed this barrier. Are we really reduced to Madonna copy-catting stuff in what looks to be desperate attempts to stay edgy?
@charon: I didn’t read the article but saw a blurb where she mentions a centipede crawling out of her vagina. My assumption is that the centipede is a mapping robot. More than that, I’m not sure I want to know.
About yesterday’s thread on the death toll from COVID, here’s one thing I still can’t comprehend: people who know how serious the virus is, and should be taking every precaution, but don’t bother to.
Take one person i work with. First, his wife was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer when the pandemic started. This left her in much more danger should she contract COVID. He didn’t wear a mask.
Early in 2021, he contracted COVID and spent two weeks in the hospital, including some days in the ICU. He recovered. He still won’t wear a mask.
Though at least he did get vaccinated (don’t know if he got a booster).
I also discovered a new species of maskhole who pretends to wear a mask. We’re all familiar with the kind who never cover their nose, or those who wear their masks as scarves. this new type wears a KN95, very specific on that, and covers their nose, but leaves the metal clip unadjusted. this allows plenty of air to come in, and go out, the top, sides, and bottom of the mask.
@Kathy: I imagine it look a lot like Steve Bannon’s face.
@OzarkHillbilly:
You got me curious, looks like vagina was correct:
@OzarkHillbilly: @charon: @Kathy: @Just nutha: @OzarkHillbilly:
It appears to be a video of a nude blonde lying atop a car, legs spread, with butterflies emerging from her…lady parts.
If this is the NFT, I viewed it for free. Why buy it?
@CSK:
She looks awfully good for 63 Y.O, hard to believe that body is real.
@CSK:
@charon:
I don’t think it is.
Butt lifts:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/11/magazine/brazilian-butt-lift.html
Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who shot up the Buffalo supermarket, wanted to shoot someone at his high school graduation last year. He received psychiatric treatment.
Apparently it didn’t help.
@CSK: How the hell did this guy accumulate so much tactical gear? Where the f*ck were his parents?
@MarkedMan:
But they appeared fine with their son accumulating assault weapons and tactical gear? What the kind of f*caked up people are these?
@MarkedMan: @MarkedMan:
He wore a hazmat suit to school for a week in his final year to protect himself from Covid.
Perhaps Mom and Dad were so deeply “involved in the community” that they had no time for their kids. It happens.
Roger Stone says that there’s a portal to hell over the White House, but that prayer will close it.
I don’t know. Sounds like a job for Jewish space lasers to me.
@charon:
Centipedes! She got the centipedes!
https://superrare.com/0x28b19a2885b68613d89c4e38eaf5cf3849978d70/mother-of-technology-3 (warning, poorly done cgi of centipedes crawling out of a vagina)
Whoever wrote the article was somehow unaware of the early internet.
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/5305-its-more-likely-than-you-think
The original image was a common Net Nanny pop up about “pornography on my computer?” This was then modified to be amazing.
As the original Net Nanny pop up used a Black woman, this was left unchanged, and was a wee bit racist in effect, but luckily Madonna has very publicly demonstrated that vaginal centipede infections are a problem that affect women of all races.
@CSK:
That just seems practical.
He takes covid seriously and doesn’t think we should just be reopening schools to infect all the kids — seems a bit odd coming from a white supremacist though. Definitely an unexpected ideological mix.
Speaking as one who was once a “troubled teenager” (boy does that word cover a whooooole lot of ground) and who ended up raising a “troubled teenager,” I can tell you most parents have precious little idea idea of what all their teen aged offspring are getting into. Those parents that do know everything? Raise some really fucked up kids. It is perfectly normal for teens to do things their parents don’t approve of. It’s part of growing up and the parent that doesn’t allow for some of that is in trouble.
That being said, it is hard to know where to draw the line between keeping your child safe and out of trouble and respecting their privacy.
I don’t know the particulars here. Did they go out and buy this stuff for him? Or did he buy it himself and keep it hidden? We’ll find out more with time. For now, my inner “parent of a troubled teenager” feels for them and what they must be going through.
While my son was never prone towards violence, I still fear that the demons that stalked him then might yet again raise their heads. I always will.
Mikey’s family COVID update.
My wife and I are pretty much over it, but my son has it now (on his birthday, poor kid).
He wasn’t within 10 feet of us for more than 30 seconds for the last week. He was in his room with the door closed 99% of the time. And he still got it. I guess that tells you how contagious Omicron is.
@Mikey: Fingers crossed that he comes thru it as well as Mama and Papa did.
@Gustopher:
Authorities are now saying that he became radicalized by reading online–particularly 4chan–during the Covid lockdowns.
I’m pretty sure he was predisposed to his beliefs before then.
@Gustopher:
Brought to mind a thought: Untanned balls is not an affliction that affects all races.
@CSK: Or she could be like the mom I talked to while I was teaching at an evangelical high school years ago. She was very disappointed that her child was not turning in his homework and had fallen behind. (He was still a good enough student that he was passing the class at midterm despite the work deficit but was likely to fail if he continued his path.) She assured me that she and his father took the issue very seriously. In fact, they had decided to do the maximum curtailment of his activities as a punishment until he got caught up. He was restricted from everything–except baseball practice, his church youth groups (yes, more than one), and his computer time. But everything else? GONE!!!!
@Kathy: Twice in the last few weeks I’ve visited restaurants where only one employee was masked, and was wearing it below the nose. Huh. They’re the only one, so it would seem they’re doing it on their own initiative to protect themselves. This implies some rudimentary grasp of what’s going on. But then they wear it in such a way that it does no good. There are days I wonder if democracy is possible.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
What activities were left after you factor in bb practice, multiple church youth groups, and computer time?
@CSK: I never figured that out and didn’t want to ask as I was already “an acquired taste” as faculty went being a Lutheran who had left the Baptists/evangelicals behind a decade before.
ETA: Either way, she was quite serious about the firmness of their parental stand.
Having taught martial arts to teenagers, I will submit that they are very, very malleable. The rebelliousness they have that is developmentally normal and important can mask this, but it’s there.
Irresponsible influencers can have a very big impact. I am prepared to believe that 4chan all by itself could have influenced him to this, given he seems to lack certain defense mechanisms.
And, once they get going on a path, turning them from it onto a different one can be very difficult. Possible, since we’ve done it at least once, but difficult.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, that tracks with your blind following of scientists telling you to get vaxxxed. You let them inject a tiny microchip into your veins. So obviously, they can use a caterpillar to model Madonna’s sex parts.
I’m concerned the NFT is just an hijack a technology designed to foster liberty to implant third wave feminism into the brains of enlightened men who are just trying to break the shackles of government control of currency and lives.
How could you be such a sheep? You probably think hurricanes are caused by Earth’s climate, too. It’s obvious to any thinking person that China and AOC are causing them.
@Kurtz:
Oh, that must be why Trump mused on the possibility of a hurricane gun to shoot at China, where hurricanes are, according to Trump, manufactured.
My kingdom for a ROFLMAO emoji that works on this site, preferably right next to the Like button. This is the best I can give to the upstream comments. 😛 😛
@Jax:
We’re a crew of jolly japesters here at OTB.
@gVOR08:
I think there’s something else going on.
I’ve seen some photos and video of planes that suffered depressurization, when the overhead oxygen masks drop. The instructions are to place them over nose and mouth and breathe normally. There are many photos of people placing the masks on their mouths, not covering their noses. If they breathe normally, they’ll pass out from lack of oxygen.
Now, it may be they neither read the safety card, nor paid attention to the safety video, so they do what feels right and get things wrong. Or it may be some subset of the population cannot bear to cover their nose.