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Nihil Concierge

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joined 2022 September 05 19:44:52 UTC
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Nihil Concierge

				
				
				

				

					1 follower  

					follows 6 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 19:44:52 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 691


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
							
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	 Hot Bump Bottom New Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				[META] Something Shiny and Two Things Boring
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would like to suggest we replace the blocking functionality with an "auto-collapse all comments by this user. " Or even just a solid how-to and template for setting that up in the "custom CSS" setting tab.


I mean, I don't think any of you see my name and wish you had a "+" button that could be clicked—perhaps with an audible sigh—before my comments were displayed...


But let's get to know each other.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Violent Class: A day in the life
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You said something about being able to write not having done you any good in your last post, but I don't see it.  You're a couple ex-wives who are smarter than you away from being Hemingway


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lawyers actually have to ask permission from the judge to do that.  If I'm recalling Ken White's podcast, that's really an area that has more to do with drug dealers or gangsters as clients--or if a lawyer is absolutely broke and leaving the profession or something.


"My client is stupid" isn't really something that American lawyers abandon clients for, or get surprised by--it's on the rare occasion a smart person needs representation that something is up


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would take a collection of loud noises and leave them on the front lawn overnight until they had been lightly coated in condensation.  Then I would systematically organize the documents using these dewey decibels.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I lived in Japan from '07 to '11 and haven't been back since, so this may be out of date, but the idea that fruit and veggies are very expensive matches my memories, but is a little incomplete.  Sushi and ramen are incredibly cheap in Japan, and I would extrapolate that most of the food-service labor force is somehow attached to those two parts of the industry--sushi because Japan just plain has the best fish, ramen because that's usually served with beer or on a chuhai run.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh, goodness, I was so busy trying to being clever I forgot to be smart.


I am honestly embarrassed about this.  Mea Maxima Culpa.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 12, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Every time I tell someone I am part of the Veterans Affairs health care system in the United States,  I use the joke "I protected you from socialized health care, so now I get...socialized health care."


It has never failed to get a laugh.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'm inclined to favor Bukele, on the basis that iron fist policing methods should work.




Iron fist policing works very well, for a very limited and specific definition of work. They stop the organized criminal activity in an instant—and an instant is also how long you have before the tactics go from 100% effective to 99%.


If you're waiting for an election, crime might not be back noticeably until after the vote. If you have an actual plan to address underline issues, implementation is so much easier right after a crackdown that the best name for these tactics isn't iron fist or crackdown; it's "step one." It's basically got to be step one of absolutely any plan, good or bad, or that plan won't work.


But since it can't accomplish anything on its own, the only thing that guarantees iron fist policing won't work is expecting it to.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursdays 29
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Being a sailor myself, it pains me to admit that the most plausible explanation is that the skipper of the Newnew Polar Bear did, surely, understand something was wrong--but hoped it was no big deal, and no one would notice.  In fact, finding an anchor that was dragged for nearly 200 klicks on the floor, just "a few meters" from the damaged cables and gas lines makes it just to easy for me to know exactly what a Newnew Polar Bear sailor felt like after two or three hours on the deck crew trying to get the anchor hauled up when the XO shouts over the 1MC, "Fuck the anchor, we're about to hit an seabed pipeline--cut the chain NOW!"


They almost made it.


So much for the Skipper's dream of commanding the more prestigious ship, Oldold Polar Bear.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One thing I'm not proud of is that I've used crystal meth on and off for over a decade now, and unless you have, too, I think you may be inaccurate in your assessment of who will and will not sell you drugs.


Finding drugs actually got quite a bit more difficult for me after the first time an 'obvious dealer' sold me an $80 bag of aquarium pebbles—an embarrassing mistake on my part I'm only willing to admit because I already know you vape.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't know about Europe — or sports — but I can say that movie theaters in Thailand under King Bhumibol played some sort of regal anthem, and no other country I've been a cinema-goer was remotely similar.  Not America, Japan, Singapore—even Russia didn't make me sit through anything about Putin before making me try and understand "Superbad" dubbed into a language I don't speak without subtitles.


(Michael Cera is utterly incomprehensible, but Jonah Hill comes through loud and clear. I later saw the movie in English, a similar experience.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Personally, I think both options are death.




The list of options that are not death, when looking beyond the short-term, is, in fact, blank.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 23, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My favorite Clinton anecdote is from TNR or maybe the New Yorker a while back. Doctor said, “Bill Clinton loves to talk; a friend of mine once got chance to meet him when they were both in the locker room of a racquetball club in Manhattan, and enjoyed the first hour of the conversation, but ended up faking a phone call from his wife as an excuse to prevent the chat from entering hour three.”


I suspect the surviving Bush and Obama might both do the same thing—just imagine being the top 0.001% for ambition and extroversion, with decades of life left, and every single job in America would be an embarrassing step down.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I used the website below, which gets data from the census bureau, to see how much of California was white in 1975.  87.6%--because the 1975 data does not include Hispanic as a category.


https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/population-and-demographics/our-changing-population/state/california/?endDate=2021-01-01&startDate=1975-01-01


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Mendacity and social fictions are not unique to Californians. Perhaps I've just been exceedingly unlucky in my acquaintances, and I'm suffering a Chinese Robber effect. But this pattern has repeated with enough frequency that I’ll tentatively call it a cultural difference.




Actually, when I moved to a midsize southern Californian port city in 2018, it was explained to me that the punishment for mendacity and social friction would be a one-way ticket to ...  well, let's just say that the VHS tape I was given was of a once-great local news anchor named after a wine explaining that Californians accused of things like financial crimes, harassment, or petty theft might well be offered plea deals that include "a one-way ticket to Cajun country in lieu of jail time."




They're like the younger sons of European nobility who colonized the New World.




Don't forget the workers they brought with them: criminals who chose to labor as their farmhands over the noose; and others, in harder-to-fill positions, filled only after the "no thanks, I'll hang," phase of the recruitment flow was removed.


Also don't forget the religious whackjobs who just refused to let the King tell them who to burn at the stake.


Oh, and don't forget the squatters who broke into William Penn's summer estate.


Who would have ever thought that those three groups had enough in common to actually team up against their Monarch--let alone that they'd get help from Manhattan.  You'd think people would be grateful to be liberated from being Dutch!


Oh, and Maine.  Have I forgotten why the people in Maine joined the other twelve colonies--or did they keep their reasons to themselves?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What diseases are you talking about?


HIV, obviously, was deadly as fuck—from about 1975  to 2015. AIDS was unknown before the Thatcher years , and the HIV-1 zoonosis was almost certainly during the Taft administration. That particular deadly disease simply did not exist when successful societies we're failing to fail.


I can't think of any that did, but am here to be informed


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Some thoughts on the trajectory of Elon Musk
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
For those of you who aren't familiar with Arnold Kling's system, his book The Three Languages of Politics


can be downloaded free of charge: https://www.cato.org/three-languages-of-politics


I found it incredibly useful—and am thrilled to see it wedged into a Flatland metaphor, which is the greatest honor a thesis can attain!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for January 25, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
According to Reuters, Turkey got permission to buy F-16s in exchange for allowing Sweden to join NATO: “Ankara's delays had frustrated some of its Western allies and enabled it to extract some concessions. But Flake, who was envoy throughout the process, said Sweden addressed Turkey's "very legitimate security needs" in that time.”


https://archive.is/iMYgT#selection-1903.0-1926.0


I totally understand why things shook out this way--but I also think this will be interpreted, in Russian foreign policy circles, as evidence that some of the stuff Putin has been saying about NATO being a threat, is true.  After all, this is letting a border country join NATO in exchange for selling fighter jets to yet another border country...there's a reason Russians think NATO is threatening their borders.


Sigh.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'd like to second this from @roystgnr :




Comic strip collections ... let young readers who aren't 100% solid manage to grasp more context from the drawings.




I got started with reading on "Calvin & Hobbs," one of the all time greats. I'm not sure if Spaceman Spiff is still relevant, but I know the stuff about ethical philosophy and girls being gross is timeless.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I love uBlock Origin.  Learning how that extension work made my web-browsing so many times easier!


The only sites on my whitelist are my bank, Substack and the Motte.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				World Series 2023 Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Because that's what someone with much more well-adjusted family relationships and emotional communication skills than either of us would do.


My family was about...other things.  Like reading at a 11th grade level before you turned 9, or not talking about your feelings, or winning state debate tournaments, or not talking about your feelings.  Sometimes, for a break, we didn't talk about our feelings.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I was once five books into a series of police procedural mysteries with a sci-fi setting when the librarian checking out number six informed me I was reading Nora Roberts.


I quickly switched to self-checkout kiosks, which respect my desire to read male authors like Robert Galbraith or C.J. Cherryh.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh, my goodness, you have got to read Cadillac Desert, a book about water that is one of my all-time classics.  I wish I were more motivated to do good, solid, effort posts, because a review of that book could really work...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, they're perfectionists in Lebanon.  The leader of the HRC doesn't walk around with an internal monolog that asks "boy, I've never fought a battle with the NRA, let's check that off the list."  Maybe he should.  I hear the ACLU used to think that way, and possibly still does.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 9, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


As academia has become less of a walled garden, and more of a finishing school for half the populace, it has lost the functional ability to question seriously the deep truths of our society.




When was academia a walled garden?  In the United States, at least, I believe it's more accurate to describe the history of higher education as going from, in the early seventeenth century, a finishing school for slightly less than a tenth of the population to, in the early twenty-first century, a finishing school for slightly more than a third of the population.


Were the philosophers Alex Byrne and @naraburns admire respected academics? How many were philosophy professors? And how many American philosophy professors were the sort of philosophers worth admiring.  Certainly I'd argue that there is a "default major" throughout American history, one that allows a student to attain their letters with as little thinking as possible--and that in the 1680s that would be theology; today gender studies--and it's to philosophy's credit it was never that degree.