When Reality Is Absurd, Parody Is Pointless
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023The University of Helsinki gives climate activist Greta Thunberg an honorary PhD in Theology .
The Babylon Bee should sue for trademark infringement.
Archive for the 'Culture War' Category
Dog Whistle
Monday, March 20th, 2023We talked last week about Peggy Flanagan’s absurd take on parenting.
Here it is again:
She followed up with this photo.
Check out that righteous Bowie knife.
There are only three interpretations for this symbology:
- It was designed by someone who is unfamiliar with American iconography. If this is the case, wearing the shirt was pretty dang ignorant.
- It’s an incredibly crude and juvenline jape about gender transition surgery: I’m throwing up in my mouth a little.
- The Lieutenant Governor is talking tough: Y’know – saying she’s going to stab people who transgress to some indistinct degree or another against trans people. Y’know – like Sarah Palin’s “crosshairs”, only with actual intent.
Not sure which it is. I’m open to suggestions.
Speaking of which – I have four friends that one could classify as transgender. Two of them are from the “Armed Trans Don’t Get Shot” faction of the Second Amendment movement, whom I could see donning one of these:
Of course it’s a photoshop. Theatrical posturing about stabbing bigots is OK; taking a gun to them, probably not.
Which is a shame, since the gun might actually work.
Speaking of which, here’s the MN Gun Owners Caucus’s version:
It goes without saying that if a Republican threw a knife or gun reference into a t-shirt on a social issue, it’d be front page news, with thought-free “think” pieces clogging op-ed pages nationwide.
So I won’t say it.
One Morning In The Duchey Household
Friday, March 17th, 2023SCENE: It’s an ordinary morning in the home of Edwin DUCHEY, Proprietor at the (possibly fictional) progressive blog “MinnesotaLiberalAlliance.Blogspot.com”. DuChey was badly scarred by a childhood in which he was routinely bullied – by much younger children.
He’s sitting in the living room, sorting through emails on his phone, as his partner, Stacey Hinton, Executive Director of “Keep All Racists Eternally Nonplussed”, a white progressive support group and, like DuChey, a commited but unremarkable DFL activist, does much the same.
Their daughter, NIGELLA DUCHEY-HINTON, age 6, crawls into the room on all fours.
NIGELLA: Look, meowther and ffffffffather. I’m a kitty cat!
DUCHEY: (Looks at HINTON). What do you think, honey?
HINTON: Nigella? That’s an important decision, but you know I support and love you no matter what.
DUCHEY: (Looks at his phone). Honey? There’s a clinic in Honduras that specializes in species transition…oh, look, it says “for American progressives!”.
HINTON: Perfect!
NIGELLA: You mean puurrrrrr-fect! (NIGELLA crawls from the room)
DUCHEY: Yes, Nigella!! I’ll book a ticket to…uh, what’s the capital of Honduras, hon?
HINTON: Austin.
DUCHEY: I’ll get on it.
(As DUCHEY scrolls around looking for tickets to Austin, Honduras, their oldest son, Bjorn O’BRIEN – Hinton’s 14 year old son from a previous relationship, walks into the room.
O’BRIEN: I am Napoleon Buonaparte!
HINTON: Do tell, Bjorn.
O’BRIEN: It’s not Bjorn. I am Napoleon. My destiny is to conquer the world.
DUCHEY: So you identify as…Napoleon, the president of France in World War 2w?
HINTON: (Sotto Voce). The Civil War, honey.
O’BRIEN: Identifying has nothing to do with it. I am Napoleon. Could you lend me $500 until Jefferson buys Louisiana from me?
HINTON: Give him my MAPE Credit Union card, Ed.
(DUCHEY fishes card out of his fanny pack and gives it to young Bjorn, who doffs his “admiral” hat in a grand imperial salute before leaving the room)
HINTON: He needs a shower.
HINTON: They didn’t take as many of them in 1895, during the Civil War.
HINTON: Oh, right. Of course.
(Sean KASSEBAUM-HINTON, age 10 and Hinton’s son from a “break” in her and DUCHEY’s relationship, enters the room,
SEAN: Mom? Dad? Can I get some running shoes?
DUCHEY: Sure, son.
HINTON: Not your son. Sure, Sean. What’s up?
SEAN: I want to get in shape so that when I’m old enough I can join the Army or the Marines or something.
(HINTON and DUCHEY sit, blanching in poorly-muted horror).
HINTON: The military?
SEAN: Yes, mom. I want to serve this country. And tanks are cool!
(DUCHEY and HINTON exchange glances).
DUCHEY: Your mother and I will need to talk about it, son.
HINTON: Not your son.
SEAN: OK, Mom and Ed. (SEAN leaves the room)
DUCHEY: OMG.
HINTON: What have we done wrong?
DUCHEY: Well, according to Lt. Governor Peggy…:
DUCHEY: …nothing at all.
HINTON: But this is just so wrong. How have we failed him so?
DUCHEY: Maybe I can get him in to see a therapist…
(COLIN MANDELA DuChey, age 17, Edwin’s son from an earlier relationship, walks into the room)
COLIN MANDELA: Hey, I need the keys to the car and some money for liquor; Terry’s older brother is buying. We’re going to LaCrosse to hit on biker chicks.
DUCHEY: I hear you and believe you. (Digs keys and a couple of hundreds from the fanny pack).
COLIN MANDELA: (Grabs the money). No, stupid. Not the Prius. That’s gay. I want the Jeep.
(HINTON digs keys from purse).
COLIN MANDELA: Later, b*t*hes.
HINTON: It’s part of being a good parent.
DUCHEY: The Lieutenant Governor says so.
And SCENE.
So Lets Make Sure We’re Clear On This
Friday, March 17th, 2023Being. a good parent (or parent-state) means making sure kids can’t get tobacco, or tobacco subvsitutes like vape, even if the vape is a way of quitting smoking (as it was for at least one young person close to me)…
…but making absolutely certain they can chemically and surgically neuter themselves without adult consent…:
The states are the “laboratories of democracy”, and ours is run by Dr. Frankenstein.
Unsafe Space
Tuesday, March 14th, 2023That wave of right-wing terror they’ve been warning us about for the past fifteen years is apparently nigh, and coming for Jacob Frey:
The progressive mayor of Minneapolis is fearing for his life since receiving an uptick in death threats…
Well, yeah. After giving free reign to leftists, including all but inviting “Anti”-Fa to attack Trump rallygoers, of course all those right-wing MAGA hat-clad goons are going to threaten a puling left mayor…
…from left-wing extremists, nearly three years after the unrest over the police-involved death of George Floyd…
.
Wait, what?
The wave of terror is coming from the left?
Why, yes – we’ve commented on this before.
Things I Dream About
Monday, March 13th, 2023One of mine is that one day, I get a chance to respond to a grievance pimp like Cori Bush tyhe way Alex Epstein does here (around 1:30 into the video):
Til I do, I guess I’ll just keep practicing. And eating my vegetables.
Isolationists Fighting The World
Friday, March 10th, 2023Democrats, especially the MN DFL, pine for European style “social democracy” – or at least the kind they’ve incorporated into their romantic interpretation of 1970s-style Swedish and Danish socialism.
Their teenage-girl-level keening is selective – they are quiet about the fact that Denmark, for example, has no minimum wage.
But for the most part, DFLers are figuratively pining for the fjords most of the time.
Will that change soon?
Minnesota just signed a law legalizing kidnapping kids and playing Mr. Potato Head with their body parts and endocrine system, while allowing unlicensed, unqualified paraprofessionals to conceal what’s going on from parents.
Or as they refer to it, “guaranteeing gender-affirming care”.
This, they do just as Europe wakes up from its fifty year trip through the looking glass:
The United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, and France have all taken steps recently to pull back on transgender medical treatments for seemingly gender-dysphoric children.
Sweden has been one of the most progressive nations on transgender health care for decades. Back in 1972, Sweden became the first country to allow transgender people to change their legal gender.
Last year though, Swedish hospitals halted the use of puberty blockers in five of the country’s six clinics for minors with gender dysphoria. The last clinic only uses puberty blockers in clinical trials. The country now emphasizes psychotherapy for minors with gender dysphoria instead.
In particular, the always freaky-deaky Swedes have slapped themselves upside the head and spun a proverbial bootlegger turn:
The Karolinska Hospital in Sweden recently issued a new policy statement regarding treatment of gender-dysphoric minors. This policy, affecting Karolinska’s pediatric gender services at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital (ALB), has ended the practice of prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to gender-dysphoric patients under the age of 18.
This is a watershed moment, with one of world’s most renowned hospitals calling the “Dutch Protocol” experimental and discontinuing its routine use outside of research settings. According to the ”Dutch Protocol,” which has gained popularity in recent years, gender-dysphoric minors are treated with puberty blockers at age 12 (and in some interpretations, upon reaching Tanner stage 2 of puberty, which in girls can occur at age 8), and cross-sex hormones at the age of 16. This approach, also known as medical “affirmation,” has been endorsed by the WPATH ”Standards of Care 7” guideline.
Never thought I’d see sanity creeping across the Atlantic to the west, but then the whole world is pretty much upside down these days.
Other Than That, Mrs. Lincoln
Tuesday, March 7th, 2023It’s not “pro-choice”.
It’s “pro abortion”.
Someone broke out the windows and tagged the walls of the crisis pregnancy center.
But wait. There’s more.
The next day, as the “protest” got going, the staff was repairing the damage. WIth a difference that passive-aggressive MInnesota leftists aren’t used to:
The tweep went on to ask – why the intimidation?
Seems pretty simple to me: Because their people had already committed violence against the building.
Ask any domestic abuse counselor: Violence against things usually escalates into violence against people.
He and the staff are only as safe as the least stable “protester” lets them be.
Paranoid!!!!
Tuesday, February 28th, 2023I was reliably informed that stories of teachers subverting parents will to “transition” or otherwise influence (but don’t you dare say “groom”) children were “paranoisa”, misinformation and right wing hate speech:
A family in New York has filed a lawsuit against the Brookhaven-Comsewogue School District, Terryville Road Elementary School, and 5th-grade teacher Debra Rosenquist because they allege that Rosenquist attempted to secretly transition the gender of their 10-year-old daughter without notifying the parents.
The student – who is identified as A.V. in the complaint – became confused as to her gender during the 2021-2022 school year because Rosenquist insisted on using a male name and male pronouns to refer to the student.
Weird. I’m reliably – and very angriliy – informed this can not be:
In October 2021, the teacher began to call A.V. by the name “Leo” and use he/him pronouns for the child. No one in the district informed the parents (referred to as L.N. and E.V. in the complaint) of these changes.
Several months later, in January 2022, the school’s principal informed the parents that the child had met with the school psychologist (without the parents’ knowledge) and had drawn a girl with the words “I wanna kill myself” and “I feel sad a lot.” The psychologist determined this was because A.V. was confused about her gender identity.
This was the first time A.V.’s parents had heard anything about the confusion regarding A.V.’s gender identity or new name and pronouns forced on the child by the teacher.
Here’s the entire complaint against the Suffolk County schools, over the episode…
…that can not possibly have happened.
He
Friday, February 24th, 2023Controversy over across the pond, as Sir Bob Geldof “misgenders” Sam Smith, the (checks notes) “nonbinary” singer most famous for invoking Satan at the Grammies last month, on a British morning TV show.
Although there’s plenty of anger to go around, as the press asks why the hosts of the TV show didn’t step in to stop the tragedy:
Fans have questioned why Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield didn’t step in after Bob Geldof repeatedly misgendered Sam Smith on Wednesday.
The singer appeared on Wednesday’s episode to discuss his thoughts on the cost of living crisis and pay tribute to late Boomtown Rats bandmate Garry Roberts.
Yet talk later turned the upcoming 40th anniversary of Band Aid when he mentioned Sam and their part in the song which was released back in 2014.
Sam revealed they were non-binary in 2019 and asked people to use the pronouns they/them. Yet Bob repeatedly referred to Sam as ‘he’.
Thoughts and prayers to the people of the UK.
Inimical
Tuesday, February 21st, 2023To: Rep. Liz Cheney
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant
Re: It’s Not Me, It’s You
Rep Cheney,
I’m not the biggest fan of Marjorie Taylor Greene.
For that matters, I’m not the most passionate of your detractors.
But on this issue?
So let me make sure I’m clear on this; if our government is violating the Constitution you’re wrapping yourself in, how long are we supposed to go along with it?
“Our country is governed by the Constitution”
One might hope. But when the government turns the executive branch institutions – the FBI, IRS, BATFE, CDC – against the peoples freedom? When the government trashes the separation of powers and undercuts federalism, and proposes violating the contract under which small states agreed to share some of their sovereignty with big states by eliminating the Electoral College and making the Senate reflect popular rather than state votes…
…how long before dismissing those usurpations with an ofay “Well, the Constitution” isn’t by itself an answer?
“Secession is unconstitutional“
So?
So was the American Revolution.
Saying “secession is illegal” is like trying to end a moral argument with “…because the Bible said so”. It’s vapid and cowardly. Is it illegal even if the Constitution has been rendered moot? Because saying that is like saying the preservation of government is the point, not the system the Constitution establishes and the eternal rights it enshrines.
Which do you think it is, Rep. Cheney?
That is all.
Chilling Effect
Monday, February 20th, 2023Not long after the FBI put Catholic worshipers on its politically, motivated watchlist, this happened:
Not jumping to conclusions, here – because I don’t think there’s any need to jump. As we continue to wait for the “epic wave of right wing violence“ that Obama promised us, the epic wave of left-wing violence continues.
Open Letter To Keith Olberman
Friday, February 17th, 2023To: Keith Olbermann
I see you’re back at it.
What is it about you morons who got you starts writing about grown men chasing balls around fields, that makes you all such dim bulbs about politics? Eddie Schultz, Mike McFeely, Jim Souhan, Bob Costas…
Anyway – go ahead. Declare “Economic Civil War“.
See how California does having to import all of its water from the rest of the country.
See how New York City and DC do, paying import prices for food.
What could possibly go wrong?
Ryan Winkler Style
Thursday, February 16th, 2023Rep. Winkler is no longer alone at the top of the list of casual racists in government:
“Depraved” on the left is a hole that’s got no bottom.
And Berg’s 8th Law is universal.
What If They Threw A Culture War
Wednesday, February 8th, 2023…and the enemy was nothing but a bunch of snot-nosed eighth graders…
…with firebombs and deep political connections?
Tick Tick Tick
Friday, February 3rd, 2023You learn a lot about people…
…by what they publicly fantasize about.
The Bullied Pulpit
Wednesday, February 1st, 2023Remember last year, in the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs decision, when Kansas referred a constitutional amendment banning abortion to a popular vote…
…and it lost?
In deep-red (but for Wichita and Kansas City) Kansas?
Big Left took it as a bit of great news – “Even Red America is pro-choice!”
Smarter Americans read it this way: America is divided on abortion:
- About 15% want abortion through all forty weeks, and maybe even a little after (no, I’m not bveing hyperbolic).
- 20-odd percent want to ban abortions completely – many with exceptions in the rare cases where the mother’s life is at risk.
- The remainder support some form of abortion, with support sloping steadily downward from six to 20 weeks, and nearly vanishing after the halfway point in the pregnancy.
The DFL, dominated by that first 15%, has jammed down the most extreme interpretation of “choice” this side of California. Will the people lash back from the extremes, the way they (arguably) did in Kansas?
Well, if I have anything to do with it.
One group that should, doctrinally, be in the second 20% – or at least the most moderate parts of the larger 60% – is Catholics. Of course, we know Catholics oppose abortion, because Catholics never get divorced or eat meat on Fridays, either…
…but if there was ever a time for a hypothetical archdiocese to get serious about doctrine, one might think this would be it.
Ten Catholics in the House, and three in the Senate, voted for the “PRO Act”.
Now, at least a few Catholic bishops and priests have invoked ecclesiastical sanctions against some “pro-choice Catholics”, so it’s not without precedent.
So the question remains – is Archbishop Hebda going to do his job, or find some artful and obtuse grounds to evade it?
What’s Ojibwe For “Buuuurn”?
Tuesday, January 31st, 2023Lieutenant, governor Flanigan – who is known to wear an Anishanabe costume when it suits her, politically – was crowing about Minnesota being on the brink of adopting, the most radical abortion law in the country., and one of the worst in the world:
Former senator Matt Dean caught her on the facts.
But Representative Donna Bergstrom – also an Ojibwe – had the burn that we’ve been looking for:
I bet the Ojibwe had words for “murder”, “outsider who’s not supposed to be among us without some scrutiny”, and “petty tyrant”.
Urban Progressive Privilege: “The Word Means What I Say It Means. Also, It Doesn’t Exist”
Monday, January 30th, 2023In my 20s, I had a section of my bookshelf that I called my “Know Thy Enemy” section.
It had an assortment of books that, broadly, are antithetical to Western Civliization: Marx, Mein Kampf (in German and translation), even a copy of “The Turner Diaries” at one point (although that last one got tossed along the way).
Point being, while I don’t still literally have that bookshelf, I find it useful to know our enemies.
So I listen to NPR. Not all the time. Mostly when I’m stuck on a long drive. I seek out the blinkered, the entitled and the depraved.
The New Yorker Radio Hour rarely disappoints on any of those counts. Like it’s fellow WNYC production, NYRH is a reliable stenographer for the inner id of eastern transatlantic progressive reflexes.
This past weekend? The etymology of word “woke”…
…which, we are reminded, doesn’t really exist:
Lately, conservatives have blamed “wokeness” for everything from deadly mass shootings to lower military recruitment. Still, few have a ready definition for what the word means.
The episode then goes on to provide its etymology (I’m a linguistics geek, I live for that stuff) and several working definitions and its history of use on the “progressive” left…
…on the way toward telling us the whole thing is a conservative messaging scam.
This is, of course, the leftist pattern:
- Coin a term – “Politically Correct”, “CRT” “Woke”, “Mostly Peaceful” – to describe one of the left’s activities or goals
- Use it.
- Turn it into a social cliche.
- When conservatives turn the cliche against them, declare it never existed and that that it’s all right-wing messaging (leaving behind a residue of people who didn’t get the memo, and continue to use the term in its original form with dogged, entitled obstinacy).
- Move on to the next term, lather, rinse, repeat.
My project for the coming year: do my little bit to push “white supremacy” down into Step 4.
Four Or Five Times Bitten
Friday, January 27th, 2023Police departments nationwide reportedly bracing for riots after yet another police shooting…
…in yet another Democrat-run city, which yet another wave of “protesters” will turn into yet another wave exploitation of another wave of, what the heck, let’s call it “anger”.
“Anger” that feels more and more like a Democrat party campaign-prep operation. .
The Ghouls Among Us
Wednesday, January 25th, 2023During the debate on the state’s #1 priority, Rep. Peggy Scott asked Rep. Skeletor when a baby becomes human.
Liebling’s response:
I’m going to park this is a post for 2024. The media will try to memory-hole this entire shameful episode. I may not be able to fix that, but in the little corner of the world I influence, this is going to be a topic in about 18 months.
Wanna See Gymnastics?
Wednesday, January 25th, 2023Ask a vocal pro-choicer this question:
“At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?”
Not some abstract “woman” excercising “reproductive rights”. Your mother.
Not some abstract “Fetus” or “clump of cells” or “tissue mass”. You. The person you were born as, and became.
When would you, Mr/Ms. Pro-Choicer celebrating legislature considering abortion through 40 weeks of gestation on demand, tell your mother the life you’re living now had enough worth to consider it human?
Mohammed Ali in his prime didn’t duck and weave and gyrate like what you’re about to see.
Now Be Thankful
Tuesday, January 24th, 2023Amy Klobuchar should be thankful to the feminist goddess that Tina Smith is in Congress.
Because as long as she is, A-Klo is not the dumbest Senator in our delegation.
Shot:
Chaser:
To be fair, Smith says it because she knows Democrat voters don’t do critical thought.
Deja Vu All Over Again
Monday, January 23rd, 2023A shooting outside a police training center sparked riots in Atlanta Saturday night.
The police say the deceased was an anti-facility activist who shot a State Patrolman before getting killed by the return fire. The decedent’s, er, colleagues claim he was feeding puppies and getting old women across the street.
Either way, it was mostly peaceful:
No, really:
Although I’m old enough to remember when “Freelance journalist” wasn’t shorthand for “itinerant leftist journalism grad student with a Twitter account”, he may have a point; there may not have been a visible leader. But leaders don’t need to be visible to lead; in fact, that’s probably a serious tactical advantage; ask any platoon leader when snipers are expected.
They’re baaack.
Emblematic
Monday, January 23rd, 2023Over the weekend, “Anti”-Fa rioted in Atlanta.
First: Governor Klink and Mayor Mompants McDreamy could learn a thing or two from Brian Kemp about how to handle communist guerrilla uprisings. But of course, if either of them did the “progressive” wing of the DFL would get upset: Peggy Flanagan would yank the leash on Governor Walz’s dog collar so hard he’d fly out of his shoes.
Among the arrested – the daughter of House Majority Whip Katherine Clark:
Yep. Daughter. One of those “menstruation is a state of mind”-kind of daughters:
Because of course, and what did. you expect?
My first thought, by the way, was that the arrest of the child of a high-profile progressive would work out about the same as the handling of Woody Kaine, the son of Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary’s Veep candidate and “Anti”-Fa member who was arrested for attacking a Republican gathering in the MN State Capitol in March 2017.
But the arrest may have been state jurisdiction. Which may just mean “no woke Soros prosecutor”.
