The Sam Spade Memorial Good Post Gallery

[The Last Northerner]

On 'Westerners' perception of violence.

Well, I was phrasing my point in a somewhat unserious manner. However, I do believe that, while nowadays a lot of people are absolutely swamped in sexual stuff, whether it be online pornography, or 'artistic' depictions of sex or even simple discussion of sex, humans (in the West primarily) are ever more cut off from any kind of understanding and acceptance of violence and death. Things were different back in the day of course; most men would have fought in some military conflict, and those who hadn't would likely know someone who did, as was the case for women (although of course some women actually did fight in conflicts). Also, many families would know the trauma of losing a close loved one, whether it was from war, or, just as often, disease. Figures of authority weren't so inclined to shirk away from the rather harsh reality of life, which is that many people die, and not all of then for good or noble reasons.

Now, I'm not saying that the decline of military conflicts and falling rates of infant mortality and fatal illness in the West are bad things; I am very happy not to have been almost worked to death in a Japanese POW camp like my grandfather, and to have not died in the cradle as so many more babies used to do. I believe changes in these areas have been positive advancements. On the other hand, I believe that the decoupling of human life, for many people, from the regular experience of death and violence has not been a good thing either. I mean, take, for example, that photo of a dead Syrian child that caused so much fuss a few days ago. This, of course, is partly an example of the general awfulness of a lot of tabloid journalism, as with it's frankly cringe worthy coverage of the deaths of Princess Diana and Jade Goody respectively (I imagine you may not have heard of Jade Goody; consider yourself lucky). However, the reactions of many people to that photo were as, kf not more cringe worthy than the coverage itself. I mean you just had this ridiculous, never ending outpouring of online grief and, to quote Shakespeare, clamorous whining, from many people, over the fact that one child had died. I mean, when I saw that photo, I briefly felt sorry for the child and it's family, but then, you know, I moved on with my life, because I didn't know the kid and there was nothing that I could do to bring back the child anyway.

Some people, as I said before, thought rather differently, and launched themselves into this bizarre online campaign called 'refugees welcome'. I mean, let me be clear, migrants have been dying in droves for the past few months; in fact they've been dying on these types of journeys for decades. Yet of course because you didn't have photographers going around, snapping photos of dead children and pasting them onto news websites, the vast majority of westerners were protected from having to confront this sort of thing; living in their cosy, cosseted world in which violence and death only happen in far away places and in the movies. Then, the image of one dead child drives these people into a frenzy. My own simple view is that behaviour like this is pretty, well, pathetic and pointless, just as it was over the death of that goddamn lion (although that was even more ridiculous). People need to learn to accept and deal with the continuing issue of death and destruction in this world, and to learn, if need be, how to control their emotional response to these things. People should be wailing and gnashing their teeth (in 8 hopefully) when a loved parent or spouse dies, no when a lion or a child that they'd never met bites the dust. As I said at the start of my post, this is difficult for many because of their usual isolation from these issues (and of course because of the decline in any coherent belief in life after death, but that's a topic for another post). But people need to try, not least for the sake of my Facebook feed not being overrun with stomach churning paeans to the aforementioned dead lion or child from 'x, studies Sports Science and Colonic Irrigation at the University of Y Met'.

[The Last Northerner]

He was sure friendly to Muslims when he voted to invade Iraq. Or voted for Gitmo. Or voted for the PATRIOT Act and other laws that target Muslim Americans.

I am not shedding any tears for this prick. He was a Bush II era Republican in every sense of the term, and when the cracks started to form in the dam, he didn't lift a finger to plug them. Which is why, when the dam broke, he was the first to be carried away in the tidal wave. One sob story that I'm sure his children (who grew up in the elite Washington/NoVA bubble) made up to show that he was above the rubes doesn't do any justice to him. Bob Bennett was part of the problem, and not the solution.

RIP HP.

[The Last Northerner]

Hard as it must be for the blue avatars who live in wealthy, well-educated white/Asian bubbles to understand, the GOP would do worse in elections if it ignored the culture wars. The GOP would not have taken Congress in 1994 or in 2010 were it not for the culture wars and social issues, and likely would not have won the 2000 or 2004 presidential elections without them.

(1) Most Americans are too poor to have a reason to vote for the GOP on fiscal/economic issues alone.



The GOP has nothing to offer households that don't clear at least $100,000 a year. Their tax plans provide no tangible benefits to middle-income households. Their offers to cut or eliminate capital gains and dividend taxes do nothing for the 99% of Americans who don't get any income from dividends or capital gains. Most Americans will never be able to retire or live a non-impoverished life in old age without "Big Government" stepping in with Social Security and Medicare.

The GOP loses 80% or more of the country on tax policy alone.

Even if you restrict yourself to the share of Americans who vote, only 28% of 2012 voters were from households making more than $100,000 a year.

(2) The GOP needs the "poorly educated" more than they think.

Less than one third of American adults have at least a bachelor's degree.

In 2012, 53% of voting Americans had never even attended college.

(3) 42% of Americans are Creationists. While that isn't a majority, the GOP would have to compete with the Democrats for the other 58% of Americans, and that would likely require taking a more nuanced approach to issues like global warming.

Throw these people overboard and they will stay home.

[The Last Northerner]

It was a crime against humanity.

You're usually a right-wing Democrat, and yet this is the issue where you feel the need to embrace loony left rhetoric on? Weird.

this being the time the US and the UK invaded a country for no reason and needlessly killed tens of thousands of people, at least, and paved the way for the rise of ISIS.

Why in God's name is anyone on the left acting like opposing this is a fringe issue all of the sudden?

Again, if you don't think the Iraq War was a big deal, you are directly responsible for the rise of Jeremy Corbyn.