Tag: Beau Albrecht

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There has been much speculation about how humans and artificial intelligence might interact. There is much cultural precedent. From the beginning, these included many cautionary tales. (more…)

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It’s quite obvious that the leftist mainstream media is a big clown show. As for the mainstream conservative media, which generally includes subsidiaries of the News Corp conglomerate, it’s a mixed bag. There are two ways to look at them. (more…)

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The term “NAXALT” is short for “Not all [members of group X] are like that.” It’s a frequent rebuttal to discussions of group behavior. This X might refer to any race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual identity, social class, or really any other particularism. For example, if you say that anyone who identifies as a cat is deluded, someone might “correct” you for making a hasty generalization: surely not all bipedal talking cats are that way! (more…)

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One of Tom Wolfe’s most celebrated books, A Man In Full, concerns the nature of masculinity. Of course, that remarkably brief take is rather like saying that Crime and Punishment is about the practical limits of utilitarianism. There’s quite a lot going on in it, which is to be expected since it’s a little longer than Dostoyevsky’s classic. Therefore, I won’t get too far into my usual blow-by-blow. I’ll proceed after the premise with a thematic analysis of this classic from 1998. (more…)

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Part 2 of 2 (read Part 1 here)

Activists pretending to be moderators

When Al Gore invented the Internet, this initiated some exciting new changes in technology and society. Promising new startups sprouted like flowers on a hillside. Then, quite often, one of the big players would gobble up the company, chew it up, and eventually spit it out. Webring, Deja News, and Geocities are gone but not forgotten! (more…)

Source: Unattributed anonymous Internet meme.

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Part 1 of 2

Ideological enforcement has become a thriving industry, representing nearly every cause-du-jour in the cultural Marxist constellation, from the old to the new and the great to the small, from feminism down to sulfate-free hair products in prison. (more…)

James Baldwin, who made a career out of being a black bellyacher. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

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Bellyaching is an argumentation tactic featuring overblown complaining, typically combining elements of whimpering with indignation. It’s rather like pouting, but often sullener than that. It’s done for a reason, of course. The usual object is to tug at the listener’s heartstrings. With enough repetition, perhaps it will even induce a guilt complex.

Note that bellyaching is not simple passive-aggressiveness, such as a moody girlfriend who says that she’s “Fine!” but clearly means nothing of the sort. (more…)

John Terhune (image source: Maine Public)

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To say that there’s something wrong with the media is as obvious as saying that water is wet. Good journalists are almost as hard to find as unicorns. The bad ones are Public Enemy Number One. In an article called “America’s 15 Most and Least Trusted Professions,” journalists were rated just ahead of lawyers — ouch! This was according to (ahem) Newsweek. They added in conclusion:

In the 21st century, the 24-hour news cycle, rise of Fox News, and online publications that ape journalistic outlets without adhering to basic standards have blurred the line between pundit and journalist for many Americans. (more…)

Image courtesy of Craiyon

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The media has gotten rather predictable. Today’s journalists seem like youthful guitarists who learn two chords and are thereby qualified to join a bar band. Once you’ve seen enough stories, the tropes start to look awfully familiar. For example, in news items about mass violence or heinous deeds attributed to “youths,” “teenagers,” or some other conspicuously nondescript reporting, what really happened? (more…)

Candace shoves Roman courtier aside by the booty to tell Caesar Augustus he’d better give up, OR ELSE!

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

Did the Romans chicken out, start a war of conquest and lose, or surrender to Cush?

Often with twisted narratives, or the usual sort of pilpul, it takes considerable explanation to demonstrate that the argument is hollow and disingenuous. (more…)

Propaganda poster found in ancient vault, inscribed “Brown Sugah Candi goan whup crackah booty!”

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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

Behold! In the days of yore, there arose in Cush a most noble lady, Amanirenas named, and she was a mighty Queen.[1] Two millennia later, renewed buzz is effervescing about the East African potentate. One item was pipelined to my start page feed, thanks to whichever munchkin is entrusted with the Firefox transmission belt. (more…)

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The 2024 campaign season is underway, with the vote coming up in a matter of months. I have six brief questions for the Republican incumbents and challengers who want my vote. Being an elected official obviously carries tremendous responsibility. Some Republican candidates have a good track record, but others don’t. (more…)

Jean Cousin, The Last Judgement (ca. 1585) (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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Christian evangelicals — or fundamentalists, to be a little less precise — are in the unenviable position of catching flak from both the Left and the Right. There are some points which have already been discussed quite a bit already on our side of it. On the bright side, they tend to have their hearts in the right place, along with some healthy values. Overall they’re good people, despite what the Leftists say about them, except for certain bloviating televangelists who really are that bad. (more…)