Month: October 2016

Word From the Dark Side,10/20/16

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images

An irregular collection of problematic news and opinion.

Project Veritas reveals hidden camera footage of Democratic Party trolls plotting to stoke violence at Trump rallies and voter registration fraud.  Sometimes disappears from YouTube or is hard to find, for some reason.  The journo also got banned from Twitter for some time.  Not jumping into the fray of this election (I’m not American) but I’ll happily sink a boot into a deserving arse should one be pointed in my direction.  I always assume that my readers will already have read the most notable links but a lot end up going through to CH and ROK, so I’ll include this one just in case.  Not much about it in the MSM.

In that jugular, a Trump campaign office is fire bombed.  And, the battle of the sexes in the election, state by state.

Even a Nigerian prince would invest in this.  Is it annoying when I link things without explaining what it is?  Okay, it’s a managed fund that invests in businesses run by women.  Happy now?  Did I save thirty seconds of your precious life that you would otherwise have spent reading to disabled children?  Yeah?  Now you owe me.

The unrequited love between Jews and Read More

In the Closet

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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1972.  Les has a wife called Chris.  He often talks about her at work.  ‘Oh, Chris and I had a picnic at Silvan Reservoir’, he says when asked about his weekend.  Yet each time the office Christmas barbecue comes around, Chris is unavailable.  She is unwell.  She is visiting family.  She had to help a friend.  Everyone smiles and nods.  Oh, that’s too bad.  Maybe next time.  We were really looking forward to meeting her.

Of course, Les has no wife.  There may be a Chris, and there was probably a picnic, but Chris is a bloke and everyone who’s figured it out politely pretends not to know.

2016.  Les strolls in to work wearing a repulsively skimpy frock.  After a quick visit to the ladies’ room he proudly flounces into the office and regales his colleagues with tales of his debauched weekend adventures.  It was this big, he says.  This big!  He gestures more vigorously in the face of the man who is trying to ignore him.  This big!  And full of veins!  Look at me, goddamn you.  Hate crime!

But our culture is certainly not one of anything goes.  While some lifestyle choices are now fawningly celebrated, other choices have become objectionable.  And I am beginning to realize that I am making one of those socially unacceptable choices, and that I need to keep it in the closet.

You see, I am Read More

The Meaning of Life

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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Book review of Stoner, by John Williams.

Kant said, beauty is that for which we have no concept.  We can look at it, admire it, and feel that certain qualia that comes from beauty, but if we attempt to explain it in mere words we fail because words can only express concepts.  Such beauty might come from a moment of perfection in music or from the composition of a great work of art.

In this spirit, it is impossible to properly describe the qualities of Stoner.  It tells the story of a very ordinary man and his life which is, on the surface, insignificant.  He is born into rural poverty, attends university and becomes an academic.  He has some joys, tragedies, suffering and some minor triumphs along the way.  These are of a sort that any person might experience.  In the end, he Read More

Isolation

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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The Anchorite by Teodor Axentowicz.  Image credit: WikiCommons

People who need people are vapid.  Those who cannot tolerate a day or so alone with their thoughts are madmen who will one day die without having ever reflected upon their lives in a meaningful way.  Like a female gorilla or a river red gum.

A native anchorite, I am the opposite.  I need occasional interaction with other members of my species in order to feel grounded and sane, but too much of it is exhausting.  I have had periods of some months where I could choose exactly how much to go out and socialise.  I found that my sweet spot is for a few hours, once or twice a week.  My friends are exasperated when I pike at 11pm but that’s just how I am.  The rest of the time I am happiest alone, reading or working on my own projects.  I used to think this was a bizarre quirk of my nature but I’ve since read that this preference is Read More