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Uncommon
Noticed this odd advertuary in a 1965 Record World. MGM was selling a memorial record of Adlai’s speeches. The text is gloppy syrupy hagiography of an irrelevant loser. Stevenson carried the torch of Permanent War against non-interventionist Ike twice and lost twice. Truman was (barely) able to win in ’48 because he was definitely a…
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Khaldun on the Dry Line
Still running through old materials looking for more weird clocks to animate. One clock was described in a journal about Islamic culture, which also included a lengthy article on Khaldun. His description of historical cycles is both accurate and well-known. He also had trenchant observations on a subject closer to home: the Dry Line. Reviewing…
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The last Jordan
Vintage.es has some luscious pictures of the last Ned Jordan car. Most of the Jordan autos were ordinary ‘assembled’ cars, typical of the smaller companies of the 20s. What made them special was Jordan’s poetic ads, not the machines. The swan song was dramatically different, especially the dashboard. Solid wood, packed with instruments and mysterious…
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Were most parodies?
Responding to a Substack item about old state songs, I cited my earlier discussion of Okla’s horrible song, which was blessedly replaced by Rogers and Hammerstein. Got me thinking. Were those horrible songs meant as parodies? My father used to sing the song in parodic style, imitating a warbly offkey church soprano. Home on the…
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Wrong strike target?
I didn’t realize until quite recently how UNIVERSAL videogaming is. I still have to poke myself with numbers to reinforce the fact. More than half of the world’s population is active gamers. Oddly, US is not the top. Even more oddly, Britain is ahead of Japan. 70% of Brits are gamers, 67% of Japs, 66%…
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Deepstate loves the 4
I’ve been spending a lot of time in 1948 because it’s a close parallel to the current situation. A long war displaced everything in the economy and culture, and the people were hungry to resume normalcy after the war. The ’48 election shared many of the current elements. In the current mess, at first there…
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Non-orthogonal
After writing the slightly offbase word anytime in previous post, I got thinking about the non-orthogonal nature of the ‘logicators’ in English. some any every no Who? someone/somebody anyone/anybody everyone/everybody noone/nobody What? something anything everything nothing Where? somewhere anywhere everywhere nowhere How? somehow anyhow — nohow** When? sometime[s] anytime — — Why? — — —…
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It’s all Sucker Filter
Looking at the post “debate” discussion, I was struck by the total absence of non-suckers. Everyone in the discussion stays inside a carefully constrained set of Shared Lies. This led to an extremely simple conclusion, which I’ve been nibbling around for a long time without quite getting there. Sucker filter explains EVERYTHING in politics. Politics…
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Powell wins
This is an important landmark, switching the gradients of investment. Savings now yield more than stocks, by the usual averages. This will make life easier for pension funds and insurers, who no longer have to seek crazy IPOs and SPACs and SWINDLEs. They can return to their historical habits of stability.
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Infinitely insane
Random pointless thought while listening to discussion of the Repooflican “debate” tonight. When trying to fill an important job, you want to attract a large set of seekers with solid and relevant experience. On the R side the active candidates include 5 former or current governors and 1 current congresscritter, all successful vote-getters, all generally…
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India gets shit done.
While we’re arguing about Trans Babies and gearing up for an utterly meaningless foodfight between two identical zombie demons, India is quietly getting shit done. Today they landed on the moon.
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Deer
Saw a couple of deer on this morning’s long walk. The last time I saw them was 2018. I’ll take this as a sign that the universe is trying to return to normal after three years of NAZI TORTURE.
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Zenith set released
I’m done with the expanded Zenith topic. Here’s the set at ShareCG as usual. ShareCG wouldn’t let me upload the set titled as ‘Zenith expanded’. I finally figured out that their algorithm is tuned to reject small variations. I changed the title to ‘Wincharger’ and it uploaded properly. = = = = = List of…
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When Sailer writes what he knows
Sailer writes best when he writes about California. He lives there and PAYS ATTENTION to both current events and local history. He doesn’t blow up verb aspect by conflating permanent with temporary or vice versa. = = = = = START SAILER: In Los Angeles, Hurricane Hilary, the first since 1939, has been a summer…
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Even more Wallace
Last month I transcribed a long passage from Henry Wallace’s 1948 speech on inflation. It’s time to add a second section. Wallace saw the development of PERMANENT CRISIS as the guarantee of permanent monopoly by the Men Of Monopoly. Again, here’s the speech itself in mp3 form. = = = = = START WALLACE first…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 