Miscellaney

First - not the first time it's been observed, most notably perhaps by Orwell, who's 1984 the left appears to have embraced as an operating manual rather than a warning, but still, the left loves to erase them some history. 

“New Orleans is tearing down its Confederate monuments, but the South has plenty of others” 

Look at that title. The whole purpose is to eradicate the South’s identity. A people without a past cease to be a people. The Marxist can put in their own statues and claim only Marxist heroes have done anything. 

It’s already starting. As real American historical figures are pulled down, the Marxists are defending a Lenin statue. 

“Sure, Lenin the Man endorsed the use of mass terror against his enemies, created the Soviet Union’s secret police, and implemented policies that caused millions of peasant farmers to starve to death. But Lenin the Public Artwork is a beautifully crafted sculpture, and a catalyst for healthy discourse.” 

Got that, plebes? One of the greatest murders of all time, his statue is a catalyst for healthy discourse.

Over at Superversive, they take a look at Passengers:

The ship design is breathtaking. This is the ship I’d want to take to the stars. The ship is not just a colony ship. It’s a luxury liner with a huge swimming pool, plenty of recreation facilities, sports and entertainment, bars and restaurants, and luxury suites. I can’t tell you how refreshing this was. Personally, I’m done with stories where humans are living in squalor, wallowing in their own filth because while we retain the technology to travel between stars or planets we must show humans as victims of science and technology who’ve lost the ability to fix the plumbing or take out the garbage. 

Some of the people on the Avalon are passengers who’ve paid full fares. Others are people with valued skill-sets (blue-collar people like mechanics, gardeners, and midwives) who are getting a discounted trip in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings. Most of these people are going on a one-way trip. They are true pioneers seeking adventure, open spaces, and the opportunity to do things like build a home with their own hands. I loved this “unique” concept of competent, hard-working people willing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get to work. 

This movie showed, rather well, that you don’t have to have a post-apocalyptic setting, the worst elements of human nature, wars, or refugees to tell a good science fiction story.

Okay, it drove me nuts when the ship stopped spinning when the drive shut down, but overall, I think the movie doesn't deserve much of the hate directed at it, even if I'm not a fan of whats-her-name.

And Peter Grant takes a look at "glamping."

OK, it aint camping, but I've been "guilty" of renting a cabin for a few days near a national park so I could avoid hotels, tourist traps, and restaurants, while being near enough to hike, etc.

Finally, Taleb rakes Mary Beard over the coals for defending the BBC's stupidity, and doubling down.

Background: The BBC cartoon showed a subsaharan African as part of a “typical” Roman Brit in the name of diversity. The UK “bien pensant” establishment now has a binary classification“white” and “other” that is, “nonwhite”, whatever that means, a classification that encompasses anything that is not Northern European and, if Mediterranean, comes from a “diversity country”, that is from a non EU-member. One nonwhite can substitute for another. If that’s not racial supremacism, what is?