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Home » Toupees and arrogance

Toupees and arrogance

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s a pet peeve of mine.

I’ve often heard people say that they can always tell when a person is wearing a toupee. But I think that’s a stupid thing to say. Sometimes you can tell, with a badly-made toupee. But how would you know if you’re detecting all toupees if you’re by definition not spotting the really good ones? You wouldn’t know you had missed any, unless you had an official registry of all the toupee-wearers in the world and were checking your guesses against it.

The same thing is true of cosmetic surgery. “I can always tell” is by definition a stupid or at least an unprovable statement, as well as an arrogant one, without having a similar directory.

I’m not sure I care whether people wear hairpieces or have cosmetic surgery, either. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. But wanting to look good, or at least better, is one of those normal human qualities that means that most of us strive to prepare a face to meet the faces that we meet. The problem is when it goes too far, but what’s too far? We all have different definitions, but I think I know it when I see it.

However, I doubt that anyone wearing a hairpiece or having facial or body surgery goes into it with the desire to look worse than he or she already does, or to look foolish and obvious. With surgery, once it’s done it can’t be undone – except with more surgery, and then more. That’s one of the ways some people end up looking grotesque.

Why am I writing about this today? I dunno, except that I need a distraction from all the heaviness of the news. Lately I’ve been feeling as though the mountain of lies that people believe is just too enormous a structure to dismantle. I don’t like feeling that way, but the last six or so years seems to have consisted of lie after malevolent lie getting all the way around the world before the truth has a chance to put its boots on.

Comments

Toupees and arrogance — 132 Comments

  1. Toupees have always mystified me.

    I had a bald father and two bald grandfathers so my fate was pretty much determined. But beyond that my dad and his father were proudly bald and loved bald jokes and my grandfather was a middle school principal and the kids would call him ‘old baldy’ (this was the forties and fifties) and he laughed it off.

    Coming from that environment the thought of a toupee or any of these hair growth schemes have always struck me as pathetic and I started losing my hair in my thirties.

  2. Neo, You like Ecclesiastes, I think.
    I like the first part of chapter 3.
    “ To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven….”

  3. My hair started receding in my late teens….
    And then I spent most of my 20s and half my 30s in the National Guard and had to keep it cut short. In reality, if a man is loosing his hair, if he keeps the rest short, the baldness is less glaringly obvious.

  4. Griffin:

    Let me help you out.

    (1) Some people don’t come from that environment.
    (2) Some people actually look pretty good bald, and some don’t.
    (3) Some people are in professions where looking young is required.
    (4) Some people have poorly-shaped heads or even somewhat deformed heads, and they can look somewhat grotesque without hair.
    (5) Women also often have thinning hair and they are often especially upset by it because for women it’s not “normal” the way it is for the men in your family. It is seen as extremely unfeminine.

    There are probably other things like that, but that may be enough for now.

  5. jon baker:

    Nowadays it’s easier than it used to be to look good when bald, or at least fashionable, because shaved heads are considered rather trendy (or at least they were when I last noticed). But also there are the reasons a person might not want to be bald, that I listed in my comment above.

  8. neo,

    Well, women are a totally different story and I wasn’t referring to them or children I was talking about men.

    I’m not sure what being bald has to do with looking young and as for some people having ‘deformed heads’ I guess but honestly I can’t think of anybody (not including someone that has been in some accident) I have ever seen that looks that bad.

    But, hey, I’m not saying people shouldn’t be allowed to wear toupees or anything but for me it is just like someone with a bunch of stupid tattoos. I never, ever, say anything to them but I think to myself that it looks bad and tells me a little about them.

  9. Griffin:

    Hair loss is quite common in women, especially past menopause, and a lot of women wear partial hairpieces or wigs. Most people just wouldn’t notice.

    As for deformed male heads, it’s the same principle as I described in the post: if they’re wearing a toupee to cover it, you wouldn’t know about it, would you? Personally, I also have seen people with very strange-looking heads who are bald and don’t wear toupees.

  11. Whenever the topic of toupees come up I am reminded of the Dick Van Dyke Show episode where Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) accidentally reveals on national TV that Alan Brady (Carl Reiner) wears a toupee and when he confronts her he shows her all of his toupees of various sizes.

    Comedy gold from in my opinion the greatest sitcom in TV history.

  12. There are also hair weaves – which are very expensive, time consuming and look really good. Kind of like a toupee but without the word toupee. And hair transplants a la Joe Biden.

  13. neo,

    Yes I know, and children also. I have a distant family member that has some kind of inherited condition where she had almost no hair from birth and it was a very tough thing for her as she went through many wigs and scarves. She eventually embraced it and stopped wearing the wigs and just goes with scarves or sometimes bald. She made it her thing with scarves matching her clothes and the like.

    Like I said my strong opinion on this does not apply to women or children.

  14. Another facet of the toupee question: The appearance-related side effects of cancer treatment, hair loss being only one of them. There is a free program for cancer patients titled “Look Good Feel Better,” in which participants are given a tutorial along with free cosmetics in how to use wigs, facial cosmetics, whatever they need, in order to look their best. There are online tutorials now as well as the face-to-face meetings that were in place when the program began in 1989:
    https://lookgoodfeelbetter.org/

    And yes, LGFB has a program for men: https://lookgoodfeelbetter.org/programs/men/

    And for teens (guys as well as girls): https://lookgoodfeelbetter.org/programs/teens/

    Neo might be interested in some of the makeover videos on the site– they are something positive to watch when the news is otherwise so grim.

  15. My ex-wife was quite beautiful when we married, but she divorced me and then went on a thousand-mile plastic surgery tour in her 50s, with surgeries including cheek implants, and much botox. She is now facially a caricature of her former self but does not seem to recognize that (I see her on occasion when we both visit our kids at their birthdays).

  19. Steve Martin: Sandy, your breasts feel weird.

    Sarah Jessica Parker: Oh, that’s cause they’re real.

    –“L.A. Story” (1991)
    https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2fada5a7-8d5b-417b-a7f0-d94c706bf746
    _____________________________

    But were they spectacular? (Seinfeld reference.)

    The other night I was riffing through my collection and picked “LA Story”. It’s a gentle, romantic, funny movie that adds up to the sort of entertainment which Hollywood used to produce effortlessly.

    Roger Ebert gave it four stars:

    https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/la-story-1991

  20. I’m surprised Trump has not been mentioned. I gather his hair is not a toupee but some fancy comb-over I’ve never properly understood.

    I think his hair looks good.

  21. huxley–

    Joey Plugs didn’t come up again this time either. However, several plastic surgeons have remarked that Brandon has likely had a face lift as well as hair transplants and Botox:

    Dr. Barry Cohen, a plastic surgeon based in Washington, D.C., said “Without any question Joe Biden had hair transplants. In fact, he had bad plugs years ago. Subsequently, he filled in his frontal hairline to camouflage the bad ‘Barbie dollesque’ plugs.” Dr. Cohen added, “I suspect he has regular Botox and probably filler. If he had a facelift, he needs another.”

    https://www.cosmetictown.com/journal/news/joe-biden-cosmetic-surgery

  22. https://youtu.be/wm_Bp9z-3go

    Alfa-Betty Olsen, Casting Director speaking on the subject of Mel Brooks’ The Producers “Springtime for Hitler” show number [mins 9:30 – 9:56]:

    There was one showgirl, she was over six foot tall, when she saw her costume, she said — this is really true — “I’ve worked long and hard to get where I am and I’m not going wear swastikas on my tits.”

  24. huxley,

    I don’t care if President Trump’s hair looks good or bad.

    President Trump’s policies were much better for the middle class than Pretender Brandon’s are.

    Which is probably why the democrats support FJB and hate President Trump.

  25. Plastic surgery is another issue that I don’t get with already very attractive women (and men but it’s more obvious with women). I look at someone like Courtney Cox who is in her mid 50s and has at least been botoxed and also had what looks like lip injections also and for what? She still doesn’t look as good as the 30 year olds out there and she looks very unnatural when playing an average woman who in real life would never look like that. She would still be very attractive just in an age appropriate way but I guess that is not enough.

    This also seems to be an American or at least Hollywood thing because it amazes me how few British or European actresses go down the road of looking so unnatural.

    And there are of course men also like the late Kenny Rogers that have done the same thing but at least in pop culture this seems to be a female driven thing mainly.

  26. I don’t care if President Trump’s hair looks good or bad.

    President Trump’s policies were much better for the middle class than Pretender Brandon’s are.

    Tuvea:

    Do you imagine that we disagree?

  27. And there are of course men also like the late Kenny Rogers that have done the same thing but at least in pop culture this seems to be a female driven thing mainly.

    Griffin:

    I have two words or three syllables:

    Axl Rose.

    https://glamourpath.com/axl-rose-plastic-surgery

    I’m just having fun, but really… Anyways, give me the Shy Man in the Black Top Hat who was unashamed to admit he enjoyed backing Carole King.

    Slash.

    https://guitar.com/guides/essential-guide/guitar-legends-slash/

  28. Huxley,

    I almost put Axl in my comment. Also Mickey Rourke and Vince Neil and a bunch of others like Wayne Newton.

  30. So you prefer Saul Hudson to Bill Bailey?

    Griffin:

    Perhaps you attribute more omniscience to me than is warranted….

    Who to whom?

    Mickey Rourke

    Do you wish to hurt me? 🙂

  33. Another good movie from that era that is very much an LA movie is ‘Grand Canyon’ starring Kevin Kline, Steve Martin and Danny Glover and a host of others.

    Directed by Lawrence Kasdan who made a bunch of good movies. One lesser known movie he made is ‘The Accidental Tourist’ which I liked a lot.

  35. Huxley, LA Story is brilliant on many levels.

    Ed Bonderenka:

    Agreed. Somewhere the internet told me Steve Martin spent seven years reworking the script to its final perfection.

  37. Steve Martin had a real great stretch around that time of LA Story. His ‘Cyrano’ reworking ‘Roxanne’ was also very enjoyable with a killer cast.

    Man, movies suck now.

  38. Griffin:

    Axl was a certain primo gender archetype then. Magnificent video!

    However, that’s a dangerous occupation. Just ask Marilyn Monroe.

  39. And there are of course men also like the late Kenny Rogers that have done the same thing but at least in pop culture this seems to be a female driven thing mainly.

    How soon we forget: there was a time not that long ago when Michael Jackson’s four separate rhinoplasties, not to mention his face lifts, fillers, and skin bleaching, were the talk of the tabloids. One of Jackson’s fans takes a full 11 minutes to detail his addiction [my word] to plastic surgery:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDSmybFiVgA

  40. PA+Cat:

    Well, yeah.

    But everyone knows Michael Jackson wasn’t, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, quite human, much less male.

  41. This is what I noticed in this post: “Lately I’ve been feeling as though the mountain of lies that people believe is just too enormous a structure to dismantle. I don’t like feeling that way, but the last six or so years seems to have consisted of lie after malevolent lie getting all the way around the world before the truth has a chance to put its boots on.”

    Oh man do I recognize that feeling. It is really depressing. I started getting lectured by a progressive the other day, and he was deploying so many “facts” that aren’t facts at all, and left out so many actual facts, that I had to just bow out, because refuting any single one of them would have involved letting three more go. I’m amazed at the number of Democrats who scream that Trump was endangering “our democracy” by denying the results of the 2020 election when they had spent the previous four years denying the results of the 2016 election. And on and on.

  42. This also seems to be an American or at least Hollywood thing

    Europeans get plastic surgery too, but much more moderately. Hence you notice far less.

    Some things, like the lip surgery, just don’t seem to happen. I think it might be that Europeans are fighting the aging process, but not attempting to “improve” on their looks.

  43. Maybe off topic but this certainly lifted my mood this evening.
    CitizenFreePress calls this Hell Freezes Over at CNN
    “ David Gregory tells the truth — “I mean, activism has its place, of course, speaking out has its place too, but to threaten a Supreme Court Justice and his family outside of his home is beyond the pale. And the truth is that a lot of people on the left who are in political power are being so hypocritical about this. They lecture us all the time about the excesses of the right, including Donald Trump on January 6, fomenting mob violence, and yet they are out there countenancing — as they have with statements before — that it’s okay to stand outside these people’s homes.”
    Enjoy: https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/hell-freezes-over-at-cnn/
    This blog and other blogs calling out the Democrats on this have made a difference.
    Now I’m gonna go watch L A Story. Saw Grand Canyon. Loved it.

  44. Ha ha. Full circle – Steve Martin plays an LA weatherman who does the Toupee Report (wind speed).

  46. @ Mac > “he was deploying so many “facts” that aren’t facts at all, and left out so many actual facts, that I had to just bow out, because refuting any single one of them would have involved letting three more go”

    Indeed.
    AesopSpouse and I are elder-sitting his mother this week (96 and going strong-ish), and she has been glued to the January 6 Show Trial. We refuse to talk about it with her, because when she asked why we didn’t want to watch and he told her that it was a campaign ad pretending to be an investigation, with no Republican input (Cheney and whassisname don’t count), no evidence or facts that contradict the Democrat narrative, and recitations of assertions already debunked numerous times, she literally said she didn’t want to hear it.

    I’m with Larry Correia on this one.

  47. Related (January 6):
    “Dershowitz: Jan. 6 Panel ‘Doctored the Tape,’ Edited Out Trump’s Words”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/politics/alan-dershowitz-newsmax-donald-trump-jan-6/2022/06/10/id/1073948/
    Key grafs:
    ‘Constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Friday that the Jan. 6 committee’s public hearing on Thursday night was ”not a fair proceeding” in that it was ”one-sided” and ”unethical.”
    ”’Take, for example, President Trump’s speech on Jan. 6,” Dershowitz said…. ”He said at the end of the speech he wanted people to show their voices patriotically and peacefully.
    ‘”They doctored the tape,” he continued. ”They edited those words out. If a prosecutor ever did that, they’d be disbarred. You can’t present part of the tape and deliberately omit the rest of the tape in order to mislead the audience, especially when the other side has no opportunity to cross-examine, no opportunity to present its own evidence.”….’
    [all emphasis mine; Barry M.]

  48. And what do we have here? Liz Cheney having a bit of trouble with the truth?
    My, my…absolutely shocking….
    “Rep. Perry Says Rep. Cheney Lied About Claim He Sought Presidential Pardon”—
    https://www.theepochtimes.com/rep-perry-says-rep-cheney-lied-about-claim-he-sought-presidential-pardon_4527135.html
    Key grafs:
    ‘…“The notion that I ever sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress is an absolute, shameless, and soulless lie,” Perry said…
    ‘…During the hearing, Cheney alleged that Perry “contacted the White House in the weeks after Jan. 6 to seek a presidential pardon.”
    ‘“Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,” she added.
    ‘She provided no evidence for the claims, and did not identify any other members of Congress other than Perry, who…voted against the certification of electoral results from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
    ‘…Perry also said that the Jan. 6 panel was a “sham committee,” referring to how the panel only has members picked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) because Pelosi rejected choices put forth by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
    ‘Cheney’s office did not respond to a request for comment….’
    – – – – – – – –
    …and a little bit more on this scandalous, scurrilous, shameless sham (but it’s Pelosi…so what could one possibly expect??)…
    “Rep. Rodney Davis: Pelosi ‘Wanted One Narrative’ in Jan. 6 Hearings”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/newsmaxtv-jan-6hearing-pelosi-rodneydavis/2022/06/10/id/1073944/

  50. hell YEAH, Mac, AesopFan, Neo — “ the last six or so years seems to have consisted of lie after malevolent lie getting all the way around the world before the truth has a chance to put its boots on.”

    I keep a file labelled “Left Big Lies…” — but it goes on: “Insurrection! hoax”

    I’ve been re-reading from this file to collect Mary Ball at Time mag and other “BEST” comments and articles. Likewise the Russia…ObamaGate hoax.

    I think I’m prepping how to systematically go on attack. Against deluded friends. It’s important to pick ones battles strategically. And not go overboard or drown up the dumbed down too much or too powerfully (ie, too information intense).

    Anybody else doing anything somewhat similar? I am seeking to simplify my messages. Maybe a change of companionship will get me to test and winnow my trial materials to the best, most effective.

    THIS IS truly a luxury Pandemania prevented us from doing.

    “ the last six or so years seems to have consisted of lie after malevolent lie getting all the way around the world before the truth has a chance to put its boots on.”
    THIS remark stays with me. But not a lot of others, here.

  52. Liz Cheney, truth-teller extraordinaire (continued from above):
    “Trump said Mike Pence ‘deserves’ hanging amid chants during Capitol riot: Liz Cheney”—
    https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/trump-said-pence-deserves-hanging-at-capitol-riot-liz-cheney/
    Key grafs:
    ‘Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney alleged Thursday that then-President Donald Trump said during last year’s Capitol riot that Vice President Mike Pence “deserves” to be hanged as Trump supporters chanted “hang Mike Pence.”…
    ‘…Cheney, the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, made the claim in her opening statement at the committee’s first primetime hearing….
    ‘…The committee did not present evidence to support the allegation Thursday and Trump denied it in a statement.
    “I NEVER said, or even thought of saying, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’ This is either a made up story by somebody looking to become a star, or FAKE NEWS!” Trump wrote Friday on his social media platform Truth Social….’

    So is Cheney lying again?
    Answer: “What difference does it make?”

  53. …and so SHOWTIME begins in DC…as the Democrats fear they haven’t destroyed the country sufficiently, haven’t been quite able to distract the people from their criminality and corrosive policies as much as they would like AND have not yet been able to cement the total power and control they planned and expected.

    Ladies and Gentlemen (and everyone and everything in between): We present—just the latest round of—the Democratic Party Demolition Derby!!

  54. Hmm. Someone hasn’t been paying attention….
    “There was only one real surprise in the January 6 TV show trial”—
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/there_was_only_one_real_surprise_in_the_january_6_tv_show_trial.html
    Opening graf:
    ‘OK, I watched it. And if there’s anything about the first of the so-called “hearings” on the alleged “insurrection” of January 6, 2021 that surprised me, it wasn’t the predictably kangaroo-court nature of the affair, or even the Democrats’ brazen lying and selective omissions. What still managed to surprise me was the media’s complicity….’

    Um, sorry pal.
    There were NO surprises.
    It’s the media-driven 24/7 HATE…still going strong, and how!
    The only question left is whether the Stalinist Democratic Party and their hysterical Pravda wannabes will come out winners…or be utterly vanquished.

    Yep, we’re down to ONE QUESTION ONLY….

  55. I had a bald father and two bald grandfathers so my fate was pretty much determined. But beyond that my dad and his father were proudly bald and loved bald jokes and my grandfather was a middle school principal and the kids would call him ‘old baldy’ (this was the forties and fifties) and he laughed it off.

    Male pattern baldness is carried on the sex chromosome you inherit from your mother. Your father and paternal grandfather do not influence your chances.

    To estimate your probability of going bald, survey the line of mothers who conclude with you – your mother, your maternal grandmother, your maternal grandmother’s mother – and remark the condition of the father of each. The farther you have to retreat in your pedigree ‘ere you find a woman with a bald father, the lower your chances.

    My maternal grandfather had lost the last of the hair on his top and crown by age 31. My brother drew the short straw, I drew the long one. Took my brother till age 52 to lose the last on the top and he’s pretty much lost it all on every square inch of his head. He’s not happy with that but not terribly disfigured by it. He’s now much thinner than I am.

  56. Unless you have scar tissue or some sort of disfiguring growth, cosmetic surgery is ill advised. Orthodontics will pass.

    Toupées seem rather retro. Think Charles Nelson Reilly. I’m not sure they’re often worn anymore.

    People benefit if they keep clean, have their hair properly cut, see that their beard is shaven or trimmed, floss their teeth, and keep their weight down if possible. They also benefit from clothing and footwear that’s appropriate to their sex, shape, age, and activities. If you’re out in public in a T-shirt, not doing anything specifically athletic, and old enough to be earning a living, you’re doing it wrong.

  57. Some people are in professions where looking young is required.

    As we speak, there are about 2,000 people employed as models in this country, about 4,000 dancers, about 30,000 actors, and about 24,000 musicians. Musicians whose looks are crucial to earning a living are an odd minority thereof, acting roles are to be found in all age segments, and it’s doubtful that many people enter the world of modeling or dance with the idea that it’s a lifetime career.

  58. When my step daughter got married in the 1990’s I was in my late 40’s and had been trying to wear my hair the same way had worn it all my adult life, not too short and not too long. Then I saw the pictures of the wedding and the back of my head and realized how much of a comb over I was doing and it really looked bad to me.

    Our store in Dallas was next to a high end women’s hair salon and I asked the owner what he might suggest, he said come on in this evening when we close and I will give you a proper haircut like I give my boyfriend. He did a great job and it ended up looking nice with a bald head and a decent fringe around the side and I have worn it that way ever since then, of course instead of being brownish blonde it is now nice and white.

  60. A former boss of mine wore a toupee. I never realized it for several years until he showed up at work one day with a bandage atop his head (due to an injury), which required him to reveal his baldness for a few days.
    Nobody cared that he wore a toupee.

    What I do not understand is those people – usually female Hollywood types or fashion types – who have had their face or other body parts surgically and/or botoxically modified to such an extent that they appear to be a new species of near human.
    What exactly were they thinking?

  61. My then fiancée informed me that we would not be walking down the aisle unless I got rid of that infernal rug. The last day I wore one was the day before our marriage ceremony, now 40+ years ago. It was a problem, in that judges were initially unsure of who this new lawyer was entering their courtroom. In retrospect, maybe my fake hair hadn’t been so obvious.

  64. Put me down as also overwhelmed by what is going on. I think often about leaving the country but it’s not easy to just get up and go. My spouse is also overwhelmed but he cannot relinquish his faith in America. I love him for that but I don’t share that faith. I wish I could. I’m very sad my kids have much of their lives still to lead in this country.

  67. Jeanne—If you did leave where would you go, since the leftist plague has spread to what used to be possible alternatives like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

    Old Blighty is certainly not a likely alternative, nor would I think France or Italy would be candidates either.

    Somewhere in Eastern Europe? Switzerland?

  70. I wonder, if Elon Musk were to get his proposed colony on Mars up and running, and if he put out a call for a lot of immigrants to populate a bare-bones colony originally set up by highly trained and skilled astronauts, would he get a lot of adventurous people, who are motivated by disgust at the way things are going on Earth, to volunteer to live a very tough and dangerous pioneer life on Mars?

    It would seem that such pioneers would very likely have to be young and vigorous, and how many of the young, what percentage of them–as compared to us folks from earlier and very different generations–would be dissatisfied enough with the way things are going to make such a leap?

  71. I look at someone like Courtney Cox who is in her mid 50s and has at least been botoxed and also had what looks like lip injections also and for what?

    The last couple of pictures I’ve seen of Sandra Bullock weren’t quite the way I remember her, either.

  72. Jeanne: I’m not at a point of thinking of leaving the country, and I’m pretty sure I never will be. Aside from the question of where I would go, and unwillingness to be so separated from family, I’m in my early 70s, am probably not going to live more than another 15 years, and am comfortably situated in a deep red part of the country. But re your husband’s unwillingness or inability to relinquish his faith in America: I don’t have that. I fear that the great things about this country are dying and will be extinguished over the next 30-50 years. It’s not just because of the depredations of the left. Too many of us, regardless of political views, just do not really *want* the American republic anymore. They don’t want the duties of free citizenship. They want to be pleased and cared for. They want to be ruled.

  73. Mac —The Left certainly picked the key target. They’ve felled the Tree of Liberty by chopping it at it’s base—Education and Religion.

  74. huxley,
    Except Sarah Jessica’s character name wasn’t Sandy, it was SanDee*. Very funny movie.

  75. Some people are in professions where looking young is required.

    Not exactly required, but in hi-tech it’s beneficial for men to look younger. I know tech guys who got their hair colored. I was thinking of it myself. Ageism is a poorly kept secret in that world.

    It makes a certain brutal sense. Younger tech guys can work longer hours (and the hours are long), tend to be more up to date on the latest tech, and are less inclined to complain about abuse.

    I recall a moment in the dotcom boom when I was in my mid-fifties and thought to myself, “I’m too old to be sleeping on the floor of my cubicle.”

  76. Is it a toupee, a hair mat, or perhaps a surgical weave?

    “where looking young is required”

    Keep women appointed, available, and taxable.

  77. One strange plastic surgery case was the nose job that Jennifer Grey got some years ago. She was a somewhat successful B or B+ actress with two or three iconic roles under her belt and at least a small box office drawing potential.

    Then she got her nose job and the result didn’t look bad. She just didn’t look like Jennifer Grey anymore. Producers and casting agents can get unknown actresses for less money than what Grey had been making. Oops.

    https://news.amomama.com/213001-jennifer-grey-dirty-dancing-is-60-now-lo.html

    I can’t believe that article doesn’t even mention that she played Ferris Bueller’s sister.

  78. For tbe prequel? Shot 15 years later with some stock footage of patrick swayze, they chose romula garai i think shes australian as the ingenue

  79. Like rust, the left never sleeps, but I think the wheel has got a few more turns before they subdue America … if they do.

    My money is on China falling before America.
    _________________________________

    [Democracy is] coming to America first
    The cradle of the best and of the worst
    It’s here they got the range
    And the machinery for change
    And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
    It’s here the family’s broken
    And it’s here the lonely say
    That the heart has got to open
    In a fundamental way
    Democracy is coming to the U.S.A

    –Leonard Cohen, “Democracy” (1992)
    _________________________________

    I don’t believe Cohen was exactly onboard with most of us here, but he wasn’t entirely a creature of the left either, however much they prefer to think so.

    I was rather disgusted by their reactions to Cohen’s death as a terrible personal blow the same week Trump was elected in 2016.

  80. To quote my old buddy from my Two Street Music days (in a discussion about effects pedals …and more specifically, the degree of reverb in a mix):

    One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

    Yeah. I’m still alive lol.

  82. fwiw, the guy that used to cut my hair pre-covid , once sold toupees. he explained to me that he could sell good unrecognizable ones to any customer, but many of his customers had too much vanity.
    most mens hair thins out with aging even if we don’t go bald. a 60 yo customer usually despite advice to the contrary would choose a rug to give them the look that had at 18 and not one that showed male pattern front-temporal thinning like a non balding 60yo.

  83. They don’t want the duties of free citizenship. They want to be pleased and cared for. They want to be ruled.

    I disagree. What’s characteristic of most of the young and also some of those older is their lack of any sense of history, their acceptance of caricatures of the past and present, the gross deficits of the sort of self-understanding my parents’ contemporaries had as a matter of course, their other-directedness, and the tendency of political opinions to feed their distorted self-concept.

  84. huxley:

    As far as I can tell – and I’ve read a lot and watched a lot of interviews – Leonard Cohen kept his politics purposely ambiguous. That tends to mean a person is more to the right than the artsy crowd wants that person to be. I think Cohen was more deeply philosophical than political, anyway, and never simplistic.

  85. It was mentioned in response to me way above in this thread that it didn’t matter that my dad and his dad were bald because male baldness is passed down on the maternal side but my life experience tells me it is not that simple or ironclad anyway.

    My maternal grandfather was bald and at a pretty early age. So, I have two older half brothers with the same mother but their father was a full blooded native american who was dark complected and had a very thick head of hair right up until he died in his eighties. Now my two brothers with same mother and her bald father are now around 70 years old and they both still have very full heads of hair. My father’s side is all very fair and of Scandinavian heritage and I went bald in my thirties.

    Further, my mom’s sister with the same parents as my mom married a first generation Italian man who was dark complected and had very thick black until he died in his nineties. They had two sons who are now in their sixties and neither one is anywhere close to bald. If it’s all the mother’s side how can that be?

    Anyway, maybe the mother’s side has a stronger predictive tendency but it is clearly not as simple as it all being from the maternal side.

  86. So is Cheney lying again?

    Yes, she’s lying. If there’s ever a serious scholarly treatment of George W. Bush and / or Richard Cheney, the author would be well-advised to suss out what’s made Lizard tick through this whole episode.

  87. Anyway, maybe the mother’s side has a stronger predictive tendency but it is clearly not as simple as it all being from the maternal side.

    Your mother has two sex chromosomes. You got the one on which male pattern baldness is passed down; your brothers got the other one. My grandfather had lost the last of his top and crown hair by 1925; his brother still had his 50 years later.

  88. Leonard Cohen kept his politics purposely ambiguous.

    neo:

    To a point. As I said, his politics aren’t those of a wholly owned subsidiary of the left. Nonetheless….

    I’ve read plenty of interviews and several bios of His Coheness, as well as absorbing his song lyrics deeply. IMO conservatives would be mistaken in supposing his political views were apolitical or smack dab in the middle.

    For instance, in “Democracy” he speaks of the “homicidal bitching that goes on in every kitchen” as well as the “ashes of the gay” while there are no corresponding balances from a right-wing point of view.

    I love Cohen, but I try not to kid myself. He wasn’t totally of the left nor of the hippies. He knew better than that. He wasn’t simplistic. He could criticize the left, but I can’t recall a single instance where he voiced a positive conservative view.

  89. Male pattern baldness is carried on the sex chromosome you inherit from your mother. Your father and paternal grandfather do not influence your chances.

    I have two sons in their 50s. One, the younger, is bald and now has a shaved head. His older brother has a full head of hair like his mother. His mother’s father had late baldness but it was limited. I have a bald spot in back of my head. I will be 85 next birthday.

  90. huxley:

    Have you studied the words to “The Future”? Here are some (pay special attention to the last verse I quote here):

    Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
    Won’t be nothing (won’t be nothing)
    Nothing you can measure anymore
    The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
    Has crossed the threshold
    And it’s overturned
    The order of the soul…

    You don’t know me from the wind
    You never will, you never did
    I’m the little Jew
    Who wrote the Bible
    I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
    I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
    But love’s the only engine of survival
    Your servant here, he has been told
    To say it clear, to say it cold
    It’s over, it ain’t going
    Any further (do, do, do)
    And now the wheels of heaven stop
    You feel the devil’s riding crop
    Get ready for the future
    It is murder (do, do, do)…

    There’ll be the breaking of the ancient
    Western code
    Your private life will suddenly explode (ooh, ooh)
    There’ll be phantoms
    There’ll be fires on the road
    And the white man dancing…

    Destroy another fetus now
    We don’t like children anyhow
    I’ve seen the future, baby
    It is murder (do, do, do)….

    However, I don’t mean that Cohen was either on left or right. I merely believe that he was purposely mysterious about his politics, which to me means he wasn’t simply on the left – or “simply” on either side.

  91. Art Deco; Griffin:

    It is by no means that simple. See this. An excerpt:

    More recently, a review paper highlighted fifteen loci from six studies that have been associated at genome-wide significance (P<5×10-8) with baldness; two of these were located on the X chromosome…

    In this large GWAS study of male pattern baldness, we identified 287 independent genetic signals that were linked to differences in the trait, a substantial advance over the previous largest GWAS meta-analysis, which identified eight independent signals. We showed—in line with a previous study, but with much greater precision—that a substantial proportion of individual differences in hair loss patterns can be explained by common genetic variants on the autosomes as well as on the X chromosome. However, the variance explained by X chromosome variants is much lower for late-onset compared to early-onset male pattern baldness. Finally, by splitting our cohort into a discovery and a prediction sample, we showed a predictive discrimination (AUC = 0.78) between those with no hair loss and those with severe hair loss…

    As mentioned above, the GWAS identified 247 independent autosomal loci and 40 independent X chromosome loci.

    A lot more at the link.

  92. Its generally about how life has beome cheaper certainly in the generation or two also as in judges this pattern is not new in our experience

  93. Destroy another fetus now
    We don’t like children anyhow
    I’ve seen the future, baby
    It is murder (do, do, do)….

    I had a potential grandchild destroyed years ago by one of my children who was in college at the time, enlightened and thought it was the right thing to do at the time and that grown child has shared the regret felt over and over, there were more children from that child of mine as the years have gone by however there is still sorrow for that other one.

    Those younger folks should be careful doing what makes babies and then destroying those babies before they have a chance to take a breath and cry, that wonderful scream of life on his or her own. What kind of world are we living in that worships killing babies instead of being careful how and when they are created within loving families where they will be cherished.

  94. Neo:

    1. As far as I can tell, they never define ‘early-onset’ or ‘late-onset’ baldness.

    2. They do not tell you the proportions of the male population in either subset.

    3. If you have a gander at their sample questionnaire, the subject of their discussion is a receding hairline generally, not baldness as it would be understood in a discussion among laymen.

  95. Art Deco:

    I have actually read many studies on male pattern baldness. They all indicate it is governed by many genes only some of which are on the X chromosome. I have never read a single study that conforms with what you described earlier. Feel free to link one if you can find one.

  96. “If we can begin planting even a few colonies elsewhere in our solar system, and eventually on planets around other suns, our species becomes ferociously hard to eliminate. Kill off one branch and the others persist: learning (we hope) from the sad experience of their forebears; trying new social experiments; pushing technologies to ever-higher levels of sophistication; finding out about life elsewhere; and continuing to explore.” *

    * See https://thenextweb.com/news/colonizing-our-solar-system-will-make-our-species-very-hard-to-eliminate

    Discussion of Elon Musk’s proposed colony on Mars brings up a very important point.

    There is a reason visionary thinkers like Elon Musk and other luminaries, including Stephen Hawking,** Russian Rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,*** and Carl Sagan, **** have warned us that the human race is just too vulnerable when we are confined to just one planet, to Earth, and that to insure the survival of the human race we need to establish breeding populations of humans in other locations in our Solar System.

    The Earth has been hit by many major meteor impacts, which have had catastrophic effects on weather patterns, at one point wiped out some 90% of all species of plants and animals, and changed the course of evolution.

    Inevitably, the Earth will be hit again in the future. If we are unlucky, and the meteor is large, such a meteor impact could be an “extinction level event” for the human race.

    If it isn’t due to being hit by a large meteor, such an extinction level event could come about in any number of other ways—in the form of major volcanic activity—Earthquakes, lava flows, toxic fumes, and clouds covering the sun for years, a major plague, war, out of control biological warfare agents, artificial intelligence run amok, an EMP event that completely destroys our electronic, high tech civilization, or even an Alien invasion.

    Speaking of Aliens, it has also been pointed out that any entity which controls Earth’s near earth orbit has dominance over the entire Earth, since they can merely drop rocks on whoever resists their demands.

    All of the above is to say that there are many very good and urgent reasons for us to see to it that human breeding populations are sent out into our Solar System, to settle wherever it is possible to do so. Then, next, to reach out further and to settle the planets in other star systems.

    ** “It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million,” Stephen Hawking said. “Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space.”

    See https://www.space.com/8924-stephen-hawking-humanity-won-survive-leaving-earth.html

    ***“Man must at all costs overcome the Earth’s gravity and have, in reserve, the space at least of the Solar System. All kinds of danger wait for him on the Earth… . We have said a great deal about the advantages of migration into space, but not all can be said or even imagined.”
    — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,
    The Aims of Astronautics, 1929.

    See https://spacequotations.com/quotes-about-colonization/

    **** “All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.”

    See https://www.internetpillar.com/carl-sagan-quotes/

  97. Art Deco on June 12, 2022 at 8:07 am
    “If you’re out in public in a T-shirt, not doing anything specifically athletic, and old enough to be earning a living, you’re doing it wrong.”
    Unless you are beyond the age of earning a living, i.e., retired, then it’s all good — especially in FL.

    OldTexan on June 12, 2022 at 9:03 am
    “… instead of being brownish blonde it is now nice and white.”
    Nice and white is good.

    While considering the Instapundit link at Barry Meislin on June 12, 2022 at 10:34 am, I was wondering if the language of Article I Section 6 would still apply during the Committee presentations: “…for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” They can say whatever they want while in session and not be subject to any threat of libel? Only possibly be expelled as a member, with concurrence of 2/3 of the other members of their house [per Section 5], or eventually not getting re-elected?
    Seems pretty safe to lie your ass off if you feel like it while in session – perhaps not outside during a press conference or interview?

  99. Although much of the discussion of this rather far-flung thread are way above my head, the juxtaposition with Elon Musk’s ambitions in outer space makes me wonder if NASA has conducted any studies on the effects of weightlessness on baldness.

  100. And the gloves are off:

    “Alan Dershowitz slams the ACLU as ‘enemy of liberty,’ encourages donations to FIRE;
    “The famed defense attorney is done with the ACLU”—
    https://justthenews.com/tv/alan-dershowitz-slams-aclu-enemy-liberty-encourages-donations-fire
    Key grafs:
    ‘…Dershowitz told co-hosts John Solomon and Amanda Head that nothing former President Donald Trump said on January 6 rose to the level of incitement of a mob – a charge for which Trump was impeached for the second time.
    ‘The only people, Dershowitz said, who would argue that Trump’s language on January 6, 2021 could be exclusionary under the First Amendment are “what used to be called the ACLU.”
    ‘Then he dug in.
    ‘The American Civil Liberties Union, an organization of which Dershowitz was formerly a national board member, “has become the enemy of liberty, the enemy of free speech,” he charged….’

    Good. That should clear the air a bit.
    (The only problem, though, is that precisely the people who should be heeding Dershowitz would likely classify him as a “Trump defender” and want to have nothing to do with him.)

  101. And “Just the News” is on a roll (it generally is):
    “Exclusive: Capitol Police failures on Jan. 6 foreshadowed in earlier warnings, memos show;
    “Between 2017 and 2020, multiple red flags were raised about preparedness, training and intelligence, records show”—
    https://justthenews.com/government/congress/exclusive-capitol-police-failures-jan-6-foreshadowed-earlier-warnings-memos
    Key grafs:
    ‘Six months into Nancy Pelosi’s reign as House Speaker, the newly minted Capitol Police chief expressed concerns about his department’s preparedness, training and aging equipment amid increasingly complex security threats.
    ‘”You know, ensuring the preparedness of the officers out in the field is probably my biggest initiative,” then-Chief Steven Sund testified to the Democrat-led House Administration Committee just 18 months before his ill-equipped force was easily overrun by rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021 breach at the Capitol…
    ‘…A Just the News review of hundreds of pages of Capitol Police records found that Sund’s concerns were echoed to Congress by multiple other bodies – the Government Accountability Office, the Capitol Police Inspector General and the Capitol Architect among them – all of whom warned between 2017 and 2020 that the department:
    – suffered from a dysfunctional relationship with its governing board,
    – possessed outdated security equipment;
    – needed to improve intelligence analysis;
    – and struggled to manage its human capital…
    ‘…Those most familiar with the warnings to the new Democrat House leadership that took control of the Capitol in 2019 say it looks in retrospect like a slow-motion disaster that could have been prevented by more assertive leadership by Pelosi’s team….‘ [emphasis mine; Barry M.]

    Although there are several problems with this article: one is the word “riot”; the other is the seeming belief that Pelosi (and others) “fell down” on the job.
    Regarding the latter, at least, it seems justifiable to conclude—especially when one considers the bizarre refusal of Pelosi, and others, to reinforce the Capitol Police with the National Guard—that Pelosi WANTED this “riot” to take place. IOW, she wanted to HAVE CONTROL over the security (i.e., the LACK of security) at this “event”.
    To put it MORE CLEARLY: if you’re planning to lure people into places they’re not supposed to be and incite a riot using strategically planted provacateurs, then you DON’T WANT SECURITY THAT YOU CANNOT CONTROL doing t heir jobs and getting in the way of your dastardly plans.

    IOW “…assertive leadership by Pelosi…” IS PRECISELY WHAT HAPPENED in this choreographed American version of the Burning of the Reichstag.

  102. TJ. I try to be ready to discuss issues a people I know, but it’s useless. They’re proof against facts. Lies.
    They know they’re paying $5 for gas but it’s worth it for the usual reasons. If it’s a serious hurt for the less well off, “It’s a price we have to pay.” ” We” meaning somebody I never heard of.
    Costly and unreliable energy? Ditto.
    Hate to think I waste my time….

  104. Serious question — if the Democrats succeed in stealing a critical number of elections in November, how much violence will we see?

    If the ballot box doesn’t offer redress, what is left?

  106. “Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” – Robert A. Heinlein

    The reasons often given for the why UFOs are not likely to be of Alien origin is that Space is incredibly vast, the distances between the stars immense, and the speed of light is a limiting factor to interstellar travel.

    I point out that at one point supposedly informed people thought that flying was impossible, or that traveling more than a few miles an hour in those newfangled trains or cars would cause their passengers major injury or perhaps even death.

    Granted Space is vast beyond comprehension and the distances between the stars are immense.

    However, I think it the height of human arrogance to, in effect, declare that we today have a comprehensive knowledge of all of the fundamental forces and limits of our Universe, and can therefor say, with absolute conviction, that the speed of light is and will always be a major barrier to space travel.

    There may well be as yet undiscovered forces, technologies, and techniques that we here on Earth are not yet aware of which make interstellar travel something that can be done, and perhaps done fairly easily.

  108. Yep, incredibly easy that flying thing, almost as easy as falling down or falling off a log. Getting killed is incredibly easy too, so easy that a fall from less than 8 ft will do the job. Everything is incredibly easy, after the fact, and to the ignorant.

  110. “There may well be as yet undiscovered forces, technologies, and techniques that we here on Earth are not yet aware of which make interstellar travel something that can be done, and perhaps done fairly easily.”

    I watched a YouTube video recently that pointed out scientists at the bleeding edge of a lot of fields have run into a wall of stuff they really don’t understand.

    It’s like the whole thing with dark matter and dark energy. Those are both concepts invented to explain why the universe doesn’t look the way our understanding of physics says it should. Most study and research now simply accept the existence of these two invisible things which can only be detected by the influence they exert on other things because the alternative is that our understanding of physics is fundamentally flawed, or at least incomplete, and we have no idea what we’ve got wrong.

    Mike

  111. There may well be as yet undiscovered forces, technologies, and techniques that we here on Earth are not yet aware of which make interstellar travel something that can be done, and perhaps done fairly easily.

    Well, let’s just toss it out there that there may well not be and science fiction stays in the realm of imaginative literature.

  113. Most of us aren’t experts on much of anything other than our own opinions about things that happen in our own lives. Toupee expertise is something that people can claim to be expert about; it’s easy, especially in reference to public figures who are unlikely to reveal whether they wear one (or color their hair, or have had plastic surgery, lap band surgery, etc etc.) It’s just a way of being a blowhard without consequence, so, yeah, super annoying.

  114. Of course I know Cohen’s song, “The Future.” However the opening verse is:
    __________________________

    Give me back my broken night
    My mirrored room, my secret life
    It’s lonely here
    There’s no one left to torture
    Give me absolute control
    Over every living soul
    And lie beside me, baby
    That’s an order!
    __________________________

    Unless you would argue Cohen is representing himself, the narrator is unreliable in the extreme and that’s the point. As I understand it, the song is a study of extremes and I take your quoted lines as Cohen’s portrayal of right-wing extremists — hardly his own views nor congenial to conservatives.

    However, the song I quoted, “Democracy,” is basically Cohen speaking personally. He is clear in interviews that he is the guy singing the song:
    ____________________________________

    I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
    I love the country but I can’t stand the scene
    And I’m neither left or right
    I’m just staying home tonight
    Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
    ____________________________________

    So we can agree Cohen is largely apolitical in his music and public comments and that he is not a leftist partisan.

    Nonetheless, I stand by my earlier claims. Conservatives should not hope Cohen’s politics are all that compatible. Cohen comes out of academic, literary, hippie, music, Hollywood and Buddhist communities — all quite progressive. Speaking for himself in “Democracy” Cohen’s concerns for women, gays and the homeless are typically progressive with no conservative counterbalances.

  115. Mr. Strawman returns with the usual, terminal statements about “all there is to know.” Silly me, I kind of assume that only God is in possession of that.

    Leave it to Bunge.

  117. I used to live in Manhattan and hung out with the Orthodox Jewish community. There were women’s whose wigs were AMAZING! The only reason you knew that they were wigs was because the person was a married Orthodox Jew.

  118. I wan’ch’all to know that I have Bill’s to pay.

    And Fred’s wig to go with it.

    😛

  119. }}} Comedy gold from in my opinion the greatest sitcom in TV history.

    Griffin, Huxley — have you ever seen “My Favorite Year”?

    I suspect you’d love it if you have not.

    It’s basically a sort of coming of age/slive of life story, with a young writer on the writing staff of a Milton Berle/Sid Caesar type show (a la Carl Reiner’s)…

    The guest is “Alan Swan” (aka “Errol Flynn”) who has to do the show for financial reasons, but has turned into kind of a screwup late in his career. They want to cancel his appearance, but the young writer appeals to them to keep him on.

    “Fine, but you’re the one who has to babysit him!” and the interpersonal elements ensue from there.

    It’s a very good slice of life film, with an excellent performance by Peter O’Toole as Alan Swan, and the writing team is kind of similar to that on the DVD show, with Mark Linn-Baker as the “Mel Brooks/Woody Allen” protege, Bill Macy as the head writer, and Joseph Bologna as the Sid Caesar/Carl Reiner host.

    If you read the wiki entry, the writer apparently used Mel Brooks and Woody Allen as models for the young writer, and there are other analogues in the picture for real people of the time, such as Neal Simon.

    If anyone reading this wants to watch an affectionate, but not sycophantic, view of what it was like in the 50s, it’s a good time well spent.

  120. }}} But were they spectacular? (Seinfeld reference.)

    The funny part is, she did do a couple topless scenes. They were, indeed, real, but they weren’t all that spectacular. 😀

  121. }}} She is now facially a caricature of her former self but does not seem to recognize that

    I’ve never comprehended this. I can look at many beautiful women from Hollywood, and see what Botox has done to their face. I don’t grasp how women can NOT realize that it will do the same to them.

    Lynda Carter appears at the very end of Wonder Woman 1984, and her face looks like a plastic mask, for God’s sake. Literally, not figuratively. It’s like she has one of those clear plastic masks on.

    I loved Dame Judi Dench’s comments, about how she was happy all these women were getting Botox, as it guaranteed her plenty of roles, since she was one of the few older women in Hollywood who could still show facial expressions…

  122. huxley:

    I disagree with your interpretation of “The Future.” Of course, I don’t think Cohen is portraying himself – I agree with you on that. But the “voice” that begins the song is not the “voice” that continues throughout. The song starts with the voice of a destructive and power-mad nihilist (the verse you quote, and then also the next verse), and then much of the rest is commentary on what will happen in a world of destructive amoral nihilists like that first speaker, a world we are getting closer and closer to.

    That’s the only interpretation of the lyrics that makes sense to me, because the voice changes after those first and second verses.

    Later in the song we also hear:

    I’m the little Jew
    Who wrote the Bible
    I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
    I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
    But love’s the only engine of survival
    Your servant here, he has been told
    To say it clear, to say it cold
    It’s over, it ain’t going
    Any further (do, do, do)

    This is certainly NOT the same person speaking as in those first two verses. Is it Cohen speaking there? Well, it’s certainly something like Cohen – but again, we can’t conclude it is. But it’s definitely not the same person as in the beginning.

    And you say there are no “conservative counterbalances” in the words of “Democracy”? I agree there’s a lot of what usually is coming from the left, particularly in the song’s earlier verses, but in Cohen I don’t think it’s tied to politics but is more about compassion. I see balances in the latter part of the song [emphasis mine]:

    It’s coming to America first
    The cradle of the best and of the worst
    It’s here they got the range
    And the machinery for change
    And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
    It’s here the family’s broken
    And it’s here the lonely say
    That the heart has got to open
    In a fundamental way
    Democracy is coming to the USA
    It’s coming from the women and the men
    Oh baby, we’ll be making love again
    We’ll be going down so deep
    The river’s going to weep
    And the mountain’s going to shout, “Amen”

    Those are not things a leftist would say. The song contains both points of view, which is why I say that Cohen never reveals his hand.

  123. }}} give me the Shy Man in the Black Top Hat who was unashamed to admit he enjoyed backing Carole King.

    Anyone who wouldn’t enjoy that is a philistine. Carole King was awesome. And I like Disturbed, Cabaret Voltaire, and Tool, too… so it’s not like melody, harmony, and consonance are my main preferences in music. If it has rhythm, I like it.

    }}} Mickey Rourke

    Oh, my lord. He’s almost as bad as Jenna Jamison… maybe worse. :-/

    }}} Steve Martin had a real great stretch around that time of LA Story. His ‘Cyrano’ reworking ‘Roxanne’ was also very enjoyable with a killer cast.

    I loved the part with the heckler who Cyrano responds to with “I can come up with 25 wittier responses.”… and then promptly runs off **30** — go ahead, count them. 😀

    }}} Man, movies suck now.

    Nah, they are just different now. Only the wokist crap (which I grant, is far far too many of them… but one is too many) really sucks.

    OTOH, there is a LOT of really good TV if you (again) dodge the wokist crap.

  124. }}} OT except hopefully a mood lightener: I Want Candy by The Strangeloves. The go-go dancers make me smile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOrQ927LM-Q

    From that video’s comments:
    Toni Basil, Teri Garr, and Carolyn Barry were dancers on this show.

    However, as far as that song goes, perhaps it’s the muddy video-grade sound recording, but Bow-Wow-Wow just owned this song, with a much much better sound mix if not more effective instruments and Annabella Lwin’s voice is quite good in the context of the song.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoXVYSV4Xcs
    The increased emphasis of both the guitar and the base to match the heavy beat riff really works. I have no idea how the Strangeloves version actually sounded, but it would be hard-pressed to better BWW’s.

  125. It’s the same with so many things.
    Like people thinking all trans people are easily recognised because they’re all drag queens or guys with beards wearing pink dresses.
    Fact is most trans people you’d never recognise as such when meeting them, especially those further along in their journey. They may be the tall woman you meet, the short lanky guy.
    And they talk and think pretty much like you do as well, most want nothing to do with the whole “trans rights” outrage movement.

    And thus it is with many people who’re “different”. They TRY to fit in as best they can, and many of us are become bloody good at it (despite the often extreme stress it causes us) because it’s a survival mechanism in a world that generally doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t fit the standard.
    I’m autistic myself, I roleplay a “normal” person when out in public for that reason and apart from being “socially awkward” I tend to not draw a lot of attention. But it takes a lot out of me, and at home I often collapse mentally as a result for hours.

  126. }}} I tend to not draw a lot of attention. But it takes a lot out of me, and at home I often collapse mentally as a result for hours.

    TBH, you should not have to do this — the issue is not with accepting people who are different (or should not be) — it’s going to the other extreme and embracing or celebrating it. Worse, being socially forced to do so.

    Society — the 75%, the 90%, the 95% — should not generally be forced to change its overall processes to satisfy the minority group.

    Transvestite femmes should not be using women’s bathrooms — not because of them, but because it opens gaming the whole thing to perverts, and women should be able to trust that the bathroom is a safe space for them, as should young girls, and not need to worry about whether that “guy” in drag is actually some pedo trying to latch onto someone vulnerable.

    No, I don’t care how relatively unlikely that is, THIS is one of those “if it stops just ONE” scenarios that really matters.

    And trans-femmes should not be able to compete in sports with women. Period. It makes a mockery of the reasons why women compete independently of men.

    And no church, anywhere, should be forced to abrogate their principles and perform a gay marriage (voluntary, fine. That’s up to the church, not the “state”).

    And if you run a bed and breakfast, and do not allow unmarried couples to sleep in the same room — including gay couples (and you do not recognize gay marriage as valid), you should not be forced to, again, abrogate your principles — a general public accommodation, such as a hotel or motel is one thing. A B&B is generally a person’s home.

    And there is a reasonable location of balance, there: Acceptance is reasonable to expect from people. Embracing their difference should not be required.

  127. JTW:

    Exactly. There are some trans people who are not noticeable as such. It depends on so many factors.

  128. Barry Meislin,

    Thanks for the reference to FIRE. I never heard of it, but it seems to be a much-needed organization.

  129. Yer welcome! (But thank Dershowitz(!)—I’d never heard about them, either, at least I may have heard the name but didn’t know any of the details).

    To be sure, the ACLU has gone belly up ethically—straight down the rabbit hole—for some time now (if with the very occasional exception), and is essentially unrecognizable as the org. it once was.

    And it’s not the only one, unfortunately.
    (It seems that going bonkers has become very “competitive”—a matter of “keeping up with the Joneses”, surpassing them, actually. Simply ludicrous, absurd and pathetic…)

  130. @ Wesson & Barry > FIRE shows up in a lot of stories about censorship / cancel culture on university campuses, since that was their original reason for being.
    The Foundation shows up in a lot of posts on that topic.

    https://www.thefire.org/about-us/history/

    The History of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (formerly the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education)
    In 1998, University of Pennsylvania history professor Alan Charles Kors and Boston civil liberties lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate co-authored The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses. In response, they received hundreds of pleas for help from college student and faculty victims of illiberal policies and double standards. To answer these calls for help and to foster a culture of respect for fundamental rights on campus, in 1999, Alan and Harvey founded the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

    Alan took on the role of FIRE’s first president, while FIRE’s first employee, Executive Director Thor Halvorssen, played an important role in launching the organization from a tiny office in Wilmington, Delaware. In 2004, Thor departed as CEO, leaving FIRE firmly established and newly headquartered in Philadelphia, its current main location.

    That same year, David French became president of FIRE. He moved the organization to a larger headquarters and led the team through growth until departing in 2005 to serve in Iraq as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Army. In 2006, Greg Lukianoff, who joined FIRE in 2001 as the organization’s first director of legal and public advocacy, became FIRE’s president. …

    FIRE quickly became the nation’s leading defender of fundamental rights on campus through our unique mix of programming, including student and faculty outreach, public education campaigns, individual case advocacy, policy reform efforts, and, beginning in 2013, lobbying for civil liberties protections in state and federal legislatures….

    Since its founding, FIRE has assisted faculty members in vindicating their rights to free speech and academic freedom, but in 2021 we expanded the volume of free legal representation on offer, launching the Faculty Legal Defense Fund to assist more faculty members at public colleges. That same year, FIRE launched two 24/7 hotlines to provide rapid assistance to faculty and to share advice to student journalists looking to safeguard their press freedoms on campus.

    The foremost defender of campus rights and a leading college reform advocate, FIRE is also a highly regarded educator on the philosophy and history of freedom of speech, due process, and academic freedom. FIRE published the first Spotlight on Speech Codes report in 2006 and, year after year, has leveraged its ratings system and analysis of campus speech codes to reduce the number of illiberal speech policies on campus. In addition to Spotlight, FIRE regularly releases a report on campus due process; publishes the College Free Speech Rankings, informed by survey data; and maintains databases tracking campus disinvitations, scholar sanctions, and statements about free speech made by college leaders.

    …

    As of 2022, FIRE’s work on college campuses has won over 500 direct advocacy victories on behalf of college students and faculty members (with thousands more resolved behind the scenes), secured 425 campus policy changes affecting 5 million students, helped pass legislation protecting rights in 20 states, and drove a nationwide reduction in the prevalence of the most restrictive kinds of campus speech codes, from 75% in 2007 to 18% today.

    While FIRE fights censorship on campus to great effect, the threats to free speech off-campus continues to grow, contributing to illiberalism on-campus and across our culture. On June 6, 2022, FIRE announced the expansion of its mission to include the defense of free expression across the United States and changed the organization’s full name to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

    While FIRE continues to fight for student and faculty rights, as it has done successfully for over two decades, its experienced, nonpartisan, and principled staff now take on threats to free speech off-campus, too.

    FIRE, a free speech nonprofit, believes in an America in which people overwhelmingly believe in the right of others to freely express views different from their own, and expect their laws and educational institutions to reflect and teach this belief.

    I didn’t know David French was one of the early leaders; he seems to have forgotten that himself.
    Greg Lukianoff is the most-quoted leader now.

  131. ” if the Democrats succeed in stealing a critical number of elections in November, how much violence will we see?” @stan

    None, or almost none. Reps support law and order; even Trump-hating Republicans are against illegal violence.

    We will go along with the increasing Liberal Fascism (book by NeverTrumper Nat Review Jonah Goldberg).

    The Jan 6 kangaroo trial is all about showing how the Democratic Party Deep State is really in power, and any hint of violence, including Rittenhouse style self-defense, will not be tolerated and WILL be prosecuted.

    Mass non-violent more-than-Tea-Party conservative marches need to happen. But Neo’s friends don’t even think there’s a problem; and they’re continually being re-mis-informed about the “baseless claims of a stolen election”.

  132. @ Tom Grey > “But Neo’s friends don’t even think there’s a problem; and they’re continually being re-mis-informed about the “baseless claims of a stolen election”.”

    Neo’s Friends is, of course, short-hand for Democrat voters in general. My mother-in-law is one of them. She is basically conservative but is a “legacy democrat” voter of the FDR generation (age 95) , who has no idea what is actually being promoted by that party.
    She’s been listening to the January 6 Committee Kangaroo Court (which even Andrew McCarthy describes as a sham, one-sided, partisan hit job — and he hates Donald Trump). The relentless bias, omissions, spin, and lies are built into the consciousness of the CNNBCBS watchers so thoroughly we can’t make any headway with the actual facts.
    Today, one of the talking heads asked a Dem spokes-being about the release of the Capitol Police investigation of the alleged “reconnaissance tours” by a GOP Representative. The Police said no such thing happened. The spokes-spinner said they were going to review the evidence that the Police had examined.
    IOW, she basically called the Police Chief a liar.
    That’s how high the spin-cycle is running.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cnn-washing-machine/

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