Home » Open thread 3/23/24

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Open thread 3/23/24 — 30 Comments

  1. Buster was the best. As is said, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

    Wonder what his films would look like if they were converted to modern timing.

  2. He and Harold LLoyd were my childhood heroes. Just night be the subconscious inspiration for the things I did.

    We didn’t have the luxury of camera angle as we were in the round but used them for critique afterward.

    All our ruffians had their model. Lard was closest to LLoyd, Tom was most like Keaton and Fish was like Curly Joe. All lathered under an IQ of 80 or less.

    Fun times.

  3. Sorry to be such a cold shower on the parade, but.

    You know that movement several decades ago, the one that sounded so good–a liberalizing and liberating movement to close down and empty out all of those supposedly almost universally horrific “snake pit” state mental hospitals, because the new drugs what had come along were going to make treatment and reintegration of the seriously mentally ill into society a lot easier, especially in all of the halfway houses which were going to be established in residential neighborhoods all over the country, to make that supervised treatment and reintegration possible?

    Remember, how as part of this same movement, they made involuntary commitment of the seriously mentally ill much harder to do?

    And, in addition, there was also the country wide, general elimination of vagrancy and loitering laws which were also part of that liberalization?

    Somehow, though, those neighborhood halfway houses just never materialized.

    So, now, decades later, many of the the seriously mentally ill are out, mumbling to themselves, pushing their stolen grocery carts full of junk, wandering around our streets, standing on busy street corners and aggressively panhandling, committing all sorts of petty and more serious crimes, and/or squatting in the squalid, disease, drug, and crime ridden tent cities which have sprung up in every major Democrat ruled city.

    Apparently, from what I’m seeing on Youtube, it is the police who now mostly encounter these seriously mentally ill wanderers, and have to, somehow, deal with them.

    Cops have now become our new ward attendants.

  4. I am sorry innocents died in Moscow. But no sympathy for Russia. For this to happen in Moscow does not put their security services in a good light. I see Putin is trying to tie in Ukraine. I am waiting for attacks here in the US. Don’t want any because innocents always get hurt. But with what is coming across our Border I just don’t see how it will not happen.

  5. You think of that iconic clock tower scene its real as with keatons spinning house

    There was real risk there

  6. The Deep State Plot to Remove Trump from the ballot is HAPPENING NOW! It turns on getting enough squishy Rs on the House to resign. Soon giving control to Democrats!

    Then, they will answer the Colorado-SCOTUS smack down on keeping Trumpnoff the ballot with a new bill effectively declaring TRUMP an insurrectionist! Then states will remove Trump.

    Robert Gouviea outlines this plot:
    Step 1. Dems Retake House
    Step 2. Dem House passes Trump is an Insurrectionist bill
    Step 3. Dem Senate passes
    Step 4. Biden signs
    Step 5: Trump removed from 2024 ballot, supported by 9-0 Supreme Court

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pll-Rn5CtU

    Mike Gallagher is the newest immediate R resignation. The Republican hold in the House is weakening rapidly, with control down to about 1 defection turning.

    Ken Buck representing Eastern, high plains, Colorado, is the earlier one.
    He was elected in the TEA Party year of 2010, and quickly married his soul to the RINO-class of TDS driven Pubbie Institutionalist’s, betraying the “Taxed Enough Already” movement.

  7. Miguel ,
    Not a simulation, but MAYBE being watched, depending on what exactly the writer was trying to say…

    Hebrews 12:1

    ” …great cloud of witnesses…”

  8. That railroad bridge scene cost a fortune. The train was left lying in the river for years and became a tourist attraction — until it was cut up for scrap during WWII.

    The jumping from building top to building top over the street scene was facinating. Of course there was a net underneath, but Keaton took his life in his hands many times and was seriously injured and almost killed on some occasions. More here.
    ____________

    The minority opinion left open the possibility that Congress could decide that an insurrection had occured by simple majority vote, but my understanding was that the majority opinion required a 2/3rds vote of both Houses to declare that an insurrection had happened. Arguably, Roberts and Barrett could vote with the Democrat appointees to bar Trump from the ballot, but that is not likely. It would be too much of an interference in the election process.
    ____________

    If you say you’re ISIS, I guess that makes you ISIS, so the line between “homegrown” and ISIS terrorism isn’t a real one.
    ____________

    Gallagher’s wife is in show business, so maybe leaving Congress early makes him a hero in those circles. If you still watch the Tony Awards, keep an eye out for him.

  9. Often write if you think you don’t like silent movies watch The General and get back to me

  10. Yesterday, a new short Trump campaign ad, attacking Biden for his immigrant Invasion.
    https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112141779973346179

    James Lindsey is teaching me new things about how Chinese Maoist Marxism has been adapted ever since 1977, when “Identity politics” was coined by a group of black Marxist Lesbians, explaining to me that this version quixotically melds together and mobilizes disparate oppression groups (Think Trans).

    After recounting the Oppression Studies papers, at 13m he begins unfurling this important thesis.

    My point: I have never, before, seen Biden’s borderless policy as anything other than a voter and ballot stuffing operation. Instead,

    James challenges us to see this as ALL about advancing the Equity version of communism that flows from Maoism — something actually first identified by Stalin in the 1950s! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d-eNmwQI5c

    Amazing.

  11. OT and personal (feel free to ignore)…

    At my café I make friends with some guys who then feel empowered to come up behind me, while my head is deep into French or something, then clap me on the back or other physical contact.

    My instinct is to come up swinging. I refrain. I do make a verbal protest. One guy still keeps touching me. (Believe me, I am 72 and no silver fox.)

    They seem to think they are being friendly. I am not so generous. I read it as male dominance shit-testing.

    I suppose I could be grateful they take me seriously enough to make contact. But I really don’t like it.

    I don’t remember this when I was younger.

  12. @ Snow > “Lego has now asked a California police department not to use images of Lego heads to replace the heads of suspects.”

    The now-forbidden pics were hilarious, and I salute the PD’s innovative photo-shopper, but (1) Lego is correct to object (although I hope the police will come up with another gimmick; and (2) the law does have some rationale, as being arrested is not identical to being guilty (not that Democrats care if the arrestee is conservative), and a right to some privacy is important if a truly innocent person gets treated badly because of being identified as a suspect.
    HOWEVER, the real motive of the law, I would venture, is the same one behind: never identifying a Democrat’s party affiliation when caught in wrong-doing; not mentioning the race of a suspect in a “wanted” bulletin; and trying to obfuscate the statistics of apprehensions relative to convictions.

    Maybe they could do bobble-heads next.

  13. As to today’s topic – watching Buster Keaton never gets old and I’ve seen several videos analyzing his technique, and skills, but the bit about replacing the narrative cards was new. Obviously, that was a big part of his success.

    It’s also a staple of “how to write” books — show, don’t tell, whenever possible.

  14. huxley, are these guys younger? Making eye contact and shaking hands, yes. Tell him to cut it out, and if he repeats, come up swinging. This sounds like some kind of twisted harassment.

  15. Open Thread Sunday: NATO and the Baltics

    Defence Strategy: The Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania & NATO’s Eastern Flank – Perun

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsdGJrpC5tA

    Timestamps:
    00:00:00 — Opening Words
    00:00:58 — What Am I Talking About?
    00:03:22 — History
    00:13:57 — Strategic Position
    00:20:06 — Perceived Threats & Objectives
    00:34:10 — Armed Forces & Approach
    00:43:14 — Collective Defence
    00:54:33 — Finland & Closing The Door On The Baltic Option
    00:58:25 — The Baltic States And Ukraine
    01:04:19 — Channel Update

  16. Aussie Gender-monger vs Sex case is a Constitutional matter destined for international impact: Sall Grover talks with UKs New Culture Forum’s host Peter Whittle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uReIlB4nv70

    Trans man Roxy Tickle vs Giggle App (Women’s only), social media platform. Aussie Gender-monger vs Sex case is a Constitutional matter with International repercussions thru the UNs CEDOR treaty (Convention for Eliminating Discrimination On Race and Sex, which circa 1984, defines female by sex and biology).
    @28m, Trans Madness in Spain. It’s spreading to Europe.
    The problem in a nutshell: “Good men don’t enter women’s spaces.” Respect the weaker sex’s vulnerability.

  17. huxley, are these guys younger? Making eye contact and shaking hands, yes. Tell him to cut it out, and if he repeats, come up swinging. This sounds like some kind of twisted harassment.

    Kate:

    No, they are mostly my age. The most recent guy is 78 and a lay minister with missions in Mexico and the Philippines. I have told him, but it seems habitual behavior that he can’t quite stop.

    I like him and find him interesting. I will tell him again. However, he is an alpha male used to dominating others.

    Thanks for the thought.

  18. Huxley: “he is an alpha male used to dominating others.”
    Perhaps he thinks of himself as a “Shepard” and does not recognize you as a sheepdog, but another of his “sheep” needing his management? I suppose the stereotypical “Karen’s” who can’t seem to leave other folks alone can come in masculine versions as well.

    But as a “lay minister” he may also perceive his evangelization to be so valuable and worthy as to justify special attention and indirect adulation.

  19. Perhaps he thinks of himself as a “Shepard” and does not recognize you as a sheepdog, but another of his “sheep” needing his management?

    R2L:

    Well … yeah. He has plans, like roping me into helping him with his mission in Mexico or going to the Philippines and getting hitched to one of his young wife’s many friends and relatives.

    However, I am not a lost sheep. I’ve built a life and I have my own plans.

    He is a decent guy and a strong Christian. To some extent being an evangelist means unashamedly prodding people with offers for a better life.

    I learned to say no a long time ago.

  20. A guilty pleasure of mine is tracking the collapse of Disney / LucasFilms into woke/broke. They’ve just released the trailer to their latest offering, “The Acolyte” TV series, which is a prequel to Star Wars. The trailer is getting ratioed (likes divided by dislikes) so badly, the trailer video no longer displays the number of dislikes!

    –“The Acolyte | Official Trailer | Disney+”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtytYWhg2mc

    It is an all-woman production. The creator/writer/director is Leslye Headland (formerly Harvey Weinstein’s assistant), a self-declared queer who wanted to make a show that would have made her feel better as a queer child. Her elevator pitch was “Frozen meets Kill Bill” (whatever that means). It’s about the deep love between two sisters (what??).

    One must wonder what the Disney folks are thinking. It doesn’t seem to be about the audience or the bottom line. Disney is already blaming toxic male fans for the future failure.

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