Brownshirts come to Hamilton

Masked thugs yelling at an old lady with a walker. Here.

Modern opera conductors suck

So says this 20 minute video. It's engagingly mean-spirited but convincing. The most eye opening bit is the soprano praising Thielemann for making the orchestra so quiet! WTF. Before amplification the orchestra was the loudest thing going. That was the idea, otherwise composers would just write for piano accompaniment.

James Flynn on Free Speech

His book is dropped due to legal concerns. Details.

Pluckrose explains postmodernism

A superb article by Helen Pluckrose.

Not all lies are equal

Elizaberh Warren is still repeating one of the most destructive lies in recent American politics.

Prime Minister Al Jolson

He has Governor Northam's endorsement! 

Update on the press playing euphemism twister to avoid saying blackface.

This joins an impressive list of Trudeau apologies. He apologized for assaulting a male member of parliament on the floor of the house. He apologized for shoving his elbow into the breast of a female member, telling her to get the fuck out of his way. He did not apologize for strong arming the Solicitor General to get SNC immunity for crimes it committed, so it's not a perfect record. 

UPDATE He was in town the other day.  I heard his Swanee River was great. 

Social Constructionist Mea Culpa

An interesting essay in Quillette

The war on evidence continues

A NYT story falls apart. More than falls apart actually, since the story is fraudulent, supressing the only pertinent evidence.  And of course we see the politicians piling on because they don't worry about evidence either.

UPDATE: Piers Morgan.

And over at Coyne's where they preen about being the ones who care about truth, decency, and evidence, stuff like this.

Thoughts on Gilead

From Allison Pearson.

Graeme Koehne Interviewed

Two minutes

Coyne refutes Gelerntner

David Gelerntner made quite a splash abjuring Darwin and all his works. Coyne refutes him thus. (Imagine a stone kicked.)

Daryl Davis Update

I blogged about Daryl Davis, a black musician who persuades kluckers to leave the KKK. He collects their robes, and has a large collection. Well, he is in the news.

Black writer quits Star Trek

Devil In A Blue Dress was a good book.  Now I am tempted to read another book by Walter Mosley. I surely won't be watching that Star Trek.

Seen

Double double, toil and trouble

Real spells. Real ones.

The war on rape shelters

In Canada. A friend calls this sort of thing “unfuckingbelievable”.  I call it toofuckingbelievable.

Is mishearing a hate crime?

Baristas have misspelled my name.  This is not a complaint, it is context.  My name is as simple as it gets but errors can happen. Kent, Can, Kevin, Keith. Is mishearing a hate crime?