We don’t need ‘Sensitivity Training’, we need insensitivity training. Deliberately creating increased sensitivities is an evil, especially when what ought to be done is ramping down sensitivities and lowering emotional responses.
So what brought on this observation?
Simple, really, I was falsely accused of a ‘racial slur’ in public.
Having pondered this (stewed over it, really) for a day or two, I’ve reached a few conclusions; including the one that ‘Sensitivity Training’ is an evil thing.
So what’s the ‘back story’ and how does it lead to that conclusion?
First off, the context:
Several folks from work were at a local bar / food place. Two folks were having birthdays that week, and this was an outing (after work on a Friday evening) to celebrate. We were all on a patio area out back enjoying some cheese platters, baked brie, a nice Cabernet and some very nice ‘fizzy Sangria’ made so with some kind of Champagne / Sparkling Wine.
A variety collection of about 15 people. Many of white European ancestry, but some of various other origins. At least one who’s Grandmother was still in Egypt. Some black, some brown. Don’t remember an Asian, but wasn’t watching for that (and sometimes hard to tell from Polynesian, Native American, Mexican-mix, etc.) In particular, I don’t remember anyone who was obviously Hispanic, though one lady was of that hard to place Italian-Hispanic-French look with dark hair and eyes.
Everybody just having a good time making small talk.
Conversation turned to one person who’s kid was getting married to a lady in the paint business, and where they were going to live.
The Not-A-Slur
One of the Birthday Boys opposite me says that there’s a lot of white fences there as it is horse country. (So a lot of paint sold). I just chime in “And Barns!”. Being from farm country, I know that barns and fences go together…
At that point, and with a couple of more comments from around the table about horse ownership traveling with money, Birthday Boy says “And Cattle. Cattle are the poor folks horses.”.
Now I get a visual image of a cow with a saddle on it ( I think Don Knotts rode a cow in some movie…) and at the same time start hearing echos of Firesign Theatre. A mild kind of synesthesia that Aspies get / do. In particular, a line from “How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?”.
A common line, used in many many places. As an example, here’s a sports score page:
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/05/31/and-that-happened-wednesdays-scores-and-highlights-67/
Marlins 5, Nationals 3: Johnson beats Wang. Wang didn’t go long in this one, but he allowed no home runs, so no one was hard on him. In other news: “That’s OK, I brought an erector set.” “Throw a towel over it!” “Do some pushups Pablo, Maybe it will go away!” If you get that — and if you’re anyone other than Old Gator — kudos.
So, an image of Don Knotts on a cow in a saddle, and “throw a towel over it”… And poor man’s horses…
I say “Throw a saddle on it, Pablo!” and pause to decide on a follow up of “And I’ll ride it into town” or “We’ll enter it into the race!”.
Innocent sysnesthesia of a couple of cultural referents to the image of cattle as poor folks horses.
Birthday Boy scowls, and I stop my pause wondering what’s up. He says: “Don’t have to make a racial slur out of it.”. Scowls some more, and decides he needs to go talk to the folks at the other end of the table. Leaving me a bit surprised and ‘nonplussed’
What The?…
Now Birthday Boy is a white European type. Somewhat wavy light brown hair. No Hispanic background that I can see, and his name doesn’t indicate it. No, this was not a personal response, his was a ‘trained to be paranoid / sensitive’ response. I watched him stop, think for two counts, then say his line. He had to decide that this fit some pattern or category. You could hear the gears turn, sand and all.
Near as I can figure it, he takes “poor” and “Pablo” and somehow concatenates that to mean some kind of demeaning “Hispanics are poor – and thus ignorant” implied “slur”. Nothing else really makes sense to me, given the behaviour.
He has been trained to be ‘sensitive’ to the use of Hispanic-sounding names in any potentially-negative context. He’s had his tolerance and curiosity trained out, replaced with suspicion, paranoia, and PC Sensitivities. And THAT is why “Sensitivity Training” is evil. It is training to MAKE people thin skinned, overly sensitized, and seeing ghosts and goblins of {Racism, Sexism, Hate Speech, Ism-Of-The-Day} where there is none.
About Me
I usually try to stress that “It isn’t about me” when I make some objective observation about how things work, or what exists in the real world. Sometimes that isn’t the case. Since this J’Accuse! is aimed directly AT me, by definition it is ‘about me’.
I’ve put up comments before referencing my Germanic, British, and Celtic heritage(s). I’ve also noted in a posting my roots in the Hispanic world:
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/im-hispanic-who-knew/
Now, aside from the fact that my Celt ancestors originated from Hispania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%ADl_Esp%C3%A1ine
and aside from the fact that Irish fought with Spanish and there was free and easy swapping of who lived where well into the 1800s, with Spanish soldiers having surnames like O’Brien; and even in the Spanish Civil War there were Irish Socialists who went to Spain to fight; aside from a thousand+ years of free swapping of population and culture between Iberia and Ireland ( Hibernia is not accidentally similar to Iberia…) and aside from there being Celts in Hispania even today.
There’s also the small matter of the Irish and Spanish both being largely Catholic for large swathes of time. During which the Protestants like to lump them together. After all, they sat next to each other in church. And often intermarried.
http://killarney-ireland.info/genealogy/dark-irish-celt-genealogy.html
The Irish – more Spanish than Celtic?
December 29, 2006 · 75 comments
Scientists have concluded that the Celts did not invade Ireland en masse, nor did they replace an earlier group.
Despite the widely held belief that the Irish are descended from Celts who invaded Ireland about 2,500 years ago, a 2004 genetic research study at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) appears to argue against it.
The Celtic cultural heritage in Ireland is prolific and informs the common perceptions and beliefs about the national identity and its origins. From traditional cultural sources in language, legend and literature the Celtic influence is strong and can also be found in contemporary culture such as Enya and the Afro Celt Sound System. The research however suggests that our blood if not also some (at least) of our culture can or should be attributed to wider origins: Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia and North Africa.
[…]
The scientists compared the DNA samples of 200 volunteers from around Ireland with a genetic database of 8,500 individuals from around Europe. (The Celts came from Central Europe stretching as far as Hungary).They found that the Irish samples matched those around Britain and the Pyrenees in Spain. There were some matches in Scandinavia and parts of North Africa.
The scientists concluded that ‘the Irish’ genetic makeup stems from the onset of an ice-age around 15,000 years ago that forced prehistoric man back into Spain, Italy and Greece, which were still fairly temperate. When the ice started melting again around 12,000 years ago, people followed the retreating ice northwards as areas became hospitable again.
Getting Personal
But all that is ancient history. After all, only 1/4 of my ‘ancestry’ is directly Irish. And that was long ago in the Potato Famine Exodus. Mum was from England, after all, and maybe I’m more English than Irish… or so the theory would go. So what, personally, do I think I am?
Dad was a Catholic. My mother converted to Catholicism somewhat after my Dad died. My wife is going to be confirmed a Catholic at this Easter. I’m a bit more Agnostic / semi-Christian / Pegan / Druid synthesis (in that I love reading ALL the texts and learning from all of them what they have to provide). But at about 5 or 6 years of age (exact age is a bit fuzzy, it might have been a year or two earlier or later) I’d attend Mass sometimes. My Best Friend was doing Catechism classes and I’d attend Mass with him sometimes. His name? Miguel Enriquez.
We first met at about 3 1/2 or 4 years old. I went out into the alley behind my house and there was this other kid my age playing with a red truck in the dirt. I said “Nice red truck”. He said “La trucke roja”. ( I don’t know how to spell ‘trucke’ so it might be ‘trucky’ or ‘truckie’ or who knows what. California-Mexican does not use camión for a pickup truck. It’s just ‘truck-eh’)
That was the start of a tight friendship that ran until he joined the Navy and I went off to college. We’ve met some times since, but our life paths went far from each other for too long a time to keep things going. But the bottom line is that I ate about half my meals at his house, and he had about 1/2 of his at my house. This “Gringo” grew up on tacos con salsa verde, tamles, sopa de pollo, nopalitos, and so much more. I was making “gordito” tortillas at about 6 years old during preparations for festival. (And, incidentally, watching a lot of Spanish Language TV with the family.) Miguel grew up drinking tea with milk in it, pinky finger out, and with scones and fish & chips.
At his house, his nephew was Miguel too. Miguel Herrera. So he was “Miguelito” – Little Mike. Miguel was just Miguel. And I was “Miguel Grande” – Big Mike. Yes, for 14/18 ths of my life before college, I spent about 1/2 my “home time” as “Miguel Grande” immersed in a Hispanic home lifestyle, often speaking Spanish. We were that close. Until I was 12, I didn’t realize there was any difference between us.
The Watershed came when, at about 12, one of the many ‘Cousins’ who were always around came in an announced ‘La INS’ (pronounce La Eee Ennn Ess-eh ) ‘La trucke Verde!’ – The Green Truck. We all knew what that meant. The green truck of the INS was in the neighborhood and it was time to disappear, leaving only the parents with green cards at home. Cousins and Miquel (who was born here, but knew the neighborhood) headed for the back door. Being a bit bigger and slower, I started to bring up the rear… Mamma Celerina (who was about 4 1/2 foot tall and could bring down her 5 foot 11 son with a single word…) hollered at me: “Miguel Grande! What are you doing? You don’t need to run. Sit!” So I sat. It was the first time I felt “different”. Like I didn’t quite belong. I didn’t need to run. It hurt, somehow. The INS guys were polite. Saw a “white kid” and left.
I’ve been speaking Spanish (with various degrees of success ;-) since that first meeting at about 4 years old. One of the first things I learned was “Venga Aqui!” hollered by Mamma Celerina meant “Get the hell out of my roses!” ;-) (It actually means “Come Here!”… but at 4, you generalize a bit ;-)
Not Quite About Me
But there’s more.
My sisters married. My Nephew is an odd mix of “All that we are”, with some Hispanic and Native American. My other sister married a guy with Scandinavian ancestry, but her daughter has 1/2 Hispanic kids. What’s more, it looks like most likely my grandkids will be somewhere around 1/4 Hispanic extraction (if my guesses about who-is-a-what are right; and not counting ‘my side’ as having any Hispanic contribution). Simply put, me and my family and our posterity ARE or ARE BECOMING Hispanic. And we are quite comfortable with that. Frankly, none of us really notice, or care. We are “insensitive” on the whole thing.
But Wait, There’s More!
I could add a lot more, and if time permits, I may add a bit more here. But the key takeaway is that “Who is Hispanic?” is a very murky question. Some Anabaptists left Europe and came to North America. They are called Mennonites and Amish and Baptists and… Others went to places like Argentina. Are the Argentine Mennonites Hispanic? Well, yes. Some Irish and Scotts landed in South America too. Are they Hispanic? Well, yes. So just how different are MY Celtic Cousins in Argentina and MY Anabaptist Cousins in Argentina from my Celtic Cousins here in The South? From my Amish / Mennonite relatives in Pennsylvania and Ohio?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=argentine+amish
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/that-celtic-american-thread/
In Closing
I may add more ‘in a bit’, but my Starbucks time is running out, so I have to close this posting for now.
In the end, I’m left with wondering how you can call something “Racial” when Hispanics come in all races. Many, like me, with a Germanic look. British an Amish roots are common in Argentina and other Hispanic countries. Celtic / Hispanic connections run even deeper and are more common.
How do I put a day long education into one short ‘come back’ to a misplaced J’Accuse! ?
How do you say “Pablo is more common than Paul in my home town, in California that is majority Hispanic. It’s just a plain old name.”
How do I say “I wanted to emigrate to Argentina until the Socialists destroyed the economy?”.
How do you say “I’ve had a dozen ‘crushes’ on Hispanic girls.” when your spouse is sitting next to you and it was before you met…
In short: How does one fight the genuine evil brought about by Sensitivity Training creating ‘racial slurs’ where there are none?
How do you answer “Have you stopped hating Hispanics?” when you grew up 1/2 being one and with your family finishing the deal?
We need less stupidity and stupid ‘sensitivities’, and more ‘just get along’ and ‘assume the best’ and if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing.
In the end, I said nothing to the group (who undoubtedly now think me somehow ‘tainted goods’), but did take a moment when leaving to step over to Birthday Boy and quietly state my cousins ethnicity, and a bit on my growing up 1/2 in a Hispanic home.
Somehow I doubt it will do any good. The lie is done, said in public, and is half way around the campus by now; while the truth has hardly got it’s sneakers on, and 2 days late.
Sigh.
Well, time for my lunch and then a Siesta. A tradition I heartily endorse, BTW. Along with late dinners at 9 or 10 PM and a bit of promenade around the square.
Musings from the Chiefio 
Intolerant Hippycrits always blame others for what they are thinking. See offense where none is meant. Far too much Education and too little experience.
As to riding cattle instead of horses. Back in the old days Oxen were often ridden. They were a bit slower then horses but more dependable, tougher and able to work on poorer feed and water conditions as well as they are safer. Horses are dangerous and can maim you at any time. Ride horses long enough and you will get crippled. A saddle steer was a very dependable beast. Not something to be used as an insult. pg
I agree. I think that as you grew up embedded in a culture you were naturally comfortable with joking and the give and take of unrestrained conversation. This happens in all societies/cultures where people are comfortable with each other; an outsider can often be shocked at the ‘humor’ – for example military humor is NOT understood by civilians. The co-worker who manufactured ‘upset’ had not had such an immersive experience with other cultures and is therefore uncomfortable as he had been instructed to ‘walk on eggshells’ and that certain words/thoughts were not acceptable. The instructions come from the ‘diversity’ and ‘sensitivity’ training industry whose very existence depends on the manufactured upsets. So they ensure that they keep everyone ‘sensitive’. I came to the US from the UK which has its own ‘sensitivity training’. What is interesting is the words and phrases seen as ‘offensive’ in UK are different to those seen as offensive in the US. School teachers are not allowed to use a ‘black board’ they have to use a ‘chalk board’ for example. So as with all euphemisms, these invented sensitivities are based on manufactured upset and perfectly useful words and idioms are banished to a locked vocabulary.
Of more importance is that the continuing emphasis on ‘differences that have to be accepted’ is precisely NOT what is required. Instead there should be emphasis on how much we all have in common. Diversity and multiculturalism is the wrong way and leads to the ghetto; the aim should be homogeneity and a single melting pot culture which will often develop on its own without help.
Ian W
(‘Black Irish’, Scots and English)
Thanks for introducing this subject. The situation is difficult to correct because “rotten apples” are at the head of the organizations.
E.g., I doubt if Michael Mann’s actions are worse than those who gave funds to scientists to hide or manipulate data
Michael Mann followed the lead of other scientists after 1945 in using public funds to deceive the public about the source of energy in cores of
1. Heavy atoms, like Uranium
2. Some planets, like Jupiter
3. Ordinary stars, like the Sun
4. Galaxies like the Milky Way
I sympathize.
I used to talk to groups of farmers about genetics research and made a point of telling jokes at regular intervals to keep folks awake. Being Irish myself, what would be more natural than to tell Irish jokes.
Sadly, I was told to “cease and desist” by my CEO – in case I caused anybody offence. I asked would it be OK to tell Irish jokes to an audience of a thousand people if there was just one person present that would take offence – the answer was no, never.
The wave of Political Correctness that has swept the world over the last ~30 years has gone too far IMHO. If humor is used in a malicious way then I say that it is the malice that is the issue not the humor. If the joke is not told maliciously (as in your case) then there is no ‘hate crime’ which has been committed.
Don’t worry El Chiefio Grande, this won’t stick to you. It just isn’t deserved. (:
My pet peeve is the usage of Hispanic as a replacement for Mexican. How can it be an insult to refer to someones’s country of origin.
“Hispanic Food” in the supermarket AAARGH!!
I’ve had that too – not racial, but the same verbalisation of a link my brain makes (usually visual) that those around me don’t get… blank looks at best, or worse – accusations of being offensive or insensitive.
My wife is a Sephardi Jew, her family fled Egypt in 1956.
She is the same color as Susan Rice, yet our children don’t get to tick the African box and get college money, when Susan Rice did.
There are people who would take offence if you offered to give them a dozen free roses. Such people have always been around, but the danger today is that such people are actually listened to instead of being laughed out of the room as they deserve.
If the game is rigged in such a way that an honest player is penalized no matter how honorably he plays, the result is one of two things; either the honest players become dishonest, or the honest players quit the game.
While this example is not of a racial nature, here is something to display just how crazy things have gotten in the workplace. I was recently on site at a company which is part of a major Fortune 100 company. Its name is in common household usage. They no longer allow employees to touch one another. At all. Zero. They are concerned about corporate liability. Their employees literally are not allowed to shake hands when they meet. Shaking hands is grounds for dismissal. I am not joking. I was there. I was informed of their new policy.
@ Doc Martyn “yet our children don’t get to tick the African box and get college money”
Really?! Can’t you just tick the box and be outraged if anyone disagrees? Seriously, your children are just as African as Obama is!
I’m with you on this. When will we slough off this phony hyper-sensitivity nonsense? Additionally, while it can indeed be rough on the psyche when a person is legitimately accused of something he actually did do, it is many times more vexing to be accused of something that didn’t happen. Something analogous happened to me and my wife not so long ago, being accused of something we did not do, or certainly didn’t think we did, and I’m still steamed and annoyed. May time work its magic for you. And I’d sure try to ignore this buffoon at work if at all possible.
I’m from a very small town with nearly 100% “white” folks but still I know the name Pablo –
Sorry, E.M., I totally agree with you, but could not resist the photo.
You know what is exceedingly rude and obnoxious is being called a proletariat, or a bourgeoisie, or the 99% – to say nothing of “the toiling masses.” Get away from me. For abusive, demeaning slurs, the communists really take the biscuit.
Life was so much more fun when Germans could make jokes about how dumb the Dutch are while the Dutch make similar jokes about Belgians or Poles. Everyone used to make fun of the Irish.
When I moved to Belfast many years ago I was invited to a party and during the introductions I was asked how many children I had. I made the mistake of answering truthfully so the next question was: “Are you a good Catholic or a Protestant sex maniac?”
After moving to the USA I was shocked to find out how absurdly sensitive people are. For example I played golf once a week with a Jewish person at the Washington Duke Golf Club without any problem until I told him a story I had read in the Reader’s Digest.
According to the Reader’s Digets the mayor of LA had authorized a nativity display in the civic center. The ACLU responded with a “Cease and Desist” lawsuit.
When asked to comment the mayor said “They are just jealous”. The reporter persisted and asked what the mayor meant. The explanation was that the entire ACLU lacked three wise men or a virgin.
My Jewish golfing friend threw a hissy fit similar to what Chiefio describes in the above post. I was dumbstruck and asked him to explain. Apparently I was supposed to know that the ACLU is comprised mainly of Jewish lawyers! I threw a hissy fit of my own and found a less sensitive person for our weekly four balls.
Sandy and Galloping Camel
‘Tis well known that the best tellers of Irish jokes are the Irish.
And for the biggest collection of ethnic jokes I’ve ever heard get a South African on the Van der Merwe(?spelling) line
As a Scot with a surname derived from a village in France who spent 40 years working in England ethnic teasing was a two way process. In latter times it was greatly frowned on by HR departments. To me it wasn’t a problem just part of life as was what football (soccer) team you followed and the banter or worse that went with that in the work place.
According to the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 us Scots are a well travelled people.
Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown.
They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous.
Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today.
The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since.
In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single foreigner.
When one employee is offended by another employee, they don’t sue each other (the lawyers will tell you that there is no money in that). Instead, the lawyers sue the employer (where the money is) for creating a hostile work environment. The sensitivity training is a peemptive strike against the lawyers, by showing due diligence on the part of the employer. I can’t stand it, either.
Or, he could just be an idiot- for which there is no cure.
There is an interesting book on the genetics of the European population that asks the question “Who Are the British” – I do not recall the author(s) but is is a detailed genetic study. The answer that they came up with was that the populations of Ireland, Wales, Cornwall reflected waves of migration after the last glaciation during which the original population had retreated to havens in S – France/Iberia, the Caspian Sea and Black Sea – if that existed at that time when sea levels were much lower. As the glaciation ended the ice retreated from the edge of the Atlantic inland and so the first to venture north again came along the coast from the Iberian area and this links to the genetics of the present day populations of Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany and coastal Norway/Denmark with over 90% of the genetics showing this link. Next, as the ice retreated further there was a wave of immigration from the Black Sea/ E Mediterranean probably up the Danube and down the Rhine to settle N France and what is now Belgium as well as the S of England – these were the Saxons. The third wave came from the Caspian Sea area up the Don into Finland and down through Norway/Sweden to populate Denmark and N Germany. As far as the UK was concerned these were the Angles. Later “invasions” by Vikings from Norway affected Ireland (Cork and Dublin were Viking towns), the Shetlands, Isle of Man and northern England where many place names reflect this event(s). Invasion by Vikings from Denmark affected the population of England in a swath from the Wash to Anglesey that takes its name from these peoples. Finally we have more Vikings coming from Normandy in the guise of William the Conqueror who in fact was claiming his inheritance from his Danish ancestry. Mixed in amongst these genetics is that from N Africa that is probably a reflection of the Phonetician traders whom were known to have traveled to Brittany and Cornwall to trade for tin and other metals. So you see that your Hispanic/Celtic ancestry is one and the same thing!
P.S. I enjoy your papers very much, keep them coming.
A lot of things in life are ridiculous. The successful comedians are good at pointing this out in a way that makes people laugh rather than cause offence. This should be good desensitising practice for people, and on top of that a good belly-laugh is supposed to be good for the health, too. To me, those sensitivities point at the people with them having the feeling that they are indeed substandard and thus feeling insecure. If they thought that they were as good as everyone else then the sensitivities would disappear.
Since I’m English, I grew up with poking fun at a lot of things. I still think that “Life Of Brian” is one of the funniest ever, and that film upset a whole lot of peoples’ sensitivities. Or insecurities, maybe better stated. These days that sense of fun is a liability, of course, and so some of the joy disappears when you can’t share a funny observation without risking a riot.
Even the most powerful politicians in the world have to drop their trousers to have a crap (or at least I hope they do). Having fun made of the silly decisions might help them to reconsider them in a more effective way than a whole load of public demonstrations.
JUST IMAGINE….BEING OBJECTIVE:
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
———————————————
Imagina que no hay Paraíso
Es fácil si tratas,
Ni tampoco un Infierno bajo nosotros,
Sobre nosotros sólo el cielo,
Imagina que toda la gente
Viva sólo por el Hoy
Imagina que no hay países
Ello no es difícil de hacer
Nada por qué matar ni por qué morir,
Y tampoco Religión alguna;
Imagina a toda la gente
Viviendo la vida en Paz;
Podrás decir que soy un soñador, pero no soy el único.
Espero que algún día te nos unas
Y el mundo será uno sólo;
Imagina que no hay propiedad
Me pregunto si puedes
Ni necesidad de ambicionar o hambre
A una hermandad humana
Imagina a toda la gente
Compartiendo el mundo todo
Puedes decir que soy un soñador
Pero no soy el único
Espero que algún día te nos unas
Y el mundo vivirá unido.
“The Beatles”
The Sensitivity Training Song
The Communist Manifesto, set to music! :-(
But, on the good side, the above is bi-lingual. +1 for “multiculturalism”. Damn, I hate that term. Most of us are multicultural at birth, resulting from historically-recent migrations. Most of our forbearers got here by boat. Never mind the ancient migrations which result in even “pure” races being of mixed nature. The PC crowd really are trying to further homogenize us. By shoving us all into a blender.
Alluding to an old Vietnam-era line: You know what to do if they have no sense of humor.*
For those too young to relate:
* “F***’em if they can’t take a joke!”
Ah yes, cultural references. I have one from the same source I’m fond of for my progressive-everything-is political-we-know-best friends:
“Everything you know is wrong”. Glad I made my transfers to digital before the vinyl wore out.
The sociopaths who infest our culture have learned that fear and division are the best motivators when it comes to controlling the masses.
“Diversity is our greatest strength!” is the watchword, but the unspoken subtext is “When you socialize with officially proclaimed minorities, even an accidental misspoken word will cost you your job and your friends…”
Old age doesn’t have many benefits, but one it does have is that I no longer give a rats arse about the sensitivity of the insensitive. So Chiefio Grande as your English side would say I tell them to “bugger off”. I sense that you are a grande person and hope you do not lose too much sleep over this.
We are all minorities of some kind. I will not put up with arrogant manipulative hippcrats. People need to be DESENSITIZED. Victimization is these peoples stock and trade and makes them feel superior to ridicule others. THEY are the intolerant Bigots. pg
Sensitivity training has 2 aims.
1. Secure employment for “sensitivity” trainers.
2. Making up reasons why everybody is at fault (except the trainers). I mean everybody, because once they’ve got most people angry at anybody who might pass as ‘white’ ** they will then turn on them and keep the whole unnecessary thing going.
** I am wholly of european (almost all northern) stock yet my skin was darker than some top fijian chiefs, as I saw when living there.
p.g.sharrow: Hippycrits – residual green loonies? I like it.
I think it is a power play, where you use whatever is possible.
It somehow started with smoking. When it became law not to smoke in public, peoble got suddenly very sensitive about it, and the worst of them found out they could use it for there advantage and in that way discrediting others. Not by being better more clever themselves, but just stigmatising others.
You will notice that the offended are always offended on others behalf. They don’t give a dam for others, but they are really offended, because they can be. It looks unselfish but is as far away as it can be.
An old grumpy smoker.
Sensitivity training is a technique used to reduce sensitivity to our tyrannical masters.
I would not have figured it out if my research mentor (P.K. Kuroda) had not assigned a research project in 1960 that led me to discover for myself that the spirit of Stalin survived the end of WWII, has an insatiable appetite for tax funds, and will not be easily defeated now.
Punishing Climategate clowns like Michael Mann, etc., is thus useless.
In 1946 George Orwell started writing his warning to mankind.
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
In 1946 Fred Hoyle said the internal composition of the Sun was changed from iron (Fe) to hydrogen (H) and was unanimously adopted without debate or discussion. See pp. 153-154 of his autobiography.
In 2009 the spirit of Stalin was exposed in Climategate emails.
Precise experimental data on pages 19-27 of my autobiography identify many of the falsehoods that led us into slavery after WWII ended.
Click to access Chapter_2.pdf
None of the 97% consensus scientists has the courage to openly discuss the data that falsify their consensus models of stars and nuclei.
Por favor, no la mierda esa vaca. Es mi amiga.
The older I get….
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+14:23&version=NKJV
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Agreed. There is insensitivity, there is sensitivity and, nowadays, there is hypersensitivity. And yes, there seem to be increasing numbers of self-appointed little thought police who will pounce if it is even possible to misinterpret something overheard as a thought crime.
Your story reminded me instantly of a surprisingly entertaining radio play I listened to a couple of years ago. (“Surprisingly”, because it was on the BBC, who would normally side automatically with the thought police.)
The play opened at an unspecified business conference at lunchtime. The central character looks into the bar, which is heaving with bodies, and comments to his pal “Good God, it’s like the Rape of the Sabine Women in there. Come on, there’s a decent pub just down the road …”
You can see what’s coming. An evidently far less literate young woman overhears the comment, doesn’t get the reference and reports him to the Boss for making a joke of rape. The most spine-chilling moment in the play comes when the person in charge of his tribunal hearing informs him that (and I believe this is how it stands in British law) …
It doesn’t matter what you intended to communicate by using those words. The only thing which needs taking into consideration is what the hearer understood from them.
So, no matter that he was making a classical allusion, which not so very long ago would have earned him points for literacy. No matter that he wasn’t speaking to the woman who mis-overheard and was too unlettered to interpret his words. No matter anything beyond the understanding of the semiliterate. He was held to have been poking fun at rape, and was sent for “sensitivity training”.
The “sensitivity training” bit of the play entertained, too, as he and a similarly unbrow-beaten colleague sent on the same course have fun mocking the prissy “correctitude” of the girl running the course. He ended up losing his job, of course, but by then anyone listening to the play would have been firmly on his side.
(I still have an mp3 of that play somewhere, if you’re interested. Only 45 mins long, probably less than the “Which CD In Which Heap?” game required to find it … :-)
So – never relax unless you’ve personally vetted everyone present. And I very much hope that nothing like that play comes out of that (perfectly obviously) casual comment of yours. From what I hear the US and UK seem to be pretty much neck-and-neck in the PC BS race.
“I know you think you understand what you believe I said, but I’m not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.” (Used to laugh at that, once.)
You know why the wheelbarrow was invented?
To teach the Irish to walk on their hind legs.
I once heard someone define racism as prejudice with power. Seems accurate since it applies to anyone wielding it in any direction. The relatively weak have found a fabulous tool in this word to attack anybody they don’t like.
And so I dropped out of the workforce at age 51 in 1995. The tyranny of the perpetually offended was among the factors. The females were forever in a ‘you can’t say that to me’ mode and I kept telling them that everything I know was taught to me by a woman. I finally got tired of telling them to discuss their complaints with the nuns of early education system in the 40’s and ’50s who thought results mattered more than effort or intent.
There is always someone who is offended. They will always be there waiting to publicly accuse anyone and everyone. I took to avoiding all social contact and social banter with employees, contractors and vendors. Self-imposed, but I never went to sensitivity training.
Time to start looking for another source of income. There are still lots of places that need your skills. Give it a few months and another and likely better gig will appear. And tell the present place in the exit interview you do not respond well to the perpetually offended and wanted to depart before company policies and the perpetually offended merged to create hell.
TJ
DE-sensitivity training is what is desperately needed! We have far too many people that are way too sensitive. Sensitive to the point of being allergic to any remark by persons that they want to put down. Causing them to develop irrational demands for relief from the psychosomatic overload in their brains. pg
Ben Vorlich said:
“ethnic teasing was a two way process.”
That’s how I remember it in the 50s and 60s and it was a more relaxed world as regards ethnicity.
It was different where cultural differences applied and that is where so called prejudice came in against various ethnic minorities.
There was never any problem if an ethnically different person was known to share the majority culture.
The current issue is a result of too firmly conflating ethnicity with culture and given the extent to which both are now thoroughly jumbled up in the modern world that is madness.
THE EVENT?
@ GT “I once heard someone define racism as prejudice with power.”
I have heard that also, but do not believe it. For one thing it does not make sense. We all hold opinions and beliefs which we do not have the power to implement. How is that equivalent to saying that our beliefs do not exist? On the other hand, the idea that “racism (i)s prejudice with power” is a very convenient way to excuse racism when held by a protected class — and in fact, that is the context in which I heard the “racism = power” argument. An African-American man had referred to a Caucasian man as a “honkey cracker”, but his defense was that since he (as a minority figure) did not have dominance, he was therefore unable to be racist.
@ Terry Jay “The females were forever in a ‘you can’t say that to me’ mode and I kept telling them that everything I know was taught to me by a woman.”
I am reminded of the experience had by a good (and very scientifically literate) friend of mine. He enrolled in a feminist studies course at college during the 1970s. During one class his professor explained that the reason why NASA built rockets in a tall, pointed cylinder was because NASA was a phallocentric, patriarchal institution. My friend tried to explain that no, there were sound engineering reasons why that shape had been chosen. After class he had his life threatened by a female class mate with a butcher knife, and was warned to never make that kind of speech again.
Whether armed with a butcher knife or a sharp mouth, A bully is a bully. Bullies are “small” people that crave power and will use any tool available to them to lord it over others. We should not give them additional tools. We need LESS sensitivity not more! The most important lesson Jesus tried to teach was to ignore slights. Sensitivity to slights and the seeking of revenge destroys civil society. Bullies need to learn caution. pg
A while ago I had a fight with a feminist who claimed that modern porn, especially when men provide organic moisturizer for a ladies face and breasts, was societies way of demonstrating men’s power over women.
I pointed out that similar scenes are much more common in Gay porn and was banned.
Thinking about it, a Master of Druidry is in a pretty small “belief group”. As such, a withering look and a suitably resonant invocation of “YOU CHALLENGE MY ANCIENT FAITH?” ought, in our sad world, to cause any accuser to think again … ;-)
With a bit of forethought, everyone is in some minority. Carpe diem!
Reminds one of all the kerfuffles over the use of the word “niggard” or “niggardly”. Interesting stories of erudite and learned speakers brought low by the literately unwashed taking extreme offense at the use of a word for which they do not know the meaning but they are confident that they are keen observers of racism. Pulling out the OED is no defense against invincible ignorance.
Current discrimination statement I have to work with…….
(The USDA prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex (including gender identity and expression), marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, genetic information, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)
I would get in serious trouble if “they” knew I write on personal items to people I know WELL:
(The USDA discriminates against white males only.)
The truth, it hurts.
FYI;
The USDA just came out with a new affirmative action program enabling what is collectively called the LesbianGayBisexualTransgender(LGBT) to apply for farm programs (land purchase, farm abode, EQIP (extensive etc. insert here). Regarding farm loans, it reduces the current interest rate in the open market by up to 1.5%. My wife and I are precariously close to retirement and will be purchasing all the above. So I asked her if it would be okay if I put her down as bisexual when we applied. She laughed, until she realized I was being serious. I asked, “How could they ever dispute that? They going to make you prepare a list, show them videos, state preferences?” It is the honest to God way for us white boys and girls to get cheap government money. Whoever dreamed this up never it through. If you don’t mind people thinking you’re bisexual, There’s NOTHING they can do. It’s against the law to question you about your sexual persuasion. SERIOUSLY. I’ve been to training on this.
She still said no, but that I could say I was bisexual.
I’m still considering it. SERIOUSLY. Knocks about $75,000. off the note.
E.M.
Could I use you as a reference…;<)
@P.G. Sharrow:
I remember someone saying that eating the cow was like being so faced with famine that you would eat your tractor, since traditionally that was their role. In school we learned that many wagons headed west were pulled by “Oxen”… i.e. cattle… Like you said, not as fast as horses, but much more reliable and durable.
@Ian W:
California is on the edge of being “majority minority” and the parts were I have lived are already majority Hispanic. I have often swapped back and forth between Spanish and English (sometimes in the same conversation). Jose, Maria, Pedro, Jesus (Hay-Soos), and yes, Pablo, are more common than Joe, Mary, Peter, etc.
Now add to that that, in The West especially, cowboys (vaqueros) were more often Spanish / Mexican than not, and to associate a Mexican / Hispanic name with saddles and cattle is entirely accurate. (What’s the English word for: Rodeo, lariat, sombrero, lasso, chaparral, arroyo, and on and on…)
Frankly, where I grew up, about 1/2 the kids at the rodeo were speaking Spanish and I’m just not sure where English ends and Spanish begins when it comes to farm / cattle terms. Is “chaps” an English word, or short for some Spanish word, or?… I could look it up, but don’t know (or care).
It is important to note that I was NOT using a Hispanic name to “make a joke” or “make fun of it”. It was just the appropriate name for that slot in the sentence. For ME, connecting to TWO parallel thought tracks: The Firesign Theater bit AND a Hispanic connection to cattle and ranching (from my personal roots). About as emotionally loaded as saying “Mike”. (That is, I don’t have any difference in my response to Mike or Miguel. I answer to both and both are equally me. Though even there “Miguel Grande” is more uniquely me… as that was what was only applied to me.)
@Sandy McClintock:
IMHO, the tendency to demonize humor is indicative of a deeply broken personality disorder. I love humor (ANY humor, even at my own expense). Most of the best Italian jokes I ever heard were told to me by folks of Italian ancestry, for example. Humorless folks are broken type. Oh well.
But yes, ‘they’ are in ascendency. Humor will shortly be dead. Reduced to “ball busting videos” and “stupid jokes”.
@Zeke:
One of the few thing I’m proud of is simply that I don’t accept “shit” from folks. I don’t get excited about it, but simply refuse to let it enter my being. If someone is being stupid at me, it’s not about me; even if they try to make it so. Takes a certain amount of ‘centeredness’, but that’s who I am. (Once, in a ‘discovery’ process, a lawyer was asking me about an accident I had witnessed. I described a way the road mad an S curve ending to the right. He said “the Police report says it goes to the left… how can you say it goes to the right? The policeman said it goes to the left.” My answer? “IF that is what it says, then the policeman is wrong.” Said lawyer was clearly surprised that I would calmly say that. But it was just the truth… It gives a great sense of personal strength when you know what is truth…)
So no, nothing will EVER ‘stick to me’. I did nothing wrong. There is nothing to ‘stick’. AT MOST, someone else can do follow on stupid things from a broken understanding. That has nothing to do with me. Only them and their level of stupid. I find it sad (or sometimes funny depending on context) when folks try to run down that path. “The stupid, it burns” sometimes comes to mind. But that’s not about me…
But sometimes I do end up wanting to rant about how stupid people can be… I keep hoping maybe some day they will learn…
@GallopingCamel:
Four Balls! No wonder you have so many kids! ;-)
The ACLU is mostly Jewish Lawyers? Well that explains a lot ….
(All those of Jewish persuasion wishing to take offense at that please note: I have a child in Israel. I have a load of Jewish cousins, including one that my own mother told me reminded her of me. I met him, and she was right… In short, Jews are my friends and family. So back off an laugh a little. It will be good for you.)
@CO2Fan:
I use Hispanic to mean what it is supposed to mean: Folks who’s origin is in the peninsula of Hispania. Sometimes to mean folks who’s origin is in the Former Spanish Empire and places in South America. To use it as a synonym for Mexican is “way wrong”. “Hispanic Food” can easily include a beef steak from Argentina or a Cuba Sandwich…
@Another Ian:
That generalizes. For ANY ethnic / racial / sexual / whatever jokes I’ve ever heard, the folks with the best collections were from the referenced group. Heck, I have a couple of favorite Economist jokes precisely because I am one! ( “You can lay all the Economists in the world and to end and still not reach a conclusion!” ) Folk with a sense of humor recognize best ones about their group and tend to collect them…
@Ben Vorlich:
Got a reference for that Scythia connection? I’ve read some similar things about the Irish (and given that the Scotts got there via Ireland…)
I’d once looked into learning a Celtic language and eventually found I like the French Breton best. Mostly because the spelling was less exotic and it looked a bit closer to the older form of Celtic languages (less changed). The language change patterns argues for the same historical path you list…
@Peter Azlac:
I’ll do my best to ‘keep them coming’, but the pace is a bit slow. Something about spending 8+ hours a day at a computer / keyboard makes it hard to be in front of one for 3 or 4 more hours that day to make a posting or even ‘keep up’ on R&D reading… Still, ‘whimsy’ still takes me to new places from time to time… Often on weekends…
BTW, have an update for the liquid stone experiments… It surprised me how easy it was and what worked best…
Per genetic maps: Interesting story. BTW, don’t forget the Goths (ostrogoths?) who wandered into Spain leaving their own Germanic traces, and the Visigoths who wandered through on their way to North Africa… Some of North Africa is a Goth / Phoenician mix (some cities of Spain were Phoenician, others had German Kings and Princes…) It’s all one pot of genes in Europe, really. Just the concentration changes.
@Simon Derricutt:
Love Life Of Brian!
@Adolfo:
Yes, I’m a dreamer… dreaming of a world where folks can just enjoy their differences not take offense over them. Oh Well… One of my favorite songs, BTW.
@Mike:
Sometimes a song is just a song….
@Jason Calley:
Which is exactly why I push back against it.
Think anyone would ‘get’ a bumper sticker: “Fight FUD!” ?
The best way to fight FUD is to laugh at it…
Time for a break, back in a minute…
@Tim Clark; farming is a great way to accumulate a small fortune. To start with you will need a large fortune, work at it at least 16 hours a day, 7days a week for 7 to 10 years. After that you can kick back and retire for real!. Or you can rent out the farm to one of the neighbors to pay the taxes and work for him and in 20 years you will own both farms.
Seriously, If you have to borrow to start farming, and you are over 25 you are in trouble, even if your wife is a remarkable person. A farm generally won’t earn enough to pay you for your work, pay the taxes and pay the interest on the capital invested. From time to time there are farming niches that will pencil out, IF you really know what you are doing and get lucky. Oh yes! now days you will be working at least one day of the week for the governments’ multitude of regulators. Good Luck! pg
As it’s 5 hours until I get up in the morning… that ‘in a minute’ will be instead ‘in a couple of days’….
Chiefio,
Today the world may be unusually dangerous as society is restored to sanity (contact with reality) and the scientific method is re-established in organizations under the NAS and RS:
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/hansen-many-decades-of-cooling-the-past/#comment-321324
p.g.sharrow says:
28 February 2014 at 4:42 am
I was born and raised on a farm, and well aware of the situation. My business plan on the cattle operation shows a net return of around $30,000. We weren’t going to retire for at least two more years, but I’m literally sick of the my job in government bull sh1t and tired of working for or with idiots. Just trying to extend the IRA’s. But more importantly, stay active in retirement in something I love to do. Can’t beat that, enjoy your work and make a few bucks. Without too much detail, I could pay cash for the one we’re looking into, but do not want to put a significant amount of capital into a specific investment. The farm is in the category of inflation hedges (with oil pipelines dividend stocks etc…). The way the mortgage is crafted all I can lose if the commies keep getting elected is my initial investment (LLC).
And it’s in a part of the USA that’s independently armed. ;<)
Good luck to you, Tim!
Sixty-eight years of deception are coming to a screeching halt now or the illusion of democracy will vanish.
A farm far away from the maddening crown is an excellent choice.
@Tim Clark; Living & working on a farm/ranch is the best way to live your life. I’ve been doing it most of my life. No commute! and it is a solid place to hedge for inflation. You have a place to live and grow food. If you don’t HAVE to work for a living, making money can be fun! The neighbors are generally friendly and not in your backyard. Although can sometimes be found leanin on the common fence. ;-) pg
Chiefio,
Actually we were under-endowed in the ball department as we only had one each.
Like you I have plenty of Jewish friends. Also several Yiddish speaking family members who lived in Tel-Aviv for much of their working lives. A jerk is a jerk, even if he is member of a persecuted group.
Was the birthday boy who was offended the one who said that catlle are poor folks’ horses?
Coming from a family where cattle, farming, and lack of wealth were not infrequent, I find the remark about po’ folk a little obnoxious….
the PC police are so humorless and thin-skinned…sad…yet they probably, amongst themselves,
lambast everyone mercilessly….everyone who isn’t one of them…..
To illustrate control by the thought police over access to “powers beyond the dreams of scientific fiction” try to read the last paragraph of the F. W. Aston, “Mass spectra and isotopes,” Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1922):
Click to access astonlecture.pdf
E. M., my solution to dealing with such people is to simply shun them. I tell them first that they are aasholes and from here on they do not exist. Ignore them absolutely and forever.
Since this guy is at your workplace, you may have to interact. In that case, I go full robotic. No warmth, no small talk, no emotion ever. Sentences are as short and monotonic as possible.
Hope this helps.
@ omanuel (3 Mar 2014, 1:26 am) This last paragraph of Aston’s 1922 Noble Lecture frightened world leaders into taking totalitarian control of society after USSR troops captured Japan’s atomic bomb facility at Konan, Korea soon after its first test explosion on 12 Aug 1945:
“Should the research worker of the future discover some means of releasing this energy in a form which could be employed, the human race will have at its command powers beyond the dreams of scientific fiction; but the remote possibility must always be considered that the energy once liberated will be completely uncontrollable and by its intense violence detonate all neighbouring substances. In this event the whole of the hydrogen on the earth might be transformed at once and the success of the experiment published at large to the universe as a new star.”
Taking offense is a choice. Just because someone chooses to be offended does not give them any right to dictate your choices.
Political Correctness, another thing for the World to thank America for!
Well said! I think that hypersensitivity is just a screen for insecurity. If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re not comfortable in your own skin. What a dismal situation.
I’m not the most graceful fella on the planet, and seem to have a somewhat higher than average collision rate between fixed objects and the old melon. When bystanders cringe I just tell them “Don’t worry, I’m Irish. You can’t hurt me by hitting me in the head.” Come the day some PC-nista starts whining about it, they’ll learn about my other saying; “I’m Irish. We can carry a grudge like it had handles.”
For your collection, and I think attributed to Will Rodgers:
“If you took all the economists in the world and laid them end to end, they’d point in different directions.”
also (not Will Rodgers, as far as I know):
“If you have three economists in the same room, you’ll find at least five different opinions.”
Hi E.M
you can’t fix stupid.
Try to resist the desire to try.
This being the only wisdom I have gained.
The kid has chosen, the narrow PC path.
Humour is only enjoyed by those of us who can enjoy our own absurdity.
As for the perceptions of other, I once worked on a construction site with some “White Power” boys
Few people are whiter than me in winter, so I was a natural ally until I pointed out my great grandmother was 100% Hindu.
Those frightened of life, are always very generous with their help to control all possible future calamities.
I suspect they are in constant state of panic, whenever they lose the illusion they control all around them.
Such a state of fear sure makes for humourless critters.
I call them do-gooders.
omanuel says:
4 March 2014 at 10:25 pm
Fairy story. The only country to test a nuclear weapon in WW2 was the USA.
Adam,
General Curtis Lemay’s fire-bombing of Japan’s atomic bomb facility in Nogoya, Japan forced the move to Konan, Korea and probably saved west coast cities like Seattle and San Fransisco from being destroyed before Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Despite the loss of ~3 months production time, Japan produced its first atomic bomb explosion on August 12, 1945 off the east coast of Konan, Japan.
Stalin’s troops captured that facility soon after the explosion.
See information in Chapter 2 of my biography, posted above on 24 Feb 2014, 11:47 pm
omanuel,
I have not been able to find any credible contemporary testimony on that Japanese bomb.
Gallopingcamel,
To find out for sure if Stalin’s troops captured Japan’s atomic bomb facility in Aug 1945, we all need to encourage scientists to publicly address nine pages of precise experimental data in my autobiography that falsify the foundations of post-1945 consensus models of stars and nuclei:
Click to access Chapter_2.pdf
These data are from the world’s top-ranked research institutions, e.g.,
1. Max Planck Institut für Chemie – Otto Hahn Institut
2. Universität Bern, Physikalisches Institut
3. California Institute of Technology
4. Brookhaven National Laboratory
5. University California – Berkeley
6. University California – La Jolla
7. Washington University
8. University of Chicago
9. University of Missouri
10. University of Arkansas
11. Etc., etc.
Yet, no member of the US NAS, the UK RS, or the UN’s IPCC has accepted an open invitation to publicly address these data.
In other words, expose the secrets that we KNOW they tried to hide in 1945 and then the other secrets will be revealed.
After the United Nations was formed on 24 Oct 1945, we now KNOW that world leaders assumed the roles of the ancient images of God, forbidding knowledge,
“But of the tree of knowledge you shall not eat, for if you do you shall die!”
The Imperial University of Tokyo should have been included in the above list of top-ranked universities, since it was the late Dr. Kazuo Kuroda who cleverly assigned a research project that would reveal the secrets.
gallopingcamel says:
9 March 2014 at 1:44 pm “omanuel,
I have not been able to find any credible contemporary testimony on that Japanese bomb.”
Not everything that makes it into the history books is the whole truth. I don’t have anything on an Japanese Atomic bomb but the American High Command was looking at a million American casualties in the conquest of the main Japanese Islands, and were willing to do anything to get Russian help. Most of the Japanese Army was trapped in eastern China and we wanted them to stay there. Japanese atomic research, then Soviet, then Korean work was done in the same area. The American high command would not want it discovered that they had any hand in Soviet atomic work. Oliver may have had some other unofficial information.
To illustrate, During the battle to take Guadalcanal Island from the Japanese, the Japanese Navy was supporting their defenders by way of “The Tokyo Express” a destroyer squadron Commanded by a Captain Tanaka that ran down “the Slot” created by two rows of islands. The allied area command sent a 5 cruiser squadron to intercept and destroy them. In a pitch black night they stumbled on one another in the slot. In that “Second battle of Salvo Island” the allies lost 4 cruisers and 1 destroyer and the last cruiser was badly damaged and the last destroyer also was damaged. The Japanese ships escaped with light damage from machine gun fire! You will not find this in any history book. My father was a deck machine gunner on the only surviving cruiser. Captain Tanaka wrote a book “Tora-Tora” of his experiences as a destroyer commander during WWII and gave his account of that encounter in one chapter. After he returned his squadron to the Japanese Naval base at Raubal. The resupply by destroyers was discontinued. Submarines attempted to continue the supply the Guadalcanal defenders to little avail. The Japanese high command did not know of their success in the battle only that there was a heavy cruiser group operating in the area. The American Navy decided that only a battleship group could have done that kind of damage, so all the support ships for the island invasion were pulled and the Marines on shore were on their own for the next month. The cruiser New Orleans lost her bow at the first main battery gun turret, 162 feet of bow and a man per foot. Her quick thinking skipper ran his ship aground in a creek mouth and after pumping out flood compartments, shoring up bulkheads and moving ballast, they re-floated the ship. Backed out of the creek mouth and accompanied by the remaining destroyer steamed back to Australia. When the Japanese were able to get aircraft to the area the following day there was nothing to be seen. The American sailors were slapped under high security and after a temporary bow was stuck on the ship and crew were sent back to an American US base to be hidden. The Naval Board of Inquiry wrote the history book version to cover up command’s poor judgment in appointing a Dutch Admiral, that happened to be the senior allied officer in the area, to head the cruiser squadron.(you won’t see that in any book but the survivors knew) The Dutch Admiral knew little about the top secret RADAR on board the American Destroyers so he put the air search radar in front of his column and the surface search in the rear. So they had no eyes in the dark, except deck lookouts. The deep draft cruisers kept to the deep side next to the low islands and the shallow draft Japanese destroyers were on the shallow side near the tall islands so the cruisers were outlined in the starlight and the destroyer line was hidden by the mountains outline. The two lines passed so close that the heavy guns of the cruisers could not be depressed low enough to be effective but the destroyers heavy torpedoes could not miss. Tanaka ran his ships so close that machine guns were effective to knock out search lights. The destroyers ran at flank speed and were gone in the darkness before the torpedoes hit, so the Japanese had little idea of their effectiveness. Just that they were glad to have escaped their destruction.
A very small piece of real history at EMSmith’s ChiefIO blog! 8-) pg
Thanks for the information, p.g.sharrow.
This reference may b e helpful:
The Atlanta Constitution (3 Oct 1946) http://www.my-jia.com/The_Flight_of_the_Hog_Wild/Atlanta_Constitution_David_Snell_atomic_bomb_Korea.htm
The following comment is actually malicious racism. Surprised that you would let it stand on this otherwise sensible website.
mkelly says:
25 February 2014 at 8:14 pm
You know why the wheelbarrow was invented?
To teach the Irish to walk on their hind legs.
[Reply: Perhaps you need to chill a bit. As there is no “Irish Race”, it can’t be “racism”. As I’m part Irish, and I wasn’t offended, I’m not seeing it as a big deal; especially in the context of a discussion of thin skinned folks taking offense and trivial things and my pointing out my Irish ancestors originated in Spain. You are free to be offended if you like (though I don’t know why folks would choose to spend their day being in a state of “offended” when there’s so much more fun to be had. In short: I don’t get offended at things just because they violate the PC Police Rules. That was sort of the point… It is valuable to learn the Zen of being centered. Of NOT being offended. Of being the Empty Vessel. “If an insult falls in the forest when no one is oversensitive, does it still cause offense?”… You see, if YOU let go of being “offended”, then the “cut” loses is edge and the whole issue evaporates. -E.M.Smith]
Best account I have found so far. https://sites.google.com/site/naziabomb/home/japan-s-a-bomb-project The connection Omanuel is pressing in unclear language however, I do not get.
Jason Calley says: @ 24 February 2014 at 1:17 am
There are people who would take offence if you offered to give them a dozen free roses….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Isn’t THAT the truth.
I got a royal arse chewing from a woman because I invited her ‘two little black girls’ to ride my horse!
WTF??? I am trying to be nice to the kids and make sure they get a chance to ride a horse. I did not use the N word or the diminutive P word and the woman blows up in my face for being nice to her kids!
…………
From what I can see the PC types are NOT trying to kill prejudice but instead are trying to make sure to fan the flames. I have never been called a racist in the sixty years before Obama but I get it rather often now and I am darn sick of it.
We can tell jokes about Australians. No one will care about that. (:
Thanks, David, for the link. The connection I am trying to communicate is worldwide deception of the public after WWII about:
1. Japan’s atomic bomb production facility at Konan, Korea
2. Stalin’s USSR troops capture of that atomic bomb plant
3. The source of energy in cores of stars and heavy atoms
I.e., it is probably not coincidence that George Orwell started writing “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in 1946, only a few months after the decision by world leaders to deceive the public about these three items.
There is no sensitivity at all to carbon dioxide. Below is my latest comment (still awaiting moderation) on Lucia’s Blackboard in the thread about my “heat creep” hypothesis. This information will be included in my official complaints to Australian Authorities and the Government Ombudsman here.
So it’s time for you to resign from the Skeptical Science team, Neil King,
You have failed to show any fault in my four molecule proof by mathematical induction of the existence of the gravitationally induced thermal gradient.
You quite incorrectly misled readers into thinking there were somehow balancing molecular movements, implying that for every downward movement that caused warming, there would be another downward movement that would cause cooling, and vice versa for upward movements. That would be like saying that for every stone you drop which accelerates, there would be another you could drop which would slow down.
Hence, in failing to disprove the existence of the gravito-thermal effect, you also failed to prove the existence of isothermal conditions in the absence of so-called greenhouse gases.
Hence you failed to prove that there is any 33 degrees of warming from an isothermal state supposedly due to greenhouse gases.
Hence you failed to debunk my hypothesis which itself debunks the radiative greenhouse effect conjecture, and which can explain all measured and estimated temperature data in the atmospheres, surfaces, crusts, mantles and cores of all planets and satellite moons in our Solar System.
In contrast, the greenhouse radiative forcing conjecture (supported and actively promulgated by SkS) fails to enable any explanation of temperatures on other planets and also on Earth.
Consequently the right and honest thing for you to do is admit your mistake, explaining to John Cook and all SkS team members that you now believe, based on sound physics, that planetary surface temperatures are not controlled primarily by incident radiation, but by the supporting temperature at the base of their tropospheres, which temperature is pre-determined by the solar intensity and the autonomous thermal gradient in the troposphere that evolves because of the force of gravity acting on molecules in free flight.
This comment will be posted on at least ten climate blogs where most of this critically important discussion of the “trillion dollar question” has been duplicated. I may also use it as part of my formal complaints to Australian authorities and the Government Ombudsman here.
[Reply] It would have been nice if you had posted this to a relevant thread. -EMS ]
@ David A 11 March 2014 at 6:11 am
Can you provide the name of the author and a complete reference for information posted at
https://sites.google.com/site/naziabomb/home/japan-s-a-bomb-project
I agree we need to remove emotional responses but we are human and that is tough to do that being said those of the progressive temperament what you referred to once as aso-liberals have nothing but emotional responses to everything we really need to put a law into place that no laws stemming from a tragedy or outraged feelings will be allowed to be brought to the table.
@PaulID; I’m not sure if there is a cure for stupid. A disease most politicians are affected with. In a committee or congress of politicians, the intelligence of the group is lower then the lowest IQ of it’s members. Anyone that wants to be elected should be disqualified as mentally defective but it seems that people want to vote for such losers. I guess that we are the losers in the end. :-(
When Abe Lincoln was asked why he was running for office. Said “To prevent a bigger scoundrel from being elected.” pg
@ David A 11 March 2014 at 6:11 am
“The connection Omanuel is pressing in unclear language however, I do not get.”
Today I spoke informally with immigrants from Vietnam. They nodded their heads, agreeing Japan had built atomic bombs near Konan, Koprea and exploded one in 1945.
They acted as if Japan’s A-bomb was common knowledge in Vietnam. Perhaps they were just being polite, but one attends a university here in the States and communicates very well.
I encourage readers to informally ask other immigrants from SE Asia if they heard Japan built A-bombs in what is now North Korea.
@pg: “In a committee or congress of politicians, the intelligence of the group is lower then the lowest IQ of it’s members.”
As also noted some years ago in
“Piet Hein’s Arithmetic of Co-operation”
“When you’re adding up committees,
there’s a useful rule of thumb:
that talents make a difference,
and follies make a sum.”
One of the things I have noticed in such meetings is that those with the least talent have the loudest and most demanding voices. When running meetings, I let them speak ONCE, and then move on. Squeaky wheels demand to be “greased”. Bad bearings need to be replaced, grease only makes them hang around and keep squeaking. They only get in the way of needed repair. Kind of like on the internet. Encouraging conversation is good, but feeding trolls is bad. An exchange of knowledge and opinion is helpful, argument for argument’s sake is not productive. pg
Global Geo-Engineering?
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org
Sounds far-fetched, but lobal geo-engineering fits my very limited understanding of history:
1. Stalin\’s troops captured Japan’s atomic bomb plant in Konan, Korea on 24 Aug 1945.
2. FEAR of nuclear annihilation led world leaders to form the UN on 24 Oct 1945.
3. Knowing that global control depended on control of space, USSR launched Sputnik on Oct 4, 1957.
4. John Kennedy announced the Apollo program on May 25, 1961.
5. John Kennedy was assassinated on Nov 22, 1963.
6. Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 6, 1968.
7. Henry Kissinger made secret trip to China and agreed to end the Apollo mission in 1971.
8. Richard Nixon announced end of the Apollo program on Jan 5, 1972.
Claudelafleur.qc.ca/Nomoredreams.html
Sensitivity training is yet another attempt to control planet Earth.
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
A. EARTHLY BAD NEWS
Global Geo-Engineering? (updated)
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org
Sounds far-fetched, but global geo-engineering fits my very limited understanding of history:
1. Stalin’s troops captured Japan’s atomic bomb plant at Konan, Korea on 24 Aug 1945.
2. FEAR of nuclear annihilation led world leaders to form the UN on 24 Oct 1945.
3. Knowing that GLOBAL CONTROL depends on control of space, USSR launched Sputnik on Oct 4, 1957.
USSR TEMPORARILY CONTROLLED SPACE IN 1957
4. John Kennedy announced the Apollo program on May 25, 1961.
5. John Kennedy was assassinated on Nov 22, 1963.
6. Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 6, 1968.
7. Henry Kissinger made secret trip to China and agreed to end the Apollo program in 1971.
8. Richard Nixon announced end of the Apollo program on Jan 5, 1972.
Claudelafleur.qc.ca/Nomoredreams.html
9. At the Third Lunar Science Conf. in March 1972, we were told Nixon was ending the Apollo program. That US President Nixon and USSR’s leader Brezhnev planned to orbit the Earth together and sign an international peace treaty.
That rumor never happened, but it was told us as the reason for ending the Apollo program.
WHO TEMPORARILY CONTROLS SPACE IN 2014 ?
B. HEAVENLY GOOD NEWS
Page 16 of my biography show an image of the instrument that created, sustained and destroyed every atom, life and world in the Solar System.
Click to access Chapter_2.pdf
People need to grow up, grow a spine and a thick skin.
I’m heartily sick of people whingeing about being offended. Being ordered to submit to ‘sensitivity’ training should be an abuse of human rights for violating a person’s non-criminal words, thoughts and actions.
When I was working I’d love to have been selected to participate in that notorious training where people were divided into blue and and brown eyes and the blue-eyed group were made to feel ashamed for their ‘racism’.
I have hazel eyes and if I were in the blue-eyed group I would not buckle under the pressure any more than I would feel superior in the brown-eyed group. No way. The exercise is grotesque.
The greatest sin of our age is moral cowardice which allows these evils to fester.
E.M, a bit off-topic, but did you notice that Yellowstone had a modest earthquake, at 4.8 mag? And of course, the sun is still sliding toward a grand minima.
http://iceagenow.info/2014/03/largest-earthquake-yellowstone-30-years/
Saw this, recognized it, and thought you might as well. How consultant teams deal with problem clients…
Is our host, E. M. Smith, okay?
@ omanuel “Henry Kissinger made secret trip to China and agreed to end the Apollo program in 1971. ”
My suspicion (and this is purely speculation on my part, nothing I would claim as fact) is that a combination of factors were involved, among which were these: The last half of the 1960s revealed some unusual developments in the US. The war in Vietnam was showing average citizens actual film of the wartime destruction in almost real time. For the first time Americans were being exposed to the truth of what happens when we engage in “police actions” — and the people did not like what they saw. At the same time, we had a young generation (call them hippies, bohemians, whatever) which increasingly embraced the idea that maybe we ought to be not so quick to use military force. Add to that the startling growth of technology, especially the space program and the possibility of humans leaving this planet and escaping the global plantation of governmental/banking forces. I think that somewhen right about “one small step for man” a decision was made to shut down and disassemble the US Republic. We were becoming too dangerous to the entrenched rulers of the system. We were on the verge of embracing both liberty and peace — and of possessing the technology to defend it against anyone, even the financiers and propagandists. Who made that decision to shut things down? Probably the same old crowd, the ones who tell Kissinger what to do, who tell Presidents and Generals what they will support. Probably the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, the inheritors of the Morgan machine, etc. I think that they chose China as the new kid on the block, and Kissinger went to meet Mao and make him an offer he could not refuse. And I think that they put in place standing orders to the US politicians, the movers and shakers, to derail the space program, to turn our schools not merely toward mediocrity but to actually enstupefy our children, to remove the US manufacturing base, to knock the US down to a group of unarmed citizens of a 2nd world nation with an agrarian culture.
Of course this is speculation on my part, but how else do we explain a nation with a system that for 200 years produced extravagant wealth, a prosperous middle class, near universal literacy, the greatest creditor nation in existence, and the most stunning scientific advances ever seen — and yet one day it suddenly stopped working and began to go backward. How can mere accident explain such a reversal?
Thank you for your comment.
Perhaps Joseph Kennedy, the father of John F. Kennedy, used his personal wealth to temporarily block plans to put Richard Nixon in the White House in 1960?
The Cold War became very heated while John F. Kennedy was President:.
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy Assassination
Oswald Assassinated
Robert Kennedy Killed
Nixon finally became President eight years later (1968). Perhaps Nixon’s appeasement of the USSR and China in 1971-72 returned the United States to the international plan (24 Oct 1945) to form a one-world government under the United Nations?
.
Hello…I just wanted to say that I have deeply enjoyed this page the last several years, Mr. Smith aka Chiefio. It is, in fact, the only site I have ever subscribed to. I hope that you are well sir…or at least the light is breaking through for you, and you will return here soon. Many blessings to you xx
From one point of view, Obama has performed a great service in closing down the old US economy peacefully and opening the new USSA economy in the mold of the old USSR economy.
Meanwhile, a staged threat emerges:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10758766/Ukraine-Vladimir-Putin-threatens-to-turn-off-the-gas.html
A new paper reports that “annual mean cloud nucleation rates may vary 6.8% over solar cycles, far more than the 1-2% change in global cloudiness required to change global temperature.”
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/new-paper-corroborates-solar-cosmic-ray.html?m=1
If true, that may explain how cosmic rays from the Sun’s pulsar core [1] control Earth’s climate.
1. “A Journey to the core of the Sun,” – Chapter 2: Acceptance of Reality“
“If true, that may explain how cosmic rays from the Sun’s pulsar core [1] control Earth’s climate.”
Maybe I suffer from an elementary misunderstanding. I thought that cosmic rays were from outside the solar system, and that the Sun’s solar wind and magnetic field served to block the cosmic rays to some varying degree, hence moderating cloudiness. If cosmic rays have a solar origin, do we see cosmic rays coming primarily from the direction of the Sun? Am I missing something here?
Yes, that is the “official reason” given by those who seek to hide the fact that NEUTRON REPULSION in cores of:
1. U atoms destroyed Hiroshima
2. Pu atoms destroyed Nagasaki
3. The galaxy produced stars in the Milky Way
4. The Sun made our elements, birthed the solar system, and controls our fate.
Officials that promote misinformation will not openly address nine pages of precise experimental data on pp. 19-27 of my biography that confirm the above scenario.
Ignore the thread highjacker above.
I always assumed “Sensitivity Training” was immersion in a Liberal Re-education Camp, teaching and conditioning in how to be PC. And PCism is dishonest elevation of euphemisms to the level of group rituals: Are you and Innie or and Outie? Outies can be excoriated and condemned without limit or hindrance, which is of course the point.
typo: an Innie or an Outie?
The Pulitzer committee just awarded American journalism’s highest honor to Britain’s The Guardian and to The Washington Post for their ongoing coverage of Snowden’s bombshell revelation of the scope of domestic and international U.S. government spying:
http://personalliberty.com/snowden-revelations-nsa-spying-earn-two-newspapers-shared-pulitzer/
That is an encouraging indication that the Climategate scandal and sixty-eight years (2014 – 1946 = 68 yrs) of false government propaganda, disguised as “consensus science”, will also be coming to conclusion.
Thank you, E.M Smith, for your part in ending this “Nineteen Eighty-Four” nightmare!
Thanks to a daring act of bravery by a nuclear geochemist, Dr. KAZUO KURODA, sixty-nine years ago in the closing days of WWII:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2170881.stm
The Puppetmaster of Climategate was identified today on Steven Goddard’s discussion of Climategate and “What should we be striving for now?”
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/a-different-view-of-extreme-weather-from-1975/
Fifteen years after WWII ended, Dr. Paul Kazuo Kuroda became my research advisor and assigned me the task of figuring out “The origin of the solar system and its elements.”
Today I am convinced Kuroda already knew the answer when he assigned my research topic:
The core of the Sun made our chemical elements and birthed the solar system in an explosion powered by the same nuclear force in the cores of Uranium atoms that destroyed Hiroshima !
I’m reminded of this news story where an aide to the mayor of Washington DC was having a a conversation on the subject of school funding. He described the level as being niggardly. A city employee was offended to the point of calling a press conference to complain about the racist language.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm
I liked the part of the Mayor catching crap for accepting the aide’s resignation on the grounds that the aide was gay and therefore the Mayor is obviously uncaring or insensitive to gay rights. Political Correctness – nothing is too silly.
For people who enjoy the non-PC attitude of Jeremy Clarkson, he’s made yet another mistake, but this one was never broadcast and the N-word is only inferred from the “eeny, meeny, miny, mo” nursery rhyme I at least grew up with.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27266102
Seems like the next slip-up he’ll be sacked – and that could be anytime, depending on who’s there to either be upset or feels like making some money selling the story (or making money not selling it, maybe).
On voit tout de suite que vous connaissez très bien le sujet
EM – you’ve been spammed by losange épilé. There are a lot of these types of spam flying about at the moment and the idea is to get you to click on the link. I hope no-one actually clicks on the link without doing it from a sandbox since that one looks like a virus-infected site to me.