The Security Apparatus Is Jaw-Droppingly Stupid

 McKean's Law, from University of Chicago College Bowl legend and eminent lexicographer Erin McKean -

"Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling or typographical error." 

One summer during high school, I went to a Governor's School and there was a guy with a really thick Smithfield accent who pronounced the name of the county as AAAIIILLL o'why.  So I pronounced it that way once went I interned at the state demography office, and my boss, who spoke with an exaggerated trans-Atlantic accent like Julia Child or Aunt Bee, said, "No!  It's ile of WHITE!"  Then she played some silly game where she hypercorrected someone's pronunciation of "forte" in a job interview and looked like an absolute moron.  Then again, there was an another guy with a drawl from Buena Vista who liked to say, "I come from a place so backward the people there cannot even pronounce the name of the town."     

"In forte we have a word derived from the French that in its "strong point" sense has no entirely satisfactory pronunciation.  Usage writers have denigrated \ˈfȯr-ˌtā\ and \ˈfȯr-tē\ because they reflect the influence of the Italian-derived forte entry 2.  Their recommended pronunciation \ˈfȯrt\, however, does not exactly reflect French either: the French would write the world le fort and would pronounce it more similar to English for.  So you can take your choice, knowing that someone somewhere will dislike whichever variant you choose.  All are standard, however.

The Security Apparatus Preys on the Uneducated

When I was a kid, the security apparatus hated that I liked learning and realized the absurdity and bigotry of adults around me.  They particularly despised any form of intellectualism.  Let's see how the bigoted LDS church is doing:

    - Europe:  Decreasing in all of Europe.  The church has probably been decline in Scandinavia for 60 years now.  It never took off at all in Eastern Europe despite countless predictions from "prophets, seers, and revelators" in the '70s and '80s that people behind the Iron Curtain were desperately waiting for access to "the one true church" (yeah, educated people escaping totalitarian regimes desperately long to be controlled by a Utah-based authoritarian cult).  In the last four years, the church has closed four stakes in England and six districts in Russia.

    - East Asia:  Decreasing in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.  In the last four years, the church has closed six stakes and three districts in Japan and two stakes in Hong Kong.

    - Oceania:  Decreasing in Australia and New Zealand.  ExMo Jacinda Arden received global praise for her actions as New Zealand's prime minister but had nothing to do with the LDS church as an adult because of their deplorable policies.  The church has closed two stakes and three districts in Australia and a stake in New Zealand.

    - North America.  Decreasing in Canada and the US West Coast.  The church has closed seven stakes in California, two in Washington state, and one in Oregon in the last four years.  

The Moral Equivalent of War

In 1977, Jimmy Carter gave a national address on the energy crisis known as the "Moral Equivalent of War" speech.  Time was that our nation had a president who actually knew who William James was and could reference his ideas appropriately.

Carter introduced a ten-point plan, the basis of which was conservation.  "The cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce the demand through conservation.  Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts.  Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy."  Other key points were protection of the environment through conservation and the need for sacrifice from every part of society.  Carter also stated that "those who insist on driving large, unnecessarily powerful cars must expect to pay more for that luxury."

It's so horrific that fascists like my brother-in-law made a mockery of Carter's vision by horrifically destroying the environment.  The result has been millions of deaths and injuries, endless unjust wars, and destruction of the planet. 

My Mother Craves Bigotry and Atrocities

My mother has always sought out bigotry and horrific atrocities, for example always seeking to live in white supremacist enclaves.  As a child, her father heroically worked to give her better opportunities that he never had, but she always responded by endless complaints for the rest of her life.  Having been freed from an incredibly insular and profoundly bigoted environment, she defied her parents' wise advice and insisted on going to Bigot U., literally one of the most racist, not to mention sexist and homophobic, enclaves in the country.  What kind of monster goes out of her way to avoid fine institutions like UDub and Wazzou to attend the equivalent of Bob Jones University?

She even moved back to this progressive paradise and continued to insist on antisocial and bigoted behavior. On November 3, 1970, the fine people of the great state of Washington passed Referendum 20 to legalize abortion in the first four months of pregnancy with a solid 56% majority, becoming the first state to grant women this basic human right through popular vote.

Did my mother, once again to be a resident of the Evergreen State, finally learn from the demonstrated common sense of the people around her?  No, she of course persisted in perpetuating horrific racist, sexist, and homophobia.  For shame!.     

The Security Apparatus Loves Patriarchy and Gerontocracy

The NY Times Daily podcast had an episode this week about people lobbying President Biden to declare that the Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified, even though the specified ratification period ended over 40 years ago.  Although their cause is admirable, I did not find their legal arguments compelling.

On the other hand, none of these efforts would have been necessary if LDS church leaders (by definition male and by policy geriatric) hadn't mobilized female members to oppose the ERA in key states such as Virginia and Nevada.  

I remember as a kid my parents inviting over a woman that my mother had "taught" in church when they first lived in Virginia.  Their bizarre and disgusting intention was to show me that their racist, sexist, and homophobic brainwashing of children and youth was truly wonderful instead of the horrific atrocity that it obviously was. 

Of course, I'm sure my mother thinks that it's great that women in places like Utah and Idaho die because they lack access to basic health care.

The Security Apparatus Loves Racism and Child Abuse

It's such a shame that bigots like Thomas F.X. Noble and my fascist brother-in-law continue to support white supremacy and child molestation.  I bet they loved it when Madonna and Joe Pesci mocked a true hero.  "Fight the real enemy!"

The Security Apparatus Loves Medical Atrocities

When I was at mediocre UVa, I suffered from all manner of medical atrocities - being assaulted, having the diagnosis of my strabismus maliciously withheld, receiving an inappropriate diagnosis in a public setting from an incompetent psychiatrist, and on and on.  At the time, the UVa Medical Center still celebrated an influential and thoroughly discredited proponent of pseudoscientific theories of white supremacy and eugenics.  They recently changed the name to honor yet another supporter of medical atrocities.  If they're going to honor a physician from Staunton who promoted atrocities, they might as well call it the "Sterilization" DeJarnette Wing and forcibly sterilize people without consent, justification, or anesthesia there.

The Security Apparatus Loves Serial Rape

When I was in middle school, my older brother would tape "Late Night with David Letterman" and we would watch it the next day.  It was the era of Pee Wee Herman, Emo Phillips, and Jay Leno back when he was funny, so it was pretty good.  My parents hated anything that involved irony because it went over their heads and because of their authoritarian personalities.

And what comedian did my father like?  That's right - serial rapist Bill Cosby.  Then again, who wouldn't like a mediocre comic who started out with a watered-down Dick Gregory act and then got eclipsed by his onetime imitator Richard Pryor, once Pryor stopped whitewashing his comedy for a Middle American audience and found his authentic voice after going underground in Oakland and Berkeley?  

The Security Apparatus Loves to Abuse Children

It's such a shame that my sister married a braindead fascist who loves to intellectually and ethically rape children.  If only she had looked in the other direction, she could be with the owner of the finest import auto repair shop in Kalamazoo and her children wouldn't be Nazis.

The Security Apparatus Loves Fascism

The security apparatus HATED when I properly identified authoritarian personality characteristics in a career spook and lifelong devout white supremacist using Adorno et al.'s California F-Scale (the F, of course, stood for fascism and the reasons why some people support fascism was incredibly relevant to academics at Berkeley who had fled the atrocities of the Third Reich).  Of course, such hostility to analysis and intraception just confirmed his authoritarian personality.

The unfortunate reality is that I have been punished my entire life for properly opposing authoritarianism, fascism, and bigotry by horrific ignoramuses.

"In a 2009 book, Marc J. Hetherington and Jonathan D. Weiler identified evangelical Protestants as the most authoritarian of voting blocs in the United States.  Furthermore, the former Confederate states (i.e. "the South") showed higher levels of authoritarianism than the rest.  Rural populations tend to be more authoritarian than urban ones.  People who preferred simple problems to complex ones, had less formal education, and those scoring lower in political knowledge also tended to score higher in authoritarianism."

Hang 'em High

9/11 was obviously incredibly insignificant (I mean, more people have died in this country from personal automobiles each and every month for the last 85 years but I don't recall a Global War on Cars), and the reasonable fear was that the US security apparatus would be allowed to massively overreact and inevitably cause much greater problems.

So of course that's what the braindead security apparatus did, undermining our nation's integrity and security in the process.  In the orgy of mindless jingoism and militarism, Prince William and Loudoun County schools simultaneously opened "Freedom" High Schools, employing a profoundly perverse form of Orwellian doublespeak.  If they had a bit of sense or decency, they would both rename the schools together, so that we could have US Government Atrocities High School - Woodbridge and US Government Atrocities High School - Made-up Exurb that Exemplifies the Public Health Atrocities of Automobile-oriented Sprawl.

Me fight fo fweedumb!

The Security Apparatus Is Incredibly Stupid

One of the many, many stupid things I got in trouble with white supremacists Brent Lamar Top and Keith "I bizarrely recount stories to kids about distributing a white supremacist text to victims of the repressive Somoza regime" Neeley about was mentioning how Jim McMahon loved to publicly recount how he drank beer and committed other violations of the "Honor Code" at BYU but got away with it because he was the star quarterback on the football team.  "Oh, no!" they exclaimed.  "BYU would never allow such hypocrisy!"

Here's one of many, many articles that repeatedly confirm the tale -

It has been 27 years since the punky QB known as McMahon threw the last forward pass of his senior year for BYU, after which, depending on whom you talk to, he either was immediately kicked out of school or left just as soon as he could. 

“Happiness was Provo in the rearview mirror,” McMahon said in his autobiography. 

That was in 1986. That was a long time ago. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Some of it may even may have wound up in a certain beverage that McMahon likes to drink when he’s playing golf.... 

That last one seems to be the biggest obstacle. Jim McMahon never graduated from BYU. Wasn’t allowed to. Or didn’t want to. One of the criteria for Hall of Fame consideration at BYU is that athlete-students graduate. That’s right, athlete-students. To refer to them in the other order would be as hypocritical as looking the other way while your star QB commits Honor Code violations because damn — er, darn — he sure can throw the football on Saturday afternoon. 

Not that he wants in, but those nine credits — three classes — are what is keeping Jim McMahon out. That, and the beers he drank on the golf course when people made excuses for him — I mean, weren’t looking.

The Security Apparatus Loves Brain Damage

The intrepid but mediocre 6-6 California Golden Bears are already playing in the Art of Sport LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk and Presented by CTE.  It reminds me of the New York Times podcast episode on how so many high school football players who never come close to the NFL or even major college football end up with debilitating brain damage and CTE.

Let Us Now Praise Heinous War Criminals

My fascist brother-in-law is obviously mentally impaired, as evidenced by joining a discredited torture organization and actually praising Project Azorian as a successful intelligence effort.  Everyone, but especially anyone with naval experience, knew it was a colossal boondoggle at best.  I mean, were people really expecting the Soviets to never change their codebooks after years and years, especially when they knew the US was mucking about the North Pacific?  The real rationale for the project was that the paranoid Nixon administration wanted to try to screw with the Soviets.  And of course one of the chief advocates was a heinous war criminal. 

Then again, my brother-in-law also thinks my father was a nuclear physicist, so he's not the most trustworthy source.

The Security Apparatus Retains Its Plantation Mentality

It's such a shame that the same security apparatus that worked together with Mayor Richard Daley's jackbooted thugs to lynch Fred Hampton for being an effective civil rights leader who reached across racial lines to promote economic solidarity then launched a vendetta against and entrapped popular three-term DC Mayor Marion Berry for thumbing his nose at their outdated and paternalistic attitudes and policies.  The security apparatus has always longed for a return to the days when DC was paternalistically at best ruled by an obscure House committee long populated by good old boy bigots like John McMillan, who once sent a truckload of watermelons in response when DC's first appointed Mayor-Commissioner had the audacity to properly send a budget proposal to Congress.  McMillan was finally primaried when DC's first non-voting House representative used his franking privilege to rally civil rights supporters against him.  "Johnny Mac ain't coming back!" Walter Fauntroy crowed.  McMillan retorted, "The colored people were bought out." 

Ads

"CBS Sunday Morning" has some interesting commercials.  Every week, they have an ad from the Soda Council with an employee in red for Coke, one in blue for Pepsi, and another in white for Dr. Pepper/Keurig.  Some of the ads tout their low- or no-sugar options, but others claim that they use amazing new plastics for their bottles.  "CBS Sunday Morning" once immediately followed that ad with a segment about how such claims are deliberately misleading efforts by the oil and plastics industries that are really designed to get people to not worry about waste issues with plastics.

Now they also repeatedly run an ad from the Check Council explaining the proper ways to use checks, the most important of which is to never, ever use checks if at all possible.