Friday, August 22, 2025

Higher Education?

Image by Daniel from Pixabay
Letters of eclectic commentary featuring the wit and wisdom of a garrulous geezer and {Dana}a persistent hallucination and charming literary device.
  
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"Learning to play two pairs is worth about as much as a college education, and just as costly." -Mark Twain


Dear Gentlereaders,
I follow an online publication called The College Fix, "Your daily dose of right-minded news." It features articles written by conservative/libertarian college students about goings-on in various and sundry colleges and universities. 

I also keep an eye out for such stories in other publications.

INSERT METAPHORICAL THROAT CLEARING HERE: 

For the record, I am, more or less, a conservative/libertarian. However, I hold a position or two considered to be lefty notions, such as semi-socialized medicine for example, and I don't "identify" as either a Depublican or a Republicrat for two reasons. 

First, from what I can tell, the majority of politicians of both parties are more concerned with their careers — and power/money/ego/etcetero — than doing what's best for their city, state, or country. 

Second, due to social media, a thoroughly corrupted fourth estate, and the sort of politicians mentioned int the previous sentence, we're up to our necks in people who earn their daily bread by promoting division, outrage, and Us vs. Themism by exploiting the tribal nature of H. sapiens inherited from millions of years of having to belong to a tribe or expect to die. 

{Dana here, I've been asked by management to pre-apologise to any and all of those offended readers who subscribe to the belief that the Earth has only been around for a relatively limited time or similar beliefs, particularly given that the cranky geezer who writes this column holds somewhat unorthodox religious notions. At Cranky Inc., live and let live is company policy.}


 And now, back to our show. Thanks, Dana. I've taken it upon myself to monitor the multiple wacky Wokies still running loose at our institutions of higher learning despite the fact that (hopefully) America seems to be waking, in fits and starts, from the bad dream that is Wokism. 

{That reminds me, what's all this fuss about Sydney Sweeney about? I heard...} 

All you need to know is, find her and her jeans commercials cute or tacky, the Wokies have been unable to cancel her, and Normies don't think she's a spokesperson for white supremacy. 

Meanwhile, Sylvana Ross, a Cornell grad student, recently gave a talk at the Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology. “...one of the premiere international opportunities for sharing research on evolutionary biology.” 

She's working on her doctorate and has been researching "...how past racial segregation in housing, or redlining, has altered house ants’ genetics across urban and rural neighborhoods." 

One Haley Branch also gave a talk. 

"Haley Branch, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, while giving a presentation titled 'Ableism as foundation for evolutionary biology,' voiced concern over how the 'axiological assumptions' of evolutionary biology are built off of a 'white, heteronormative, Christian, Western, male framework.'"

Click on the link to the article and you'll discover that there's no shortage of woke alleged scientists who are working hard to save the world by mandating  “mandatory LGBTQIA+ DEI education trainings” at such conferences. 


Stockholm, Sweden, is famous the world over as the inspiration for the psychological phenomenon known as Stockholm syndrome

Nowadays, the gang at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm is providing "...a series of postmaster courses, public seminars, field studies, publications, and discursive exhibitions that together form a platform for education and research..." via a series of courses called Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies.  

Why? Dildo-architecture. 

As Paul B. Preciado points out, "The dildo-building as structure is the only model upon which the development of the erect urban skeleton has been developed...he signals 'dildoarchitecture' as foundational practice of patriarchal societies." My emphasis. 

He goes on to say that, "The dildo-building is the empirical reinscription of phalic transcendental power in social urban space. ...every building is a sacrament of the heterosexual institution of the reproduction of love-power." 

{Huh...seems so obvious when you think about it. I wonder what a city that glorifies the vajayjay would look like?} 

On a side note, according to Wikipedia:

 "Stockholm syndrome has never been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the standard tool for diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses and disorders in the United States, mainly due to the lack of a consistent body of academic research and doubts about the legitimacy of the condition."    


Last, but not least, is my personal favorite. Emily Pool is a high school history teacher in Colorado and the winner of this particular column's You Can't Make This Shi Shtuff Up Award. Ms. Pool is doing an outstanding job preparing her students for college. 

The following paragraph, which I stole borrowed from the aforementioned The College Fix, neatly sums up her perspective on the Incan civilization. 

"Emily Pool, who according to her LinkedIn page is 'talented in successfully differentiating learning styles in for [sic] socially, economically, and racially diverse classrooms,' says in her vid the Inca were 'kind' about dispatching their victims via sacrifice…because they drugged them first."

{       }

Right? As you can see, there's a link to her video in the paragraph above, but I've no idea if it will be of any use to you. It's from a posting on X that includes a TikTok video. While I can post YouTube videos with the best of 'em, I know next to nothing about X (this column has an unused account there) and even less about one of Emperor Poo Win Nie's American propaganda outlets, TikTok (that I avoid like the unvaccinated victims of Measles).

{Wait-wait-wait. Didn't you have Measles when you were a kid? That means you're immune.}

So I'm told, but that was roughly 200 years ago, so I'm not taking any chances. On a related note, younger gentlereaders, I/we geezers and geezerettes know how much you enjoy dunking on us for our perceived lack of technical skills. But often as not, it's deliberate. Many of us consciously guard against the diminishment of our attention spans, as well as the social media addiction that's built into the software.

{Is that why you can barely use your smartphone?}

Bulldicky! I mostly use my phone as a traditional phone by choice, but far be it from me to criticize those who are content to watch video content via tiny screens and have no idea what high-quality audio is. 

{Far be it from you, huh? And Bulldicky?}

ANYWAY, Ms. Pool also thinks that if you find human sacrifice appalling, given all the other horrible stuff that's happened in history, this is an indicator of your "quite white education." She uses TikTok because it "democratizes education."

In her defense/on a related note, here's another College Fix article that quotes archaeologist María Belén Méndez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico explaining why the Mayans killed kids.

“It’s not that [its practitioners] were violent,” Belén Méndez said, just that sacrifices were “their way of connecting with the celestial bodies.”

Colonel Cranky

{Wait-wair-wait. Some of your columns seem to be running a little light on total words lately. Aren't you supposed to be striving for a 1,500-word minimum since you only publish every other week nowadays? What about providing your readers with their money's worth?}

I'm dealing with some mildly annoying health problems at the moment that are doing a number on my energy levels and which also generate brain fog. If I've mentioned this before, forgive me. As I said, brain fog.  


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Copyright 2025-Mark Mehlmauer-All rights reserved
       


Friday, August 8, 2025

A Long Time Ago...

 
Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay
Letters of eclectic commentary featuring the wit and wisdom of a garrulous geezer and {Dana}a persistent hallucination and charming literary device.
  
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"Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction is obliged to stick to probability, and truth ain't." -Mark Twain (corrupted, but improved)


Dear Gentlereaders,
A long time ago in a column far, far away...

{Hold up there, Sparky, that doesn't make any sense.}

True. I'm referring to a column I wrote a long time ago, Dana. It's a cheap clever ploy, along with the title of this column, to snag an unsuspecting reader or two who might think they're clicking on a post about Star Wars. 

{Clickbait. Got it.}

No-no-no. It's a clever ploy; clever ploys are covered by my poetic license.

The column in question mentions a fictional organization I created out of thin air called the IUPPPP&PVTTOT, which is short for the International Union of Professional Perpetually Protesting Protestors and Perpetual Victims of This, That, and the Other Thing.  

{More clickbait. Got it.}

No-no-no. Merely witty satire, which is also covered by my poetic license.

Truth, as Lord Byron pointed out in Canto 14 of his epic poem, Don Juan, is stranger than fiction. 

{Gimme a break, you've never read...}

Byron's poetry is only one example of the many things I've never read, nor plan to. I was about to say that I discovered this because of my predilection for looking up the origin of commonly used quotes/phrases. Irregardless, the truth is often stranger than fiction.  

For example:

If, like me, you somehow missed the latest nationwide, Because Trump, protest march, permit me to get you caught up. 

John Lewis, a civil rights icon famous for (among other things) leading the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 that resulted in the unarmed marchers being attacked by a gaggle of good ol' boys — cleverly disguised as state and local police officers — with nightsticks and teargas. An incident that has been known ever since as Bloody Sunday.      

Mr. Lewis, who went on to become a congressman who represented Atlanta from 1987 to 2020, died on 7/17/20. He's credited with coining the phrase good trouble, by which he meant nonviolent protestors getting together to object to an injustice of one sort or another.

{Shouldn't that be congressperson?}  

Last month, a nationwide Good Trouble Live On protest took place on 7/17/25, which you may have missed, as it was kind of a bust. Note to self, don't schedule a nationwide protest to take place on a Thursday, timing is important. Also, don't try to capitalize on the reputation of a lesser-known civil rights icon who died five years ago. Five years ago is ancient history nowadays. 

{So, who exactly put this thing together, or tried to anyway?}

Obviously, you're a product of my subconscious, Dana. I also wondered about that, fascinated as I am by the hundred million or so global nonprofit organizations staffed by people whose job it is to seek justice and promote protests and who inspired my fictional creation, the IUPPPP&PVTTOT. 

I did a deep dive into the WWCK (worldwide web of contradictory knowledge), but was unable to pin it on a specific individual or organization. The Good Trouble Lives On website mentions a handful of "Partners." I stopped counting when I got to 100.


While searching the web for info about the poorly executed protest, I came across an organization called Crowds on Demand, "...your home for impactful advocacy campaigns, demonstrations, crowds for hire and corporate events." 

Yes, Virginia, a bit o'-googlin will reveal to you that there are firms that will supply bodies for your protest -- if the check clears. In fact, there are several. Back when I created the IUPPPP&PVTTOT, I had never even heard of Crowds on Demand. I was vaguely aware there were/are various and sundry such firms, but I've never looked into the phenomenon till recently.

{Yet another failure by this column's official current events junkie, it would seem.}

Thanks for pointing that out, Dana. I was also surprised to discover that this sort of thing is hardly carried out in the shadows. While I imagine that in most cases, neither the organizers of a given protest nor the firm supplying sign-carrying H. sapiens want you to be aware that at least some of the alleged protesters in your town are actually employees...

{More likely independent contractors, I would think. Companies that make their money via gig workers and people trying to survive via side hustles prefer that the help deal with their own taxes and the like.} 

The CEO of Crowds On Demand wants the world to know that the bodies his firm supplies to his customers are carefully screened. If violence and looting break out at your "mostly peaceful protest," it won't be because of the people rented from his company. 

{I wonder if there's a money-back guarantee?}



Adam Swart, the CEO of Crowds on Demand, explains in the video that his firm also has high standards when deciding on whether or not to do a deal with a given customer.

Mr. Swart says he was offered $20,000,000 to supply protestors for the failed Good Trouble Lives On protest, but he turned it down. Not because he necessarily disagreed with the aims of those who organized this Because Trump protest, but for professional reasons. 

He explains his reason is the same reason George Clooney doesn't appear in Marvel movies: Integrity. If he doesn't think a given protest will be effective in accomplishing its goals, he's prepared to leave the money on the table so as to maintain his company's reputation. 

Crowds on Demand is in the "persuasion business," you see, and has to protect its brand. 

{       }

I know, right? While some of us might think that supplying paid protestors to whomever is willing to pay is morally dubious, Mr. Swart apparently doesn't. He is a professional, however, and wants us to know that he won't accept your $20,000,000 if he thinks you're wasting your dough. 

{So who offered him the money?}

He won't say, that would be unprofessional. 

{I wonder if he charges extra for picket signs?}

Colonel Cranky


Scroll down to comment, share my work, or scroll through previous columns. I post links to my columns on my Facebook page so you can love me, hate me, or call for my execution via social media. Cranky don't Tweet (Xclaim?).

Copyright 2025-Mark Mehlmauer-All rights reserved



  

   














Friday, July 25, 2025

No Choices

Letters of eclectic commentary featuring the wit and wisdom of a garrulous geezer and {Dana}a persistent hallucination and charming literary device.
  
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"We must believe in free will, we have no choice." -Isaac Bashevis Singer


Dear Gentlereaders,
I read the novel Exodus, by Leon Uris, several years ago. It's about what happened when the UN divided the Palestine region into two countries in 1948. 

Note the word region. It wasn't a country at the time; it was a region. It hadn't been a country for nearly 2.000 years, ever since the ancient Romans got tired of the Jews constantly objecting to their homeland being occupied (via failed revolutions) and ordered everyone out of the pool. 

In 1948, European Jews, or what was left of them, despite the enthusiastic efforts of various and sundry European countries/leaders to kill them off, were given a region in the region to call their own, as was the local Arab population.  

In short order, Israel's neighbors, and not just the ones in the new country next door, but most of their other neighbors, tried to kill them and toss 'em into the Mediterranean. The Jews, having decided that enough was far more than enough, fought back. Against all odds, they won the first of what would be a handful of attempts to drive them out of the neighborhood.   

A recurring theme in the book was that while attempting to survive an existential crisis was a bit of a drag, it was kill-or-be-killed, life or death.    

No choice.  


AI, bots, and robots are now, quite obviously, a thing, and a real big...feckin' deal at that. Despite the potential downsides and the fact that there may be downsides no one has thought of, every country on the planet with the money to do so is racing full speed ahead to claim a piece of the pie. 

If the U.S. were to abandon this quest, the Chinese would double down. I can hear Martha Stewart's voice (or an AI version) saying, "That would be a bad thing." 

We're fighting Cold War Two, and the Chinese are our very formidable opponents. They would love, at the very least, to impose "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" all over the Eastern Hemisphere.

That is to say, a non-hereditary emperor, lots of modern-day coolies, and a mercantilist version of capitalism. 

They'll be happy to rule the Western hemisphere as well if they get the chance. They've been eating our lunch ever since we let them into the World Trade Organization (a future column, stay tuned), and are carefully watching Western Civilization's repeated attempts to kill itself by repeatedly shooting itself in the foot in the meantime. 

We have to follow this road to wherever it leads. 

No Choice.


2/24/22. Russia invades Ukraine, "...starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War 2," according to Wikipedia

The Pooteen says it's a "special military operation" to save the citizens of a couple of Russian-speaking provinces where Ukrainian neo-Nazis were committing genocide, killing off Russians. His goal was/is to "demilitarize and denazify Ukraine," so he needed to take over the whole country as a public service.

The Ukrainians have a piece of paper signed by the U.S. and other European nations — including Russia — back in 1994, guaranteeing their security in exchange for handing over the nukes left in Ukraine by the Soviet Union when it collapsed. They apparently didn't read the fine print.

In 2014, the Poteen invaded/annexed a chunk of Ukraine, the Crimean Peninsula. Various and sundry international organizations bitched and moaned and passed sanctions. The Poteen still grasps Crimea in his grubby, bloody little fingers. 

This time — with on-again off-again help from America, as well as various European nations, most of whom have been neglecting their militaries in favor of social justice programs for decades — the Ukrainians said, Oh no you don't. We're not rejoining the ranks of Russia's slaves.

No choice.


I hate to write, but I have no choice. Granted, it's hardly an existential problem like the ones above. If I stopped writing, I'd be unlikely to drop dead as a result. However, it's not hard to make the argument that there are worse things than death, not that you can easily convince a fellow H. sapien who disagrees. More on that anon.

{Anonymously? I don't see...}

Anon isn't necessarily an abbreviation for anonymous; in fact, according to my Merriam-Webster, it means soon, or presently. Alternatively, it may also be defined as after a while, or later. It depends on the context. 

It's a very handy word that also serves to make me sound like I have more than 39 certified college credits. I stole it from George Will, whose column I've been following for decades. Mr. Will (Doctor Will, thank you very much) is far better educated and far better read than I. Intellectual stolen valor?

{Anyways...}

Anyways, I've written in the past that there's what you do to make a living, your job, and then there's your work. Except for a lucky few, these are not the same thing. 

For example, I maintain that being a rabid sports fan of some sort might be your work, that thing that defines you, that thing (beyond mere survival) that gets you out of bed in the morning and reporting to your crappy job... so that you can come home and do your work,

This is the work you choose to do, even though nobody is likely willing to pay you to do it. In fact, it probably costs you money, and definitely time. 

{That's not work, it's fun.}

Lots of things are fun. 

Your work is that thing you almost have to do to remain sane, Dana. If you don't have such a thing in your life I highly recommend trying to find it. It took me a long time to find my work. It's easy to put off doing so by staying busy, willingly and/or because you have no choice. Once you find it, you'll discover that at the very least, it takes the edge off the fact that if you're like most H. sapiens, you'll spend your life feeling like something is missing.

Update: Since I came to this conclusion and discovered what my work is, I've learned that discovering what my work is, and doing it, ain't necessarily fun. You've been warned. I mentioned above that I hate to write, which is a bit of hyperbole... 

{No! Really!}

...But makes a valid point. I love the feeling I get when I release one of my columns into the wild, and I'm proud of my work. Unfortunately, I'm never completely satisfied with it. If I reread it a hundred times, I'd change something a hundred times.

Worse, if I don't do my work, I feel terrible, emotionally/psychologically speaking, despite the fact that I'm fully aware that it's of little to no importance to anyone but me. I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't, and I can't really say why. 

Perhaps I picked the wrong work, or I should've stuck with busy and/or fun. Perhaps my work picked me? Is this why H. sapiens with more money than God keep doing their work till they drop dead? No choice?


Now, here's the anon part mentioned earlier. A few years ago, I managed to accidentally upset a perfectly nice fellow person of a certain age in a doctor's waiting room. 

We found ourselves to be on the same page in all sorts of ways, including the fact that we were both delighted to be sitting in a waiting area that had chairs that were quite comfortable and high enough off the floor to make it possible for geezers/geezerettes to stand up or sit down with a minimal loss to one's dignity. 

I mention the chairs because they're a surprisingly rare phenomenon given the sheer numbers of Boomers still running around, as well as handicapped H. sapiens of all ages. I intend to remedy this situation once I'm the King of America.

I don't remember exactly what we were talking about when I opined that there were worse things than death. Her demeanor changed dramatically, just like that, with a snap of virtual fingers. I was now clearly talking to a different person. 

"How do you know?" she barked. 

Oops. 

Weelll... I explained, I know a bunch of people who died slowly and painfully, and I was of the opinion that if this were happening to me, and I knew I was terminal, I would much prefer to be able to choose a dignified death than linger on, and on, and miserable and/or "out of it" half of the time.

I deliberately didn't mention legalized euthanasia because I'm opposed to it, except for when I'm for it. I suspect I may not be the only one. Also, my personal public policy is to avoid controversial subjects, if at all possible, when speaking to a stranger I'm unlikely to ever encounter again. Why bother?

And that was the end of that conversation. 

No choice. 


For the record, on a related note, I don't want to die just yet, but if I got to choose the circumstances of my inevitable demise, I think being hit by a small asteroid that was just big enough to vaporize only me, and that I didn't see coming, would be cool. Just puttin' it out there... 

Colonel Cranky


Scroll down to comment, share my work, or scroll through previous columns. I post links to my columns on my Facebook page so you can love me, hate me, or call for my execution via social media. Cranky don't Tweet (Xclaim?).

Copyright 2025-Mark Mehlmauer-All rights reserved