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| 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.
"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 in 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 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
