tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post8012559922737004990..comments2024-03-24T17:01:24.541-04:00Comments on Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Record page views, comments, and 100th follower: Monthly meta for October 2015Pinku-Senseihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-71867690718239707192015-11-25T09:52:50.672-05:002015-11-25T09:52:50.672-05:00That attempt to shame Kunstler about his views on ...That attempt to shame Kunstler about his views on race and assimilation backfired; it pissed him off instead, stiffening his resolve and giving him another target in the process. Now he'll double down on his attacks on higher education as part of his rants about the "eds and meds rackets." He won't just go after the financing of college through student loans and the irrelevance of post-secondary education to the future he foresees, but also about elite universities being actively harmful to preserving the culture now. I'm not looking forward to it.<br /><br />When I mentioned elite universities, I meant it. That's where this phenomenon is taking place so far. It hasn't filtered down to the commuter colleges and branch campuses, not like the Vietnam war protests, the most infamous of which took place at Kent State, hardly the flagship campus of Ohio's public higher education system. The "political correctness freakout" has not reached where I teach, which is a community college in the suburbs of Detroit. That's not to say that diversity and sensitivity aren't issues; they are. But I'd like to think we're more level-headed and practical about them where I work.<br /><br />Elaine Supkis lives just outside the next town over from where Kunstler resides, so the two know each other. They also no longer get along, with Supkis talking about it and Kunstler keeping his mouth shut.<br /><br />I generally stay away from the Israel-Palestine issue on my blog. I have friends on both sides and I'd like to keep as many of them as possible. The most I'll say is that I like Israel, but I intensely dislike its current government. As you wrote, critisizing it puts me in bad company, so I won't go any further in that direction.Pinku-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-21775407027134799172015-11-24T06:03:16.082-05:002015-11-24T06:03:16.082-05:00I was looking forward to your take as a university...I was looking forward to your take as a university professor on the Kunstler column from two weeks back about how there's a new "Cultural Revolution" a la Mao in the U.S. At first glance, I thought he had a good analogy to make likening the xenophobic, reactionary "modernism be damned!" Teabagger movement to the Great Leap Backwards that Mao put Red China through in the 1960s. <i>(Much to the detriment of the 20 million people who starved to death because they were too busy getting forced to build mini steel mills in their back yards instead of growing food.)</i> He coulda made a great point that way. Instead, it turned out to be another whinge about how he was dissed by some dumbarse hypersensitive black lecturer. She sounded a bit prickish, but when you let someone else bend you out of shape, you're giving that person a lot of power over your mood. In my own life, I don't give a chit about what anyone thinks (aside from my bosses and the people whose opinion I care about.) I'm not letting rank strangers have power over me.<br /><br />Because you're there in one of the trenches of today's university world, I'm curious as to your thoughts on the political correctness freakout. Is it as bad as portrayed on reich-wing websites? My opinion is that the people who are loudly against P.C. are fuckheads who want to be able to say "nigger-nigger-nigger" without anyone calling them on their shit.<br /><br />As for Supkis (someone I never heard of) it's a shame that antisemitism makes it hard to criticise Israel. I'm revolted at the turn the country has taken, and that's speaking as someone whose blood and sweat is literally in the soil there. <i>(Spent a summer on a kibbutz in 1980, even though I'm not Jewish, and my first job was getting up at dawn to machete the dead leaves off banana trees in the plantation. My aim was not always so good and I nicked myself a few times. We got to quit when the sun rose high enough to put the temps up to 40 degrees C, hence the sweat.)</i> The trouble with slagging the government of Israel is that it puts me in company with revolting neo-Nazis. I reckon it's better to keep my mouth shut about the enemy of my enemy, lest I be regarded as its friend.Bukko Boomerangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424677168216647964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-68222396382991961472015-11-23T19:01:21.568-05:002015-11-23T19:01:21.568-05:00Just last week, not last month. I recycled that i...Just last week, not last month. I recycled that into <a href="http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2015/11/bye-bobby-jindal-drops-out.html" rel="nofollow">Bye, Bobby! Jindal drops out</a>. I have more to use from that comment.Pinku-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-32301521696942795122015-11-23T18:59:49.113-05:002015-11-23T18:59:49.113-05:00No, I haven't, as I commented last month. Just...No, I haven't, as I commented last month. Just the same, I'm not encouraged by his "get off my lawn, you people I think are idiots" mode lately. I'm mostly refraining from commenting when I've reached my readership goals for the month. It's more a form of managing growth in my readership and not going to the well any more than I need to than an expression of disapproval of the turn his writing has taken.<br /><br />If you want an example of someone I've disassociated myself from, it's Elaine Meinel Supkis. <a href="http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2012/05/ron-paul-rides-off-into-sunset.html" rel="nofollow">I turned sour on her three years ago</a> when her principled anti-Zionism crossed the line into a form of antisemitism and her unorthodox views of astronomy turned into outright crankery. In both cases, she seemed to be rebelling against her family, both by marriage (her in-laws, both past and present, are Jewish) and by blood (her father was an astronomer). Whatever her motives, I decided I was better off not commenting on her blog. The last time I did so turned into <a href="http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2014/06/isis-looks-like-sith-not-jedi.html" rel="nofollow">ISIS looks like Sith, not Jedi</a>, which was me mocking her.Pinku-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-68027663198497180022015-11-23T15:14:13.318-05:002015-11-23T15:14:13.318-05:00Hey Pinku -- have you given up on commenting on Ku...Hey Pinku -- have you given up on commenting on Kunstler's blog now that he seems to have gone into semi-permanent grumpy WHITE man mode? I usually read the first few dozen comments each Tuesday (when it appears on my side of the Dateline) and yours tends to be at the top. Any further down, that's when the racists start to stink up the atmosphere. JHK's writing is getting more accolades from the peanut gallery than ever since he's veered into resentful whitefella mode. Bukko Boomerangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424677168216647964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-7534456805423136412015-11-23T10:25:23.884-05:002015-11-23T10:25:23.884-05:00Congratulations, both for being my blog's 100t...Congratulations, both for being my blog's 100th follower and for being one of the fastest people to leave a comment on one of its entries. I think 20 minutes is a record, but I'd have to check. As for today's search term, it's "shoes and spam." I know exactly what entry that goes to: <a href="http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2015/08/omg-spam-shoes.html" rel="nofollow">OMG, Spam Shoes!</a>Pinku-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-50165055525581937272015-11-23T10:17:43.943-05:002015-11-23T10:17:43.943-05:00I used to check my stats regularly. One of my favo...I used to check my stats regularly. One of my favorite things to still look at is the key words that brought people to my blog. There are always a couple that leave me scratching my head. <br /><br />100th follower... woohoo!Robinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14932408372240147454noreply@blogger.com