(0556) Probably upandattem now.

5. Inverted and verted snobbery

After having put the boot in, yesterday, to Toby Young’s TDS, today they excel themselves with two accessible articles … one on oikophobia and one on Nigeria’s Christians. This is part one.

HERE

Through that article, you can access all the rest, saves me running the screenshot. So … to business:

In his 2004 book England and the Need for Nations, the British philosopher Roger Scruton termed the rising liberal ideology of self-contempt as oikophobia. The Ancient Greek word for home is oikos; and thus oikophobia, Scruton wrote, is “(stretching the Greek a little) the repudiation of inheritance and home. It manifests as a consolidated, wide-spanning offensive against the historical, theological, literary, legal and social inheritance that formed the modern West.“

I call that mid-intellectualism, that paragraph … in other words, accessible to a wider range of people … to those “of the people” down to the insufferably snobby upper middle or left intellectuals. This thing gets quite inverted, with educated pollies being below that, with true oiks such as Rayner and Phillips near the bottom of the heap. And at the top? Well, the Scrutons and Thomas Sowells of course. Plus the C19th working men’s clubs and evening classes:

HERE

Despite being useful on a football field, my swottery separated me from my fellow spotty herberts and why did I swot long into the evenings in secondary? Because my parents were working to put me through, not just a grammar or private but through a “public school” I’ll not name, which admittedly has opened certain doors, but my humble beginnings have turned out to be more useful in the long run.

One thing I learnt was that tradesmen were where the money was … those people were never going to starve. Back to the DS article:

As Scruton observed: “Oikophobia is a stage through which the adolescent mind normally passes. But it is a stage in which some people — the intellectuals especially — tend to become arrested. As George Orwell pointed out, intellectuals on the Left are especially prone to it, and this has often made them willing agents of foreign powers.”

Hence, the tedious political activism that was formerly confined to the university campus has now been propagated across Western institutions and corporations. Indeed, the touted ‘grown-ups’ in the West are now largely liberal oikophobes, educated at elite universities that serve, as the conservative historian Niall Ferguson has argued, to transmit civilisational self-contempt in place of the classical Western inheritance.

Nice article. I’ve told the tale before of being on the students’ swotting floor, I thought of it as, on the way to my tutorial room and a girl was struggling with what looked like Bloom’s Taxonomy … I really don’t recall which leftwing “intellectual” tome it was … I asked her about it and she showed me what she was studying … it may as well have been Greek.

Actually … to me, it may as well also have been Greek … it was the worst pseudo-intellectual claptrap, typical of the type, so beloved of curriculum departments. I translated it for her. Can’t recall if she asked … well why can’t they just say that … or maybe it was me, I, they, them its. Either way, it was that thing, starting with “w” in the vernacular, which churchmen in the day would warn a boy against … stop it or you’ll go blind. I mean it really was totally unnecessary and woolly thinking to boot.

So, to return to the article again … what are the four pillars of leftist w***erism?

First, Western history is condemned in an ahistorical, gratuitously unfair, even smirking, manner.

Second, the theological basis of the modern West – Christianity – has been assailed ferociously by the secular Left.

Third, contempt for traditional customs and simple patriotism has become a familiar and undisguised trait of the oikophobic Left. Indeed, George Orwell recognised the roots of this adolescent sentiment in his great 1941 essay, England Your England.

Fourth, as Orwell further noted in England Your England, a chief symptom of the Left’s worldview is its servility to anti-Western foreign regimes.

I’ll leave it there, otherwise this post might go on forever.

(0147) Awoke too early, shall put up some posts, then try for shuteye again. (0311)

4. Late term abortion

Girl from Students For Life group calls:

… (pretending to be) at 34 weeks to arrange abortion. They agree and start explaining how. Source Chuck Callesto, pundit, from Jesse James, another pundit.

Obviously there is the issue itself but then there is a second issue of whether it should or should not be reported to air. On what grounds would you say no?

HERE

(At 0307 … trying for part two of sleep.)

3. “Kanekoa” on X is the source

… HERE of footage of a resident of Springfield, Ohio, who says the Htn imports indeed were killing and eating local ducks. The “debate” moderator had “fact-checked” DJT and then lied.

2. Tom Fitton’s Judicial Watch sued for footage

… of AA77 … from nearby gas station … HERE. Comments included:

*The Pentagon is 77′ tall. A Boeing 757-200 is 44.5′ tall. It would be over half the height of the Pentagon and its length would be well over twice the height of the building.

1. When to run a story, when not to

If this is so, then there it is. If not, then it comes down with clear and profuse apology:

“Chief of the Boat of the USS Manchester currently deployed in the South China Sea installed an illegal Starlink antenna and wifi network so she could watch her favorite telenovelas. When she was caught she lied to her commanding officer and the admiral not once but three times, forcing an official NCIS investigation to be conducted. The antenna and network potentially allowed the Chinese Navy to track the ship and penetrate its classified Combat Information Systems. Despite putting the entire crew of the Manchester at risk and lying to her commanding officer, Command Senior Chief Petty Officer Grisel Marrero was not given any prison time nor was she separated from the Navy – instead she was demoted to Chief Petty Officer and reassigned.” (Sep 11, 2024)

My attitude to that on X was that if any of it, not necessarily all of it, is not accurate, then it’s pulled. There were comments which were opinion:

*The network was set up for all the navy chiefs on the ship, so many more were complicit.

* She was Chief of the Boat. But the entire chief’s mess had access.

*(It was a)mesh radio network transmitting an open WiFi mesh network everywhere on the ship. The Navy spent billions to make its Littoral Combat Ships undetectable. In fact, they designed the ship to be able to detect and counter enemy efforts to intercept or jam communications. The Chief of the Boat attached a 2-5 watt transmitter to the outside of the ship transmitting across two bands 27.5 GHz – 30 GHz and 14 GHz – 14.5 GHz.

*GHZ band on a directional antenna pointed at the sky is VERY difficult to track. Unless the position data is obtained directly from Starlink. They know exactly where the antenna is.

Corroboration:

(1711)

13. The main story at the moment

… is the Nova H1 earrings worn by Harris during the “debate”. All right, let’s step back a mo … it was done in 2016, Clinton was even quoted about them hanging, about 98% of Washington. Those polling station windows boarded up, the Maricopa footage of poll workers unsealing boxes …

Stop, stop, stop. What’s that stage beyond rank stupidity? Do you not turn the camera off? Same as Hobbs in Arizona, wandering through the polling station … it was on bleedin’ camera. What’s going on here? Rank arrogance, rank stupidity? Which? Absolute disdain that even if the so-called goodies know, e.g. Dinesh, that they can do absolutely nothing as all major players are bought?

Or even more outrageously … that they’re all in it … BOTH sides. Why does DJT even turn up last night? Bravery? Foolhardiness? Quite convinced he’ll win through? All set up so that the sheeple will vote that way? Opposite candidate SO bad that it simply can’t go wrong and she just plays her role with her earrings?

See … yes, I know people do stupid things, make errors … but this level? And the whole Starmer thing … so completely the evil baddy from melodrama? Not even some redeeming features at least?

Is it just an IQ thing, together with cradle to grave brainwashing? Also, as a Christian, yes … the evil one directs it all, despite any opposition? Is it the end times after all? When reason has left everyone? It’s like someone hopeless writing a really bad novel … or sitting in a room with other thickos, dreaming up new, cool outrages, drunk on murderous power? Abortion in there too? What the hell is this thing?

Trump … why, when everyone knew it would happen, did he still turn up? Is he himself Manchurian? What’s going on?

Wayne Allyn Root at TGP … who is this guy? Why does DJT call him after the “debate”? Why him?

Either Kamala’s best friends who run ABC gave her all the questions in advance of the debate…Or Team Kamala gave the questions they wanted asked to ABC.

I told President Trump the exact same thing last night, right after the debate. What happened last night wasn’t normal. More importantly, Kamala’s debate performance wasn’t possible- not without a lot of help from her friends.

Would you agree something is quite wrong about all this … not just the dastardly Demonrats who played their role but on the so-called “goodies'” side too. My mistake in one sense was not watching the thing but it was just too late in the night. I watched the insuguration in 2016 and regular readers know I called out Pence and Ryan straight away on the stage (in a post at N.O.) … their whole body language was asides to each other with sardonic grins … it was just so obvious.

12. Away

11. Home

Isilme’s harvest report

The picking and collecting are done, the report and the pics are below …

The garden

We’ve collected loads of apples. We gathered two carrier bags full for the local pantry. And two carrier bags full for the church folk to help themselves. My Beloved has smashed several buckets full of windfalls for cider making. And the tree still seems overly full of apples. Likewise, the eating apple tree – some kind of pippin, but not Cox’s – is so dripping with fruit it looks like a weeping willow! But they’re not quite ripe yet. Not far off though.

I collected several punnets of blackberries a while back, intending to bottle them in light syrup. However, they quickly softened too much so I made blackberry and apple jam instead. I’m still gathering blackberries. Also lots of raspberries are keeping me busy. And strawberries!! For years we’ve had about a breakfast bowl full. This year we’ve had a mixing bowl full (roughly – if you added them all together)!! Some are still ripening out there.

All the plums are over now, although I still have a few in the fridge which I shall make into a crumble. The tomatoes are very slow to do anything. The crop is very small altogether and they’re mainly still green. We’ve had about a dozen ripe ones so far. One or two tomato plants got blight and are no longer with us.

The French beans we bought as baby plants, which I thought were haricot beans, turned out to be black beans. Oh well, it all goes down the same way, although I don’t think they will look so good on toast with a tomatoey sauce…. 

The runner beans have gone crazy. We’ve had them with everything and they were well loved by our various visitors, but we’re still picking loads. I picked an overflowing bowl full yesterday. The bean plants are still covered in flowers and still lots of beans are on the way. I shall have to bottle some. Sadly most of the beans I collected yesterday are too far gone and the pods are tough so I will have to use the beans on their own, out of the pods. We neglected them in the haste to recover from our hoards of visitors.

I have also attached a sunset photo (above) which was actually taken by my Mum and I altered it to be portrait rather than landscape so I hope it’s good enough for you to use.

Need to do a bit of work fixing the “Other” page, adding this and that, plus all politicked out here – it’s all Harris and Starmer on soc-med … so for an hour or so, I’m semi-around but let’s have something nice on a miserable day out there … something to rest the eyes:

(0904)(1003)

9. The virus and the vaxx

It’s not just deep lingering resentment and anger at the PTB, plus clown world “leaders” and place people doing their bidding, nor even the karens quite happy for us to die or be herded, just to save themselves (in their heads) …

… it’s far more … the psychos above actively working out ways to kill us off … and implementing those ways. Plus the real effect on people’s health. Bad parenting, bad schooling, brainwashing, sedentary, phone to ear life … it’s a sickly lot coming through now, with all the asparagus syndrome, mental health issues plus inability to be satisfied … the Stones sang about it.

8. In which I look somewhat askance at the letter sites

… referring to TDS and TCW … for different reasons.

First up, this annoys me more than I can say but I can also see how those not involved in soc-med journalism might not align with this view below the line:

As I’ve mentioned a few times … in the days of the newspapers we bought on the way to work each morning or which were delivered … there were obvious costs to getting it to us, as well the livelihoods of editors, staff, far flung reporters … there really were costs …

… plus we more or less accepted the MSM view in the days before they became egregious misinformants … or at least we were unaware enough to pay the shilling.

But times change, we are where we are in 2024, and news aggregating is a different game. Not saying that AP and Reuters, even TGP, don’t still come up with a lot we could not otherwise get but there’s now an equal number, at least, of interested people the world over, wanting to share their local significant happenings and why … plus there’s a better chance of no blind eyes turned.

Then we come to the journalism itself. There’s a decent sort of chap I hobnobbed with whose idea of hot conversation was to thrash out the D’Oliveira conundrum and his triumphant 158 at The Oval, he might quote classical philosophers and drop into Latin now and then … an educated man.

Except politically. Being a decent chap, he had not been scrambling down political rabbit holes nor deep ferreting with a hunter’s eye and had not come out with seemingly bizarre tales … even offputting, not respectable conversation don’t you know … and thus, his political opinion was a mixed bag.

Now that’s fine in itself … he lives in his world, we get grubby in ours … but when what he presents in print carries a price tag … goodbye. Especially as he’s already sorted out in his M25 or south-eastern mind a payment plan to suit every pocket … predicated on the quality of his thinking and researching.

At the other end of the spectrum, not charging a brass razoo, is the pontificator, the resolute dot joiner, no matter what … page after page after page of wanderings from this to that … not unlike political vloggers and podcasters. Many gems though along the way.

Somewhere in the middle is where we should be aiming.

On the other hand again, there’s certainly a case for semi-nostalgic, good time journalism … on X I do similar with reposts of better-Britain-past type tweets … I go there to unwind, say hello to this or that friend, whereas Gab is more for the headkicking, deep dive ferreting … also required.

Kathy’s site is for the conservative, trad type person and it’s usually a nice detour … except the “droppers” are dropping away. One reason is very much Kathy’s overt Christian radical perspective, which does not sit well with the other sort of conservative or libertarian … can you imagine DK going there?

As a certain number of her article writers do not deep dive … let’s just rid ourselves of Labour and all will be well … then they reach the point, as one has today … where to keep banging on and nobody listening is unproductive.

My approach is to keep pointing our readers over there … but pay Toby Young money to do what we do ourselves? Sorry, old chum … your deep diving needs to be better than that.

… Mexican variety:

(0345) Really must grab some shuteye, chaps and chapesses … all you (possibly) need to know about the “debate” is in the screenshots in Wed 4. See you soon. (0737)

7. I just worked out, on the calculator

… that 9,731,363 … divided by 57,595,206 … comes to

0.1689613

Convert to percentage, lopping the 13 off and you have

16.896% or close to 17%

Now, the last question is … was that indeed the number voting Labour, divided by total eligible voters at the GE in 2024?

6. The Jezebel and Semiramis factor

It’s been mentioned many times … the young Scot, as I call him, had these on youtube:

HERE and HERE

An Xer, after watching Harris and her empty yet mocking manner, esp. of the Gold Star families, caused the Xer to comment: “Jezebel spirit.” Now to bring this in:

Yes, person against person, even within families, between friends.

5. (0644) More comment on the debate (after a snooze)

Tulsi G was interviewed on the very ABC which was doing that thing. Supportive of Trump, media dead against. And so? I looked at a range, inc. for once the pro Harris lot.

What resonated for many was the 3 on one set up but first … that’s not going to matter to fanatical Demonrats and RINOS with much to lose. Second … I saw one comment by a MAGA about his failing to hit her on this or that.

Well … he was not assisted by a machine, no. The MAGA man was wondering about DJT’s “team”. I’m thinking it’s more his Doncentricity, plus now his age. As someone not an eon behind in years, I do know what the gradual loss of faculties is about … so those two factors just mentioned kick in.

4. The non-debate

(0220) All I have to say on 911 is both at OoL on Monday and in the sidebar here now. Plus reminding readers which group donated the statue of ish … er … liberty … to the fledgling United States.

… heading off to try for more sleep, dear readers. (0312)

3. And by the way … those abstaining Labour MPs

2. Interesting pre-debate move on X

1. Of the debate, the Donald and cats in Ohio

No comment on the debate … I did look at X and it seems still early at our 0232 BST. One thing I quite missed though was the rush of Donnie pics with cats and all sorts of little animals he’s embracing. His sworn enemy (alleged crim of Fang Fang infamy) Swalwell is going out of his brain over it, so obviously we need to look at the fuss: