Well, I don't want to seem like our idiot narcissist of a President, and make light of the suffering of those inhabiting the Gulf Coast of Texas--

But damn it all, even without the affliction of hurricanes (and am I alone in recalling several thousand people killed by a hurricane on Galveston Island in the early twentieth century?), it has to be said that they, the fat people of Houston, have picked the shit-hole of the universe to be living in. Hurricanes (and tornados) aside, the climate of Houston is judged by those who know it to be the most peculiarly hellish in the world--unrelentingly hot and humid.  Which maybe explains the apparent cheerfulness of those whose homes and neighborhoods are being destroyed in torrential floods: At least, under the monsoon-like rains, they can breathe.

Suave mare magno...Watching the devastation of Houston, Texas and environs by Hurricane Harvey on my computer (precious toy):

Never have I seen so many wet, obese, desperate people.  What's funny though--perhaps I should say ironic--is how thoroughly braced they all seem to be by this major disruption and ruination of their lives and property.  Even the kids, who are being lifted in and out of boats, and are being carried and shepherded around, seem perfectly content and unafraid--simply fascinated with the bustling activity involved in having their families' homes and neighborhoods flooded, and having to be rescued from the raging waters.  I am reminded of what my friend and guru Bill Weaver said about the experience of World War II, during which, as a twenty-something young man, he was a reconnaissance scout (mostly serving behind the lines in Germany): how, if you weren't being shot or tortured to death or anything, it was an adrenaline high or rush, with people fucking everywhere (He mentioned specifically, as convenient places of temporary assignation, the compartments [Whaddya call them?] between train cars), as if any time might be their last; which, when you think about it, was perfectly reasonable.  

Not, however of course, that the good, plump people of Houston seem particularly erotized by the disaster that's befallen them; but they do seem busy and alert.

Being a Buddhist and/but disbelieving in Reincarnation, Karma and Divine Order...

Shallow of me perhaps--but if the Dalai Lama doesn't have a problem with it (and he is one well educated monk), why should I?  Strange thing though, I'm one of the very few people who actually have memories of prior incarnations--or, I should say more precisely, I have memories of the deaths (the dying moments) of a couple of previous incarnations, with just enough recollected background information about each of those lives to make sense of what they were going through, and what they were thinking about (and anguishing about) whilst they expired: How they both, though very different entities (one a young woman, the other a middle aged man), pitied themselves and blamed others for the circumstances that had led to their deaths: Very edifying, and not in the least flattering to me, or aggrandizing; so I suppose that I may, without the least suspicion of vainglory, consider them to be valid memories.  But there's hardly enough in my memory-base to visualize or erect a whole schematic theory of reincarnation, as apparently the Buddha did from his own self-recollection.  If that's how the Enlightened One saw things, well, all right--but, apart from making sure that I don't fall into that old trap again (of pitying myself and blaming others), I really have not much use for the theory of reincarnation as such.

Regarding Karma and the Divine Order of Things, honestly, I have no direct perception of either of these supposed Universals, but I believe in Karma for the same reason that I believe in my own conscience, because it makes me happy and puts me at peace with my own existence to do so, and because I would be wretchedly unhappy not to believe in it.  But, if you please, I am an Occidental Man, with a "naturally" vastly hypertrophied sense of Individual Self--illusory as I know it to be--which is the ineluctable conscious legacy of three millennia of wide-awake, noon-day civilization, and, with David Hume at my elbow (and the Treatise on Human Understanding at the back of my mind), it is simply impossible for me to believe in cause-and-effect, or Divine Purpose.  Sorry.  

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Has the Pentagon Taken Over US Foreign Policy in Afghanistan? (1/2)

Wilkerson: Trump "Needs a Good War" and Pence is Waiting in the Wings to...

Paul Jay On The Trump Administration: One of the Most Dangerous Times in...

Truth to tell, I've despised (not simply disliked) Donald Trump since I first was made aware of him, 30 or 40 years ago...

"¿Why," I have always wondered aloud, "is this vulgar nonentity obtruding on my sphere of consciousness?" Self-congratulatory ignoramuses don't amuse me.  The fact that he is rich neither interests nor impresses me.  Phil reminded me, when we were talking night before last (I had forgot that I had said so), that when Trump became a popular figure I said, off-handedly, "[His popularity] represents the Jerry Springerization of America."

Trump is illiterate can't read - Just like his friends Trump the Liar

Trump's News Fluffer Just Walked Out

Watching (thank you, Netflix), very attentively, Sükrü Özyildiz, in

Winter Sun, a Turkish (made for TV, I think) serial drama with extraordinary production values--full of (close to morbid) Turkishness, in plot, characterizations, locations; although the young male lead, too beautiful almost to be an actor (though in fact he does a quite professional job of acting), is Greek by descent and stunningly Greek in allure.

Talking to Phil tonight...

We agreed: Alex Jones is vile.  That's why they (the flesh-eating lizards from outer space) let him spout all these horribly implausible things which just happen to be true--Jones is their official Spitter-in-the-Platter (pour décourager aux autres).  

Michelle Obama IS A MAN - New Proof 2017!

Not that I give a rat's patootie whether any of this is true.  On reflection, I rather think that both Obamas are flesh-eating lizards from outer space--but I love the way Alex Jones keeps saying "tranny" over and over again, all unconscious of what mortal offense it supposedly gives the transgendered to be so familiarly abbreviated.    

Chelsea Clinton Attacks Infowars For Asking If Michelle Obama Is A Man

Google Manifesto: Stereotypes or Science? | Liberty Update

But speaking of Trump's late speech in Arizona, which I judge, seriously, to be as horrifically, insanely, unspeakably vulgar as anything a Caracalla might have delivered before ordering up a massacre--

A good many of my fellow Americans think it merely funny.  Robustly funny.  I am reminded that when I see the images of 9/11, I see (what to me is obvious) spectacularly choreographed controlled demolition; while a good many of my fellow citizens (even those who have seen controlled demolitions before) see nothing of the sort.  Can it be that Americans are of two different species?--Those who are heartless and obtuse, and those who are compassionate and able to see what's in front of them?

If it was not the image of Barrington Hall, it might have been reading Gone With The Wind (when I was ten years old--and not noticing then how badly it was written),

that made me, a child of the Far West, in my tender years, a Fascistic Sympathizer with the Confederate cause, and coldly (I confess) unsympathetic to the plight of negro slaves.

I just heard somebody say, "I don't believe in God for the same reason that I don't believe in Phrenology: It's a stupid idea to begin with."

FULL RAW VIDEO: President Trump speaks at Phoenix Rally--No, I'm not asking anybody to listen to more than five minutes of this appalling, 72 minutes long speech...

But you really have to hear (and view) at least a few minutes of it to appreciate how bad things have gotten.  This speech, purportedly by a President of the United States, contains nothing but: lies, personal insults (of private citizens),  and utterly mendacious self-aggrandizement and self-congratulation of the speaker--who, all unconsciously, reveals himself to be a vain, tasteless, possibly brain-dead, or at least brain-moribund, know-nothing.  But--I would remind those who would impeach or assassinate him--we're still lucky that he's not Hillary.

MILO Meets James Damore, Author of the Google Memo

Notice how politely and respectfully Milo does not come on to the bashful, heterosexual young Damore.  

What a nest of Singing Geniuses, these foster Children of Coke and Ascham were....

These are miniature portraits, such as the Elizabethans, curiously, excelled in, of the 18-year-old Francis Bacon (above), and the 12-year-old Edward Tudor (below).  Around the image of the Bacon stripling, the miniaturist has written in Latin "If only I could depict this boy's mind!"  Imagine.

And of course we all agree that young Edward's only fault was not to have lived six more years, so that we might have been spared the reign of his god-awful oldest half-sister, Mary.

Under the Eclipse

Dick Gregory, activist-comedian, died Saturday, age 84. 

Jerry Lewis, cinéaste-philantropist, thought by the French to be a comedian, died Sunday, age 91.                                                                 

President Donald Trump's White Supremacist Problem Is Deeper Than You Th...

Nine instances of Donald Trump showing signs of dementia

But of course. Just so.   Plain as day.  And, of course, just as it did not matter (as long as Nancy was there to handle him and speak for him) that Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer's all through his presidency, so too it does not matter that Trump is in the final stages of senile dementia--from the point of view of the bankers and generals and arms merchants, it  makes him just about the ideal, perfectly conscienceless, conservative figurehead.

Is Trump Suffering from Dementia?

"Donald Trump is a Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, utterly Incompetent Man,"

Said Cenk Uygur, Young Turk, anent the Donald's pitiful belated speech about the Charlottesville riot--nailing it, I think we must all agree.

Venezuela: ‘We are ready to fight’ – Venezuelans march against Trump

The reach of the CIA is long and their pockets are deep, but they've apparently lost this one.  The referendum for the election of the Constitutional Assembly was immensely popular and was approved by the Venezuelan people almost unanimously.  Apparently the gallant, Bolivarian spirit of Hugo Chavez (whom I liked better than any other politician in the world) is still strong in them.  Lord love 'em.

Charlottesville: Race and Terror – VICE News Tonight on HBO--Thank God for the Internet!

This video clip from YouTube is a very fair summation of what purports to be a major confrontation in "America" between the "Alt-Right" and the "Alt-Left"--Incredible as these essentially fictive entities seem to be to my Far Western Sensibilities.    

This LIBERAL Woman in Tech Salutes James Damore!

This lady has it all down, along with a fair understanding of the psychology of the Big Five Personality Traits, which of course is what James Damore was referring to throughout his essay.  Faithful readers of The View from the Quai Voltaire will kindly refer to my blog of the 10th of September, 2008, entitled "Science in the News," after the sub-heading Social Constructionism Takes another Hit, which deals with the same interesting increasing difference between the sexes in First World (or Developed) Societies, as opposed to their significantly lesser difference in Third World (or Undeveloped) Societies.  

Long talk with Phil last night

Rambling over our usual many topics.  and not failing, as is our wont, to enumerate the women and children butchered this past week in Afghanistan by NATO air-strikes (16)--though we but barely touched on the horrific, Nazi-like genocide being relentlessly prosecuted in the Yemen by US-armed Saudi forces--and spoke (blathered or prattled) blithely instead about the recent celebration of Phil's (55th, I believe) birthday, a somewhat grand affair (I take it--with lots of food and drink), whereat, for the second time (the first being with me as his acompanist, twenty-two long years ago) in public, Phil sang a couple of the four Brahms Serious Songs, including the ever-marvelous O Tod.  And a nice conversation we did have about how Brahms mellows and deepens with age.  Then we grazed briefly over the Bach French suites: Phil saying that he's been working at the D minor; me saying, well, yes, it's very nice, but for sheer elegant prettiness I favor the sharp-key suites, specifically the G Major, B minor and E Major.  Phil says he has not got my knack of playing through them as if they were light, frivolous entertainment; but that, as he grows older, he is acquiring it. Then we passed to the topic of Phil's major public musical endeavour, which is (not, as you might suppose, his singing Bach cantatas in church on Sundays--which of course he does do--but) his participation, as lead singer and (I think he said) rhythm guitarist in a five-piece country-western band, performing his own songs and those of Woodie Guthrie and Willy Nelson. And he's good.  Really good.  With a Western drawl and a Texan twang in his voice that is absolutely authentic-sounding, and, you would think, impossible in anyone as well-educated as he is. At any rate, such Amerikanische music is wildly popular in alt Deutschland, and Phil and his group (whose made-up name I forget) are likely contenders for winning a big upcoming competition in Cologne on the 25th of this month (St. Louis' Day), among some twenty-five bands.  It would be such a hoot if Phil's group won--and, I daresay, very remunerative.  

Citizen kills 2 armed robbers. Family wants to sue citizen.

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Shoot this woman before she breeds again!

Ah, Sylvia

What keeps me from ever--ever--fetching The Bell Jar down from the shelf of popular favorites? Partly, to be honest, the fact that so many women, and literary critics, adore it, and profess to've found beauty and truth in it.  Myself, I've never read a line of Sylvia Plath's poetry that I liked, admired or found beautiful.  Is it just me?  Or is it the undoubted fact that depressed women who kill themselves annoy the hell out of me.  

What I like about this System of Argumentation (using other peoples' blogs)

is how much objective reasoning it gets me through in how brief a space.  Especially when I'm using a left-brain, right-wing, perhaps somewhat sexist argufier like Stefan Molyneux as my spokesman. He does such a wonderfully thorough, satisfyingly contemptuous job of eviscerating feminism and doctrinaire political correctness.  I particularly love the borderline rudeness of his referring to Danielle Brown only by her first name--precisely as the insufferable arrogance of her "incorrect assumptions about gender" deserves.

Google Memo: Fired Employee Speaks Out! | James Damore and Stefan Molyneux

What Pisses Me Off About The Google "Anti-Diversity" Memo

Actually, watching this video makes me sick to my stomach: the vile physical threat of the

hulking MtF trannyto the much shorter, less muscular Ben Shapiro; Mr. Shapiro's serenely virile, perfect composure--He might at least have said "Take your stinking tranny-paw off of me!"  But he didn't, and, by absolutely ignoring the threat he was under, absolutely triumphed.  And, for what it's worth, he's won my heart.  

Anthony Scaramucci, "the Mooch,"

Whose 11-day reign as the unbelievably foul-mouthed Communications Director in the Trump White House was a typical instance of the hysterical confusion and disorder which prevails in every aspect of the United States' federal government, still retains, 'tis said, his insider's access to the President.  The President being fairly certainly in the final stages of a degenerative mental disease, which may be Alzheimer's, or plain and simple senile dementia.  The like has not been seen in history since the accession of Commodus.

The problem with vulgarity as brutally instinctual as Mr. Scaramucci's is that it's difficult to comprehend.  He referred several times  ( Well, at least twice) to the "sucking of one's own cock"--once denying that it was something that he himself did, and once attributing it to Trump's "Chief Strategist" Steve Bannon.  But what he meant by it is still not clear to me.  I take it that Mr. Scaramucci does not approve of sucking one's own cock, and wouldn't do it himself if he could, but I have no clue as to why he feels that way, or what the significance of sucking one's own cock would be to him.  Is he so naïf as to think that it's physically impossible?  Or is he the sort of lower class mafia thug, with of course a Catholic upbringing, for whom "cock sucker" is a synonym for homosexual?  And then, how would that matter?