Category: The Current Situation
Chad Baker posted this bit of advice on Facebook back in 2018, and I became aware of it yesterday thanks to Tim Tate:
Apparently this tribal knowledge has not been passed down.
If someone at school is bullying you, go to any pawn shop (there’s one in every town) DO NOT GO TO THE RIFLE WALL, TURN AROUND and go to the OTHER wall, and buy one of these:
Or, if your preference is towards keyboards, something like this:
You can purchase one at any age. There is no background check. They are cheap. There is no waiting period. You can open carry them anywhere.
Take it home. Practice. Talk to other dorks that wear the same shirts you do. Start a band. Get loud. Scream about how rotten it is that everyone is against you and no one will sleep with you. Get it all out.
DO NOT KILL ANYONE.
Now don’t get me wrong: guns are cool and fun to fire (my great-uncle’s company is the Philippines’ biggest Winchester importer), but too many people in the U.S. have either made it the god they worship, or at least a core part of their identity. And as a result, the guns come out whenever they feel threatened, or even just slighted — as a response to bullying, the bogus “Great Replacement,” or even when a fellow movie-goer throws popcorn at them.
The old canard that hardcore misinterpreters of the Second Amendment like to pull out after every shooting is “We don’t have a gun problem, we have a mental health problem” (and while mental health does play a role, science — and Science — point out that the issue actually is an over-proliferation of guns).
But let’s assume that it’s just a mental health issue. Want a fix? Get more people to pick up musical instruments instead of guns. We have lots of research and evidence showing the cognitive and emotional benefits of listening and playing music, and lots of research on the deleterious effects of guns and “gun thinking.”
Pick up an instrument. Master a skill that will pay off in so many ways, from dexterity to improved brain function to confidence discipline and time management to creativity to making friends.
And last, but certainly not least, is a Happy Mother’s Day to my own mom, whom I haven’t seen in person since December 2019, but whom I’ll get to see soon!
Arnie posted a video of an intense, impressive, and impassioned speech to the Russian people and government. It cites his connection to Russia through his idol, Yury Petrovitch Vlasov, multiple world record-breaking weightlifter, his work on Red Heat — the first American film to shoot on location in Red Square (and hey, who doesn’t remember “COCAINUM!”?)…
…and he even cites the story of his father, Gustav Schwarzenegger, who was a Nazi Brownshirt and took part in the attack on Leningrad in WWII:
Now let me tell you: When my father arrived in Leningrad, he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. And when he left Leningrad, he was broken, physically and mentally.
He lived the rest of his life in pain. Pain from a broken back, pain from the shrapnel that always reminded him of those terrible years, and pain from the guilt that he felt.
He also commends the people in Russia who are protesting the war, commending them for their courage (remember, protesting the war can land you a 15-year jail sentence).
The video is subtitled in both Russian and English. It was originally posted on Twitter, but copies have been floating around in various places online, and it will probably become hot “samizdata” if it hasn’t already done so.
As long as we’re watching Arnie sending important political messages, let’s watch his message on the Capitol riot of January 6th, 2021:
Before you buy into yesterday’s statement by Eric Trump — the dumbest of Donald Trump’s sons (and he’s up against some stiff competition) — that Putin’s KGB training allowed him to see that Trump was a strong person…
Eric Trump: Putin was in with the KGB. He can read people and he could tell that Donald Trump was a very strong person pic.twitter.com/1BqhstcUMP
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 15, 2022
…consider for a moment these recent headlines of Trump’s inability to criticize Putin in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
- Rolling Stone — Trump Refuses to Condemn Putin Despite Sean Hannity Practically Begging Him To
- Washington Post — Sean Hannity’s remarkable, failed attempts to get Trump to call Putin ‘evil’
- The Guardian — Trump ‘admired’ Putin’s ability to ‘kill whoever’, says Stephanie Grisham
- Vanity Fair — Despite Hannity’s Best Efforts, Trump’s Mouth Is Incapable of Forming the Words “Vladimir Putin Is Evil”
- Politico — ‘I got along’: Trump avoids criticizing Putin
- The Atlantic — Congressional Republicans Have Found Their Red Line
- The Wall Street Journal — Putin’s Groupies Walk Back Their Praise
- New York Magazine — How Trump and Putin Have Been Allies Against Ukraine
- The Independent — Trump dodges opportunity call Putin ‘evil’ in Hannity interview
- CNN — Trump has been on Putin’s side in Ukraine’s long struggle against Russian aggression
- The Daily Beast — Even Hannity Can’t Get Trump to Admit Putin Is ‘Evil’
- Business Insider — Stephanie Grisham says Trump greatly admired Putin and ‘wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him’
- Business Insider — Ex-Trump national security advisor John Bolton says ‘Putin Saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him,’ so he chose not to invade Ukraine
- MSNBC — Trump demurs when encouraged by an ally to criticize Putin
Eric Trump is right, but not in the way he thinks. Putin did read Trump correctly, but Putin’s assessment wasn’t that Trump was a string person, but quite manifestly the opposite. Putin knew he was dealing with someone who was half-man, half-marshmallow.
Just look at the differences in their body language at the 2018 summit in Helsinki, where he chose to listen to Putin over the FBI about Russian election interference:
Trump has said far worse things about allies than he has about dictators. He admires dictators, in that way that weak people admire brutality, in the hope that maybe one day, they’ll get to be the oppressor. That’s not strength at all.
Also worth reading: A whole lot of links on Trump, Putin, Russia, and Ukraine