VIDEO: America: always ready for war and golf (George Carlin)

It's been seven months and a day since President Trump signed an executive order changing the Defense Department's name to the Department of War as a "secondary title". Walt is not sure exactly what that means, but it does give some insight into the current administration's priorities... I guess.

The order — the 200th signed by POTUS since taking office — authorizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and DOD subordinate officials to use secondary titles like "Department of War," "Secretary of War" and "Deputy Secretary of War" in public communications, official correspondence, ceremonial contexts and non-statutory documents within the executive branch. 

Additionally, the order directs all executive agencies and departments to "recognize and accommodate these secondary titles in internal and external communications," as well as instructing Secretary Hegseth to recommend actions — including executive and legislative actions — that would be required to permanently rename the department. 

"The name 'Department of War' conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to 'Department of Defense,' which emphasizes only defensive capabilities," says the fact sheet issued by the White House last September 5th. "Restoring the name 'Department of War' will sharpen the focus of this department on our national interests and signal to adversaries America's readiness to wage war to secure its interests."

The usual suspects were quick to blame President Trump for suddenly making America warlike, as if this were not a pre-existing condition. That's George Carlin's point in the first minute or so of this video.

Well yeah, most of the video wasn't about America's unslakeable thirst for war. Most of it (as you'll find out by watching it if you haven't already done so) is about the crisis of homelessness, something else that the left blames on POTUS but which was growing exponentially as early as 1992, when this video was made.

I was struck, listening to this, by Mr Carlin's prescience. One of his recommendations was to change the name of the condition, because of the stigma attached to the word "homeless". The people sleeping in our streets (he says) are not "homeless". They don't have is not homes but houses! 

So the first thing to do (he says) is change the descriptor. And lo and behold, 33 years later, there are no homeless people. Listen to the lickspittle media. Those people defecating and otherwise befouling your neighbourhood parkette aren't "homeless". They are "unhoused"! Something should be done! Definitely!

VIDEO: Self-hatred, self-loathing or self-correction?

Breitbart News reports today on an interview between Bill Maher and Peggy Noonan on yesterday's broadcast of HBO’s Real Time. Mr Maher stated that younger people have fallen into a dangerous level of self-loathing about America. A significant part of this is because, he said, "older generations read about Communism and socialism" and today's generation doesn't. 

Mr Maher added, "Another, I think big gap between generations...is that the older generations just have a more positive idea of this country.... And kids today, I don’t know what they’re teaching them in school, it doesn’t seem like a hell of a lot, but they have this idea, that they live...in a bad country that has only done bad things and is probably the worst place in the world, if they could only find a way to get out."

Ms Noonan responded that while America is "not perfect. To say the least, it’s had an uneven history. But it is a great country, and, historically, has been a good country." To which her host responded, "And it does self-correct. It does correct more than other places."

"Self-criticism is good," the WSJ columnist agreed. "Self-hatred is sick. Self-criticism could get you to a good place. Self-hatred is going to stop you dead."

On reading this, I immediately rememberted George Carlin's special "Life Is Worth Losing", made for HBO in 2005. In the video, the stand-up comedian covers the downfall of America from our "inheritance" of "this beautiful country" to consumerism and today's politicians, "It's a big club and you ain't in it!" 

As you watch this clip, ask yourself: Is this self-hatred, self-loating, or self-correction? 

   

Mr Carlin isn't alive (RIP) to answer my question. I doubt that he intended it to be a recipe for self-correction, since his cynicism -- he was the ultimate kitchen cynic (geddit?) -- would suggest that self-correction is impossible for today's Americans. QED. This clip has had over 31 million views over the 19 years since it was made. I don't see anything or anybody changing. Do you?

VIDEO: George Carlin deconstructs "airline English"

The only mistake I've made so far today was watching the noon noos. Not that there was anything horrifying except for the inevitable DEI weather person talking about yet another "rain event", expected any time now. That reminded me of a rant George Carlin did some years ago on English as she is spoke in airports and airplanes. Here `tis.

George Carlin talks about the mob

"Stupid people in a large group"... aka "mob". They're winning at Walt's alma matter (one of the Poison Ivy League schools), and at universities, colleges, and even high schools across North America. We now live in an era of mob rule, and those in power seemingly have no power.

George Carlin: Political correctness = fascism

Words of wisdom from the late, much-missed George Carlin.

 

A fond look back at Fred C. Dobbs, scourge of the lamestream media

I'm still hot under the collar about the sorry state of the lamestream media in North America. See "Anus horribilis 2020: Noted in passing (media)", posted yesterday. The truth isn't out there. It's here, in the blogosphere.

Liberal group-think dominates the lamestream media of the Excited States of America, and Canada is just as bad -- worse, now, with the passing of Christie Blatchford and Allan Fotheringham. 

And there are those who say that, even at his best, Dr Foth was not really anti-establishment, but more of a court jester poking fun at the Powers That Be, from inside the charmed circle of the liberal elite.

His jibes were indeed tepid, compared with the vitriolic savagery of my favourite Canuck political commentator, Fred C. Dobbs, the Bard of Beamsville. Ole Freddy was the alter ego of the late Michael Magee, a part-time radio and TV personality and full-time fan of the sport of kings, based in Beamsville ON. And yes, there is such a place. You can look it up.

While we were writing yesterday's piece, Ed. looked through one of Fred's two published works, The Platinum Age of B.S. (Van Nostrand Reinhold 1981) and found some comments on the Canuck controlled media which are even more to the point now than they were 40 years ago.

It's a funny thing in this country, but nobody really wants to talk, nobody wants to get out there and tear strips off the government anymore. Everybody wants to suck up...everybody's just cowed into keeping their yaps shut....

In Canada, I think if we had a Watergate situation the fix would be in with the Toronto Star, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Maclean's magazine. These is the big three media knee-jerkers in the English language in this country. 

[They] would really not want the great, wonderful, golden image of the Liberal Party of Canada to be tarnished in any conceivable way. Because, after all, this image is as great, as bright and aas shiny as any kinda galaxy could ever be if it come along and upstaged the eclipse of the sun. I mean, the arrival of the Liberals for these poor bastards is like the Second Coming.

There's a climate of fear among broadcasters, there's a real fear of the CRTC [the Canadian equivalent of the FCC], that muddling, meddling government quasi-regulatory body that they see as a group of people really interfering with their right to do what it is they want to do. And it's kind of a valid argument against government interference in our lives; there's far too much of it.

This is what the Trudeau government gang really do stand for, cuz they passionately believe that unless they run, organize, regulate and produce everything that goes on, it ain't going to be up to some peculiar standards they imagine exists.

The Platinum Age of B.S. was the sequel to The Golden Age of B.S. (Gage, 1976), both long out of print. If you're a Canadian and want to see what Dr Foth called "the Natural Governing Party" get the disrespect it richly deserves, try to get your hands on Fred's books. Try your local library, but don't be surprised if they don't have them. As for his radio and TV broadcasts, those tapes have been erased, wiped clean. Wonder why....

If you're American and wonder what relevance this has to you, just reread that passage. Where Fred says "Liberals", substitute "Democrats". For Toronto Star, CBC and Maclean's magazine, substitute, New York Times/Wapo, CNN and Time magazine. They're all the same! Ask yourself, now that Dr Hunter S. Thompson and George Carlin are no longer with us, is there anyone left who's willing to stand up and say the liberal elites are full of BS?... Anyone?...

Footnote: The "Trudeau" to whom Fred refers is not Blackie McBlackface, the current Prime Minister of Canuckistan, but his father, Pierre, who began the destruction of Canada way back in 1968 and was still in power when Freddie was writing. That in itself tells you all you need to know about the Canaadian sheeple.

VIDEO: George Carlin: Stop worrying about everything!

Although this very timely video just surfaced on YouTube a month ago, it was actually recorded well over a decade ago. Mr Carlin died on 22 June 2008. RIP. One can only imagine what he would have had to say about today's Dempanic! But we don't have to imagine. Just listen up at around the 6:30 mark.



God will take care of the earth and all that's in it and on it, in spite of what we do or don't do. Take care of yourself, especially your soul, gentle reader, and God will take care of the rest.

VIDEO: George Carlin WARNED us about mass hysteria YEARS AGO

Here's the scary thing. George Carlin predicted the Dempanic DECADES AGO, in You Are All Diseased. Check this out.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. (H.L. Mencken)

VIDEO: Sunday Funnies with George Carlin

This seems like a good time to give you, dear readers, a break from the bullshit of the impreachment witch-hunt ["hearings", shurely! Ed.]. But we mustn't forget what a steaming load of bullshit is excreted in Washington every day -- past, present and future. To remind us, who better than George Carlin. Here's an old(ish) and long(ish) but good (for sure) video of a speech he made at the National Press Club, in which he spends much time dissecting and rejecting the way politicians talk, thus implicating (as Mr Carlin says) the press corps which faithfully records the bullshit and passes it along to a gullible public.

You can skip the introductions, including Mr Carlin's self-introduction. The good stuff begins at 10:40.

George Carlin predicts Islamic extremists will win

Here's something the late George Carlin wrote in When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops? (Hyperion Books, 2004). Walt's guess is that nobody paid much attention because no-one ever knew whether or not to take George seriously. They... we... should have listened. Mr Carlin made us laugh, so we thought he was just being funny. But he was serious... deadly serious!

I hope you good, loyal Americans understand that in the long run the Islamist extremists are going to win. Because you can't beat numbers, and you can't beat fanaticism -- the willingness to die for an idea.

A country like ours, preoccupied with Jet Skis, off-road vehicles, snow boards, Jacuzzis, microwave ovens, pornography, lap dances, massage parlors, escort services, panty liners, penis enhancement, tummy tucks, thongs and Odor Eaters doesn't have a prayer -- not even a good, old-fashioned Christian prayer -- against a billion fanatics who hate that country, detest its materialism and have nothing really to lose. Maybe fifty years ago, but not today when germs and chemicals and nuclear materials are for sale everywhere.

People who don't give a shit and have nothing to lose will always prevail over people who are fighting for some vague sentiment scrawled on a piece of parchment. Folks, they're gonna getcha; and it ain't gonna be pleasant.

We can't drop a five-thousand-pound bomb on every one of them. They will either run all over us or, in trying, they will turn us into even bigger monsters than we already are.

And don't get all excited about this goofy idea, "the spread of democracy". No matter who the United States puts in charge to bring peace and order in Iraq or Palestine or anywhere else, those people will be killed. It's that simple. Anyone who supports the United States will be killed. Peace and order will not be tolerated. Start saving your cash for the black market, folks, you're gonna need it.

VIDEO: Now, more than ever, the USA is full of shit

Walt cannot ignore the questions any longer. Readers, and even some of my agents, want to know when I'm going to say something (profound or otherwise) about:

• Michael Flynn's plea of guilty to lying to the FBI
• Hellery Clinton's not having been charged with lying to the FBI
• Judge Roy Moore being accused of chasing after jailbait, decades ago
• (((Harvey Weinstein))) (and 100s of (((Weinstein))) wannabes) grabbing 1000s of T&A
• Billy Bush saying Donald Trump really did talk about grabbing women by the pussy
• Rumours that Rex Tillerson will be dumped from his position as Secretary of State
• White House denials that Rex Tillerson will be dumped
• Brian Ross's fake news that POTUS knew Michael Flynn lied to the FBI
• Joy Behar declaring (anent the above) that she was "guilty of premature evaluation", but anyway, Mr Ross just made a mistake
• Etc etc and so forth

One reason why I haven't written much on these subjects is that I've been waiting for the other shoe(s) to drop. One day the truth will out... or so the old saying goes. The other, more cogent reason, is that I just don't care, and neither does anyone else outside of the Excited States of America.

Do you know that the Russians, the French and even the Canucks just laugh at these examples of "American exceptionalism"? Where on earth, other than the USA, would a rich and powerful older man -- an old pervert, if you like -- trying to get his hands on a hot piece of teen talent make National Headline News? As for lying to the FBI, where on earth, other than the USA, is it a criminal offence to lie to the cops who are out to get you? And about the fake news... how much of the "news" that we're exposed to every day -- "news" about the Kardashians, for example, or Bruce/Caitlin/Whoever Jenner -- do you think is real?

Dear reader, 99% of what is passed off by our lamestream media as "news" is the veriest bullshit! And that's not my original thought. In his very readable autobiography, Last Words (Free Press, 2009) George Carlin wrote: "Bullshit is the glue of America!" He said the same thing -- much more eloquently -- as part of a stand-up routine. Check out this short video.



According to Mr Carlin, he got his BD detection sense genetically, from his father Patrick Carlin Sr. In his later years, Carlin père had a job at radio station WATN (the voice of Watertown NY), where he devised a station sign-off he said he'd like to deliver some day: "I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America and all the political crap for which they stand. Big dough shall be divisible with union dues for all." That was amidst all the patriotic fervor of World War II. Has anything changed? You be the judge.

VIDEO: George Carlin says America is full of shit

Today the Toronto (Red) Star has published a list of what it claims are the 213 lies which President Trump has told since he was inaugurated. Even the American lamestream media have pretty much abandoned the daily anti-Trump rant, but not the Star. Poor dear snowflakes just aren't over it yet.

I didn't both reading the list, but feel sure some of what the Star calls "lies" depend on who's defining the "truth". Maybe there is no truth. And even if 212 out of the 213 statements or utterances turn out to be quasi-lies or total lies, did anyone expect anything else? American politicians -- indeed, all politicians, whatever their stripe or nationality -- are consummate bullshitters, and that's what people expect and accept!

What I just wrote is hardly an original thought. George Carlin said the same thing -- much more eloquently -- years ago. The politician he holds out as the archtype was not The Donald, but Bill Clinton. Check out this short video.



IMHO, America is a "full of shit country"! That's why it's so important, right now, to stand up for freedom from political correctness, freedom of speech and freedom of thought! "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." (George Orwell)

VIDEO: George Carlin explains why Americans should give thanks

WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS LANGUAGE WHICH SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND OFFENSIVE.

This seems like an appropriate video for Thanksgiving Day.



Don't complain to me that this was recorded a long time ago. Are you going to tell me that America has improved since then? What a pity that George Carlin didn't live to see and comment on this month's election.

"Political correctness is fascism!" -- George Carlin

Toronto is Canada's biggest city, and, in the minds of its denizens, most important. The Toronto elites, and its media in particular, like to think that their city is to Canada as New York is to the Excited States of America. As if that's a good thing! Toronto wants so badly to be a "world class" city -- like New York -- that it emulates the Big Apple's tolerance of ghettos, gang violence, ridiculous housing prices and all the other things that make New York a great place to visit... etc.

Where was I going with this? Let's see... I go out of my way to not go to Toronto, unless Poor Len Canayen takes me to see the Maple Laffs get thrashed by le Canadien. I made an exception, though, on Monday, on the occasion of a convocation at which the son of one of my Agents received a professional licence. The ceremony was large, long and loaded with Important People who made speeches about the just society, celebrating diversity and suchlike codswallop. The fug of political correctness was so thick that I could scarcely breathe.

It has taken me a full day -- 24 hours -- to recover sufficiently to write even two paragraphs. But Ed. demands that this space be filled. [Hey. You're the one who set the target, so you're the one who has to meet it! Ed.] Therefore, we present a few well-chosen words from George Carlin on the subject of political correctness, which is slowly but surely robbing us of the power of clear and intelligent speech. Hear him.

VIDEO: George Carlin explains US Middle East policy

Note from Ed.: Many thanks to Agent 17 for sending us the link to a George Carlin riff we'd forgotten about. Recorded 22 years ago, just after the Gulf War, Mr. Carlin explains how war is really prick-waving. Call it "Carlin's bigger dick foreign policy theory". Check it out.

Warning: This video contains "graphic language" -- lots of it. If obscenity, particularly the F-bomb, offends you, read one of Walt's other posts. OK? Don't say you weren't warned.

Penis envy? TTC removes strange signpost

This has already gone viral on Reddit, Twitter and other sites, so there's nothing new here, but Walt can't resist showing you one of the reasons why The Economist has just named Toronto the world's best city to live in. Toronto -- particularly the Toronto Transit Commission -- is so liberal that they have no problems with signposts depicting... errr... well... What do you think it is?

OK, it is -- or was -- a directional signboard at the Downsview subway station, showing riders where to go to catch a bus to their destination, once they get off (geddit?).

The sign, which some blue-stockings found offensive [No kidding! Ed.] has been removed. The graphic artist who designed it probably got shafted. (Geddit?)

Walt's final comment, paraphrasing George Carlin: There are no dirty pictures, only dirty thoughts.

Stupid iliterate inumerate kids!

Two related items caught Walt's eye yesterday. The first was a speech given by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to the Centre for Policy Studies. In his address, entitled "What would Maggie [Thatcher] do today?", Bojo averred that achieving economic equality is impossible because some people are simply too stupid to get ahead in the modern world.

Mr. Johnson's remarks were immediately decried by the usual suspects as elitist and possibly racist, but no-one had the temerity to challenge his basic premise. That's because it's true! Remember what George Carlin used to say about the stupidity of the average person. If you think the average person is as stupid as he/she appears, consider that half the population is even more stupid than that!

Apart from genetic differences, today's younger people are the victims of bad education. Boris Johnson may have been thinking about a major study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which showed that that young adults in England scored among the lowest results in the industrialised world in international literacy and numeracy tests.

Out of 24 countries, England ranked 22nd for literacy and 21st for numeracy. The study also showed that, unlike in other developed countries, young people in England are no better at these tests than people in the 55 to 65 age range.

When this is weighted with other factors, such as the socio-economic background of people taking the test, it shows that England is the only country in the survey where results are going backwards. The older cohort scores higher than the younger.

British Skills Minister Matthew Hancock was shocked -- SHOCKED -- by the report. "This shocking report shows England has some of the least literate and numerate young adults in the developed world," he said. Then he came to the nub of the problem. "These are Labour's children," he added, "educated under a Labour government and force-fed a diet of dumbing down and low expectations." [My emphasis. Walt.]

Walt wonders if Mr. Hancock has visited North America. If the average British yoof is thick as a plank, the average American (and his/her Canadian cousin) is thick as two planks! If you don't believe me, ask one of them. A couple of days ago Walt saw a news reporter asking students at Harvard to name the capital of Canada. The only one who could was a visiting student from, errr, China.

And that's Harvard, the institution which educates America's brightest and best! Those kids aren't the ones who would have been left behind but for the Bush league educational reforms. If you want to see what those kids are like, try conversing with one of the gum-chewing, glassy-eyed "associates" at the Gap.

These are the kids who graduated from high schools and colleges unable to read their diplomas or make change without using a calculator. See also "Downward mobility haunts US education", from BBC News, December 2012.

The problem is with "child-centred education", the 60s fad that persists half a century later, under which no-one is "left behind" and no-one "fails" because that would be damaging to their self-esteem [and probably racist too! Ed.] Instead, our educational institutions turn out [churn out? Ed.] graduates utterly unprepared to cope with a troubled economy and shrinking job market. It is there -- in the real world -- that these kids fail.

The problem is hardly new. Dr. Rudolf Flesch wrote about it way back in 1951, in the original Why Johnny Can't Read. Why Johnny Still Can't Read: A New Look at the Scandal of Our Schools appeared in 1981. And yes, Dr. Flesch does propose a solution -- part of the home schooling answer to the crisis in education.

What you should do is teach your kids phonics! Walt recommends Why Johnny Can't Read and What You Can Do About It, from Harper Collins. The book is endorsed -- but apparently not followed -- by the US Department of Education. You can find it at your local library. Your community does still have a library, doesn't it?

"Mother Tongue": a great book about the world's greatest language

WARNING! "Dirty words"!
This book review contains two four-letter Anglo-Saxon monosyllables relating to a part of the female anatomy. If you're the kind of person who never looked up "dirty words" in the dictionary as a kid, read no further.

Someone who speaks several languages is multilingual.
Someone who speaks two languages is bilingual.
Someone who speaks only one language is English.

Indeed. English... or American. Most other countries seem to have accepted the altogether sensible concept that having a second (and third or fourth) language enriches a person, figuratively if not literally.

Not native English speakers. Those who are fortunate enough to have the language of Shakespeare as their mother tongue seem to subscribe to the belief of an American evangelical preacher who told his flock that "if English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!"

Many English speakers seem to think that if anyone's going to learn a new language, let it be the NON-English speakers. And the rest of the world seems to agree. In China alone, there are more people learning -- or attempting to learn -- English than there are English speakers in America. 99% of them will wind up speaking Chinglish, but at least they're trying.

I am fortunate to be a native speaker of English. I learned it at my mother's knee and other low joints. My mother was a teacher of the Queen's English, the queen being Victoria. From her -- my mother, not the queen -- I inherited a high regard for proper English usage. And from reading the work of good writers I developed admiration for clever and creative writing.

By "good writers" I mean the likes of Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, P.J. O'Rourke, and the inimitable Bill Bryson. One thinks of Mr. Bryson as a travel writer; indeed, most of his better books have been about travel. (African Diary sucked, but that was a charitable project and I think Bryson didn't put a lot of time or effort into it.)

But Bryson has more strings to his bow than travel writing. He is quite the cunning linguist, with a keen interest in the English language. And he has written a fine book about it, called Mother Tongue (William Morrow 1990; Penguin 1991).

Mother Tongue is not a dull book of rules for English grammar and spelling. Although it does contain chapters on both topics, it is both fascinating and laugh-out-loud funny. It is filled with trivia about not just things (words) but people.

For instance, Bryson paints an unflattering portrait of Noah Webster, who appears to have been quite an unpleasant man.

He worked tirelessly turning out endless hectoring books and tracts, as well as working on the more or less constant revision of his spelling and dictionaries. In between time he wrote impassioned letters to congressmen, dabbled in politics, proffered unwanted advice to presidents, led his church choir, lectured to large audiences, helped found Amherst College, and produced a sanitized version of the Bible in which Onan doesn't spill his seed but simple 'frustrates his purpose', in which men don't have testicles but rather 'peculiar members', and in which women don't have wombs (or evidently anything else with which to contribute to the reproductive process).

Of course Bryson does talk about the marvellous English vocabulary, about the words... All of the words, including two words for the female pudenda. Readers of Chaucer, he tells us, will frequently encounter "cunt", one of the seven words George Carlin said you can't say on TV.

Brits will know, but Americans may not, that there is a slightly milder Anglo-Saxon monosyllabic synonym, "twat", which was used by such illustrious writers as the poet Robert Browning, in Pippa Passes.
Then, owls and bats,
Cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister's moods
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry.

Although it had the same meaning in 1841 as it does now, Browning somehow thought "twat" meant a piece of headgear for nuns. Bryson writes:
The verse became a source of twittering amusement for generations of schoolboys and a perennial embarrassment to their elders, but the word was never altered and Browning was allowed to live out his life in wholesome ignorance because no one could think of a suitably delicate way of explaining the mistake to him.

Walt agrees entirely with Ruth Rendell, whose review in the Sunday Times calls Mother Tongue "anecdotal, full of revelations, and with not one dull paragraph". Lovers of the English language will love this book.

Footnote: George Carlin said there are no dirty words, only dirty thoughts.