Always too eager for the future, we
Pick up bad habits of expectancy.
Something is always approaching; every day
Till then we say,Watching from a bluff the tiny, clear
Sparkling armada of promises draw near.
How slow they are! And how much time they waste,
Refusing to make haste!Yet still they leave us holding wretched stalks
Of disappointment, for, though nothing balks
Each big approach, leaning with brasswork prinked,
Each rope distinct,Flagged, and the figurehead with golden tits
Arching our way, it never anchors; it’s
No sooner present than it turns to past.
Right to the lastWe think each one will heave to and unload
All good into our lives, all we are owed
For waiting so devoutly and so long.
But we are wrong:Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.
Get The L Out
Get The L Out is critical of the trans ideology. They say, quite rightly, that it is erasing lesbians, both by transing young lesbians and turning them into ‘men’ and by saying that anyone can be a lesbian, even if you have a penis. So they turned up at Pride Cymru with banners saying ‘Lesbians don’t like penises’ – yes, this apparently needs to be said in 2022 . . . And what happened? They were ejected by police. By those Pride-enforcing cops of 21st-century Britain. This essentially means it has become a risky endeavour to publicly declare that you are same-sex attracted, that you are a homosexual. The idea of same-sex attraction runs counter to the post-sex, post-biology lunacy of the Pride religion, and so it is problematised, demonised, even censored. Gay rights? Pride is a threat to them, not the upholder of them.
Even the Price of Getting Up is Going Up
A friend and former colleague is telling me about a recent trip to a massage parlor . . .
“She offered to take her clothes off and give me a hand job for $140. A hundred and 40 dollars?!.
“I said, ‘I can get a hand job for $60, if you’re gonna disrobe, I can add another $20, maybe $40.’
“‘Come on,’ she says. ‘Help me out.’ I told her to just massage my feet.
“Is this inflation or what? I can’t get a naked woman to jerk me off for less than $140?! I’ve had full service for $120. Man, fuck Joe Biden.”
The Final Slur
Reports indicate that Her Majesty has bestowed a great honor upon Meghan Markle by requesting her to be the recipient of the “Final Slur:” a traditional rite whereby the British Monarch utters their final racist remark before death. Markle will be the first non-Irish beneficiary. https://t.co/Z9PmuG7X1M
— American Gaeltep (@Carlists4Pete) September 8, 2022
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. — Salman Rushdie
Bye, Serena
Please please please let Serena Williams retire from tennis. Never cared for her at all. She’s a sore loser, ungracious . . . best example of this, go back and watch the 2018 US Open final where Naomi Osaka beats Serena’s ass, during which Serena’s conduct is so appalling that Osaka, rather than being able to jubilantly celebrate her first major title, ends the match sitting in a sideline chair crying with a towel over her head.
Remember the time Serena verbally assaulted a linesperson (an older Asian woman, if I remember right) by threatening to “shove this fucking tennis ball down your throat”?
Or watch any press conference after she lost a match. It’s all excuses, alibis, justifications. If she ever in her life said the other player played better than she did, I can’t remember hearing it.
Contrast this with top male players — Nadal, Djokovic, Federer — who are gracious in victory and defeat. Nadal in particular will always say “The other guy played better than me” after a loss.
I also don’t remember other historically great women players like Steffi Graf or Chris Evert offering to “shove a fucking tennis ball” down an Asian woman’s throat.
I don’t mean to say that Serena is the only top-tier tennis player who’s ever behaved poorly. Most of the players that come to my mind are male players — John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase, for example — but these were the “bad boys” of tennis. Their conduct wasn’t celebrated or ignored.
And for the record, I never really cared for any of those guys either, although I love McEnroe as a commentator, and Nastase I felt a little sorry for because he seemed more like a child who couldn’t control himself and not so much like an aggressive jerk.
Going
There is an evening coming in
Across the fields, one never seen before,
That lights no lamps.Silken it seems at a distance, yet
When it is drawn up over the knees and breast
It brings no comfort.Where has the tree gone, that locked
Earth to the sky? What is under my hands,
That I cannot feel?What loads my hands down?
Private Eyes
Well, it’s time for another background check. The current background check company, Private Eyes, is not as bad as HireRight — yet! — but they still have time to catch up.
To start with, they asked me to fill out and submit forms with all information regarding my education and previous employers, which I did.
Annnnd here comes their first communication:
Hello Paul,
My name is Tiffany with Private Eyes, a pre-employment background screening company. We are currently working on your employment background check. We are having trouble reaching someone who can help us verify your employment and education. If you can, please assist us by providing a copy of your check stub or W-2 form for Company A, a pay stub or W2 form from Company B and your diploma/degree/certificate/ or transcripts from your school Harvard University [school name changed – PE]. Doing so will help us speed up the process of your application to the next step.
Then at the end of a lengthy .sig file, with contact info, license numbers and whatnot, the last two lines are
Quality! Service! Fast!
ISO 27001, GDPR Certified, PBSA Accredited
I mean, god help us. “Quality” and “Service” are nouns, “Fast” is an adjective . . . to just string the three of them together followed by exclamation points is not an indicator of intelligence or competence.
And I don’t know what GDPR or PBSA are but they must set the bar pretty goddamn low for their stamp of approval.
Also: To me, it would seem more likely to speed things up if people just did their jobs instead of sending me emails asking me to do their jobs for them. It would save time on overhead.
Nonetheless, I have to respond:
Hi Tiffany –
Private Eyes gets paid to do background checks, right? Because in addition to having me fill out forms with all information about my education and past employers, you’re now sending me an email telling me to do my own background check on myself. I’ll send W-2s for Company A and Company B. Company B is out of business. That may have been a tough one. But I gave you the phone number for Company A. You could just call and verify employment.
Regarding transcripts, there must be someone at Private Eyes who knows how to verify college graduation. I’m currently on vacation and not interested in spending it chasing down college transcripts from 30 years ago. Sorry if I seem angry but this is your job, not mine.
That was yesterday. Today I got this:
Hello Paul,
My name is Tiffany with Private Eyes, a pre-employment background screening company. We are currently working on your employment background check. We are having trouble reaching someone who can help us verify your employment and education. If you can, please assist us by providing a copy of your check stub or W-2 form for Company A, Company B and Company C and your diploma/degree/certificate/ or transcripts from your school Harvard University [school name changed – PE]. Doing so will help us speed up the process of your application to the next step.
Now before you say, “Oh my god, it’s the same thing they sent the first time,” no, it’s not. They added Company C.
My response:
Tiffany, this is exactly the same email you sent me yesterday afternoon, with the exception that you’ve now added Company C as an additional task for me. I already sent W-2s for Company A and Company B. I’ve given you the phone number to contact Company C. Please pick up a phone and give them a call. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m currently on vacation and trying to enjoy it in ways other than doing background checks on myself.
Thanks …
Chess Game of the Day: French Defense Mangled
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . .
2. Nc3 A typical French Defense would go 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3. I like to play 2. Nc3 first just to see what happens. Usually Black plays 2. …d5 3. d4 and everything is back to normal.
3. …f5? Have not seen this but it doesn’t look promising.
6. …c6? Black may not have a really appealing move here. White is about to make hash of the Black kingside.
9. …c5 It might be in Black’s interest to avoid the check at h5 with 9. …h5 or 9. …Kf1 but this move need not have turned out as badly as it did.
11. …Bxf5?? Capturing the queen must have been tempting but leads to an immediate loss. 11. …Nc6 avoids the upcoming check at a5, and 12. dxc6?? does allow the bishop to capture the queen as Black now has an escape square at c6.
Frolicking in the Rain
Maybe black creators invented "frolicking"? Is it different from dancing and singing in the rain? I saw Gene Kelly doing that in the 1950s. It looked a lot like frolicking to me. Granted, Gene Kelly didn't post to TikTok. Maybe black creators invented the TikTok part. https://t.co/FnjXU2ohtp
— Paul Epps (@paulepps) August 28, 2022
A Couple of Thoughts on Student Loan Debt
I’ve taken out mortgage loans, auto loans, acquired some credit card debt . . . am I forgetting anything? But I’ve never acquired debt and not paid it back. It never occurred to me to do that.
Transferring student loan debt seems like subsidizing irresponsibility. What happens when you subsidize something? You get more of it.
I saw the Secretary of Education being interviewed and although I don’t remember his exact words, he seemed to blame the whole thing on the COVID pandemic. He said it was his job (or the government’s job) to make sure that people can bounce back from that and not be crushed by their student loan payments.
I’d like to ask him where he got the idea that it’s the job of the federal government to make sure that citizens don’t suffer financial hardships. In the early days of our country, many people immigrated in search of a better life, but if they didn’t find it, they had to go back home because there was no government assistance forthcoming.
The 10th Amendment says this:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Meaning that if the Constitution doesn’t say the federal government has the power to do something, then it doesn’t have the power to do that thing.
Is there a subsequent amendment granting the power to transfer student loan debt? I don’t think there is but I’m open to correction.
And why just forgive student loans? The pandemic, with people losing their jobs and businesses, created financial hardships in a lot of categories: housing payments, credit card debt, car payments, medical bills, and I’m sure there any many others. Why are we making a special case of student loans?
Consider two types of loan forgiveness recipients: relatively well-off, and not so well-off.
In the well-off category, I believe the annual income limit for loan forgiveness is $125,000. Per person. So for a two-income household, the limit is $250,000. If you’re knocking down $250,000, you’re at least in the top 5 percent of income earners so why should people in the lower 95 percent pay off your student loans?
In the not so well-off category, I understand that there are people who accumulated a lot of debt to get a relatively worthless degree. That was a bad decision. But if your stupid degree isn’t worth you paying for it, it certainly isn’t worth me or anyone else paying for it.
I’m old now, from another generation, but it used to be normal for parents to set aside money to pay for their children to go to college.
Education was emphasized in our home when our son was growing up. He worked hard in school. His junior year in high school, I don’t even know when he slept. He consumed a massive amount of energy drinks and I think just stayed awake for nine months.
He wound up earning his way into his dream college and what was I supposed to say? “My gosh, son, I’m so proud of you that I’m going to reward you by letting you saddle yourself for the rest of your life with a crippling amount of student loan debt”?
It’s immoral, in my opinion, but it does seem like a lot of parents are willing to do this now. I don’t see as a parent how you could feel good about yourself.
Our kid graduated debt-free. Zero. We paid for it.
Ring Them Bells
Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know
Oh it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cowRing them bells Sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheepChristmas Cake
From urbandictionary.com:
A woman 26 years+ who is considered to be past her prime, undesirable, used goods and/or no good.
The term originates from Japan where it is tradition to eat cake on Christmas. So a cake intended for Christmas that was not eaten or is left over is considered bad and should be thrown out. Japanese businessmen coined the term, once again emphasizing the Japanese desire for a young and virginal wife. Japanese women over the age of 26 most often have to rely on either a hastily semi-arranged marriage to a friend of the family or, more frequently, marry a foreigner as they are rarely aware of the stigma or don’t care.
“If we wait until after grad school, I’ll be Christmas Cake.”
“She just turned 26. She’s Christmas Cake now.”
“She married her husband at 30, so you know he wasn’t bothered that she was Christmas Cake.”The Jerry Hall Problem
Sylvester Stallone’s Wife Jennifer Flavin Files for Divorce After 25 Years of Marriage – people.com
Women have got it made, my friends. No matter what you hear about sexism, glass ceilings, misogynist Republicans, etc., men can’t do what Jennifer Flavin (and others) can do, i.e., marry a rich, older spouse, get divorced, take a windfall profit, and still have a lot of good years ahead of you.
Flavin is 54. Her soon-to-be ex-husband is 76.
I read the other day that Jerry Hall filed for divorce from Rupert Murdoch. I didn’t even know she was married to Rupert Murdoch. I know she was Mick Jagger’s partner for long enough to have four kids with him. The child support from someone of Mick Jagger’s wealth, while I don’t know exactly what it is, has got to provide a very handsome income stream.
Jerry Hall is 66 years old. She looks good for 66 but, you know, she’s not getting any younger, and Murdoch, at the age of 91, has not had the decency to die yet, so her best play at getting her cut of the Murdoch money before she’s too old to enjoy it is to divorce him.
There’s a brain teaser called The Monty Hall Problem, named for the former host of the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal.
Then there’s The Jerry Hall Problem: Do you want to keep 79-year-old Mick Jagger or trade him for 91-year-old Rupert Murdoch?
Talk to Them on iPhones as They’re Dying
It became evident very early on that science didn’t speak with one voice on the subject. . . .
The idea that our leaders are just following the science, following the algorithms, following the experts, and we’re not even going to look into the faces of people who are losing their jobs because we shut the economy down? We’re going to let our grandparents die in isolation and talk to them on iPhones as they’re dying? It’s obscene.
It’s a Short List
I keep a list. Whenever someone in Washington does something admirable, something not for political advantage but for the country, I write that person’s name on the list. It’s a short list.
We Are Led by Idiots
It’s hard to contemplate American public life in the 21st century and not arrive at the unhappy conclusion that we are led by idiots. The political class has lately produced an impressive string of debacles: the Afghanistan pullout, urban crime waves, easily foreseen inflation, mayhem at the southern border, a self-generated energy crisis, a pandemic response that wrought little good and vast ruin. Then there are the perennial national embarrassments: a mind-bogglingly expensive welfare state that doesn’t work, public schools that make kids dumber, universities that nurture destructive grievances and noxious ideologies, and a news media nobody trusts.
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: Assigned at Birth
As in, “He was assigned male at birth.” It sounds like other options were available, doesn’t it? Like a child being assigned a name or a house at Hogwarts.
Is there any plausible scenario where the child would be assigned anything other than male at birth?
Suppose the doctor said, “I assign this child as female.” And then the parents freak out and say “Are you fucking nuts?! He’s not female, he’s got a penis.”
“Hmmm,” says the doctor. “Well . . . you’ve got me there.”
If it wasn’t so easy to determine the sex of a newborn at a glance — it doesn’t require a medical degree — you could go with a DNA test, since every cell in the human body is marked male or female. That never changes, no matter how many hormones you take or how many surgeries you have. It’s biological and permanent.
In fact, although this does require some training, a person with relevant expertise can tell you if a child is male or female before birth, via an ultrasound,
Babies don’t exist in the womb like Schrodinger’s cat — could be male, could be female — we’ll have to wait and see what the doctor assigns.
Babies are male or female at conception. They’re not “assigned at birth.”
Renaissance
And That’s the Truth: The Wrong Way to Go
[And That’s the Truth is a feature by our guest blogger, Sojourner Truth– PE]
I feels just terrible for the man an his little brother, not just cuz he got shot but he got shot just standin around instead a gettin shot resistin arrest, in which case he’d be a national hero.
Police found 50 shell casings at the scene. Somebody took 50 shots at 3 people and only killed one of em?! I said it befo but thank the Lord black people caint shoot straight, no tellin how many people be dead.
And that’s the Truth!
