FC top 10

1. Bayern Munich
2. Barcelona
3. Dortmund
4. Arsenal
5. Juventus
6. Paris St. Germain
7. Atletico Madrid
8. Napoli
9. Cruziero
10. Porto

Something to Understand About Poland

The Poles existence as mostly Catholic Slavs (Along with the Croats anyway, the important thing is that the Poles see themselves as unique) has led them to see themselves less as Eastern Europeans and more as the eastern frontier of the West.  This identity has allowed them (or us, in a kind-of-sor-of not really way) to maintain their national pride, to see themselves as heroic martyrs defending civilization from Asiatic hordes instead of the poor bastards who always lose.  For this reason the Poles maintain far more anger towards Russia than Germany or any other Western state that has tormented them in the past.  There's a healthy dollop of Islamophobia too, since the Ottomans were one bully that the Poles were actually able to consistently win against.

Which brings us to Lech Walesa, whose good work in freeing my Ddistantcousinland from the Soviets remains, but whose intervening taste for xenophobia, homophobia, and theocracy has destroyed any claim to being a  Great Liberator of history in the vein of Lincoln or Havel.  Now the man has apparently grown so enthralled with the idea of his land marking the border of Real White People that he thinks Poland should merge itself into Germany.    

To this I can only reply: Boy, what the fuck is wrong with your motherfucking ass?

Polish Nazis are, of course, an actual thing.  But that's far too Goddamn depressing for me to get into right now.   

An Aesop of Sorts, Maybe

In my late teens or early twenties maybe, I forget, the late former editor of my hometown paper,  Keith  Blackledge,  wrote an emeritus column describing his trip to Lillehammer Norway for the 1994 Olympics there.  He described how he was shopping for things one Saturday there and was shocked to find that all of the stores closed early on Saturday.  Keith went on to decry how Scandinavian socialism  had destroyed to good entrepreneurial spirit of the Norwegian people.  Mind you that Lillehammer is a town only the same size as my North Platte, about 26,000 people.  I'd guess with some confidence that it's the smallest place to ever host even the smaller Winter Games. And I emphasize now that this is actually what Blackledge actually reported to the people as fact, that small corner shops in a small town closed early on the weekend because socialism.  He had stepped off the plane expecting to see alien leftist decadence all around him,  so he did. 

There are Indeed Many Latinos Coming to Nebraska

and they are indeed especially prevalent in the 'Big Bend' region of the Platte between Omaha and Grand Island that so fascinated Stephen King.  Still you'll be glad to know that Latino children, as a rule, still prefer Catholicism over abominable Lovecraftian  blood god worship.  This right here is just fucking weird. 

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Normative gender indoctrination is indeed a big reason why such a thing as school-affiliated dances came to be.  Still the cart of 'allowing' the kids themselves to make whatever they will of their own dances has already done passed.  Deal with it bro.  P.S. , I'd hate to use the scare quotes again, but rightfully there is no such thing as schools 'allowing' students to express their identities. 

FC top 10

First time I've done this so early in the year.  We'll see how goes.

1. Bayern Munich
2. Barcelona
3. Dortmund
4. Arsenal
5. Napoli
6, Paris St. Germain
7. Atletico Madrid
8.  Manchester City
9.  Juventus
10. Cruzeiro 

Hiroshi Yamuauchi

R.I.P. Mr. Nintendo.

 

Aaron Alexis Didn't Use an AR-15

Some major media outlets had reported that the Navy Yard shooter did use this particular gun.  They were wrong on that, and it seems as if this has some great importance beyond some fact-checkers getting their paychecks docked.   Apparently this mistake delegitimatizes calls for gun control in ways so obvious to Real Americans that they feel no need to make any effort in explaining how.  My best guess is that they take this as yet another sign that the coastal media are a bunch of wimps and therefore have no right to hold either gun culture or the lack of laws regarding it to the slightest hint of scrutiny.  Gun-rights absolutists are within the Real American tribe after all and are endowed with all the privileges that come with that.  It is their prerogative to declare that familiarity with guns is either a basic universal norm in American culture; or a sign of rarefied courage and wisdom exclusive to themselves; or both of these things; depending on what suits their needs for the moment. 

To this I can only say that I'm a western boy myself; bastard son of a farmer and truck stop waitress and step-son of a truck driver.  I fired guns with some regularity in my childhood and I dare say that I do share that special knowledge of what they really and what they are really about.  What they really are is dead machines; no more intrinsically evil than intrinsically good for that I suppose, and what they are really about is nothing.  A firearm carries no magic powers of manly heroism or invulnerability from threat.  And it is superstition beneath contempt to believe that private gun ownership is the only true guarantor against potential tyranny.  There is no such thing as that. The only, best and imperfect insurance against tyranny is a mind that rejects dogma and is unimpressed by both the actual authority of politicians and the imaginary authority of husbands and fathers.  Gun nuts who fancy themselves as defenders of a non-existent true American way wouldn't know either freedom or tyranny if it bit them in the ass.