From Time and Western Man:

The psychology at the back of the various styles or modes we have been
considering is to that extent political, therefore, in that sense that the child-
cult is a political phenomenon, and without the child-cult men and women
of letters would not be expressing themselves in the language and with the
peculiarities of infancy; and certainly ‘journalese’ is, as much as the subject-
matter of a newspaper report, contingent upon the ‘greatest happiness of the
greatest number.’

It is a perfidious flattery of the multitude, though whether it
is really appreciated or indeed necessary at all, is open to question.

1927 book in which he launches “a virulent attack on what [he] calls the ‘time-cult,’ which he perceived to be the dominant philosophy of the early twentieth century promulgated by Henri Bergson (and his followers Samuel Alexander and Alfred North Whitehead), and practised by authors such as James Joyce and Gertrude Stein.

Stimulating stuff, makes you re-think a few things or, more likely, thing of some for the first time.

Two (week-) days running for Crux staff in town for a meeting:

The shocking brevity of a 27-word homily was a reminder that one problem with much Catholic preaching is simply that it goes on too long, in part because homilists sometimes don’t appear to weigh every word to determine if they’re actually necessary.

Lesson here for more than preachers.

Source: A lesson for Catholic preachers in the power of brevity

Dare any man or woman or child say landslide?

Source: Vote of Presidential Electors: December 19, 2016

May the best man win — by proving he’s the worst treated. Not exactly positive thinking, but if it floats their boats . . .

Meanwhile, the relator has a question, and a darn good one at that:

Are there actually students at U of Calif, [where the gathering was held] who have no color at all?

Are they transparent?  . . .

Nobody ever calls me a “person of color” even though my skin has a distinct pinkish cast to it.

This inconvenient truth was taken to heart in the mid-’60s in Chicago, where West Side white activists smilingly referred to themselves as “pinkies.” Or so one of them told me.

The relator further observed about the conference:

There is  a basic principle at work here that is invisible only to leftists who deny the reality of human nature.  If oppression is the currency of social advantage, there will never be enough oppression to go around.

A shame.

Source: Blog: ‘Students of color’ conference at University of California reportedly dissolves into a fight over who is most oppressed

Bernard Hopkins’s last fight carried the weight of symbolism.

Source: Fanfare for the Common Man | City Journal

NY Times gave him big play. It’s your source for fake news.

The New York Times published a fake news editorial this week from crooked Texas elector Chris Suprun claiming that he was a 9/11 first responder firefighter. As with everything else about this story, he was lying. No record of ‘faithless elector’…

Source: More Evidence That Chris Suprun Is A Liar And Fraud | The Deplorable Climate Science Blog

Phony story from the start.

Media lemmings do it again.

Donald Trump’s fiercest critics may be dreaming of a last-minute revolt, but the Electoral College, a peculiarly American institution, appears near-certain on Monday to select the 70-year-old real estate mogul as the 45th US president.

Its detractors — and they are many — have denounced an electoral system that flies in the face of the venerated “one man, one vote” principle, and which perversely encourages presidential candidates to campaign in only a few key states while ignoring whole swaths of the country.

As the Psalmist sang in another context, the Gentiles rage. (aka nations, heathen) “. . . and the peoples imagine a vain thing”

Not to make of the Donald any but a human being about to hold high office, etc., putting pants on one leg at a time, no, no, no.

But his enemies do rage, do they not? And imagine vain things.

And they have their courtiers, their blowers on their own trumpets, their couriers, viz. media lemmings coast to coast, border to border (and in this case from la belle France, translated for Yahoo use), who offer us here such observations in the middle of a news-feature story:

. . . an electoral system that flies in the face of the venerated “one man, one vote” principle, and which perversely encourages presidential candidates to campaign in only a few key states while ignoring whole swaths of the country.

Consider: “perversely.” = bad, not fair, stupid, longtime obstructer of common good, etc., you name it. (Lafayette, where are you?)

Consider: “only a few states.” Oh. Vs. concentration on even fewer, beginning with our biggest state California, with 12% of the whole.

More:

.But despite the torrent of criticism this method has faced for decades, no reform attempt has ever succeeded.

Consider “reform.” Of course. There’s a better way, says this pseudo-news report-cum-lots of bending over to make a favorite point. Plus “torrent . . . for decades.” Oh?

(This French fellow, Jerome Cartillier, being out of the office, is an expert. But he should call home. And Yahoo should pay more attention to what he comes up and out with.)

More here: Electoral College, unloved but everpresent, set to anoint Trump

It will take a house to fall on Bill and the rest.

Since the election, several Democrats have casted [sic] blame on the FBI director for the Democratic nominee’s lost.

Which is to say the people spoke but Bill isn’t listening.

Source: Bill Clinton: Comey ‘cost’ my wife the election | TheHill

Well, he did and he didn’t. He did approve of two cabinet choices.

The new man at Labor runs fast-food operations that employ 90,000 people. He knows hiring and firing, payroll matters and the like, “won’t need a crash course on the issues his department handles.”

The new man at State will make the switch from oil man to another occupation and will adjust accordingly. He’s good at doing and succeeding at whatever he takes on, the argument would go.

There’s no obvious reason that Tillerson can’t . . . shift his allegiance [from Exxon] to serving the public interest (to the extent his boss allows).

But most appealing to the columnist, the supposed libertarian Steve Chapman, is the candidates’ liberal bent — the Labor man’s openness to liberals’ immigration policies, the State candidate’s gay- and Planned Parenthood (abortion)-friendliness, but especially his endorsement of anti-warming carbon taxation.

Most notably, he endorsed a carbon tax to combat global warming — and Exxon Mobil has lobbied Congress to pass one. Having someone with that viewpoint in the most important foreign policy job could be helpful to the planet. [sic]

I say supposed in view of his regularly espousing liberal causes, as opposed to libertarians’ regularly opposing them — Instapundit Glenn Reynolds being a prime example.

Meanwhile, when Trump does something of which Chapman approves, it’s with wonderment, as if Trump forgot himself. Or as he might put it, as if the broken clock were right again, twice a day as usual, and who wants a broken clock?

Source: Two good Trump Cabinet choices – Chicago Tribune