It just occurred to me that all of the shops in the North East still have those plastic shields between the customer and person serving which came in during Covid. As far as I'm aware there aren't even any regulations or laws requesting that the plastic shields remain in place. It's more like everyone stopped noticing they were there, it became just ''normal'' until people stopped seeing them as something new and different.

Including myself.

The curious thing is, if I were to ask the people working in the shop why the plastic shields are still there they probably couldn't explain. However, if I suggested they should be taken down I'd probably be greeted with an odd look of confusion. The process of normalization has resulted in the onus being placed on me to explain why they should be taken down.

I suspect they would answer something like ''it's safer regardless of Covid'' and they'd be correct, it will limit the spread of flu and colds etc.

But what we're really witnessing is a ratchet which glides oh-so smoothly in one direction, but once clicked into place is extraordinarily difficult to pull back.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time for the current thing, and a time for the next current thing;
and then a time for the current thing after that...”

–Ecclesiastes, basically

https://t.iss.one/BertieBassett4Life/4169

How will red-flag gun-control laws actually be used?

Auron Macintyre lays it out.

https://auronmacintyre.substack.com/p/gop-waves-the-white-flag-on-red-flag?r=b7pl2&utm_medium=ios

Thanks to Pete Quinones.

Did you know there were HUNDREDS of domestic bombings done by left-wing terrorists in the 1970s?

I’m looking forward to reading Days of Rage to learn what the hell was going on when I was a kid.

“dimly remembered”

Strange that, isn’t it?

Some things are strongly remembered and some things are dimly remembered.

Who knows why that is? It’s a mystery!

Earlier today, NPR's 1A program ran an interview on child surrogacy—they brought on a surrogacy lawyer, as well as a doctor who handles surrogate patients and a practicing surrogate mother.

Anyone who's followed my posts for a while will know that I am very anti-surrogacy for reasons that may not be obvious to some people: surrogacy relies on In Vitro Fertilization, and IVF inherently requires the destruction of human embryos.

My view is pretty straightforward: if we are against abortion because it requires, by definition, the intentional destruction of unborn human life, then it is only consistent to be against IVF and therefore surrogacy, as well.

In the UK alone, between 1991 and 2012, IVF directly resulted in the destruction of 1.7 million discarded human embryos:
https://archive.ph/PqUfY

The NPR segment ended with the lawyer expressing fear over the implications of Roe being struck down—very telling—this moral atrocity deserves more critical attention. Please spread the word.

The first two times I visited Europe were in full-on tourist mode. The very first time was literally a scheduled tour as a high school graduation gift (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Spencer!)

But when I brought my wife to Europe for our 9-week honeymoon I was already dissatisfied with that.

So the first 7 weeks was in one place: Taormina, Sicily. We had an apartment with a kitchen where my wife cooked most of our meals. We went to a local church every week. We always went to Nino’s for lunch after church and Nino would greet us. We made Sicilian friends. We had them for dinner. They had us for dinner.

We adapted to the rhythm of the town (riposo!)

I didn’t want to spin through a bunch of places. I just wanted to live somewhere else with my wife for a bit. Go (relatively) deep in one place rather than have the “postcard experience”* in many places.

* The postcard experience is where you go to, say, the Eiffel Tower, look at it, probably snap a picture yourself, and think “just like in the postcard!”

https://t.iss.one/millennialwoes/5303

The internment of Germans during World War II is little known.

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn is the synthesis.

He called himself “arch-liberal” but also “extreme right”.

He was the great critic of democracy.

And he argued that liberty was our great medieval European heritage.

Rising energy prices, rising interest rates, inverted yield curve... Are we entering a recession this year? (Even if it isn't "official".)

With Black Horse and Ryan Turnipseed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpmTsOmpmAw

I worked closely with BK Marcus when we both worked for the Mises Institute.

All my fellow nerds should read this article by him so they understand the “relevant technological unit”.

Key concept.

https://mises.org/library/radio-free-rothbard

Consider the white working class, once a stalking horse used by the Marxists in the hopes of bringing down the West. Now cast aside and despised as “deplorables”, racists, etc.

I pity the latest stalking horses for what is coming when they, too, are no longer considered useful.

Much like "workers rights" movements can exist without the support of any "workers," the "LGBT rights" groups can & do exist without any "community" behind them. These are pure political entities & taking them as genuine is a grave miscalculation.

As Dee points out here, homosexuals are passé.
Transsexuals are the current stalking horse/designated right-wing target.

Do you like playing their game?