A grumpy cross-dressing man. A snapshot of our times.
Oddments For The Weekend
Including scenes of cleavage; Big Derek and the haunted nightclub, circa 1970; the 10 drunkest countries; and a report on lesbian houseboating and other dubious PhDs.
The Small Matter Of The Bar Tab
Yes, it’s fundraising week over at my place.
If you’d like to help keep a blog afloat, and ad-free, by all means do.
Oddments For The Weekend
Including ejaculation statistics; the ancient sport of road bowling; rap but with breathing difficulties; and hooves, crossbow bolts and other vulture treasure.
All this and more.
Not Reading The Room
From the pages of the Guardian, a reminder of which concerns – and by extension which citizens – simply don’t matter:
Readers are welcome to marvel at the conceit that objections to current policy – an effectively borderless nation – can only be the result of ignorance. No other possibilities being conceivable, it seems. And so, the flow of information, of views to be considered, and any expectations of listening, seem likely to travel in one direction only.
Readers will also note the assumption that the indigenous proletariat – those low-status citizens daring to be angry at the downgrading of their home – merely need to have their objections corrected. By drama of a very particular kind. As if concerns regarding rapid demographic transformation and a loss of cultural common ground could only ever be wrong.
Oh there’s more.
And Lo, There Came A Triggering
It turns out that when you try to pretend away fundamental realities, any reminder of those realities has to be repressed or erased, or at least shouted at quite loudly.
Can Anyone Else Hear Ticking?
In celebrity news:
Emma Watson, 35, says the pressure to get married is “a violence” against young people.
Oddments For The Weekend
Including crunchy ant cheese; shower scenes; recording an intimate moment; and Australia’s uranium rush, circa 1964.
For All Your Cross-Dressing Needs
You see, Mr Alme feels “very uncomfortable” if he doesn’t have “an outlet” for his “need to sit in a wheelchair.” That’s sitting in a wheelchair while dressed as a woman, adorned with make-up and painted nails, and while feigning disability. Just so we’re clear on this.
When asked by his wife whether this behaviour is a fetish, he replied, somewhat coyly, “Maybe so.” Our facilitator of sensitivity also tells us that he feels “a lot of excitement” when buying himself ladies’ shoes, particularly “shoes with high heels.” Indeed, Mr Alme boasts an extensive collection.
Because wheelchair and heels, obviously.
The idea that one’s bizarre and rather elaborate sexual kinks – including wheelchairs and cross-dressing – probably shouldn’t be inflicted on random strangers, on work colleagues, and on one’s own children, of which he is the father of two, appears to have escaped him.
Oh, there’s more. Better bring a stiff drink.
But We Can All Feel Pious While Freezing In The Dark
For those who find the UK’s energy policy a weird and bewildering thing, a sobering interview with the energy analyst Kathryn Porter.
How Dare You Notice Reality
It turns out that noticing the obvious – that sexual dysmorphia is a mental health issue, that the skeletons of men and women are quite distinct, and that some members of the so-called “LGBTQI community” are quite extreme in their ambitions, as illustrated by the case itself – has now been deemed taboo, and indeed punishable.
In which we learn that cross-dressing men are women, with magic woman bones.
Oddments For The Weekend
Including a launderette drama; a brief history of prison breaks; some unrequested motion; and the “dynamic authenticity” of Mr William Shatner.
How Dare You Get Your Life Together
On perversity as a marker of progressive status:
The meaning of the term “marriage fundamentalism” – a term used repeatedly – isn’t made entirely clear, and its allegedly racist and life-crushing particulars are, inevitably, “hidden,” “invisible,” and conveniently vague – despite the loudly announced use of “an intersectional lens.” But it seems to mean something like the tendency of many adults to see marriage as of mutual benefit and an optimal way to raise children.
Stripped of contrivance, I’m assuming the above is a roundabout admission that, on average, people who find marriage an alien concept and much too demanding, and who opt instead for transient partners, fatherless children, and unstable relationship trash fires, tend to do less well in life, along with their offspring. Though I’m not sure why the response should be to blame those who get their shit together, marry, and raise children more successfully.
If little Don’t-Know-Who-My-Dad-Is is starting fires at school and looks destined for a life of delinquency and crime, this is not obviously the fault of the happily married Mr and Mrs Jefferson and their two non-fire-starting children. And no amount of chest-puffing about “heteropatriarchy,” “unequal power relations” and “white supremacy” seems likely to alter that fact.
Recurring Urges
In short, before ending up in prison, the vast majority of the perpetrators, the supposedly downtrodden and marginalised, have at least five prior arrests, with almost half having 10 or more, and one in seven, 20 or more. At which point, the phrase that comes to mind is the nature of the beast.
Other phrases may conceivably occur to readers.
Those with a taste for grim humour are steered towards this quite strong indication of how a crime rate can improve when just three burglars – with over 200 convictions between them – flee the police in a stolen car before colliding with something solid and ceasing to be.
An illustration, one of many, of how a very large fraction of crime could be prevented by dealing decisively with a surprisingly small number of persistent offenders.
Oh, there’s more.
Oddments For The Weekend
Including a tape-bowing ensemble; scenes of heavy breathing; the World Diddling Championship of 1974; some wisdom hard won; and the proverbial bringing of a knife to a gunfight.
All this and more.
Validation, You Say
From Australia, more thing-that-never-happens news.
Not Entirely Similar
A brief history of Cancel Culture:
Readers may wish to ponder whether the sins mentioned above – expressing doubts about rioting, or teaching Chinese pronunciation to students of Chinese – exist on the same level of inaptness as, say, a public-school teacher showing ten-year-olds shockingly graphic video of a man being shot in the neck, and killed, in front of his family, and showing that footage repeatedly, “numerous times,” while hectoring those same ten-year-olds on the merits of so-called “anti-fascism.”
Answers on a postcard, please.
There Was An Attempt To Buy Instant Coffee
Oddments For The Weekend
Including unhappy bathroom accessorising; signage issues; deterring wolves; and Captain James ‘Big Hair’ Kirk and the Milk-Stealing Klingons.