Upside down world

 Anyone notice that

Liberals are not liberal

Progressives are not progressive

Liberals/Progressives are the greatest supporters of the FBI, CIA and other alphabet agencies now that they have been captured by their political fellow travellers

It is conservatives who are defending women's right to their own space and sports (where are the liberal feminists?)

In academia, you are discriminated against for being too good (Asians, white males)

The uniquely indispensable role of a woman, becoming a mother, is de-prioritized by opinion makers for careers

Modern architecture is ugly

Modern art is ugly

Contemporary literature has become more female and ethnically dominated and consequently less interesting unless one enjoys reading about lived experiences (rolls eyes)

Contemporary popular music is unspeakably obscene and worthless

Hollywood movies are unwatchable

Europe has a death wish

Organized religion is a tool for elite control

Organized science is a tool for elite control

The mass media is a tool for elite control

The education system has been subverted to brainwash young minds with non-traditional values

Traditional has become a dirty word

Family has become a dirty word

Masculinity is frowned on

Femininity is frowned on

Male femininity is celebrated

Female masculinity is celebrated

Almost all office type jobs are bullshit

No doomsday climate change prediction has ever come true

People cannot discuss issues of the day without getting heated up

One should avoid, as far as possible, junk and processed food

Instead of being rebellious, young people are the most fervent supporters of pro-establishment views

Western civilization has probably peaked

All international organizations and regulatory bodies have been suborned to promote the Western narrative of the day

The powers that be can afford the best experts that money can buy to push whatever narrative they have in mind

Almost everyone demonized by the mass media turns out, on careful analysis, to be not as bad as painted out and often even commendable

The reverse of the above is also true

The stating of once non-controversial common sense facts can be fatal to one's career

Too much noticing can be fatal to one's career

Social media has turned an entire generation of women into incurable narcissists

The most unforgivable solecism is telling an uncomfortable truth

Even the most cursory digging exposes the sham underlying almost all current viewpoints. Why do so many remain ignorant?

The emergence of life-long politicians that start their career at university by networking and cultivating contacts/patrons has killed democracy

The emergence of polling, focus testing, advertising, public relations and spin doctors has killed democracy

You cannot mock any religion except Christianity

You cannot mock anyone except straight, white males

Diversity mandates are the road to mediocrity

 

Follow the $cien¢e

 Declaration of interests of authors in an article picked at random  from a bio-medical journal

It goes on, this is slightly more than halfway though the list but you get the idea. Well, at least they're being transparent about it.

Soli Dio Gloria

Heavy metal is much maligned by the general public, the professional music press and music critics who look down their noses at it as music for lunkheads. In my teens there was a short-lived music show on Malaysian TV hosted by local DJ Patrick Teoh playing current music videos and he would almost always introduce any hard rock/metal video with a snide comment, a confirmation that DJs and critics know fuck all. The stereotype is of noisy, primitive music and gauche lyrics revolving around sex, drugs, and sword and sorcery. Nothing could be further from the truth. The level of musicianship, particularly in guitars and drums, is extremely high, much higher than in other forms of popular music (jazz and classical no longer being popular). Musically, it is distinct and is perhaps the only popular alternative to black based musical forms. And as for the lunkhead stereotype, studies (psychological so take with a pinch of salt) have shown that brighter students prefer HM over other forms of popular music. I find this believable (with some caution as it chimes with my own preferences) as HM is outsider music and one would expect the intelligent to gravitate towards more non-mainstream tastes.

As far as lyrical content goes, the last stanza in Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" captures modern day corruption more concisely and elegantly than any bloated diatribe from critical darlings U2, Springsteen and RATM (bunch of hypocritical champagne socialists, the lot of them).

They say that life's a carousel

Spinning fast you've get to ride as well 

The world is full of Kings and Queens

Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams

It's Heaven and Hell

And they tell you black is really white

The moon is just the sun at night

And when you walk in golden halls

You get to keep the gold that falls

It's Heaven and Hell 

And metal has stood the test of time, the ultimate arbiter of value. Long after music fads have bitten the dust, long after ephemeral critical favourites have winked into oblivion, classic metal albums keep winning the hearts of new generations of followers. I remember a music review in 1980 by a journalist, one Swithin Monteiro (yes I'm a petty bastard with a long memory), where he gave a damning review to the Heaven and Hell album (metal, then as now, not being a critical favourite with Malaysian reviewers who tend to uncritically, heh, ape the lead of western critics in the trade press). In the same review he lauded Joan Armatrading's latest album and Gerry Rafferty's follow up to Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty being the exemplar of a one-hit wonder). It was a valuable experience because it was from then on that I started totally disregarding the opinion of so-called experts (until proven otherwise) in music, literature, art and architecture. So thanks Swithin.

For my personal musical memories, I was blessed to see Sabbath on their farewell tour, Purple (multiple times), Page & Plant, Plant again (although I would hesitate to lump LZ as metal), and Blackmore when he temporarily shelved medieval folk for a few classic rock dates (Purple and Rainbow material). I have yet to see Malmsteem live but he's younger and the opportunity should hopefully present itself one day. Sadly, I was planning on seeing Motorhead but Lemmy (pbuh) popped his clogs a couple of months before. And I never got to see Dio live. Sob.

Update.

I googled Swithin and found out that he passed away at a rather young age. RIP. Dude had a picture wearing a Beatles t-shirt, so he was alright really. But still disagree with his review of H&H which was probably swayed by the fashionable critical opinion of the day.

Sheep May Safely Graze.....

.... as long as they don't raise uncomfortable questions. Jeffery Epstein did not kill himself. Who blew up Nordstream 1 and 2? Why are the JFK assassination files still classified? What are the probabilities of 3 buildings (one of which was not hit by a jetliner) collapsing in their footprint on the same day (something thats has never happened before or since)? What are the probabilities of a zoonotic virus bearing tell-tale signs of genetic engineering naturally emerging in the only city with facilities for such research? Why was Malaysia, whose national carrier MAS lost MH17 over Ukraine, initially excluded from the investigation and only let back in after all the leading roles were taken by Western countries? Ssshhh, go back to sleep. All will be well. Trust us.

Global warming is deadly

Normally hiking in the great outdoors is encouraged to boost tourism and for the health benefits. But this year the billboard says "mountain hiking is not a walk in the park" and only hike if you are fit. I wonder what has changed in the last 2 years?

Miss him, miss him, miss him....

Summer Solstice 2020

Bad year so far. Hope this is the turning point where we, on the Great Wheel of the year, are lifted out of the mud and upwards.

Shadows of wild birds
Pass across the summer moon
The mole dreams of wings

 

Game Level.......God

Soli Allah Gloria

Received this notification on FaceBook (I know, I know).

FB may have its own translator or could be running Google Translate (either way it's all part of the tech-liberal hivemind-matrix). Wonder if Jerusalem translates as Baitul Muqaddis?

Schadenfreude....

.....ist die beste freude.

Something that never fails to bring a smile to my face.

How wonderful to see the Grauniad reduced to outright begging. I suppose they will find enough losers to crowd-share their continued survival as these mugs need to rally around a banner of some sort for self-validation.

Trump Derangement Syndrome at the Graun is off the charts. The rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth last November was possibly the most blissful non-sexual event of my life.

Looking forward to the next 7 years!

Christophobia

Why isn't this a word, unlike the gratuitously used Islamophobia? Stupid question.

Pakistanis seem to be the worst group of Muslims (and the competition is pretty stiff). Violent, fanatical, hypocritical, sneaky, sexually depraved, ungrateful (of aid from the kuffar), dishonest. Have I left anything out?

God bless the poor boy.

Temps perdu

December 1982.

The week after Christmas and the last week of the holidays before the new school year. I am 15 and the results of the lower-school examinations have been released. All third formers head to school to pick up their result slips. The hill where the school lies is deserted out of term, everything seems out of sorts and this is increased by not being in uniform. I meet some classmates and we wait to receive our results at the school office. I find I have done quite well, and queue at the call phone (the only one in school) to call home with the good news. I stay on with a few friends to have lunch and roam the city. We end up in a record shop and I use my Christmas money to buy Led Zeppelin II ($16.20 after a 10% discount). We then head back to school to play football. My elder brother shows up with a friend.

Back home I put LZII on. I'm already familiar with WLL, Heartbreaker, LLM, Ramble On, Moby Dick and BIOH from pirated compilations but hearing "What Is..." and "The Lemon Song" for the first time blew me away. I can still remember the chills on hearing "What Is..." with its super-crisp mix and sibilant cymbals. Good times, when Papa was still alive and hearty. Where the hell does the time go?

Arnold Lane

Somewhere in Malaysia

An ass to die for

"Local authorities are also trying to find if there were other people, who "admired" or "approached" the donkey, in order to avoid the risk of spreading rabies in the locality."

Irony

Tremble and Obey

Silly Chinese, not realising they were in a totalitarian police state.

Random

Found in my junk mail folder.

Greetings,

My name is Rajwa Jbeily Daoud, 59 years old single lady with no kids, because i have not been married before.

I'm from Homs Syria but i live in Aleppo Syria. I retired recently as a branch bank manager from Byblos Bank Aleppo, Syria.

Please dear, there is something very important i will like to discuss with you if you don't mind.

I will tell you the detail of the discussion and give you my credentials once i receive your humble reply.

Thanks and may Allah bless you.

Wassalam.

Miss Rajwa Jbeily.

What do they take me for that I would be tempted by a middle-aged Syrian spinster?

Cunninglingus

From a Malaysian newspaper.

According to the Mufti of the state of Perlis, Muslim men are permitted to, direct quote "lick their wife's vaginas but not to the extent of swallowing any feces".

This is in response to an earlier pronouncement from the Mufti of Perak that oral sex is strictly forbidden in Islam. I guess one could call the Perlis mufti a liberal.

So Muslim carpet-munching is somewhat like dealing with the Mafia, one slip of the tongue and you're in deep shit. A profoundly depressing aspect in observing contemporary Muslim societies is the automatic submissiveness* of the masses to religious authority and their desire to comply with the minutest hair-splitting religious directive. I was startled in my teens to see that the Malay language sections of bookshops were dominated by religious books proffering guidance for the most mundane day-to-day situations. This hasn't changed in thirty years.

They are not like us.

*not a coincidence that islam means submission.

Run hamster run II

From the Guardian (where else?)


Actor Harrison Ford shares a quiet moment with his grandmother between takes

It's unfair dear Carrie but unfortunately men age like wine while women age like milk. Deal with it.

Shake's mah haid.....

Some may think Islam is a dour, humourless religion. And they would be wrong! Just the simple details of the life of Mohammed (peace be upon him) is material for pure comedy gold.

NB: all the materials in the video were compiled from impeccable Muslim sources (Quran and the Hadith). How any moderately curious and independent minded Muslim can retain their faith after a cursory dip into Muslim traditions is beyond me. Is cognitive dissonance a major factor in educated Muslims? Is this a psychological stressor that deforms Islamic societies?