Just Donut!

 

LJB on a President's Hardest Task

Kang on Elections

The Simpsons satire from twenty years ago that still seems prescient in Election 2016. 

Homer Simpson on Donuts

Some can even survive Hell with donuts.


 

On Sheilas and Bruces

Bruce "Call Me Caitlyn" Jenner is the sextagenerian poster "child" for gender dysphoria. Jenner managed to have a reality show revolve around the "transition", prominently appeared on awards shows and even managed a slot an upcoming Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

But reports are that now 66 year old Jenner is very unhappy about the challenges of transitioning from male to female and is miserable.  Jenner remains attracted to women but is said to be tormented as his Christian faith holds that same sex relationships are sinful.  

Some insiders allege that they would not be surprised if Jenner does detransition in the next couple of years, which would be facilitated as Jenner has not undergone the genital surgery yet.

As Denmark has become the first nation where gender dysphoria is no longer classified as a mental disorder, there is vexing at the cultural vellity of gender fluidity from a scientific perspective.

Dr. Paul McHugh, the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, has reasserted that "transgenderism" is a mental disorder and that sex change is biologically impossible. Johns Hopkins stopped doing gender reassignment surgery under his tenure in part because suicide rates among transgendered patients is 20 times higher than the general populace. The push to accommodate children who express feelings of gender dysphoria does not recognize that 70-80% of the kids "spontaneously lose those feelings over time".

President Barack Obama has made accommodating transgenders to use whichever bathroom they would like at a given time as a top priority in the last year of his Administration.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch is suing North Carolina for their bathroom bill to protect the traditional use of public rest rooms.  Lynch equates accommodating 0.3% of the population's "right" to use an opposite sex bathroom as the equivalent of 1960s civil rights protests.  Moreover, the Department of Education is enforcing an understanding of Title IX to force all schools to allow gender fluid individuals to use any bathroom or lose federal funding. The problem most likely is not with those afflicted with gender dysphoria but the open invitation to any male to share in the other half's locker room .

Pope Francis has lost some luster among liberal seculars as he expressed skepticism about gender theory. Imagine a Pope defending Catholicism noting that we are created in God's image, male and female and the our Creator does not make mistakes. 

May Jenner find personal solace but his case illustrates the perils of too eagerly embracing an esoteric, non-scientific enthusiasm such as gender fluidity, gender dysphoria and transgenderism. The broader question is:What is the real animus for the cultural shift? A dadaistic repudiation of cultural norms? A nihilistic approach to standards?  Or to be generous, strive to accommodate a niche minority by challenging the welfare of the majority?

W.C. Fields on Drinking

Paul Newman on LIfe

Homer Simpson on Courtesy

Homer Simpson on Marriage

Richard Branson on Entrepreneurship

Ambrose Bierce on Idiots

Homer Simpson on Temperament

Montgomery Burns on Success

Lisa Simpson on Thinking

The Simpsons: Animated Ambassadors of Free Speech

  

 Five days after the horrific massacre in Paris at the offices of Charlie Hebdo by radical Islamist terrorists, the Simpsons showed a short tribute to support free speech.

Maggie Simpsons flag waving was a homage to the iconic painting Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugene Delacroix along with the social media meme #JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie). Or perhaps the pose was inspired by Cosette in Les Miserables.

Even after 26 seasons on American television with nearly 550 episodes, the Simpsons shows that it has the pulse on what animates the public.

This is not the first time in which the Simpsons has sought to make serious points with ancillary scenes.  In 2010, the Simpsons kept it real for their twentieth anniversary season with a title card sequence inspired by the graffiti artist Banksy.

The typical close to the Title Sequence of the Family watching the boob tube revealed itself to be a plasma television image in a grim Asian sweat shop churning out images of the Simpsons.  As the camera focused on the toxic slim dripping below, it shows lower levels of commercial exploitation.  The surreal sweat shop infused humor in its dark comedy, as a pooped panda hauled a cart of plush dolls, which were stuffed of ground kittens.  A decapitated dolphin sealed boxes of this Simpsons merchandise. 

The picture of the Simpsons watching the boob tube reveals itself to be a plasma television image in a grim Asian sweat shop that is laboriously drawing images of the Simpsons. As the POV focuses on the toxic slime dripping below, there are subterranean layers of exploitation. Busy sweatshop seamstresses sew Simpsons licensed garments, worker stuff Bart plush figurines and a DVD duplication production line.

 Banksy’s contribution seemed reminiscent of Salvador Dali on a dark day. But the sequence may have been meant as more than a dark fantasy.  Show runner Al Jean may have been protesting outsourcing animation offshore overseas by illustrating intolerable production conditions which feeds the public's hunger for inexpensive entertainment.

The Simpson's standing in solidarity with the Paris Shooting protesters demonstrated that they are animated ambassadors of free speech.  While the Les Miserables motif was apropos, an even more poignant pairing would have been to mash up the Simpsons with operatic Les Mis anthem "One Day More".

Bart Simpson on Voting

Homer Simpson on Politics

Scotland Decides: No. Thanks!

On September 18th, 2014  Scotland voted on a referendum on independence.   The question was simply stated.  The turnout was quite high, achieving around 87% participation throughout Scotland. Both of those facts are quite commendable.  

The First Minister of Scotland, Scottish National Party Leader Alex Sammon (SNP-Aberdeenshire East) spearheaded this referendum.  Sammon instituted one act of electoral legerdemain by allowing 16 and 17 year olds to participate in the vote.  Perhaps it was thought that these young voters would be open to "Vote Yes".  However polling late in the Scotland Decides campaign that over half of this key demographic planned on voting no.

It looks like Groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons won't be contending for an  Scottish government leader.  Moreover, British Prime Minister David Cameron won't have to sing "If We Break Up We Will Never Ever Get Back Together" again either. 

Personally, this writer was chary about Scottish independence for sentimental, economic and geopolitical reasons.  However, presuming that Scottish voters kept calm and voted no, it will be interesting to see how the Westminster Parliament implements "devolution max" in Scotland as well as how England asserts its interests in Parliament.

Homer Simpson on Decisions

Robert Wilensky on the Internet