tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post8854268586305608966..comments2024-03-19T02:31:02.140-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: "Benjamin Schwarz's laments the end of California's modest dream"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-20717187342700382872009-11-04T14:47:19.104-08:002009-11-04T14:47:19.104-08:00In case you are coming to this from my "Mad M...In case you are coming to this from my "Mad Men" review, Schwarz is almost exactly the same age as Matthew Weiner, creator of "Mad Men," and Schwarz's wife used to work at Harvard-Westlake, the high school Weiner attended. <br /><br />That doesn't mean their views on this subject are the same, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-16921865909505303492009-06-17T19:02:40.906-07:002009-06-17T19:02:40.906-07:00I assume Reg is referring to Aerosmith and the Car...<i>I assume Reg is referring to Aerosmith and the Cars, respectively, but the former is better described as a New York-Massachusetts hybrid.</i> --James Kabala<br /><br />...and J Geils and 'Boston'. Imports all.<br /><br />On the other hand, the most influential (behind-the-scenes, mostly) surf-rocker of them all was/is <a href="http://www.dickdale.com/" rel="nofollow">Dick Dale</a>, born Richard Mansour in 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts. He didn't come west until he was 18.Reg Cæsarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54369392440004935302009-06-17T00:25:29.095-07:002009-06-17T00:25:29.095-07:00@anonymous: George Best, IIRC, finished his playin...@anonymous: George Best, IIRC, finished his playing career in the NASL playing for the Los Angeles Aztecs and the San Jose Earthquakes, so there's a California angle to your funny anecdote, too. <br /><br />@Bob: anyone on the "right" who has studied the immigration issue for more than a couple of minutes knows (or should know) that Big Business and the GOP are screwing us over non-enforcement of labor and immigration laws in order to encourage cheap illegal labor. <br /><br />Please get off this silly high horse of yours that this is some deep mystery that we have not cottoned on to yet, unlike yourself. <br /><br />On this blog, of all places, you are not going to find many Freepers and Bushbots and naive Republican Party voters.<br /><br />Also, you are incorrect, or miss the point, about immigrants not being able to vote and politicians being too short term in their thinking to care about the votes of the children of immigrants. <br /><br />It doesn't matter what the politicians think; it matters what the people who control the politicians think, and I assure you that they are not short term thinkers.<br /><br />It was the Democratic Party, in 1965, at the height of the Great Society, that opened the immigration floodgates. This was not a deed that was instigated by the business lobby or free market types: it was done by full bore welfare statists and would be socialists, working for people who knew what they were doing, at the very pinnacle of public confidence in the post-war Social Welfare State. <br /><br />The cheap labor business lobbies and the GOP leadership hopped on the open borders bandwagon after the immigration tidal wave had already become an established fact on the ground; but they did not create it. <br /><br />Of course on this board as in most places you'll get called names for mentioning the name of the only people, the only organized identity group, who had spent the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's lobbying on behalf of unrestricted non-white immigration. <br /><br />And no, it wasn't the business lobbies, it wasn't the Irish or Italians, it wasn't even the Catholic Church, who were this committed to changing the ethnic character of the USA forever. <br /><br />Now watch the usual suspects jump all over this post and mock anyone who connects the dots. Pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain. There is nothing to see here, citizen. <br /><br />Also, remind us again who shut off the immigration flow from Europe in the 1920's? Wasn't it the pro-Big Business GOP who did it? Didn't the low wage, cheap labor types in the Republican Party have any clout in their own Party at the height of its power and in the midst of a decade of prosperity in the 1920s?<br /><br />Wake up an smell the coffee, dude. The reality of our situation is a lot more complicated than just "cheap labor Big Business types in the GOP are screwing us"; it's true that the GOP are not our friends, but this is such a banal half truth that it borders on the mendacious. We have a lot more enemies and problems than just cheap labor business types.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17990784966933858932009-06-16T14:20:40.675-07:002009-06-16T14:20:40.675-07:00"One would think that an easy environment lik..."One would think that an easy environment like California would not produce such hard-nosed talent, but it did (and does) and would be no match for Big 10 players from tough rust belt towns like Flint and Youngstown."<br /><br />As someone pointed out, a lot of those hard-nosed kids were second generation Oakies (Scots-Irish) or second generation Midwesterners (Scandanavians and Germans), i.e. tough people from tough stock.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43993309413029314232009-06-16T12:50:11.544-07:002009-06-16T12:50:11.544-07:00There's a better obituary of Bogle here:
Bob ...There's a better obituary of Bogle here:<br /><br /><b>Bob Bogle, Ventures' guitarist,<br />dead at age 75</b> <br /><a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2009342986_bogleobit16.html" rel="nofollow">seattletimes.nwsource.com</a> <br /><br /><i>...Wilson recalled selling cars in Seattle in the late '50s, when Mr. Bogle walked into his dealership one day. Wilson was struggling to make commission. And when he learned that Mr. Bogle worked construction, Wilson asked if he could get him a job.<br /> <br />"That's why we started working together," Wilson said. "And then we found out that we each knew a few chords on the guitar, you know, and we had a lot of free time on our hands. But neither of us owned a guitar."<br /> <br />The two men bought a pair of guitars and a chord book at a downtown Tacoma pawnshop in 1958, aspiring only to find easier work headlining local nightclubs. But fate had so much more in store for them...</i> <br /> <br />It sounds as though these guys didn't even learn how to play the guitar until they were like 24 or 25 years old.Lucius Vorenusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55941268417986955942009-06-16T09:25:25.316-07:002009-06-16T09:25:25.316-07:00I learned in an old iSteve thread that the Venture...I learned in an old iSteve thread that the Ventures were actually from Tacoma, Washington [not California], but apparently Bob Bogle just died:<br /><br /><b>Bob Bogle of The Ventures dies at 75</b> <br />Last updated June 15, 2009 10:47 p.m. PT<br /><a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_obit_bogle.html" rel="nofollow">seattlepi.com</a> <br /><br />Do not watch any of these videos if you struggle with melancholy or wistful moroseness:<br /><br /><b>The Ventures "Walk Don't Run"</b> <br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ11y7pYl-8" rel="nofollow">youtube.com</a> <br /><br /><b>The Ventures Live: Wipe Out</b> <br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8__EwAT8VM" rel="nofollow">youtube.com</a> <br /><br /><b>Hawaii Five 0 Intro</b> <br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w" rel="nofollow">youtube.com</a> <br /><br />I'm with Michael Savage here - from what I can gather of the historical records, America really did used to be a better place.Lucius Vorenusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-661824943166914982009-06-14T21:45:44.918-07:002009-06-14T21:45:44.918-07:00Casa Yo thinks being the dominant group in your ow...Casa Yo thinks being the dominant group in your own country is a privilege…”Well white people. You know, things might be getting tough for you but you know. Suck it up. Its your fault.” <br /><br />We need Casa Yo on a loud speaker everyday everywhere at all times in all white households telling white people its your fault and you’re going to suffer now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-44956573783074312292009-06-13T17:22:18.832-07:002009-06-13T17:22:18.832-07:00Squeezed at the top end by hard-nosed Asian compet...<i>Squeezed at the top end by hard-nosed Asian competition, and at the bottom by Mexican growth, the easy days are gone for white people, save for the high income segments.</i><br /><br />Wouldn't hard-nosed Asian competetition actually make the quality of life in So Cal. better overall? Anyways, exceptionally prosperous, Asian-heavy neighborhoods aren't particularly numerous in the region. There's San Marino, but that represents, what, seven thousand Asian people? <br /><br />But your "Mexican growth" explanation for the "disappointment" of whites does make sense. Just think of all the examples of formerly white and formerly decent middle- and working-class areas around LA that have suffered under their replacement populations: Inglewood, Lynwood, Paramount, Westlake, Panorama City, Willowbrook, South Gate, Lincoln Heights, Glassell Park, Maywood, Huntington Park, Carson, Compton, Paramount, Sylmar, Lennox, Bell, Bell Gardens, Van Nuys, Artesia, South El Monte. I think you're onto something.Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-60126542887913693462009-06-13T15:45:07.343-07:002009-06-13T15:45:07.343-07:00RegularJoe doesn’t nail it. Not even close. White ...RegularJoe doesn’t nail it. Not even close. White folks are fleeing to the mountain west & black folks are on that midnight train to Georgia. <br /><br />Overpopulation isn’t the problem. Fertility rates are stagnant after removing Mexican immigrants from the equation. Besides, scarcity only explains high prices. Large populations need not result in social unrest. See Abu Dhabi, Singapore & Luxembourg.Steve-Onoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-68427608879967883972009-06-13T13:51:08.157-07:002009-06-13T13:51:08.157-07:00Reg and Fool Jay: Actually, the weirder part is de...Reg and Fool Jay: Actually, the weirder part is despising rock and roll while having encyclopedic knowledge of it! (Or did Reg use Wikipedia for his information on birthplaces?)<br /><br />I assume Reg is referring to Aerosmith and the Cars, respectively, but the former is better described as a New York-Massachusetts hybrid. (Joe Perry grew up in a town that had once - long before his birth - been a New England Utopian commune.) I think a number of the alternative rock acts of the 1980s and 1990s had Massachusetts connections, although again not all were born there.James Kabalahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02335302113772004687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-77948248102616552842009-06-13T13:48:46.196-07:002009-06-13T13:48:46.196-07:00A lot of the disappointment from whites seems base...A lot of the disappointment from whites seems based more on the decline of easygoing white privilege rather than the supposed loss of idyllic childhoods. Squeezed at the top end by hard-nosed Asian competition, and at the bottom by Mexican growth, the easy days are gone for white people, save for the high income segments.<br /><br />It is easy to find a convenient scapegoat among "minorities" but the fact is that it is whites that "ruined" California- from discriminatory laws, to high taxes, to heavy-handed government regulation, excessive government spending, to "gay" marriage that threatens a primary foundation of our culture. The primary source and driver of all of the above is white people. So stop crying about "lost" California. Who made it "lost"?Casa Yo Mamanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-80839221125823341452009-06-13T11:52:16.466-07:002009-06-13T11:52:16.466-07:00Please go to the CNN comments section and tell Bri...Please go to the CNN comments section and tell Brian Levin that he needs to read Sailer a little more often.<br /><br />6/11/2009<br />^^^^^^^^^^<br /><br />Whatever.<br /><br />Where does Brian Levin live?? Compton? East LA?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-89125809782725379962009-06-13T09:18:19.878-07:002009-06-13T09:18:19.878-07:00"No, illegal immigration is all the fault of ..."No, illegal immigration is all the fault of Jewish liberals, who want to destroy gentile America."<br /><br />Of course this is not true. Just ask Brian Levin.Davidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-26706838051589579412009-06-13T07:22:44.551-07:002009-06-13T07:22:44.551-07:00Hey "wake up," what? We ain't philo...Hey "wake up," what? We ain't philosophizing here!?!Christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18300064299643040666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-22325270953264478882009-06-13T06:26:35.350-07:002009-06-13T06:26:35.350-07:00Reminds me of a famous anecdote:
George Best was ...Reminds me of a famous anecdote:<br /> George Best was porobably the greatest footballer (soccer-player to Americans), that great Britain ever produced.A Northern-Irish protestant, Best was blessed with a natural gift and flair for soccer coupled with dark good looks that had him nicknamed 'the fifth Beatle', during his heyday in the late '60s playing for the invincible Manchester United , his moment of glory was the 1968 European Cup victory against Barcelona.<br /> But like may Irishmem, the naturally talented and gifted Best had a fatal flaw - a prediliction for alcohol that eventually destroyed his illustrious career before it reached his prime.He baecame a tabloid by-word for lost potential and wasted talent.<br /> George Best famously (in a later incarnation he became a noted after dinner speaker telling anecdotes about his glory days to wannabee businessmen, for a fat fee)related a story of what came to pass in 1974 - at the height of the tabloid 'George Best soap opera'.<br /> Best was staying in the Hilton Hotel in London in the most expensive suite.The previous night he had won big-time at the casino and a bank-roll of winnings lay on the bed-side table.Georgie-boy was naked, in bed with one Mary Stavin (Miss World 1974, a blonde Swede, who with justicce, was described as the most beautiful woman in the World).<br /> Best had rung-up room service asking for a magnum of champagne om ice to brought up to his suite.On knocking and entering, the bell-boy delighted to see his hero, and with a head-full of tabloid moralising uttered the immortal words:<br /><br />"Mr. Best, Where did it all go wrong?".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-80498440014920960802009-06-13T01:46:31.622-07:002009-06-13T01:46:31.622-07:00iSteve becomes truly unsufferable once the wannabe...iSteve becomes truly unsufferable once the wannabe music critics start with their sociological writeups. <br /><br />Send it to Rolling Stone, you ponce.El El Fool Jaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-57682803313370491682009-06-13T00:00:17.767-07:002009-06-13T00:00:17.767-07:00Californians produced great music (The Beach Boys,...<i>Californians produced great music (The Beach Boys, The Doors, The Mamas and Papas, etc.)...<br />California was Brian Wilson, the crazy and unpretentious composer of hauntingly beautiful tunes. The East Coast was Leonard Bernstein, the pretentious composer of forgettable music. </i> --John Craig<br /><br />Mr Craig's got one thing right-- Bostonians know nothing about, and have contributed almost nothing to, music of the rock era. (Unless you count Billy Squier. The other major Boston-based acts were all from NY or Ohio originally.) What I can't understand is why one would be ashamed of this-- I'd take it as a point of pride.<br /><br />The M&Ps were not Californians, except for Michelle, who grew up in Mexico. The rest were from Baltimore, suburban DC, and Halifax, Nova freakin' Scotia-- closer to London than to LA! (By 78 mi.)<br /><br />Jim Morrison was the height of pretension, as were the Byrds, and Wilson had a few airs himself after all the post-<i>Vibrations</i> 'genius' talk. Compare them to Greenwich Village's John Sebastian... <br /><br />Or compare the 'Summer of Love' (SF is in CA, too!) to Philly's doo-wop era, or the Dead (and its smug fans) to the more down-to-earth NRBQ. <br /><br />So much for pretension. For forgettability, how does Wilson's suiplaigiarist <i>Little St Nick</i> rank with Cambridge native Leroy Anderson's <i>Sleigh Ride</i>?<br /><br />California's great music was written in Hollywood, before 1950, and mostly by Easterners, e.g., Boston's Jimmy McHugh and NJ's Harold Adamson: "Like an old native-born Californian would say, 'It's a most unusual day!'"<br /><br />But for the rock era, CA competes with London and the US South for the title of 'most overrated source'.Reg Cæsarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-30359930042132816012009-06-12T18:14:39.290-07:002009-06-12T18:14:39.290-07:00"hard white men built golden age california a..."hard white men built golden age california and created the golden age of america"<br /><br />again, doesn't matter what they did. clearly they didn't inculcate an awareness of realpolitik in their offspring, or they didn't having offspring, or they were prone to believing media hype or hype of some sort, or they were so bloodthirsty that they'd kill their kin across the seas...<br /><br />those hard white men have reaped what they've sown. or rather, their flabby offspring have. and judging by the extant culture, not just on the left but at steve's site, they've not learned anything much.Professor Robert Orwell Sutwellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45243501830125835172009-06-12T17:32:05.992-07:002009-06-12T17:32:05.992-07:00The 1950s and 1960s were periods of massive econom...The 1950s and 1960s were periods of massive economic expansion throughout the Western world -- lots of new jobs, lots of social mobility, lots of students, lots of young people, lots of opportunity, lots of optimism, etc. It was a special time, but it's difficult to say whether it could ever have lasted, especially due to the decadence that the new easy life bred into so many people (so well described by Tom Wolfe in the Bonfire of the Vanities). I don't disagree with Sailer's dismay over Mexifornification, but there's something too nostalgic, too perfect about this picture of the past. Sailer focuses too much on the racial issue and ignores the unique social circumstances that produced postwar California and made it the apogee of the American dream. Life has become more competitive, more globalized, more ethnic, more fast-paced almost everywhere in the West -- regardless of who was in power or what the national history. There's a much picture issue here that Sailer does not address.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-24339823749325263842009-06-12T15:22:37.685-07:002009-06-12T15:22:37.685-07:00RegularJoe nails it. If an area offers a high qual...RegularJoe nails it. If an area offers a high quality of life for working class/lower-middle class people, it will attract more of such people from within the country, even without immigration (of course, it doesn't help that CA borders Mexico). When enough of those people move there, the place won't be as nice. That's especially true with a state like California, where places where you can live and enjoy the nicest weather are confined to fairly small areas (due to geography and due to land set aside for parks, etc.). The guys who grew up in places like Fresno and Palmdale probably aren't as nostalgic about their childhoods.Frednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81239821493551652992009-06-12T14:10:00.674-07:002009-06-12T14:10:00.674-07:00modern white elitist philosophy denies whites a se...modern white elitist philosophy denies whites a self-interested role in the ongoing racial/ethnic struggle for control of america.....the predictable result is white dispossession.....<br /><br />hard white men built golden age california and created the golden age of america...... the essential hypocrisy of sailer and so many other white intellectuals is their hatred for the hard men of yesterday placed right alongside their love of the world the hard men created and sustained.....<br /><br />the modern soft white man wants the hard white man's world back but mother nature says **** you... you need to fight for it you pussy. like a supreme alpha bitch out of a roissy article mother nature herself repeatedly demonstrates that she despises weak men and will punish them severely.....wake upnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-18403813803805235622009-06-12T12:41:40.493-07:002009-06-12T12:41:40.493-07:00Poignant indeed. As we've learned to say in V...Poignant indeed. As we've learned to say in Vancouver: “CALL IT PARADISE – KISS IT GOODBYE!” Our own third world makeover Los Angelesization continues apace, so, notwithstanding the assorted city livability indices published, you can forget about moving here.Sean Burgessnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1016277460783150422009-06-12T12:36:00.854-07:002009-06-12T12:36:00.854-07:00Every time I go out there, basically once a year, ...Every time I go out there, basically once a year, the exact same thought hits me: the California of the Beach Boys is dead. When I was a kid, in the 60's, California seemed like the Promised Land; it was where all the cool stuff happened. Californians produced great music (The Beach Boys, The Doors, The Mamas and Papas, etc.). That's where the movies got made (okay, they still do that, even if the movies are much more pc now). That's where the Summer of Love took place (I know, it looked better from a distance). That was where Ken Kesey produced his best work (which has certainly stood the test of time). That was where Chuck Yeager achieved greatness, or at least finally achieved his deserved fame. That's where the Navy Seals are based. The state seemed to produce a disproportionate share of great athletes (especially in my sport of swimming). And a lot of these things seemed to be accomplished by a particularly sturdy, fearless type whom I thought of at the time as being second or third generation Okies. (Now I see it from a more starkly racial/ethnic point of view.) Anyway, the suburban neighborhoods that Steve describes produced a lot of these people, the surfer dudes and California girls of yesteryear. And the ones who turned out to be great, like Brian Wilson and Ken Kesey (I know, he was from Oregon, but he was a Californian in spirit) somehow lacked the pretense of successful types back East. And, whatever you think of the hippie movement, it did take a certain fearlessness to embrace it as wholeheartedly as a lot of Californians seemed to. It was all particularly appealing to me, since I grew up in cold, gray, pretentious Boston. California was Brian Wilson, the crazy and unpretentious composer of hauntingly beautiful tunes. The East Coast was Leonard Bernstein, the pretentious composer of forgettable music. Anyway, it's sad, but Steve's right. That California is dead.John Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08729625146043379286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-3860574392395751452009-06-12T12:29:27.524-07:002009-06-12T12:29:27.524-07:00Chambodia?
Yep. You should see Doraville now.
C...<i>Chambodia?</i><br /><br />Yep. You should see Doraville now.<br /><br />Chamblee is gentrifying, however.The Anti-Gnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04386593803225823789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70892247188064475922009-06-12T12:20:29.224-07:002009-06-12T12:20:29.224-07:00"You can thank big business interests, especi..."You can thank big business interests, especially the hyper-Republican agribusiness and construction industries, for mass third world immigration."<br /><br />Bob, you are talking sense. No one here will listen to that kind of talk! No, illegal immigration is all the fault of Jewish liberals, who want to destroy gentile America. <br /><br />(That's extreme sarcasm, which is said not to work on the internet.)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06559830693993775055noreply@blogger.com