Pun Salad

³² Those who disregard discipline despise themselves,
    but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.

For correction-heeding, I suggest large quantities of BIC Wite-Out, our Amazon Product du Jour.

Driving and Handling

On the highway, the Trump's performance is much the same as it is around town: loud, clumsy, and frequently disconcerting. Handling is extremely awkward; the Trump is prone to swerve suddenly to the left or right, and at times even our professional drivers were unable to control it. This certainly makes the Trump brand exciting — something many people are drawn to — but it can become tiresome quickly.

Over smooth pavement, the Trump can be temperamental; over uneven ground it behaves even worse, reacting volcanically to the slightest bump in the road, and it has been known to throw passengers out of its cabinet at unexpected moments. Braking is erratic; at times the Trump will screech to a sudden stop all by itself, while at other times it is impossible to stop even when heading for the edge of a cliff.

Acceleration is another matter: The 2018 model, like earlier versions, can go from zero to 60 in under two seconds — shockingly fast for such a heavy vehicle. The FlexFuel system can run on both normal fare and fast food (although it will not accept ethanol blends). Despite claims of having the strongest powertrain in its class, however, our Trump felt underpowered and lacking in traction when we took it around D.C.

Hinkle has been underappreciated at Pun Salad so far. I'll try to do better.

Suffice to say, it's the usual higher-ed explication of the prevailing Progressive pigeonholing theology. But I hadn't seen this before:

The guide’s authors explain that they replaced the typical suffix “phobia,” such as Islamophobia, with the term “misia,” because the term “phobia” is offensive to people with phobias.

“So when we use terms like ‘homophobia,’ we are equating bigotry with a mental health disorder,” the guide states. “Misia (pronounced ‘miz-eeya’) comes from the Greek word for hate or hatred.”

I'll give them points for (at least trying to) patch up a glaring intellectual contradiction:

1. A "phobia" implies a mental illness.

2. But one of the guiding ideas behind "mental illness" is to remove responsibility from its sufferers. It's not your fault if you're sick!

3. And fault is the major thing Progressives want to assign to the people they see as their oppressors. How can you name, blame, and shame someone who's suffering from a disease?

So I would expect that "misia" may be a suffix coming soon to a University Near You (although I don't see it yet at the University Near Here).

Kat Timpf also comments on the guide here.

The National School Walkout perfectly sums up politics in 2018. It makes total sense to draft school kids as political activists, because all of our politics is already just an inflated version of middle school.

The most striking fact about this walkout is how it became effectively a school sponsored political event in many areas. Actually, that’s only the second most striking fact. The most striking fact is that it was the brainchild of the Women’s March, an organization founded and still run by fangirls of a rabid anti-Semite. So naturally their initiatives are embraced by the nation’s teachers. I’m glad everybody got the memo about not tolerating bigots.

Apparently the feelings-based rhetoric favored by your local fifth-graders feeds into the highest reaches of our government, as in this tweet from our state's senior senator:

Congress & President Trump need to listen to students in NH & across the nation demanding action on commonsense reform to end gun violence. To our students: I support your efforts & hear your call. Congress must stand up to the gun lobby & do the right thing. #NationalWalkoutDay https://t.co/VKRigRhBAg

— Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (@SenatorShaheen) March 14, 2018

Twitter is a write-only media for Senator Jeanne, so replies are pointless and stupid. I made one anyway:

No conceivable "reform", commonsense or otherwise, will "end gun violence". It is childish demagoguery to pretend otherwise. You insult the intelligence of your constituents.

— Paul Sand (@punsalad) March 15, 2018

Politicians are supposed to be smarter than a fifth-grader. Aren't they?