Working our way through Moby-Dick with this podcast.
There are lots of biblical references.
One day @pdkmitchell.bsky.social and I might take them seriously.
Not today though.
in this former mining town, they know two things: Brexit means Brexit, and the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979) are the rightful rulers of Persia.
me to Right Whales: [disrespectfully] lol alright there shoe head
the cheapest and most abundant and utile political resource for the american ruling class is muslim life. this has been true my entire life. you can never go wrong slaughtering muslims
a thing historians will marvel about when they study this era is the extent to which the "war is a thing that happens to poorer, browner people" class went about systematically dismantling every aspect of the global political order that confined the costs of war to poorer and browner people
best get cracking then hadn't you
me reading five chapters of moby dick
Here at The Whale Pod we've been contemplating the meaning of the parable of Jonah, a man who was so anxious not to do his homework he got swallowed and then vomited up by a massive fish. There are loads of pictures of this, because it's completely mental
It's an incredible piece of homiletics innit
This episode is about Father Mapple's sermon on the book / parable of Jonah. Here's the sermon (greatly abridged), delivered in proper scenery-chewing fashion by Orson Welles in John Huston's 1956 film: youtu.be/9DAQ8Az5Gpc
delightfully this resulted in my all time best monthly income from this thing. thank you, Matt Goodwin! thank you!!
for World Book Day I'm every single terrible book that's going to be published in the next five years about how nobody reads books any more, because they're idiots, not like the author and the author's terribly clever friends
I assume he means byelections, but is only aware of England as an actually existing polity
it's all going pretty well for them, yeah. still, you can see that Goodwin's pain is real and deep, and that's some comfort
"Battle hardened GB News presenter" is, I think, a line for the ages
to be fair, watching him take his loss with such bad grace - even though we all know that bad loserdom, stab-in-the-back myths and lachrymose resentment are the common coin of the far right, and grist to their mill - has been an absolute joy
well, yes
the thing about him is that he's not just a well-organised ideological entrepreneur, professional race-baiter and general all-round fascist piece of shit; he's also, despite his energy and persistence, dumb as a fucking rock
"I'm a petulant whining loser, yes - but, get this, I'm also an openly racist piece of shit who hates the electorate"
full disclosure: I am both a frenzied sectarian and simply stupid
This is very good from Jonn, the Sensiblest Sensible I know
THE WHALE POD episode 5: THE SERMON
70s Tennents lager cans, each with a pic of a different ‘lovely lady’ on.
Back in the 70s Tennent’s lager cans were a teenage boys internet. Personally, I always liked Norma.
*Startling Fact: The last ‘Tennent’s girl’ cans rolled off the production line in 1991.
it's certainly what *I* mean by it
2003. The names have changed but as always, George was right 🖤
Genuinely one of the greatest headlines I've ever seen, imagine the absolute joy of writing that and getting it through to release
Unusual for a horrible open-ended metastasizing war to deliver actual unambiguously delightful news in any form, never mind this early on, but I'll take it
Amazing to see a man make a whole career out of the single basic gamble that the British political and media establishment is so cooked that as long you keep saying stuff it wants to hear no-one will ever, ever trouble to enquire as to whether you're talking out of your arse
