Cathari Pars II
The Anglosphere Slips Away
Review: American Anarchy by M. Willrich
Willrich, Michael. American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century. New York: Basic Books, 2023.
The government's decades-long war against anarchy spurred the growth of federal institutions designed to repress political dissent. The same struggle also inspired the emergence of a modern movement for civil liberties, grounded in the Bill of Rights, including broad freedoms of speech, freedom from warrantless searches and 'third degree' interrogations, and rights of due process...It is the great irony of the story told in these pages that the many trials of the anarchists -- working-class thinkers who denounced the liberal ideal of the rule of law as a dangerous delusion -- breathed new life into the Bill of Rights and spurred a probing public debate about the proper legal limits of government power[.] (374)
German Democracy
By an 'independent investigation' they mean exactly what our Democratic friends mean when they say that the Department of Justice is meant to be 'independent' of the President -- that is, that it should be controlled wholly by an administrative state that is not under the control of any democratically elected official. This just what Weber warned about (see the sidebar).
The democratically elected officials, meanwhile, also have to ask the EU bureaucracy for permission to fund NATO in line with their treaty obligations (which, allegedly, make up part of the supreme law as they were democratically enacted and ratified). We are meant to believe that it is vitally important that no radical right-wingers be allowed to assume those democratic offices, which don't control the secret police or the budget but are controlled both above and below by 'administrative states.'
So "this is democracy," German style. An independent secret police deciding to spy upon a political party to which the government is hostile, and then the courts taking steps to ban it from participation. But if they did somehow get to participate and win, they still wouldn't be in charge of anything. They'd be controlled by the administrators above them and below them.
In fairness to the Germans, we weren't that far off of that in 2016, when the government was using spy powers targeting Carter Page to collect and read all of his communications with anyone, and then was allowed to further read all of the communications of anyone they collected that way -- i.e., the Trump campaign. And then they opened investigations like Crossfire Hurricane and Crossfire Razor, took down and tried to imprison a sitting National Security Advisor on made-up perjury charges based documents they edited long after the fact and disappeared, and then....
And by the way, what did we ever learn about that assassin in Butler last summer? How'd that happen? Well, perhaps that's just paranoia -- unlike the rest of it, which is clearly established fact.
It's Unconstitutional
Prediction
By the end of the year, although Trump is still president, Rubio runs the entire government.
Hey, we're only 100 days in. It could happen.
Wouldn't Like My Clothes Either, Addendum
Wrangler’s 13MWZ jeans have remained largely unchanged since their inception. (According to Rivetti, the last major change came in 1963, with the introduction of a new standard fabric for the line.)... Wrangler’s jeans are, ultimately, still utilitarian. The 11⅛-inch high rise (skinny jeans might have a 9- or 9½-inch rise) and two additional belt loops in the back help a rider’s shirt stay tucked in while they’re sitting in a saddle, according to Wrangler. The thicker, flat-felled seam — usually on the inside of the pant leg — is instead placed on the outer part of the leg, since this is more comfortable for someone on horseback....
Wrangler’s jeans also have hard, smooth, copper-colored rivets on the back pockets, creating a more-durable fabric attachment. For its 13MWZ jeans, Wrangler uses a kind of fabric called “broken twill.” Most jeans are made from a rightward-angled twill (this is why denim looks like a series of diagonal lines). Wrangler’s broken twill fabric, however, changes direction, from right to left, every several stitches, giving it an almost chevron-like appearance. The result, Kristy explained to me, is a fabric that physically has more opportunities to fold over itself, making it feel a little less rigid. This allows Wrangler to use heavier, harder-wearing denim without sacrificing comfort....Compared with comparably priced jeans I’ve worn from Levi’s and Uniqlo, the 13MWZ jeans are made from a heavier-weight denim that doesn’t start to feel slouchy after a few wears. And the copper rivets and tight stitching make the Wranglers feel sturdier than their counterparts.
I stand corrected. They can sometimes appreciate the clothes I wear.
Some Progress in local EMS
HB-675 would eliminate the state standard — a standard multiple EMS leaders interviewed by SMN said is nationally renowned — and instead require paramedics and EMTs to be certified through a national registry, which those same EMS leaders said is far less stringent. While the bill originally mandated that all paramedics and EMTs would need to recertify, at an April 25 meeting at AB Tech between Pless and dozens of first responders, he said he would amend that so that it only applies to new personnel. On April 29, the bill was officially amended.
So locally, at least, it is still sometimes possible to move the levers on stupid government ideas.
Mind Your Business
The Cathar Heresy
“Cathars”–the target of (a) the first intra-Europe crusade... that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands (often by fire) and the desolation of vast swathes of southern France, and (b) an inquisition that killed more–are a source of fascination and mystery. They left little of a written record, and most of that which is “known” about them was written by a Catholic Church that ruthlessly persecuted them as “heretics.” Thus, what their “heresies” actually were is unknown.In his fascinating The Rest is History Podcast, historian Tom Holland conjectures that their heresies had nothing to do with dualism or celibacy... they were in a way proto-Protestants who believed that salvation was not dependent on the intermediation of priests, bishops, archbishops, and Popes. One could become a “bon homme” destined for heaven by one’s own conduct and faith without priestly intermediation. This clashed with Pope Innocent III’s aggressive centralizing efforts to enforce the primacy of the priesthood and the formal church.Put simply, this was a clash between self-governing rural traditionalists and an extremely assertive–and in fact murderous–bureaucratic government with universalist pretensions insistent on controlling the private and public lives of everyone.
(H/t Hot Air). You can read a summary of what we commonly teach that they believed at Wikipedia. You can read an extended analogy to the present conflict at the first link.
UPDATE: Dad29 sends this from an older edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia he had on hand:
The essential characteristic of the Catharist faith was Dualism, i.e. the belief in a good and an evil principle, of whom the former created the invisible and spiritual universe, while the latter was the author of the material world. A difference of opinion existed as to the nature of these two principles. Their perfect equality was admitted by the absolute Dualists, whereas in the mitigated form of Dualism the beneficent principle alone was eternal and supreme, the evil principle being inferior to him and a mere creature. In the East and the West these two different interpretations of Dualism coexisted. The Bogomili in the East professed it in its modified form. In the West, the Albanenses in Italy and almost all the non-Italian Cathari were rigid Dualists; mitigated Dualism prevailed among the Bagnolenses and Concorrezenses, who were more numerous than the Albanenses in Italy, though but little represented abroad. (For an exposition of absolute Dualism, see ALBIGENSES; on the mitigated form, see BOGOMILI.) Not only were the Albanenses and Concorrezenses opposed to each other to the extent of indulging in mutual condemnations, but there was division among the Albanenses themselves. John of Lugio, or of Bergamo, introduced innovations into the traditional doctrinal system, which was defended by his (perhaps only spiritual) father Balasinansa, or Belesmagra, the Catharist Bishop of Verona. Towards the year 1230 John became the leader of a new party composed of the younger and more independent elements of the sect. In the two coeternal principles of good and evil he sees two contending gods, who limit each other's liberty. Infinite perfection is no attribute even of the good principle; owing to the genius of evil infused into all its creatures, it can produce only imperfect beings. The Bagnolenses and Concorrezenses also differed on some doctrinal questions. The former maintained that human souls were created and had sinned before the world was formed. The Concorrezenses taught that Satan infused into the body of the first man, his handiwork, an angel who had been guilty of a slight transgression and from whom, by way of generation, all human souls are derived. The moral system, organization, and liturgy of absolute and mitigated Dualism exhibit no substantial difference, and have been treated in the article on the Albigenses.
The philosophical argument against Dualism, by the way, is that it is impossible. If there were a Good principle and also an Evil principle that defined the universe between them, there would still have to be a third thing that was the substrate that existed which allowed them to interact. The third thing would then be prior to both of the so-called 'first principles,' and being prior, would itself be the First Thing.
There can't be any other number of multiple first principles for this same reason. The Highlander tag line was "There can be only One," but in fact it was known since Ancient Greece. It was stated in theological form by Avicenna in his Metaphysics of the Healing.
"Unprecedented"
If you’re wondering why we haven’t discussed censorship during the time of the Civil War, World War I, or World War II, it’s because there is no real comparison. As bad as things have been for free speech since 2014, no one is arguing that America has been in a situation as big or as bad as it was during those major wars.
Over the course of that year, there were 3,600 labor strikes involving a reported four million workers, including over 350,000 steel workers and 400,000 miners.... Riots broke out during Bolshevist protests in New York, Boston, and Cleveland (another great book on this topic is “Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime: From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism” by Geoffrey R. Stone). Through all of this, fear of Bolshevism was reaching a fever pitch.And then came the bombs.Thirty-six mail bombs were delivered on May Day to the homes of American leaders, including Supreme Court justices, important businessmen, cabinet members, and politicians. Some of the bombs injured and even killed several people.* Then, eight additional, larger bombings occurred in cities across the country.Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, whose D.C. home was destroyed** by one of the bombs, vowed revenge. With the help of up-and-coming FBI agent J. Edgar Hoover, Palmer orchestrated a series of raids against suspected Bolshevik sympathizers — launching what would later be called the Palmer Raids, wherein the government arrested 4,000 to 5,000 suspected political radicals and deported 800 to 900.*** In many cases, suspects were arrested for speech or association with communist or anarchist groups that would be fully protected under the First Amendment today, but it would not be until 1925, in Gitlow v. New York, that the First Amendment began having any teeth at all and decades before it would be strongly interpreted to protect membership in subversive organizations.
They then go on to say, 'But you don't have to look at America, look at what the UK is up to; they're also arresting thousands in the present day over allegedly offensive speech.' And that's true, and it's a good point. However, it has definitely been worse at other historical periods; England used to hang men for speech that displeased the crown.
* According to American Anarchy, which I have almost finished now, only two people were harmed by these bombs -- one of them badly maimed, however.
** 'Damaged' more than 'destroyed.' It did mess up his library.
*** The American Anarchy author states that the actual figure may have been as high as 10,000. A lot of the arrests were done by local police partners rather than Federal authorities themselves. They were arrested without warrants, and held without bail or access to counsel until an Assistant Secretary of Labor named Louis Freeland Post stood up for their due process rights -- immigration having been assigned to the Department of Labor at that time. This basically ended the whole campaign of the Palmer raids in a disgraceful Federal retreat and embarrassment, a risk the current administration is also running.
The Cathedral of May
The first of May opens one of the two best months of the year, the other locally being October. (Further north it is probably September. By the same token The Hobbit, written in England, claims that elvish singing is not a thing to miss under the stars of June, and of Elrond as being 'kind as summer.') It is a great time to be out in the beauty of nature, learning to know something about God by knowing his works.
Health and Ideology
Vigor aligns with conservatives' higher propensity toward happiness (Taylor, Funk, & Craighill, 2006), life-satisfaction (Schlenker, Chambers, & Le, 2012), and meaning and purpose in life (Newman, Schwarz, Graham, & Stone, 2019).... Having had more energy and, thus, the capacity to work hard and be productive, adolescents who were healthy as children may also exhibit higher levels of Maturity (hard-working, responsible, productive, dependable, and goal-oriented). Maturity aligns with conservatives' strong work ethic, anti-leisure, and achievement striving (Furnham, 1990; Jost et al., 2003; McHoskey, 1994; Mudrack, 1997) — and, endorsement of sentiments like, “The worst part about being sick is that work does not get done” (Furnham, 1990). Thus, through Maturity, healthy children may demonstrate conservative ideology in adulthood.... healthy children may be more inclined toward Tidiness (neat, clean, orderly, and organized). Tidiness aligns with the characterization of conservatives as clean, organized, and orderly (Carney et al., 2008; Schwartz et al., 2014), thus, through the tidiness personality trait, healthy children may demonstrate conservative ideology in adulthood. [Emphasis added]
Liberal girls tended to be significantly more depressed than boys, particularly after 2011. However, ideological differences swamped gender differences. Indeed, liberal boys were significantly more likely to report depression than conservatives of either gender.... he well-being gap between conservatives and liberals is not unique to youth. The gap manifests clearly across all age groups and is present as far back as the polling goes. In the General Social Survey, for instance, there has been a consistent 10 percentage point gap between the share of conservatives versus liberals who report being “very happy” in virtually every iteration since 1972 (when the GSS was launched).Academic research consistently finds the same pattern.
The well-being gap between liberals and conservatives is one of the most robust patterns in social science research. It is not a product of things that happened over the last decade or so; it goes back as far as the available data reach. The differences manifest across age, gender, race, religion, and other dimensions. They are not merely present in the United States, but in most other studied countries as well. Consequently, satisfying explanations of the gaps in reported well-being between liberals and conservatives would have to generalize beyond the present moment, beyond isolated cultural or geographic contexts, and beyond specific demographic groups....1. There are likely some genetic and biological factors that simultaneously predispose people towards both mental illness/ wellness and liberalism/ conservatism, respectively.2. Net of these predispositions, conservatism probably helps adherents make sense of, and respond constructively to, adverse states of affairs. These effects are independent of, but enhanced by, religiosity and patriotism (which tend to be ideological fellow-travelers with conservatism).3. Some strains of liberal ideology, on the other hand, likely exacerbate (and even incentivize) anxiety, depression, and other forms of unhealthy thinking. The increased power and prevalence of these ideological frameworks post-2011 may have contributed to the dramatic and asymmetrical rise in mental distress among liberals over the past decade.4. People who are unwell may be especially attracted to liberal politics over conservatism for a variety of reasons, and this may exacerbate observed ideological gaps net of other factors.
So, if you are both a liberal and unhappy, would converting to conservatism and adopting traditional values make you happier? 1 and 4 suggest the effect might not be as pronounced for a convert as for someone who was already healthy and happy; but 2 and 3 suggest that it might, indeed, have a positive effect on your life.
Willie Nelson at 92
Former wife Connie Nelson: He’d open every show with “Whiskey River” and he got so sick of that song. I remember at one point he said “God, I hate doing (that song) every night, it just grinds on me.” Well, it pissed him off that he was tired of it, so — this will tell you everything about Willie — he started opening AND closing the show with it. That’s who Willie is right there, it’s just total stubbornness. He’s gonna show whatever is bothering him that he can overcome it. He knew that by doing that song twice a night, that he'd have to get over it.
Immigration and the Underground Railroad
All analogies always break. Analogies are comparisons of two things that are not perfectly alike, otherwise they'd be the same thing being compared to itself. This being the case, at some point you'll find at least one place where the things are not alike. The question is whether the breaking point of the analogy comes before or after the analogy has borne the weight you wanted it to bear rhetorically.
Deportations by the Boatload
At the beginning of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was the government of the United States for 11 weeks, not even calling Congress back into session until he could get the Union war effort begun in a direction he single-handedly established. He blockaded Southern ports, a belligerent act widely understood to be the sole province of Congress. He spent tax dollars that had not been appropriated to raise, provision and deploy troops — all without specific legislative authorization. Later in the war he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which by the conventions of the day amounted to a monumental taking of private property.Lincoln’s powers were later dwarfed by Woodrow Wilson in World War I, who could, among other things, direct Americans as to how much sugar they could add to their morning coffee. Wilson was granted by a compliant Congress the power to distribute fuels and other public necessaries; to fix wheat prices and coal prices; to take over factories and mines; and to regulate the production of intoxicants. Enhanced legal constraints were created by Congress to control treasonous utterances and punish disloyalty, which the president executed, energetically, through the federal courts.And during the Great Depression, and then the Second World War, Franklin D. Roosevelt ran a command economy. For a time, he shut down the nation’s banks.
Wilson became America’s closest approximation to a prime minister, openly courting congressional authorization for virtually everything he did. His Congress was a full governing partner.
EMS and Battlefield Medicine Update
When I started in EMS in the early 90s, artificial blood was a hot area of research. More than 30 years later, we're still working on it. The key trick is to get a fluid that can carry oxygen to supply the body's tissues. So far, only real blood does that. Artificial blood could save a lot of lives in civilian EMS and on the battlefield.
Although there were medics before the 1960s, my understanding of the history of the field is that current EMS is the product of the Vietnam War. Military doctors and medics got used to working together and, when they returned home, understood they could do something similar in a civilian setting. The GWOT has improved civilian EMS as well. Talking to young medics today, the advances made in the last 20 years are pretty cool (not to, uh, mention all the life saving).
Disinformation
The Rebirth of the Bobarosa
Talking versus Competence
Spring Bash 2025
Unfortunately I turned out to need the ride home because the bike had a frozen piston in the rear brake caliper, so they had to order a new one (or part it out and fix it, but they charge $145/hour for shop labor, so it was cheaper just to have them get a part). I couldn't ride it home since they'd disabled the brakes (which had been working fine as far as I could tell before), so I had to leave it there until they could get the part. I stayed overnight at a local motel and then my wife came to get me today. She wanted to go to the arboretum.