Of all the hikes I have taken, this destination looks and feels most like it belongs in Arthurian myth.
I’m Going to Jackson
A bona fide Stetson hat, with fake dirt, $265 new.
Flying into Jackson Hole airport (JAC) a week and a half ago, I rode a nearly empty jet with a completely full First Class cabin.
Playground of the rich, the old cowboy town is a sad sight. All isn’t lost: at The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar I ran into a group of the Punishers MC, off-duty cops coming home from Sturgis.
Mostly it’s just rich people wondering if people will consider their newly-purchased hats fake. I advised one lady that the straw hat she was considering would be legitimate until Labor Day. If you buy one of these faux-dirt Stetsons, Dude, you’re on your own.
Conservatism Properly Understood
I have long thought the true value of conservatism is it's cultural and philosophical component, as opposed to the various political movements contending for power under its banner. I certainly think that conservatism should be, and is, more than a single-minded focus on free market economics. The free market is simply a tool, a means to an end and not an end in and of itself.
Consequently, I was pleasantly surprised to read this excellent article. I had never heard of the poet Peter Viereck before, but thanks to Mr. Syck's article I was directed to Peter Viereck's equally excellent article, "But - I'm a Conservative! While I certainly didn't agree with every point he made, I still think his essay makes some valuable points that conservatives would do well to embrace. That essay reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from another conservative writer, Russell Kirk.
This should boost EV sales
First California wanted to force people to quit using gasoline to power their cars. Use the electric grid instead! Then it became apparent that an already stressed grid would get worse if California continued to close nuclear and fossil-fuel power plants, while at the same time encouraging drivers to charge up their EVs on the grid. The answer is breathtaking in its brilliance: if the grid is stressed, run the EV-charging stations backwards, so the EV batteries are drawn down to support the grid they're supposed to be using to charge up on. Apparently some EV charging systems already work as a two-way device, the idea being that owners might want to use them as emergency power for their households. The new idea is to require all EV charging systems to work that way, and not for the benefit of the owners' households but for the whole grid instead.
The Horse Pull
After a pleasant early dinner with Thos., I took my mother to the horse pull.
The winner, pulling 9,500 pounds for over eight feet, was a local team.
It’s an interesting sport. The ‘full pull’ is 27.5 feet for no reason anyone seems to know. They pull in stages that increase by a thousand pounds to eight thousand, then by five hundred each thereafter. Beautiful draft horses.
Singing the Song of the Common Man
Virginian Oliver Anthony came across my twitter feed today, and instantly I'm a fan. Have a listen and maybe you'll be too.
The song that got him attention is "Rich Men North of Richmond" (in other words, around D.C.)-
I also liked this Waylon cover of his, recorded on his cell phone, so forgive the sound quality-
And he seems like a pretty nice guy who it would be nice to sit a spell with-
(h/t @shouse)s://twitter.com/Shouse34/status/1689793700224733184?s=20
Cowboy Cooking
My mother favors the ease of a propane grill at her age, so it’s not the wood fire I usually grill over. The steaks are legit, though. I found a real butcher and bought a whole Chuck eye roast, which I then further butchered into two Chuck eye steaks and two Denver steaks.
Tonight I grilled them up for my mother and brother-in-law, served with Idaho potatoes and homemade dry chile salsas. Pretty decent eating, and for a fraction of what ribeyes would have cost.
More Beer News
That Eugenics Though
Richard Dawkins says it out loud.
It’s one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It’s quite another to conclude that it wouldn’t work in practice. Of course it would. It works for cows, horses, pigs, dogs & roses. Why on earth wouldn’t it work for humans? Facts ignore ideology.I would argue that the reason it wouldn’t work is ideology. People would want to make more people of the kind they like, which would lead to failures in the species. Consider how Dalmatians are selected for color, but that means they’re now mostly stupid.
Generally speaking whenever people who think they’re smarter or better than others try to organize things ‘for the common good / the betterment of humanity’ they end up making things objectively worse. Sometimes it’s because their class interests blind them; sometimes they just aren’t as smart as they thought they were. Sometimes they’re plain evil, like Mao, and all that talk of improvement was smoke.
Pig Wrestling
This county fair doesn’t disappoint. What better entertainment on a Monday night in August than pig wrestling?
New homes
Our first, somewhat experimental dog adoption day went well yesterday, with over half the animals placed. The numbers, though small, were big for a community this size. We'll keep working on getting the shelter population down to a manageable size.It's good to work out the logistical bugs on an event like this. I'm not particularly experienced an organizing a volunteer army to handle all the details. It was a little chaotic at times, but people did show up to lend a hand. I believe we'll hold a series of events now that the word is trickling out about the urgent need.Here's one of the lucky dogs in her new home, absolutely relaxed. She's been stuck in a cage for a long time.
A County Fair
Teton County is having its 100th anniversary fair this week. I dropped in for the afternoon.
The Grand Teton under a darkening sky.
Motherly Love
My niece Clio, in the midst of a story about kids who were mean: "But my mom always says, if somebody does something mean to you, do it back."
Me: "Wait, what does your mother say?"
Clio: "Do it back to them."
Me: "Your momma taught you 'Get revenge'?"
Clio: "Yes."
"Are we the baddies?"
Periodically I watch this classic skit.
David Brooks is channeling the skit today in "What If We're the Bad Guys Here?" He gently chides his posh NYT readership with lots of chummy assumptions about "our" elite status, but points out that those smelly Trump supporters do have just a bit of a point about how the smug illuminati are making out like bandits at the expense of their pathetic protegees.Not that he doesn't pull himself back from the brink; he knows he can't completely lose his audience. "Are Trump supporters right that the indictments are just a political witch hunt? Of course not." Heavens to Betsy, no, we're not that wrong.To give him credit, though, he closes on a good thought:
“History is a graveyard of classes which have preferred caste privileges to leadership.”Unearned caste privileges are a good way to get the guillotines to be rolled out.
That stuff that never happened was OK and we knew all about it anyway
Every day I have to ask myself whether there's a limit to how low this process can go. The new establishment spin on Hunter Biden is that he was a con man selling what only "appeared" to be access to his powerful father. I hope he vetted that approach with the shady guys who paid him, or they might be wondering about a refund. On the other hand, if they got their expected merchandise long ago, maybe they're fine with the new story.Meanwhile, it's nice to know that Biden Sr. didn't mind helping create this harmless illusion of access. It's just a service that powerful men in public service naturally perform for the smart beloved sons they trust implicitly. Nothing to see here, certainly nothing to consider when casting a ballot in 2024.
Dreaming and thinking
From Maggie's Farm today:
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
Another way to say "dreaming and waking" is "gut and head," or feeling and discerning: the wise heart. Add action, and you have the will, or soul.Rabindranath Tagore
Way Out West
For the next three weeks I will be visiting my mother, sister, and niece on the border of Wyoming and Idaho. It’s a very different land than the one I usually frequent, with bigger skies and Rocky Mountains— indeed, the Grand Tetons— different weather, and different flora and fauna.
Tonight, for example, I am making beer-braised moose for supper. It’s just like the venison braise I described on the sidebar, but with a different beast in the pot.
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