A fun article on the history of the axe in Scandinavia. They still do a great job. The best axes I've ever owned are made by Gränsfors Bruk. They take an edge so sharp that you're liable to cut yourself by looking at it.
One I don't have but might like to own is the "Gränsfors Outdoor Axe," whose description I find amusing. "The Gränsfors Outdoor Axe was developed with the help of survival expert Lars Fält, and is ideal for those who want to use an axe in different ways when out and about in the countryside." Why yes, I can think of "different ways" I might use such an axe "while out and about in the countryside."
Flaming madness
I knew I was in trouble when I read this summary of the Fed's reluctance to transform the U.S. monetary policy in preparedness for possible future climate-change shocks:
Fed Chairman Powell doesn't actually adopt the bare-knuckled rhetorical style of the Hawaiian senator's summary. Instead, he seems to be trying to smooth this panic over rather than talking plain sense to spooked, irrational people who probably would only become more hysterical in the presence of declarative statements in plain English. He makes some friendly noise about how severe weather events sometimes have an impact on the economy, and the Fed stands ready to take them into account, as usual, if they happen at some point. He also "played down climate-change issues as a high-priority issue for monetary policy." What criminal lassitude! Doesn't he know that
But . . . but . . . what about preparedness? Really, if these guys must engage in preparedness, I'd rather they geared up to combat the known, predictable, and even currently tangible effects of redistributivist socialist nonsense in aid of further nonsense.
[A]ccording to the Fed, severe weather isn’t new and climate change isn’t their responsibility. The American agencies that oversee the financial system have decided to ignore climate change. . . .nodded in relieved agreement, then noticed that it was the furious summary of a Hawaii senator who pronounced it "garbage." And noticed that it was featured in a Wall Street Journal article that seemed to agree with the honorable senator, in part because:
Research from some regional Fed banks has pointed to considerable disruption in coming years if nothing is done to mitigate rising global temperatures, which scientists broadly agree are driven by human activity.The devil you say! Research points to a future problem if nothing is done? Do these awful conservatives want us to ignore research about the future now? I realize the existing climate data don't yet support the catastrophic predictions placed before a breathless public over the last two decades, but if you research the future instead of letting yourself be distracted by the boring present and past, you can see there is some very alarming news out there. Something's got to be done. Each federal agency must stand by to do its part.
Fed Chairman Powell doesn't actually adopt the bare-knuckled rhetorical style of the Hawaiian senator's summary. Instead, he seems to be trying to smooth this panic over rather than talking plain sense to spooked, irrational people who probably would only become more hysterical in the presence of declarative statements in plain English. He makes some friendly noise about how severe weather events sometimes have an impact on the economy, and the Fed stands ready to take them into account, as usual, if they happen at some point. He also "played down climate-change issues as a high-priority issue for monetary policy." What criminal lassitude! Doesn't he know that
Some regional Fed leaders have said the central bank may need to take on the issue more aggressively, as some central banks in Europe are doing. Philadelphia Fed leader Patrick Harker said last November that “there is no question we’re going to have to start factoring this more and more” into how the central bank thinks about the future of the economy.Well, I'm second to none in my admiration for European economic policy, and I'm all for factoring things into how we think about the future of stuff, and aggressive action is always best even if you don't know quite what to do. Nevertheless, I found the following foot-dragging approach a bit easier to understand:
Others at the Fed believe climate change isn’t something that matters much for monetary policy. “It’s hard for me to imagine the climate changing sufficiently to affect the next three to five years and how we look at the potential growth rate of the U.S. economy,” Minneapolis Fed leader Neel Kashkari said in a March interview.It looks like we've got some virtuous, caring people who find it easy to imagine how something might have an effect on something else, even if they find it hard to let us know what they're imagining about it these days and why we should care. Then we have some bad people who are finding whatever it is rather harder to imagine, and who in any case can't see that anyone has entrusted them with the task of letting their minds wander in those regions, lost, let alone jacking with the nation's monetary policy in an effort to have an effect on something that may or may not happen according to predictive models that have failed abjectly over the last 20 years.
But . . . but . . . what about preparedness? Really, if these guys must engage in preparedness, I'd rather they geared up to combat the known, predictable, and even currently tangible effects of redistributivist socialist nonsense in aid of further nonsense.
So Much To Do
This one is about the passing of time, and the weight of it amid so many things to do. The song is a kind of miracle, because it conveys all that in just three minutes.
I think the effect comes from the subtle hinge in the music that begins at 1:27, in which there is an orchestral swell in what has heretofore been a very simple song about very ordinary things. It's brief, but the effect is transformative. The song is suddenly not the same, not at all.
The Irish punk band Flogging Molly achieved a similar effect in "Death Valley Queen," this time at 2:29 into a four-minute song. They are less subtle, but they're a punk rock band. In this case, they do it through a simplicity, followed by a swell.
Both songs, in their way, convey emotion with power through these alterations and contrasts.
I think the effect comes from the subtle hinge in the music that begins at 1:27, in which there is an orchestral swell in what has heretofore been a very simple song about very ordinary things. It's brief, but the effect is transformative. The song is suddenly not the same, not at all.
The Irish punk band Flogging Molly achieved a similar effect in "Death Valley Queen," this time at 2:29 into a four-minute song. They are less subtle, but they're a punk rock band. In this case, they do it through a simplicity, followed by a swell.
Both songs, in their way, convey emotion with power through these alterations and contrasts.
Income Inequality Falling Without Getting Poor
The usual way that those concerned about 'income inequality' try to reduce it is by raising taxes on the prosperous, thus forcibly lowering the ceiling. The current economic growth is showing a better way: raising the floor.
No More Bans on Ancient Technology
A New Jersey politician wants to ban bags. Paper, plastic, whatever. Plastic straws of course, too. The UK is strongly considering banning knives with points, including the most common chef knives in the world. Pretty much every kitchen has an 8 to 11 inch chef's knife with a point. There's a good reason for that. These knives are extremely useful for a broad range of daily cooking tasks.
The plastic bans at least point at something novel. You could plausibly argue that plastic poses a unique technological risk that we are only now beginning to appreciate. But societies somehow managed to co-exist with the near-universal possession of knives for thousands of years. You can surely figure this out without banning the things.
Maybe we should have a ban on politicians. At least the ones who want more bans.
The plastic bans at least point at something novel. You could plausibly argue that plastic poses a unique technological risk that we are only now beginning to appreciate. But societies somehow managed to co-exist with the near-universal possession of knives for thousands of years. You can surely figure this out without banning the things.
Maybe we should have a ban on politicians. At least the ones who want more bans.
Georgia to Enact "Heartbeat" Bill
Governor Kemp has decided to sign the "Heartbeat" legislation passed by the Georgia legislature. He'll sign it tomorrow, though it won't go into effect right away due to the way Georgia law operates. The law intends to ban abortion once a heartbeat is detected in the child; it will of course immediately be challenged in court once it comes into effect, and we'll see what becomes of that.
Planned Parenthood is protesting tomorrow, also of course. I notice that their new banner features a hijabi as the central figure, which is remarkable. Islamic opinions on abortion are generally moderate compared to American positions, holding neither that abortion should be always forbidden nor, as Planned Parenthood would have it, permissable to the moment of birth (or even after). But this is just left-leaning virtue signalling, not theology; Planned Parenthood wants to signal support for diversity as well as abortion.
Planned Parenthood is protesting tomorrow, also of course. I notice that their new banner features a hijabi as the central figure, which is remarkable. Islamic opinions on abortion are generally moderate compared to American positions, holding neither that abortion should be always forbidden nor, as Planned Parenthood would have it, permissable to the moment of birth (or even after). But this is just left-leaning virtue signalling, not theology; Planned Parenthood wants to signal support for diversity as well as abortion.
Defend / Defeat
If you didn't read the essay "Defend America -- Defeat Multiculturalism" when I linked it a week or so ago, you might want to before it's gone. Google has demanded the essay's removal from the internet.
Don't Boss Him, Don't Cross Him
This was the album that Willie Nelson put out when he finally got full creative control of his work.
The studio didn't like it, but it was a blockbuster success. It's one of the core albums of the inception of Outlaw Country. If you've never given it a half an hour, you might want to do.
The studio didn't like it, but it was a blockbuster success. It's one of the core albums of the inception of Outlaw Country. If you've never given it a half an hour, you might want to do.
Welcome to Cinco de Drinko
Be sure to avoid cultural appropriation during any festivities today. Remember that your own culture is already a festival of conviviality!
Actually, I guess the buccaneers were also busily appropriating stuff from the Spanish... who had been appropriating it from the Incas and the Aztecs... who had been appropriating it from weaker tribe nations... hmm. Perhaps a 'festival of appropriation' is what's been going on all along.
UPDATE:
A Clancy Brother trying on a North Carolina accent. He gets it about right, for the mountain folk.
It's funny about the mountain folk, because they diverge from the typical Southern accent quite a bit. In the valley they say "Ya'll," like anywhere in the South; but in the mountains, they say "You'uns" for the same purpose.
Actually, I guess the buccaneers were also busily appropriating stuff from the Spanish... who had been appropriating it from the Incas and the Aztecs... who had been appropriating it from weaker tribe nations... hmm. Perhaps a 'festival of appropriation' is what's been going on all along.
UPDATE:
A Clancy Brother trying on a North Carolina accent. He gets it about right, for the mountain folk.
It's funny about the mountain folk, because they diverge from the typical Southern accent quite a bit. In the valley they say "Ya'll," like anywhere in the South; but in the mountains, they say "You'uns" for the same purpose.
More Toxicity
Instapundit responds to an article on how toxic manhood means that women are worn out from doing all the 'emotional labor' in their relationships. "ANYONE WHO THINKS THAT WOMEN DO ALL THE “EMOTIONAL LABOR” has never been married to an actual woman."
Boy, that's the truth. No woman who's been married for any length of time is likely even to take offense at the suggestion. We all know how much weight we've had to put on our partners at times.
There's less to this issue than it seems even where it bears weight. It's definitely true that I'm not always in touch with my feelings, and that my upbringing is partly responsible for that. The major inflictors of 'you should be less sensitive; you should not be emotional' were women, in especial my schoolteachers. I'm not even mad about it. Sometimes the best we can do in life still involves hurting other people. Life is like that. Sometimes, we have to hurt them a little to help them in other ways.
This is one of those cases. Frankly, emotional children are more work, and these ladies had 27 kids to handle and try to teach something too. It was in their interests to suppress emotions in whatever way they could, and for that matter it was in our interests that they should succeed. Otherwise, we wouldn't learn as much -- possibly nearly nothing, if they were unable to convince any of the 27 little heathens they were saddled with to please just let it go, sit down, shut up, and pay attention.
Nor is it all bad to be able to do that. Just to give one clear example, the day my father died I sat right next to him while he died. Half an hour later I needed to drive my mother, my wife, and a child through rush hour traffic in Atlanta. I could do that safely because of this very capacity to suppress emotions. Not only their safety depended on it, but the safety of everyone driving a car around the one I was driving.
In any case, the article may be right that men have fewer friends than they used to do; I think of "Bowling Alone" as a model of that. But it's not true for me; I have some very good friends. Some of them are even men, so those men have at least one good male friend too.
Boy, that's the truth. No woman who's been married for any length of time is likely even to take offense at the suggestion. We all know how much weight we've had to put on our partners at times.
There's less to this issue than it seems even where it bears weight. It's definitely true that I'm not always in touch with my feelings, and that my upbringing is partly responsible for that. The major inflictors of 'you should be less sensitive; you should not be emotional' were women, in especial my schoolteachers. I'm not even mad about it. Sometimes the best we can do in life still involves hurting other people. Life is like that. Sometimes, we have to hurt them a little to help them in other ways.
This is one of those cases. Frankly, emotional children are more work, and these ladies had 27 kids to handle and try to teach something too. It was in their interests to suppress emotions in whatever way they could, and for that matter it was in our interests that they should succeed. Otherwise, we wouldn't learn as much -- possibly nearly nothing, if they were unable to convince any of the 27 little heathens they were saddled with to please just let it go, sit down, shut up, and pay attention.
Nor is it all bad to be able to do that. Just to give one clear example, the day my father died I sat right next to him while he died. Half an hour later I needed to drive my mother, my wife, and a child through rush hour traffic in Atlanta. I could do that safely because of this very capacity to suppress emotions. Not only their safety depended on it, but the safety of everyone driving a car around the one I was driving.
In any case, the article may be right that men have fewer friends than they used to do; I think of "Bowling Alone" as a model of that. But it's not true for me; I have some very good friends. Some of them are even men, so those men have at least one good male friend too.
War for Profit
This is a strange cast of characters. Erik Prince makes sense; but Steve Bannon? James O'Keefe in Qatar, working against the impoverished and enslaved Bangladeshis and Pakistani workers?
Of course, it's The Intercept, and their quality is a mixed bag. Some of their stuff is really solid, but this may not prove to be.
Of course, it's The Intercept, and their quality is a mixed bag. Some of their stuff is really solid, but this may not prove to be.
Spygate and Anti-Democracy
A few links that go together in my mind.
One: A summary of yesterday's NYT story about spies being deployed against Trump campaign figures; and another, separate story about Ukraine admitting that they were asked for damaging information about Trump's campaign.
Two: Both California and Washington state have bills aimed at forcing Trump either to release his tax returns, or not appear on the ballot. California tried this once before, but the bill was vetoed as unconstitutional. Since it was declared so by the governor rather than a court, however, they're free to try again.
Three: Facebook and its allied platforms banned a host of conservative voices, as well as Louis Farrakhan. While the latter is far from my favorite person, defending his freedom of speech is important just because it is how you defend the principle that speech should be free. Loathsome speech has to be defended in order to secure the whole.
Four: Anti-populism as anti-democracy. This last really should be read in full.
One: A summary of yesterday's NYT story about spies being deployed against Trump campaign figures; and another, separate story about Ukraine admitting that they were asked for damaging information about Trump's campaign.
Two: Both California and Washington state have bills aimed at forcing Trump either to release his tax returns, or not appear on the ballot. California tried this once before, but the bill was vetoed as unconstitutional. Since it was declared so by the governor rather than a court, however, they're free to try again.
Three: Facebook and its allied platforms banned a host of conservative voices, as well as Louis Farrakhan. While the latter is far from my favorite person, defending his freedom of speech is important just because it is how you defend the principle that speech should be free. Loathsome speech has to be defended in order to secure the whole.
Four: Anti-populism as anti-democracy. This last really should be read in full.
From the Rooftops
Colonel Kurt.
Our first responders are awesome, but it takes nothing away from their heroism to point out that the title “first responder” is a misnomer. The citizens on site are the first responders. And they should be ready to respond. We all should. Personally.That's it. That's right.
Some duties of citizen should never be outsourced. If you are an able-bodied adult, it’s your duty to know how to stop the bleeding and give CPR until the pros who do it for a living arrive. And it’s your duty (and right) to defend yourself, your family, your community and your Constitution. With guns – effective guns, which sometimes means your concealed pistol and sometimes means the guns that those who want you defenseless call “assault weapons.”...
It’s your duty to be prepared to defend our community. Your duty. Yes, being a citizen of a free country is sometimes hard. Too bad. Tighten up and be ready and able to pick up a weapon. Whether it’s a riots and disaster, or whether it’s some scumbag who decides to shoot up your house of worship or a shopping mall, it’s on you.
Two Very Unpopular Ideas From the Federalist
The Federalist has two pieces today forwarding ideas that are explosively unpopular with the campus left, and the activist left in general.
1) "The Moral Case for Israel Annexing the West Bank -- And Beyond."
2) Christina Hoff Summers facing off with a popular #MeToo activist in front of an activist crowd.
1) "The Moral Case for Israel Annexing the West Bank -- And Beyond."
2) Christina Hoff Summers facing off with a popular #MeToo activist in front of an activist crowd.
Venezuelans Regret Gun Ban
After Brazil elected a new president partially on his promise to restore gun rights to a people oppressed by criminals, Venezuela may do so once it gets rid of the oppression of its dictator. This article was written in December, before the current chaos, but it captures the popular sentiment that the ban was a mistake.
Eli Lake writes, today, about the right of the people to overthrow a dictatorship and restore lawful government.
Eli Lake writes, today, about the right of the people to overthrow a dictatorship and restore lawful government.
Antifa Buying Cartel Guns
Why? According to the left, you can buy legal guns more easily than birth control.
VZ
The article says the US 'backs' the coup -- or restoration of the lawful government, depending on which side you're on -- but so far it seems like 'backing' is limited to some praise on Twitter. Call me when the 75th Rangers show up.
This is rich, too:
This is rich, too:
On the sidelines of the recent Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Venezuela on Sunday and "highlighted that it is totally unacceptable when anyone tries to topple authorities in a third country, attempting to use force and illegal international pressure against a sovereign state, in order to change the leadership there," according to Peskov.Taiwan and Ukraine will be so relieved to hear of your principled stand, comrades.
Ancient Wild Ruins
If any of you have the opportunity to travel in Wales, here is a guide to some things that are worth seeing.
"Mermaid" To Challenge Susan Collins
Susan Collins' decision to vote for Brett Kavanaugh -- who, by the way, turns out to be innocent of all of the charges hastily arranged against him in an attempt to destroy his life and career -- had prompted a challenger for her Senate seat.
On Facebook, Kidman is described as a "criminal defense attorney by day and radical fat queer/performance artist/model/musician/activist most other times." On Spotify, Kidman is "Bee Kay Esq." and the biography is the same. Five songs with collaborator Mr. Gadget use "inhuman instruments to give voice to human vulnerability with beats that invite just enough dancing to feel slightly less dead."Thank goodness for that.
On the website for the Maine Educationalists on Sexual Harmony (MESH), Kidman is described as a "queer feminist lawyer, mermaid, writer, activist, and artist."
Mermaid is "an artistic identity, not a serious identity," Kidman said.
Confederate Memorials are War Memorials
Well of course they are. What else would they be?
These are strange times.
[Judge] Moore finds the issue to be so clear-cut that "if the matter went to trial on this issue and a jury were to decide that they are not monuments or memorials to veterans of the civil war, I would have to set such verdict aside as unreasonable..."I'm not a big fan of judges setting aside jury verdicts. All the same, what else could a reasonable person conclude? Maybe judges should or shouldn't have the power to set aside a jury verdict; I think I'd tend to side with the jury, all things considered. But if we allow, for the point of discussion, that a judge might exercise reasonable judgment -- well, what else would he rule, than than a war memorial is a war memorial?
These are strange times.
"Lock Her Up"
Donald Trump ran on the mantra, and it may have won him the election; it certainly won him this debate.
So why hasn't he locked anyone up, even when there are clear and demonstrable crimes? Angelo Codevilla answers the question.
So why hasn't he locked anyone up, even when there are clear and demonstrable crimes? Angelo Codevilla answers the question.
Politics is not responsible for the non-application of Section 798 to Brendan and Clapper. It is difficult to imagine that the public would not approve massively the straightforward application to prominent men of a law that is so unambiguous, which is the foundation of arguably the main part of U.S intelligence, and which has been applied countless times to ordinary people.Time for a change.
Rather, the absence of real politics—of real competition between opposing sides in American life—is the culprit. What we see is that those in the upper echelons of American life, whether they call themselves Republicans or Democrats, have greater loyalty to the ruling class to which they belong than to any law or institution. The refusal to apply Section 798 to Brennan and Clapper —the fact that they are free men —is simply the most obvious manifestation of the fact that we have a ruling class, that it is coherent, and that it has yet to be challenged in any serious way.
NRA Board in Executive Session
LTC(R) Ollie North announced yesterday that he will not be returning as President, and prosecutors in New York announced subpoenas related to charges Colonel North made about misuse of funds by the longstanding NRA leadership. Today, the board has gone into an executive session that has so far lasted six hours.
As I've mentioned before, I know Ollie North. I met him in Iraq, spent some time with him there, and have spent time with him on other occasions here. I trust him, and know him to be a man of honor. My strong assumption is therefore that he is going to prove to be on the right side of this. If he says there's been dirty business going on there, the audit he called for is warranted and wise.
The NRA is an extremely important civil rights organization, and I am angry that anyone would put it at risk for any reason -- but especially if it was done for personal profit. We'll have to keep an eye on this story and see how it shakes out. The best source I know of right now is this journalist's Twitter feed.
UPDATE: Few public changes announced at the end of the closed-door session. Keep your eyes on the ball.
As I've mentioned before, I know Ollie North. I met him in Iraq, spent some time with him there, and have spent time with him on other occasions here. I trust him, and know him to be a man of honor. My strong assumption is therefore that he is going to prove to be on the right side of this. If he says there's been dirty business going on there, the audit he called for is warranted and wise.
The NRA is an extremely important civil rights organization, and I am angry that anyone would put it at risk for any reason -- but especially if it was done for personal profit. We'll have to keep an eye on this story and see how it shakes out. The best source I know of right now is this journalist's Twitter feed.
UPDATE: Few public changes announced at the end of the closed-door session. Keep your eyes on the ball.
Death of the Calorie
I was surprised when this article, allegedly on nutrition science, began with an armed kidnapping in Mexico. But it is in fact about nutrition science, and it's one of the more interesting and useful things I've read lately.
No Church in Sri Lanka
John Rendon reports that, a week after the Easter attacks, churches in Sri Lanka are conducting televised services rather than in-person ones because of security concerns. Hard to receive Communion over the television set.
The Martyr of Passover
Echoing the Easter massacres, though fortunately on a much smaller scale -- a single gunman, a single death -- another attempt to profane the most sacred. Or, more properly, to argue about what is and is not sacred; and to sacralize, in the old way with blood, that which the enemy holds sacred into something sacred for you. The Easter bombings were intended to be like the transformation of Hagia Sophia from basilica into mosque; this, an attempt to transform the day that God passed over the Jews into a day for killing them in the name of a mythical race.
Fortunately, even in California, an armed citizen -- an off-duty Border Patrol officer, by reports -- was there to stop it. And fortunately, in America unlike in Sri Lanka, the enemy sought to do his work with guns instead of bombs. There's not so much you can do with bombs, not even if you are armed and brave. As long as they stick to guns there is a fighting chance.
These attacks are attacks on a particular religion, but they are also attacks on the American ideal of religious liberty: on the idea that it is all right for you to be a different faith from me, that I don't consider it my business just as long as you grant me the same courtesy. The enemy isn't just an enemy of Christians here or Jews there; they are our common enemy insofar as they feel it proper to turn people into blood sacrifices in order to exert control over us.
We must oppose all of this sort because our cause is liberty. Non enim propter gloriam diuivias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatum: quam nemo bonus nisi simul vita amittit.
Fortunately, even in California, an armed citizen -- an off-duty Border Patrol officer, by reports -- was there to stop it. And fortunately, in America unlike in Sri Lanka, the enemy sought to do his work with guns instead of bombs. There's not so much you can do with bombs, not even if you are armed and brave. As long as they stick to guns there is a fighting chance.
These attacks are attacks on a particular religion, but they are also attacks on the American ideal of religious liberty: on the idea that it is all right for you to be a different faith from me, that I don't consider it my business just as long as you grant me the same courtesy. The enemy isn't just an enemy of Christians here or Jews there; they are our common enemy insofar as they feel it proper to turn people into blood sacrifices in order to exert control over us.
We must oppose all of this sort because our cause is liberty. Non enim propter gloriam diuivias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatum: quam nemo bonus nisi simul vita amittit.
Trump at the NRA
The President offered a welcome sentiment today:
"[T]hat American liberty is sacred, and that American citizens live by American laws, not the laws of foreign countries."
That's right. I'm hoping to help other nations attain protections for their own natural right to keep and bear arms, of course. Whether they do or they do not, though, I intend to pass those rights intact to my grandchildren and to future generations.
Others disagree. We can expect a fight. It is a fight I mean to win, or to die in.
"[T]hat American liberty is sacred, and that American citizens live by American laws, not the laws of foreign countries."
That's right. I'm hoping to help other nations attain protections for their own natural right to keep and bear arms, of course. Whether they do or they do not, though, I intend to pass those rights intact to my grandchildren and to future generations.
Others disagree. We can expect a fight. It is a fight I mean to win, or to die in.
Trend Lines
Compare and contrast the trend lines for school shootings for all schools, versus schools with armed teachers.
Well, it's empirical. It could change tomorrow. Still and all, so far it's a striking delta.
Well, it's empirical. It could change tomorrow. Still and all, so far it's a striking delta.
Elvis is Everywhere
Joe Bob Briggs writes about threats to sell Graceland to Dubai.
Here's the song, by the way. I have to admit I always thought this was a Grateful Dead tune, because in my own youth their version of it was so much more prominent. I didn't realize until reading Joe Bob today that it was an Elvis tune, let alone his first radio hit.
But as I say, I qualify as an amateur expert on Elvis’ place in world history since I was an actor in a critically trashed 1989 movie called Great Balls of Fire, a Jerry Lee Lewis biopic filmed entirely in Memphis and vicinity. My character was Dewey Phillips, the pioneering radio personality who had a show called Red, Hot and Blue on WHBQ in the 1950s. In my youthful zeal for background research, I sought out every newspaper article, recording, and reminiscence about this disc jockey who had been the first to broadcast an Elvis record. (The song was “That’s All Right,” although he also played the flip side, which was “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”) And what I discovered was that a phenomenon like Elvis could only have occurred in the Mississippi Delta of that era.He has a brief but plausible argument for why Memphis had to be the place where rock n' roll was born. It touches on the current debate about 'cultural appropriation' by raising a contrasting point that is often missed. It also gives rock n' roll a kind of locality, a place and time where it belongs, which is harder to appreciate now that it has become so universalized. Even the United Arab Emirates wants a piece of Elvis.
Here's the song, by the way. I have to admit I always thought this was a Grateful Dead tune, because in my own youth their version of it was so much more prominent. I didn't realize until reading Joe Bob today that it was an Elvis tune, let alone his first radio hit.
Why Notre Dame?
The DB had a funny joke about Trump sending the 82nd Airborne to secure Notre Dame -- the joke being that he sent them to the university, not the French cathedral. Not everyone who is out of place at Notre Dame is part of a satire, however. Consider the new director of gender relations for the student government.
That said, if that's how you feel about things, Notre Dame might not be the right place for you. I know: she chose the place just because she wants to take a hammer to the Catholic faith. That's also why she seeks a position in student government, which ordinary students completely ignore because it has very little real effect on anything. It's merely a platform for activism, and some people were raised to believe -- or came to believe -- that activism is good in itself.
Minding one's own business is another good, in part because it allows people who disagree to get along. When 80% of people in your community agree, they represent the norm in your community, and as a dissenter you should consider trying to get along with them -- or else finding a new community that better fits your view of what is right. It's a big country, and there are lots of communities that do, pretty much no matter what you believe.
[A fellow student] expressed concerns that [the director]’s condemnation of Catholic sexual ethics would affect her policies as director of Gender Relations at Notre Dame, where at least 80 percent of the students are Catholic.I'm leaving out the names of the students because, though not minors, they are still young and figuring things out. The ideas are worth criticizing, but I don't want to engage in any sort of personal attacks on someone so young.
[She] had said in a now deleted tweet: “I see the [Catholic] faith as inherently against female empowerment and sexual freedom.”
She also tweeted, “Catholic marriage isn’t about love, it was conceived to make licit the illicit act of sex for the purpose of procreation (evangelization).”
That said, if that's how you feel about things, Notre Dame might not be the right place for you. I know: she chose the place just because she wants to take a hammer to the Catholic faith. That's also why she seeks a position in student government, which ordinary students completely ignore because it has very little real effect on anything. It's merely a platform for activism, and some people were raised to believe -- or came to believe -- that activism is good in itself.
Minding one's own business is another good, in part because it allows people who disagree to get along. When 80% of people in your community agree, they represent the norm in your community, and as a dissenter you should consider trying to get along with them -- or else finding a new community that better fits your view of what is right. It's a big country, and there are lots of communities that do, pretty much no matter what you believe.
Who was really playing footsie with the Russians?
Kim Strassel is doing good reporting on the Steele Dossier, just when Mueller and his fellow-travelers are most desperately trying to cover it with a pillow. The link is to a HotAir summary, in case you don't want to deal with the WSJ firewall.
How did Mr. Mueller spend two years investigating every aspect of Russian interference—cyberhacking, social-media trolling, meetings with Trump officials—and not consider the possibility that the dossier was part of the Russian interference effort?
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Attorney General William Barr may answer some of the questions Mr. Mueller refused to touch. Thanks to the special counsel we know Republicans weren’t playing footsie with Russians. But thanks to BuzzFeed, we know that Democrats were. America deserves to know how far that interaction extended.Some more from another good investigative reporter, John Solomon, about the Ukraine-Democrat team.
Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day
I didn't see this yesterday. The article about it over at PJ Media begins:
Here is the Wikipedia article on the subject.Today, April 24, marks the “Great Crime,” that is, the genocide of Christians—mostly Armenians but also Assyrians—that took place under the Islamic Ottoman Empire throughout World War I. Then, the Turks liquidated approximately 1.5 million Armenians and 300,000 Assyrians.Most objective American historians who have studied the question unequivocally agree that it was a deliberate, calculated genocide ...
Defending Democrats
Tex's favorite radical, Jordan B. Peterson, has co-authored a piece in today's Wall Street Journal. It argues that, actually, we should relax a bit about the apparently crazy things going on in the Democratic Party because most of the party doesn't support those things.
It also includes the 'ensure felons can vote' proposal we were discussing yesterday. Getting more convicted criminals involved in our politics does not seem like the obvious way to avoid corruption in our politics. There are things to like about HR1 -- the paper ballot requirement, say -- but as a whole it's an unsupportable power grab.
HR8 may intend what they claim, but its method is to ban me from selling guns to you, or you to me. I could only transfer my firearms to someone licensed by the Federal government, who would then operate under whatever controls the Federal government saw fit in transferring them to you (or, more to the point, not transferring them).
Still, I'll grant that these early bills represent priorities, and that some of them are somewhat less radical than the stuff being talked about loudly on Twitter.
Supporting their argument somewhat is this collection of anecdotes from vulnerable swing-district Democratic representatives who went home to talk to their constituents.
Yet many Americans remain worried that the Democrats are readying to Make America Unrecognizable, and the party shares some of the blame. They’ve hardly shouted themselves hoarse decrying socialism and have let it hinder the pragmatic idealists among them. If Democrats want the privilege of governing, they need to assert more effectively the values that center the party in every sense of the word.I can't agree that HR1 is encouraging. HR1 is mostly a wish-list of voting reform measures designed to hamper Republicans and help Democrats. It might be fairly said to "target corruption," but only in the sense that it is itself an attempt at corrupting the voting process in order to ensure preferred outcomes. One of the proposals, for example, is to eliminate the ability of states to cross-check voter registrations to ensure that someone isn't registered to vote twice. There can be no purpose for such a proposal except to enable people to be registered to vote twice, which strongly suggests an interest in getting people to vote twice.
There are encouraging signs. Take the realistic legislation proposed by the caucus since taking the majority. House Resolution 1 targets corruption, H.R. 2 focuses on infrastructure, and H.R. 3 aims to reduce prescription drug prices. The sole gun-control bill, H.R. 8, is a bipartisan initiative requiring violent-history checks for buyers, a policy supported by 92% of Americans and 69% of National Rifle Association members.
It also includes the 'ensure felons can vote' proposal we were discussing yesterday. Getting more convicted criminals involved in our politics does not seem like the obvious way to avoid corruption in our politics. There are things to like about HR1 -- the paper ballot requirement, say -- but as a whole it's an unsupportable power grab.
HR8 may intend what they claim, but its method is to ban me from selling guns to you, or you to me. I could only transfer my firearms to someone licensed by the Federal government, who would then operate under whatever controls the Federal government saw fit in transferring them to you (or, more to the point, not transferring them).
Still, I'll grant that these early bills represent priorities, and that some of them are somewhat less radical than the stuff being talked about loudly on Twitter.
Supporting their argument somewhat is this collection of anecdotes from vulnerable swing-district Democratic representatives who went home to talk to their constituents.
“In the big spectrum of everything, people are still deeply concerned about prescription drug prices... about the opportunity to get their kids education. They’re wanting to see Washington focused on immigration reform.”...So maybe there is something to be said for the proposition that they're much less radical than they present, and that there's some potential for pragmatic solutions on things like infrastructure. Dr. Peterson may be right about that; anyway, he is once again being radical by trying to calm the temperature and convince people they can find ways to work things out. That's an interesting approach for a man as radical as he is said to be.
And in another challenge for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her deputies, vulnerable members couldn’t escape questions on some of the key issues that have divided the new majority, such as “Medicare for All,” the “Green New Deal” and the party's response to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s criticism of Israel.... At Delgado’s event in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., a woman angrily complained about transgender rights while a man raised concerns about the anti-vax movement fueling a measles outbreak in the state....
[There is] “10 times the amount of interest” on issues like health care, immigration and student debt than on impeachment or investigations into Trump.... The true metric of success is whether or not we’re able to push infrastructure and health care.”...
Most of these swing district Democrats are reluctant to embrace impeachment. [Rep.] Van Drew flatly rejects it[.]
Thinking Things Through
This young man is AOC's chief of staff.
He's arguing that felons should have voting rights, even while in prison. His first argument was "What's the reason NOT to let incarcerated people vote? Shouldn't the people most affected by unjust laws have some say in electing people to change them?" That's a bit hasty, since you would need first to establish the injustice of the laws. If the laws are unjust, then people imprisoned for violating them should be pardoned, and the laws repealed. Are all laws unjust? Hm, I like that idea; I'm not sure if it holds up to serious analysis, but it sounds good.
So his second argument (top link in this post) is that the Constitution speaks of voting rights similarly to the right to keep and bear arms, i.e., 'in terms of not being abridged.' Well, yes, except:
1) All of those references are conditioned to limiting specific infringements, e.g., 'not on the account of sex; not on the account of race.' The implication is that other sorts of infringement are acceptable. In terms of setting the voting age at 18, for example, the amendment explicitly says that you cannot abridge the right to vote on account of age for those who have reached the age of 18; but that is, itself, an abridgment on the account of age for those under 18.
The 2nd Amendment is not conditional: "The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
2) As many commentators pointed out, taking this argument seriously would mean that even felons could not be disarmed while in prison. The 2nd Amendment is even more categorical than any of the voting rights amendments, so insofar as there's a parallel case for felons, you'd have to let them keep guns with them while they were in the Federal pen.
That's a more absolutist position on the 2A than I've ever advocated, but now that they've raised it... hey, you know, maybe I could go along with that too! Perhaps I've misjudged these young folks, with their bold ideas for repealing all laws and ensuring that no one is ever disarmed by the state.
He's arguing that felons should have voting rights, even while in prison. His first argument was "What's the reason NOT to let incarcerated people vote? Shouldn't the people most affected by unjust laws have some say in electing people to change them?" That's a bit hasty, since you would need first to establish the injustice of the laws. If the laws are unjust, then people imprisoned for violating them should be pardoned, and the laws repealed. Are all laws unjust? Hm, I like that idea; I'm not sure if it holds up to serious analysis, but it sounds good.
So his second argument (top link in this post) is that the Constitution speaks of voting rights similarly to the right to keep and bear arms, i.e., 'in terms of not being abridged.' Well, yes, except:
1) All of those references are conditioned to limiting specific infringements, e.g., 'not on the account of sex; not on the account of race.' The implication is that other sorts of infringement are acceptable. In terms of setting the voting age at 18, for example, the amendment explicitly says that you cannot abridge the right to vote on account of age for those who have reached the age of 18; but that is, itself, an abridgment on the account of age for those under 18.
The 2nd Amendment is not conditional: "The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
2) As many commentators pointed out, taking this argument seriously would mean that even felons could not be disarmed while in prison. The 2nd Amendment is even more categorical than any of the voting rights amendments, so insofar as there's a parallel case for felons, you'd have to let them keep guns with them while they were in the Federal pen.
That's a more absolutist position on the 2A than I've ever advocated, but now that they've raised it... hey, you know, maybe I could go along with that too! Perhaps I've misjudged these young folks, with their bold ideas for repealing all laws and ensuring that no one is ever disarmed by the state.
Who is "They"? Who is "Us"?
In response to Tom's post, below, I notice that it's about Romans killing Christians; Mark Steyn would like to underline that our current problem is not about Romans, or pagans, but more particular. There's something to that; the Romans viewed Christians as a challenge to their state power, until they came suddenly to view Christians as a reinforcing source of new state legitimacy. Neither of those things are what is going on now.
The irony, which Wretchard points out, is that the Easter attacks are reported to have been 'retaliation' for the Christchurch attacks in New Zealand: an attack carried out by a man who was neither a Kiwi nor a Christian. "The 'Easter Worshippers,'" Wretchard writes, "are just a designated target." Round up the usual suspects, as it were.
The irony, which Wretchard points out, is that the Easter attacks are reported to have been 'retaliation' for the Christchurch attacks in New Zealand: an attack carried out by a man who was neither a Kiwi nor a Christian. "The 'Easter Worshippers,'" Wretchard writes, "are just a designated target." Round up the usual suspects, as it were.
Clarification
"Weaker and robust" is a contradiction in terms, so you will have to guess at what the author meant to convey there, but the rest of it is interesting.
They've Been Killing Us for a Long Time
Today's saint of the day in the Orthodox Church is Martyr Sabbas Strateletes.
Quoting from the Orthodox Ancient Faith website:
Quoting from the Orthodox Ancient Faith website:
Martyr Sabbas Strateletes (“the General”) of Rome, and 70 soldiers with him (272)
April 24, 2019 Length: 0:58
He came from a noble Gothic family. Like St George, he was an officer in the imperial army. He lived a life of great purity, fasted greatly, and often visited imprisoned Christians. Because of this his Christian faith became known, and when he was summoned before the Emperor, he boldly confessed his faith. He was tortured in many ways, but emerged unharmed. Seeing this miracle, seventy of his fellow-soldiers confessed Christ and were beheaded at the Emperor's command. Sabbas himself was condemned to death by drowning, and gave his soul to God in 272.
Defensive Gun Use and the CDC
Indeed, the CDC study, which the federal agency conducted from 1996 to 1998, found there are 2.46 million defensive gun uses in the U.S. each year.... "[The]CDC's results, then, imply that guns were used defensively by victims about 3.6 times as often as they were used offensively by criminals," [Klek] writes.
Stoking "Far Right Anger"
The Washington Post warns that the Sri Lanka bombing is stoking "far right anger in the West," where people think -- for some strange reason -- that "Christianity is under attack."
You'd think that people not on the far right could spare a little anger over this.
I find it interesting that they cite this CSIS study of terrorist incidents, finding that most of them have Muslim victims. That's all very well, but in a year and a half this study captured only 28,031 deaths. If there are 100,000 Christians being killed annually worldwide, the problem is one of definitions: which set of murders are making it into the study? Christians may be the most persecuted religious group in the world right now in terms of violence. It may also be the most persecuted faith in nonviolent ways, according to this Pew study.
Maybe we could get some mid-stream, middle-of-the-road, moderate types to join the chorus. This shouldn't be a partisan issue, should it?
You'd think that people not on the far right could spare a little anger over this.
I find it interesting that they cite this CSIS study of terrorist incidents, finding that most of them have Muslim victims. That's all very well, but in a year and a half this study captured only 28,031 deaths. If there are 100,000 Christians being killed annually worldwide, the problem is one of definitions: which set of murders are making it into the study? Christians may be the most persecuted religious group in the world right now in terms of violence. It may also be the most persecuted faith in nonviolent ways, according to this Pew study.
Maybe we could get some mid-stream, middle-of-the-road, moderate types to join the chorus. This shouldn't be a partisan issue, should it?
Forsworn Oathbreakers
What happens if you break an oath in the United States? If you are forsworn of your oath of naturalization, which requires abjuring all foreign allegiance and bearing true allegiance to America instead, is there a process by which your citizenship can be revoked?
If you are forsworn of your oath of office, you can be impeached or recalled, although it rarely happens. We require a lot of oaths of office, but it doesn't seem as if they come with any means of enforcement. I think once honor served as a kind of method of enforcement, as being known as a forsworn oathbreaker would have been seen as shameful enough that few would dare court it. Now, though, that system seems to have failed. What is left?
If you are forsworn of your oath of office, you can be impeached or recalled, although it rarely happens. We require a lot of oaths of office, but it doesn't seem as if they come with any means of enforcement. I think once honor served as a kind of method of enforcement, as being known as a forsworn oathbreaker would have been seen as shameful enough that few would dare court it. Now, though, that system seems to have failed. What is left?
The Martyrs of Easter
In Sri Lanka, bombs targeting churches on Easter have killed more than two hundred. They join around a hundred thousand Christian martyrs a year, which is to say that today's death toll is repeated every single day, on average. You just don't hear about it.
A few days ago Tom was asking whether the Church could offer moral clarity to its members any longer. It cannot, if it cannot stand up for its moral principles. It has not only failed to protect the innocent within its own arms, it has sheltered criminals who preyed upon the weakest children. It has not only failed to protect the faithful abroad, it has barely mentioned them as they are slaughtered every day and every hour around the globe.
Raymond Lull, another martyr, knew what was needed.
A few days ago Tom was asking whether the Church could offer moral clarity to its members any longer. It cannot, if it cannot stand up for its moral principles. It has not only failed to protect the innocent within its own arms, it has sheltered criminals who preyed upon the weakest children. It has not only failed to protect the faithful abroad, it has barely mentioned them as they are slaughtered every day and every hour around the globe.
Raymond Lull, another martyr, knew what was needed.
Then if a knight use not his office, he is contrary to his order and to the beginning of chivalry. *** The office of a knight is to maintain and defend the holy catholic faith by which God the Father sent his Son into the world to take human flesh in the glorious Virgin, our Lady Saint Mary; and for to honor and multiply the faith, suffered in this world many travails, despites, and anguishous death. Then in like wise as our Lord God hath chosen the clerks for to maintain the holy catholic faith with scripture and reasons against the miscreaunts and unbelievers, in like wise God of glory hath chosen knights because that by force of arms they vanquish the miscreaunts, which daily labor for to destroy holy church, and such knights God holdeth them for his friends honored in the world and in that other when they keep and maintain the faith by the which we intend to be saved....The Church has cast away the sword that Jesus came to bring. If it will not pick it up again, only God can save it.
The office of a knight is to maintain and defend women, widows, and orphans, and men diseased and not powerful ne strong. For like as custom and reason is that the greatest and most might help the feeble and less, and that they have recourse to the great; right so is the order of chivalry, because she is great, honorable, and mighty, be in succor and in aid of them that been under him and less mighty and less honored than he is....
The office of a knight is also to search for thieves, robbers, and other wicked folk, for to make them to be punished. For in like wise as the ax is made for to hew and destroy the evil trees, in like wise is the office of a knight established for to punish the trespassers and delinquents.
Ruining Masterpieces to Hurt Feelings
What if we intentionally rebuilt Notre Dame not to restore its beauty, nor even to improve its beauty, but to destroy its beauty because it will really upset conservatives because they love old things? We'll call them the 'alt-right' to make it OK.
Two on the Report
I'm going to minimize this because there's too much of it elsewhere, but here are two unexpected outlets to have filed such pro-Trump pieces.
The New York Times ran an op-ed by one of the editors of American Greatness.
The second is Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept, an uneven publication but not generally a friendly one for the administration. He writes that 'Mueller did not merely reject the conspiracy theories, he obliterated them.'
Apologies are indeed in order. None shall be forthcoming, I suppose.
The New York Times ran an op-ed by one of the editors of American Greatness.
The problem is that the Mueller investigation, as Mr. Barr explained, “did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those schemes.”He calls for an apology, but exactly as we knew would happen the Times has simply skipped on to re-fighting whether or not the "obstruction" neither Mueller nor the AG felt fit to charge is an impeachable offense. It'll be as if Russian Collusion was never a topic of discussion; what really matters is the process crime that might have been created into the investigation of whatever-it-was-I-forget.
Mr. Schiff must know this. He must have known it for a long time. But he has persisted in slandering innocent people for personal political gain. His selfishness has led to a level of civil discord and political acrimony not seen since the late 1960s. That is what I call immoral, unethical, unpatriotic and yes, corrupt.
...
And then there is the Kool-Aid brigade. These are the people outside of politics, the people who couldn’t wait to hear what Rachel Maddow had to say, who believed every breathless prediction on cable news that “new revelations could spell the end for Trump,” and who shared these nuggets with a mixture of indignation and ecstasy on social media.
The second is Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept, an uneven publication but not generally a friendly one for the administration. He writes that 'Mueller did not merely reject the conspiracy theories, he obliterated them.'
Mueller, in addition to concluding that evidence was insufficient to charge any American with crimes relating to Russian election interference, also stated emphatically in numerous instances that there was no evidence – not merely that there was insufficient evidence to obtain a criminal conviction – that key prongs of this three-year-old conspiracy theory actually happened....I should be rather embarrassed if I had been loudly asserting that someone was a traitor and a spy, only to discover that absolutely no evidence existed to support the theory. It's one thing to have gotten the wager wrong; intelligence work is often about judging that a thing is more likely to be true than not, or even just sufficiently likely to be true to justify taking some steps to guard against it. Here, though, what is being found is that there's literally nothing to support the idea at all -- yet they raced right off the cliff chasing it.
With regard to Facebook ads and Twitter posts from the Russia-based Internet Research Agency, for example, Mueller could not have been more blunt: “The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation” (emphasis added). Note that this exoneration includes not only Trump campaign officials but all Americans...
Regarding one of the most-cited pieces of evidence by Trump/Russia conspiracists – that Russia tried once Trump was nominated to shape his foreign policy posture toward Russia – Mueller concluded that there is simply no evidence to support it...
As for the overarching maximalist conspiracy – that Trump and/or members of his family and campaign were controlled by or working for the Russian government – Mueller concluded that this belief simply lacked the evidence necessary to prosecute anyone for it[.]
Apologies are indeed in order. None shall be forthcoming, I suppose.
Here's some good news
Middlebury College besmirched its own honor by canceling an appearance by Polish philosopher Ryszard Legutko, for the usual tiresome SJW snowflake reasons, and some alarming new ones, including concerns that faculty would retaliate against students who showed insufficient wokeness. Then a small miracle happened: a professor agreed to host the proscribed speaker for a small class if all of his students agreed by secret ballot. A number of other students got wind of it and attended as well. A free discussion followed in which skeptical students heard Mr. Legutko out and argued with him respectfully.
“During the days of communist totalitarianism, scholars from the West traveled to Eastern Bloc nations to give underground lectures and seminars,” said Keegan Callanan, who directs the Alexander Hamilton Forum and invited the Polish politician. “On Wednesday, Mr. Legutko returned the favor.”
Quit doing your charity wrong
More and more confirmations coming that I had my finger on the pulse on Monday: the Yellow Jackets are rioting in rage over the generosity of bad rich people to the Notre Dame rebuilding effort instead of the Yellow Jacket priorities. The argument took longer to surface than I predicted, but the devolution into street violence was faster.
Feeling confused, might confirm prior positions, idk
Trying to remember what collusion looks like. Wait, are we still using that word?
Good Friday
If you go into a church on Good Friday -- a Catholic one, anyway -- the altar is bare, and all is draped in darkness. God is dead.
The old royalist saying was, "The king is dead: Long live the king." But this isn't quite that, although that mimicks this as well as a mortal human royalty can mimic the true royalty of the divine.
God is dead. Long live... God. Not another God, or a different God, but the same God who decided to pass through death as a kind of experience of his creation. As a way of becoming closer to his creatures. We make much of the suffering, but it is still a kind of play. It is a play he chose, for reasons of his own, a play meant to cheer us. It might even make us merry, to think of the cheating of death and the stealing of the sting of sins.
It is the darkest day of the liturgical year. Revel in it.
The old royalist saying was, "The king is dead: Long live the king." But this isn't quite that, although that mimicks this as well as a mortal human royalty can mimic the true royalty of the divine.
God is dead. Long live... God. Not another God, or a different God, but the same God who decided to pass through death as a kind of experience of his creation. As a way of becoming closer to his creatures. We make much of the suffering, but it is still a kind of play. It is a play he chose, for reasons of his own, a play meant to cheer us. It might even make us merry, to think of the cheating of death and the stealing of the sting of sins.
It is the darkest day of the liturgical year. Revel in it.
We just want to dip our beak
Well, it's a small encouragement that it took four or five days instead of four of five hours, but the WaPo does deliver. (The link, however, is to HotAir, no worries.) "If you can afford to help the Cathedral, stop telling us you can't afford to solve the 'social emergency.'" Never give to support the things that are important to you! Always give to support the things that are important to me! And above all, never ask ME to give.
March Through the Institutions
This finding is plausible in my experience.
It's from a fairly prestigious journal, too, and that is encouraging. It is good that they are not so far gone that they cannot admit the problem -- or perhaps they are beginning to come around to the recovery phase, and are now able to admit that they have a problem.
It's from a fairly prestigious journal, too, and that is encouraging. It is good that they are not so far gone that they cannot admit the problem -- or perhaps they are beginning to come around to the recovery phase, and are now able to admit that they have a problem.
A Short Film on the Green New Deal
Narrated by Ms. Occasio-Cortez.
If you want to get to the positive argument, you can skip the first 3:27. Those are just idle fantasies about glorious diversity, plus a recap of how her opponents are all evil liars motivated solely by money.
After that, it turns out... well, see for yourself. Apparently there's just as much money to be made planting mangroves as in petro-engineering.
If you want to get to the positive argument, you can skip the first 3:27. Those are just idle fantasies about glorious diversity, plus a recap of how her opponents are all evil liars motivated solely by money.
After that, it turns out... well, see for yourself. Apparently there's just as much money to be made planting mangroves as in petro-engineering.
First Things: "Why I Became Muslim"
An interesting essay by Jacob Williams, an Englishman who turned from Anglicanism to Islam. Here, below the fold, is the introduction:
Understood, Congressman
So, if elected, your plan is not to seize guns from "law-abiding citizens," because your plan is first to turn us into felons. Got it.
There are insurmountable Constitutional as well as practical and legal problems with this approach, but at least I know for sure just where you stand.
Now go away. A man who would run on a pledge to convert tens of millions of law-abiding citizens into felons, for the express purpose of voiding a Constitutional right, is unfit for any office of public trust.
Changing Notre Dame
Rolling Stone fulfills Tex's prophecies.
Yet the damage wrought by the Notre Dame fire has also raised important questions about the cathedral’s symbolic significance in an increasingly divided France, and how to rebuild (or which version of the cathedral should be rebuilt) going forward — and in some ways, these questions are one and the same....
for some people in France, Notre Dame has also served as a deep-seated symbol of resentment, a monument to a deeply flawed institution and an idealized Christian European France that arguably never existed in the first place. “The building was so overburdened with meaning that its burning feels like an act of liberation,” says Patricio del Real, an architecture historian at Harvard University. If nothing else, the cathedral has been viewed by some as a stodgy reminder of “the old city — the embodiment of the Paris of stone and faith — just as the Eiffel Tower exemplifies the Paris of modernity, joie de vivre and change,” Michael Kimmelmann wrote for the New York Times....
some architectural historians like Brigniani believe that would be complicated, given the many stages of the cathedral’s evolution. “The question becomes, which Notre Dame are you actually rebuilding?,” he says. Harwood, too, believes that it would be a mistake to try to recreate the edifice as it once stood, as LeDuc did more than 150 years ago. Any rebuilding should be a reflection not of an old France, or the France that never was — a non-secular, white European France — but a reflection of the France of today, a France that is currently in the making. “The idea that you can recreate the building is naive. It is to repeat past errors, category errors of thought, and one has to imagine that if anything is done to the building it has to be an expression of what we want — the Catholics of France, the French people — want. What is an expression of who we are now? What does it represent, who is it for?,” he says.
Chesterton on Gothic Architecture
I'm not sure about this idea of cutting Chesterton to fit Twitter, but I suppose it's better than people not reading Chesterton at all. (And it's certainly one of the best things on Twitter.)
If you'd rather read it in fuller form, you may do so here.
Also this essay, on the same subject but more lyrical.
If you'd rather read it in fuller form, you may do so here.
Also this essay, on the same subject but more lyrical.
Mouth invasion
This brief post could have been about the first Atlantic article I picked up this morning, concerning lab-vat-grown meatlike substances--which, who knows, may turn out to be palatable some day)--but it's actually about weird dentists who overtreat us with expensive procedures.
When we first moved here, I had been receiving excellent care from a dentist in Houston whom I trusted. On my first visit to a local dentist I was disconcerted to be advised to get two expensive crowns on teeth that weren't hurting. My first instinct was to say go ahead, having always been a little skeptical of doctors but not of dentists. Somehow, though, the rush and pressure from the new dentist encouraged me to call my old one, who told me flatly: no prophylactic crowns on vague evidence.
The new dentist was uncontrollably hostile about my changed decision, so I quit seeing him. He went out business not long afterwards. I found another local dentist, who has given me the excellent service I was used to in Houston. Maybe even better, as he has these wonderful new flexible titanium drills and sensing equipment that make a root canal a painless procedure completed in 45 minutes. He doesn't do root canals unless a tooth is extremely painful, with the sharp sensitivity to heat and cold that unmistakably signals root nerve damage.
Never hesitate to get a second opinion when a dentist proposes something dramatic and expensive, especially if you have dental insurance, which is catnip to some charlatans.
When we first moved here, I had been receiving excellent care from a dentist in Houston whom I trusted. On my first visit to a local dentist I was disconcerted to be advised to get two expensive crowns on teeth that weren't hurting. My first instinct was to say go ahead, having always been a little skeptical of doctors but not of dentists. Somehow, though, the rush and pressure from the new dentist encouraged me to call my old one, who told me flatly: no prophylactic crowns on vague evidence.
The new dentist was uncontrollably hostile about my changed decision, so I quit seeing him. He went out business not long afterwards. I found another local dentist, who has given me the excellent service I was used to in Houston. Maybe even better, as he has these wonderful new flexible titanium drills and sensing equipment that make a root canal a painless procedure completed in 45 minutes. He doesn't do root canals unless a tooth is extremely painful, with the sharp sensitivity to heat and cold that unmistakably signals root nerve damage.
Never hesitate to get a second opinion when a dentist proposes something dramatic and expensive, especially if you have dental insurance, which is catnip to some charlatans.
Something's Missing
The United States Post Office has issued a new stamp honoring the Doughboys that went "over there" and helped to win "the Great War". The artwork is nice, depicting a biplane, some barbed wire, some smoke, and a proud Doughboy, ready for action clutching in front of him a... flag. Wait, what? No rifle?
That pose also looks suspiciously as if you would normally expect a rifle in his hands in that position- not to mention that's not really how to treat a flag of the United States. Anyway, this piece will tell you about how no one from USPS wants to talk about how this was made, and bonus- it's a well written piece that was a pleasure to read. It's really getting ridiculous how these people really think it's their place to decide what we see and where, and on our dime no less.
That pose also looks suspiciously as if you would normally expect a rifle in his hands in that position- not to mention that's not really how to treat a flag of the United States. Anyway, this piece will tell you about how no one from USPS wants to talk about how this was made, and bonus- it's a well written piece that was a pleasure to read. It's really getting ridiculous how these people really think it's their place to decide what we see and where, and on our dime no less.
The Pages Are White, Too
Why are our libraries so full of books? A critical essay from, I kid you not, Library Journal.
Marie Kondo has been in the zeitgeist for awhile, but especially now that she has a Netflix series. I saw the first episode awhile back and it reminded me of how having a space clean of clutter and mess really helps the mind feel clearer. Marie Kondo’s spiritual approach to objects also made me reflect upon our relationships with objects and why we feel so much attachment to inanimate things. Why can’t we just let those things go?...It's so obvious that I wonder why no one thought of it before. The way to improve our libraries is to clear out the collection of books!
Collections are representations of what librarians (or faculty) deem to be authoritative knowledge and as we know, this field and educational institutions, historically, and currently, have been sites of whiteness.
Library collections continue to promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence and the fact that they are physically taking up space in our libraries.
Rebirth
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris was built out of stone and wood and glass without electricity or computers. It was not built by committee, or consultants or according to state regulations. It was built by a culture superior to our own. And we know it.A bold essay on what it will take to rebuild.
While you are there, read about the Fire Brigade Chaplain who went into the fire and saved the Crown of Thorns.
La Mort De Notre Dame
The Cathedral in Paris, of course, for her namesake is immortal. All the same, a grave tragedy this Easter week.
UPDATE: "Some of Notre Dame's centuries-old relics are safe despite the devastating fire at the in Paris cathedral Monday. Just days before the fire, workers carefully removed more than a dozen medieval statues from the cathedral's spire as part of a a $6.8 million renovation project."
I was actually interested in the formal "relics," which include an alleged piece of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns. But it is nice to hear that some of the medieval statuary will have survived.
UPDATE: Songs outside the shell.
Sometimes it is the loss of a thing that reminds you of its value. If the faith endures, the cathedral will return. If it does not, the cathedral would have been lost soon enough anyway. If this moment causes reflection and a return, then this fire like a wildfire may prove fertilizing. The Church knows the way out of the grave; and, after all, it is springtime.
UPDATE: "Some of Notre Dame's centuries-old relics are safe despite the devastating fire at the in Paris cathedral Monday. Just days before the fire, workers carefully removed more than a dozen medieval statues from the cathedral's spire as part of a a $6.8 million renovation project."
I was actually interested in the formal "relics," which include an alleged piece of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns. But it is nice to hear that some of the medieval statuary will have survived.
UPDATE: Songs outside the shell.
Sometimes it is the loss of a thing that reminds you of its value. If the faith endures, the cathedral will return. If it does not, the cathedral would have been lost soon enough anyway. If this moment causes reflection and a return, then this fire like a wildfire may prove fertilizing. The Church knows the way out of the grave; and, after all, it is springtime.
Sweet Mental Revenge
I'm really enjoying being on Nancy Pelosi's side all the time. First it was 'no on impeachment,' and now it's a hard no on socialism.
Enjoy those freshmen, dear Madam Speaker.
Enjoy those freshmen, dear Madam Speaker.
Doubleplusungoodspeak
This is one way to counteract the last decade's ballooning scandals about writers and leaders who were offered awards or speaking engagements, only to have them abruptly withdrawn when their heresies were uncovered: hold your own awards and speaking engagements. Create your own schools, while you're at it.
A Best Family Anthem
Mat Best and, I gather, his father put this piece together.
I have a few more principles than that, but I do think that encapsulates a red line. That's the point at which fighting back becomes immediately necessary, because without the tools it will be that much harder.
I have a few more principles than that, but I do think that encapsulates a red line. That's the point at which fighting back becomes immediately necessary, because without the tools it will be that much harder.
Resist validation
The New Yorker is upset that the media and the Dems fell for the White House's cynical framing of the immigrant dilemma:
Like the media, Pelosi, whose district covers the sanctuary city of San Francisco, didn’t directly challenge the unspoken but clear premise that something terrible would happen to these cities if immigrants came to them.
Such is the framing of the issue by the White House, and the framing of the story by the media, that no one had the one right response to this idea: “But this is the very point of a sanctuary city! Immigrants, regardless of status, are safe in them. Bring them here! They are welcome.”You know, that's right. Neither Pelosi nor the media made that argument. I'm perplexed now.
Incitement to Violence
If quoting you directly, in context, constitutes an incitement to violence... why would that be the case? What would you have to have said that merely quoting you would put your life in danger?
Dan Crenshaw, arguably the best man in Congress, is facing a charge to that effect.
You probably know the story. It has to do with a woman who came here as a child refugee, was taken in to our country, given every privilege and honor including elevation to high office. In return, she never seems to speak of her adopted nation -- we adopted her, I mean; I'm not at all sure that she adopted us -- without censure and criticism. And, in the event, she went to a fundraiser for a named but unindicted co-conspirator supporting the terrorist group Hamas, where she spoke dismissively of the 9/11 events.
I won't mention her name, since I wouldn't want to incite anyone. Some woman. Let's leave it at that.
Well, and she's a Congresswoman. She took the oath, for whatever that's worth any more. She took the oath of citizenship, too, for whatever that was worth to her.
Towards the end of her speeches, she sometimes says it was worth something. I'd be more inclined to believe it if the rest of the speech also reflected a heartfelt love of the nation, the Constitution, and our shared history and values.
Now, Dan Crenshaw, on the other hand: there's a man whose commitment seems clear. He enlisted in the Navy, suffered the hardships of becoming and remaining a Navy SEAL, served in Afghanistan, lost an eye to a VBIED. Because he is a conservative, he went on to mockery by our moral betters at Saturday Night Live; he responded to this with good humor and decency, in a way that was good for the Republic. Then he won a seat in Congress, where I don't doubt that he takes his oath very seriously.
He's the bad guy, though. You're supposed to get that.
What has become of the nation into which I was born? Where did it go, I ask, as once the wielder of a thunderbolt sword asked after his elvish wife.
Dan Crenshaw, arguably the best man in Congress, is facing a charge to that effect.
You probably know the story. It has to do with a woman who came here as a child refugee, was taken in to our country, given every privilege and honor including elevation to high office. In return, she never seems to speak of her adopted nation -- we adopted her, I mean; I'm not at all sure that she adopted us -- without censure and criticism. And, in the event, she went to a fundraiser for a named but unindicted co-conspirator supporting the terrorist group Hamas, where she spoke dismissively of the 9/11 events.
I won't mention her name, since I wouldn't want to incite anyone. Some woman. Let's leave it at that.
Well, and she's a Congresswoman. She took the oath, for whatever that's worth any more. She took the oath of citizenship, too, for whatever that was worth to her.
Towards the end of her speeches, she sometimes says it was worth something. I'd be more inclined to believe it if the rest of the speech also reflected a heartfelt love of the nation, the Constitution, and our shared history and values.
Now, Dan Crenshaw, on the other hand: there's a man whose commitment seems clear. He enlisted in the Navy, suffered the hardships of becoming and remaining a Navy SEAL, served in Afghanistan, lost an eye to a VBIED. Because he is a conservative, he went on to mockery by our moral betters at Saturday Night Live; he responded to this with good humor and decency, in a way that was good for the Republic. Then he won a seat in Congress, where I don't doubt that he takes his oath very seriously.
He's the bad guy, though. You're supposed to get that.
What has become of the nation into which I was born? Where did it go, I ask, as once the wielder of a thunderbolt sword asked after his elvish wife.
So too I, but not yet.
[H]e had searched by the stream by which she had prayed to the stones, and the pool where she prayed to the stars; he had called her name up every tower, and had called it wide in the dark, and had had no answer but echo; and so he had come at last to the witch Ziroonderel."Whither?" he said, saying no more than that, that the boy might not know his fears. Yet Orion knew.
And Ziroonderel all mournfully shook her head. "The way of the leaves," she said. "The way of all beauty."
Semantics
A lot of freaking out over AG Barr's casual statement that there was spying on the Trump campaign, and the only question is whether it was the legitimate or illegitimate sort. As RealClearInvestigations notes:
So there we have it with all the decisive logic of a Socratic dialogue: The FBI could not possibly have spied on the Trump campaign because bureau lingo includes neither the noun “spy” nor the verb “to spy.” Whatever informants may have been employed, whatever tools of surveillance may have been utilized, the FBI did not spy on the Trump campaign – didn’t spy by definition, as the bureau doesn’t use the term (except, of course, to describe the very same activities when undertaken by foreigners).
Roger Scruton Apologizes
The famous intellectual and critic Roger Scruton was recently embroiled in one of those controversies about saying some allegedly offensive things. Today, he apologizes:
Not for the first time I am forced to acknowledge what a mistake it is to address young leftists as though they were responsible human beings.The most egregious of these was the editing "for space" of his comments on China, in which he warned that the government was trying to impose a dangerous homogeneity on the populace, and that this gave the society a frightening aspect. What they actually quoted him as saying was simply that it was scary how Chinese people are all alike: "each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one."
Measuring school performance
It's an enduring topic, how to assess the performance of education. At least two ways that might make sense are improvement in performance on standardized tests per tuition dollar, and improvement in lifetime earnings per tuition dollar. By both measures, these authors claim charter schools leave public schools in the dust in eight U.S. cities.
Racism and the minimum wage
Thomas Sowell is always worth reading.
In the United States, as the minimum wage rate specified in the law began to be raised, beginning in the 1950s, so as to catch up with inflation and then keep up with inflation, the minimum wage law became effective in practice once again — and a racial gap in unemployment rates opened up and expanded.
As a black teenager, I was lucky enough to be looking for jobs when the minimum wage law was rendered ineffective by inflation. I was also lucky enough to have gone through New York schools at a time when they still had high educational standards.
Bibi
Echoes:
Pundits are already declaring that [Netanyahu's] government will fall sooner rather than later. Perhaps. But in the meantime, consider: Decisiveness, security-mindedness, bluntness, and economic well-being trumped political correctness, character assassination, and hand-outs in Israel. The Democratic Party should take note.
Now THAT"S how to Honor a Hero
This is an old story, but it's new to me, and since I don't recall seeing it here before, I'm going to go ahead and assume it'll be new to you too.
If you recall the London Bridge knife attack terrorists of a few years ago, you probably remember Roy Larner. He's the fellow who famously stood up, walked toward the attackers when they broke into the restaurant, and yelled at them to draw attention away from the other patrons, and then engaged them, deterring them but sustaining several wounds in the process.
Well, when Frequency Beer Works heard this story, they thought he deserved to be honored, and so they didn't just offer to buy him a beer (or several), but created a brew just to honor his actions that day. Here's the label:
I think they did a nice job with the graphics- particularly the nicked up St. George's Cross.
So kudos to Frequency Beer Works for doing this. It was a great idea.
If you recall the London Bridge knife attack terrorists of a few years ago, you probably remember Roy Larner. He's the fellow who famously stood up, walked toward the attackers when they broke into the restaurant, and yelled at them to draw attention away from the other patrons, and then engaged them, deterring them but sustaining several wounds in the process.
Well, when Frequency Beer Works heard this story, they thought he deserved to be honored, and so they didn't just offer to buy him a beer (or several), but created a brew just to honor his actions that day. Here's the label:
I think they did a nice job with the graphics- particularly the nicked up St. George's Cross.
So kudos to Frequency Beer Works for doing this. It was a great idea.
Honesty Abroad
It's interesting to me what Democratic establishment figures like Obama and Clinton say about immigration when they go to Europe.
Obama made the comments during a two-hour town hall meeting in Berlin, which hundreds of young leaders from across Europe attended.Ms. Clinton said something similar a while back.
"Immigration issues are driving a lot of the political turmoil here in Europe and in my own country," Obama said in a shared video of the talk.
Urging those in the crowd to view those who expressed opposition to immigration with empathy, Obama said: "We can't label everyone who is disturbed by migration as racist.
"If you're going to have a coherent, cohesive society, then everybody has to have some agreed-upon rules. And there are going to have to be some accommodations that everybody makes. And that includes the people who are newcomers. The question is, are those fair?" Obama said.
"Should we want to encourage newcomers to learn the language of the country that they're moving to? Of course," he continued. "Does that mean that they can never use their own language? No, of course it doesn't mean that, but it's not racist to say, 'Ah, if you're going to be here then you should learn the language of the country that you just arrived at because we need to have some sort of common language in which all of us can work, and learn and understand each other."
“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Clinton said, speaking as part of a series of interviews with senior centrist political figures about the rise of populists, particularly on the right, in Europe and the Americas.Yet somehow when they talk here, even the simple enforcement of existing law is nothing but racist and evil.
“I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message – ‘we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support’ – because if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic.”
Alive, But Ready for Rebirth
The Western as a genre. I think I may have posted this one before, but I can't recall. Rather than going back and trying to figure it out, well, it's a good piece. If you missed it the first time, if there was a first time, here it is again.
Hate Music
...featuring Johnny Cash.
My favorite thing about this is the "Disney" logo on the bottom corner.
UPDATE: If you like Cash with puppets, this one's good too.
My favorite thing about this is the "Disney" logo on the bottom corner.
UPDATE: If you like Cash with puppets, this one's good too.
"Border Hardliners"
We are on track for a million violators being caught this year, but sure, only "hardliners" would have a problem with the performance of the outgoing Homeland Security Secretary.
Lest We Forget
I, like probably most of you, am well past the median age for American citizens, which was 38 in 2017. Thus, the median American was born in 1981, and was too young to have political awareness in 1991 when the USSR collapsed. More and more, I notice that those who came aware after the Cold War do not remember the truth about Communism.
The Wall Street Journal in 2016 asked: “Is Communism Cool? Ask a Millennial.” Last year MIT Press published Communism for Kids and Teen Vogue ran an excited apologia for Communism. Tablet announced, with some concern, a “Cool Kid Communist Comeback.” On Twitter, there is new trend of people giving themselves communist-themed names: “Gothicommunist,” “Trans-Communist,” “Commie-Bitch,” “Eco-Communist.” The hammer and sickle flag has been re-appearing on campuses, at protests and on social media.Wretchard today is warning about the Cultural Revolution, which our own young left seems to be trying its best to kick off here. If they haven't heard of Mao, they haven't heard of the Cultural Revolution either; and they don't know where this process leads. Which makes them, of course, easily led there.
How could we have forgotten?
A poll in the UK by The New Culture Forum from 2015 showed that 70 percent of British people under the age of 24 had never heard of Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung, while out of the 30 percent who had heard of him, 10 percent did not associate him with crimes against humanity. Chairman Mao’s communist regime was responsible for the deaths of between 30 to 70 million Chinese, making him the biggest genocidal killer of the 20th century, above Stalin and Hitler.
One of the reasons Mao’s genocides are not widely known about is because they are complex... it is precisely the ambiguity over whether Mao’s Communist Party was responsible for 30, 50 or 70 million deaths that leads to internet users giving up on the subject.
National Tartan Day
It was this day in the year of our Lord 1320 that the Declaration of Arbroath was signed.
[Robert the Bruce, and not Edward like the Pope thought], too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.Long live that ideal of freedom.
Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
Deep Calls to Deep
The title of this review, of a period of time after WWII when religious conversions were running high, is "Shallow Calls to Shallow." It's a reference to an old Latin phrase, which literally translated is as it appears in the title of this post.
But as often is true, you have to go to the original to grasp what is really being said. It isn't "deep," not in the sense that we use the word now if we should say that a man or a woman is "deep."
The original Latin is this: Abyssus Abyssum Invocat.
In the Proverbs, it refers to the depths of the oceans, unimaginable and impenetrable. In later Latin use, it refers as you would expect to Hell. The word "invocation" has come to us with powerful, magical connotations.
By contrast, maybe the shallow isn't so bad. It's weak, but weakness means that it lacks power. Power is not an unalloyed good.
But as often is true, you have to go to the original to grasp what is really being said. It isn't "deep," not in the sense that we use the word now if we should say that a man or a woman is "deep."
The original Latin is this: Abyssus Abyssum Invocat.
In the Proverbs, it refers to the depths of the oceans, unimaginable and impenetrable. In later Latin use, it refers as you would expect to Hell. The word "invocation" has come to us with powerful, magical connotations.
By contrast, maybe the shallow isn't so bad. It's weak, but weakness means that it lacks power. Power is not an unalloyed good.
Whistleblower reward
A Duke lab assistant (or perhaps his lawyers) stands to receive more than $30MM for taking on a powerful university researcher's federally financed research fraud. He says he tried to get federal prosecutors to handle the matter, but when they refused, he filed a qui tam action in the name of taxpayers. Under the applicable statute, that means he gets to keep a third of the settlement Duke just agreed to pay.
Makes you wonder how much other research fraud whistleblower money is lying around on the ground. The hotcoldwetdry money alone, let alone the dietary research slush funds, must be mind-boggling.
A Vulgar Dignity
Looking back at Quillette again this morning to re-read the book review, I noticed also this woman's expression of a very different sort of experience with sexual banter.
What I learned that summer was that the adult world was often about sex. I learned that I didn’t need to be afraid of it. I learned that I had a lot more power over men than I originally thought—not simply because, as a cute young thing, I was awakening to my own feminine sexuality and realized how keenly the guys wanted me to like them, but because I had more power than I realized to reject their advances, to assert my sense of sexual agency not because it was a private and protected part of me, but precisely because it was so openly commented upon.There's a lot to what she says, and no reason to dismiss her experience from the fact that others may not share it.
What I realized, too, is that these exchanges weren’t offensive, they were playful; that they weren’t demeaning, but led to mutual respect. It was the very indecency of the back of house culture that made working at that 24-hour restaurant a tolerable job, and it was all the vulgar insults of the workplace that gave a kind of gritty dignity to our work there. Working there one became part of family. Flouting the rules that govern social niceties, which had to be observed carefully in the restaurant dining room, was the initiation into the clan. What I’ve learned since that summer is that the culture of that greasy spoon kitchen has a rich anthropology; it’s the type of community that populates the taverns of Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, and it functions in direct opposition to officialdom.
Moral instincts all figured out
Duffle Blog makes easier going of the problem "The Goodness Paradox" wrestles with:
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — Gesturing the “peace” sign and telling fellow fighters that he was “totally done with this insurgent stuff, man,” hippie Taliban defector Ahmad Khan got incredibly stoned, sources confirmed today.
“Bro, did you ever just think, like, what are we doing it all for?” asked the totally lit former IED maker seconds before being stoned to death by his compatriots. “Like, did you ever think, what if we’re the bad guys and the Americans are the good guys? Or what if we’re actually both the good guys but we just don’t understand each other? Like, whoa. Damn, I’m so high.”
* * *
Khan’s parents attempted to convince the Taliban that he was going through a phase, and that within a few months they would make sure he finishes his classes at Berkeley and gets a job at his father’s law firm.
Murphy's Law
It's not every day you meet a Vietnamese Murphy, but the lady has a good point.
"I am offended by this whole conversation about socialism," Murphy said, according to the Washington Examiner. "The idea that in the greatest democracy, the greatest capitalist system in the world, we're having casual conversation about socialism, offends me."
Murphy also called herself a "proud capitalist."
"It is the system that built us the greatest nation and the greatest economy in the world. Sure, we have to fix the inequities that exist in our system. We have to make sure everybody, no matter what zip code they're born in, has a fair shot," Murphy continued. "But it is not the moment to undo the whole system and embrace something that Americans have spent blood and treasure fighting to save other countries from."
Murphy, who is of Vietnamese heritage, cited her experience growing up in a socialist country as her reason for opposing socialism.
A Fair Wager
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has reportedly led a chant of "death to America" and recently called for a separate state for black Americans, has made more controversial comment.....I wouldn't call for violence against a man like "Calypso Gene," so don't misunderstand me. I just want to point out that that's the kind of wager that the House tends to win.
"God does not love this world. God never sent Jesus to die for this world. Jesus died because he was 2,000 years too soon to bring about the end of the civilization of the Jews. He never was on a cross, there was no Calvary for that Jesus," Farrakhan said.
Instead, he said, Jesus's name would live until the one that came that he was prefigured for.
"The real story is what I tried to tell you from the beginning. It didn’t happen back there. It’s happening right while you’re alive looking at it," Farrakhan told the audience. "I represent the Messiah. I represent the Jesus and I am that Jesus. If I am not, take my life."
Quillette Reviews The Goodness Paradox
It's a dangerous publication reviewing a book with "a dangerous idea." Some of you will want to see what they think.
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