NBA To Assign 'Adversity Score' To Pudgy White Guys Who Want To Play Professional Basketball
Groot In Hot Water After Recent 'I Am Groot' Comments
Ocasio-Cortez Disappointed To Learn The 'Free Market' Isn't A Grocery Store Where You Don't Have To Pay For Anything
Amazing: Mueller's Statement Confirms Whatever You Already Believed About Trump
The Mellow Mushroom
The Mellow Mushroom is a pizza chain founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1974. In its youth all of its restaurants were Grateful Dead themed, but at this remove from the end of the Grateful Dead, it has expanded and employed a creative team designed to make each one unique. I was told tonight by the bartender about her favorite, which was themed on Alice in Wonderland; this one is the one I think of as "the Hobbit" Mellow Mushroom, for reasons that should be obvious. In Gainesville, Georgia, they have occupied an old mansion with stained glass windows and turned it into a masterpiece.
Pizza is an American dish, not much like the Italian namesake, with several regional styles especially including New York and Chicago (and Philly's 'tomato pie'). The Mellow Mushroom deserves to be numbered among this elite as the Southern variation on pizza. The dough is made from spring water and excellent wheat, and is chewy and buttery. Ingredients are numerous and thickly cut, preserving their flavor and texture even after cooking. They prefer a rich tomato sauce, but also make a white pizza named after the Beetles' album, and a good pesto. I've never had a bad one. The one pictured is a small half-House Special, half-Pacific Rim (with both pineapple and jalapenos, as well as thick, applewood-smoked bacon).
They generally also have an ace beer selection, as if there wasn't enough to like about the place already. The wife tells me the salads are fantastic, but my appetite for research has not so far extended to them.
Roanoke to Blowing Rock
Today's ride was shorter than yesterday's, according to my decision to take it easy coming home. After the big, impressive rocks north of Roanoke, the Parkway levels off near the city where I spent last night. It then resumes a climb to the crest of the Blue Ridge, but the climb is steady and gentle and the ridge is wide enough that you might not think you were in the mountains at all for a long time. Several tiny towns, and a few pretty churches, bestride the route.
I spent some of today talking with other bikers returning, or going further out from, Rolling Thunder. One of the vets I met asked after the knife I was wearing, and then showed me the dagger he was carrying on a neck chain. I advised him of the local laws on the subject, so that he could avoid police trouble. His was a lot shorter than mine, but NC is an open-carry state with one of those stupid knife laws that bans concealed knives by name: dirk, dagger, Bowie, etc. I'm working on rationalizing the laws, but I think it will be a difficult process. My first attempt got good responses from legislators, but didn't go anywhere practically.
There's a lodge at Peaks of Otter that looks like it might be fun for a future trip. There's also a "Northwestern Trading Post" where I bought my wife a scarf woven with skulls and roses. She'll love it, I don't doubt, and she's never read this blog so it's safe to tell you.
At one point a hawk flew over my head. Otherwise, unlike the rampant and frequent deer yesterday, there was little wildlife besides songbirds in evidence. The country grows wilder and more mountainous as you approach the North Carolina border, just south of Fancy Gap. Most of the day I had the Parkway entirely to myself, no other traveler in sight in either direction.
I'm spending the night in Blowing Rock, my favorite little mountain town in the north of North Carolina. The picture above is of the countryside from an overlook nearby. It's beginning to get nice, but the very best country lies on tomorrow's ride.
Bilbo Baggins' Global Restaurant (and Green Dragon Pub)
There aren't a lot of great restaurants in the DC area, but there is one in Alexandria, Virginia. Of course, I only thought to try it because of the Tolkien-themed name. That was fifteen years ago, though, and every time I happen back it's just as good as it used to be.
Plus it has a great mural on the upper floor, and an excellent beer, wine, and cider list. Its mead list is limited to only one item, but in fairness, it was the first restaurant I know of to carry any sort of mead at all.
That treatment of the dragon with the hairy back is clearly drawn from the 1977 animated film version of The Hobbit. Sure enough, the restaurant dates to 1980, same owner all that time. I wonder how he ever got permission to use the characters and names? But clearly he must have, since he's carried on doing it ever since.
Plus it has a great mural on the upper floor, and an excellent beer, wine, and cider list. Its mead list is limited to only one item, but in fairness, it was the first restaurant I know of to carry any sort of mead at all.
That treatment of the dragon with the hairy back is clearly drawn from the 1977 animated film version of The Hobbit. Sure enough, the restaurant dates to 1980, same owner all that time. I wonder how he ever got permission to use the characters and names? But clearly he must have, since he's carried on doing it ever since.
Shenandoah
I decided to intercept the Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive at the Thornton Gap, and head south from there. It's been years since I took that particular route, but there is much to recommend it. (And one thing to recommend against it: there's a sizable per-car fee, which is only slightly smaller per motorcycle). It is similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which begins at the end of Skyline Drive, except that much of it overlooks the Shenandoah Valley.
I had left Arlington at 3:30 AM in order to avoid the heavy, crazy traffic. This was a good decision, even though it entailed rising at 3 AM. The traffic was already heavier than I'd have liked, even at that optimal hour. But by about 6:00 AM, I had escaped to the mountains via Warrenton and US 211. Once I entered the park, I was almost completely alone due to the hour, the weekday, and probably partly as an effect of the aforementioned fee.
It began to rain at Sperryville, and continued to rain for an hour or so. Then it got hot as the day went along. I swapped gear several times as I moved from humid and warm, to cold and wet, to hot and humid. All the same, it was an enjoyable ride through lovely country.
Traffic picked up once I got on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is free to travel; but it was also later in the day. Mostly motorcycles still, even though the long weekend is over. A few more than myself decided to stretch it out, I suppose.
I had left Arlington at 3:30 AM in order to avoid the heavy, crazy traffic. This was a good decision, even though it entailed rising at 3 AM. The traffic was already heavier than I'd have liked, even at that optimal hour. But by about 6:00 AM, I had escaped to the mountains via Warrenton and US 211. Once I entered the park, I was almost completely alone due to the hour, the weekday, and probably partly as an effect of the aforementioned fee.
It began to rain at Sperryville, and continued to rain for an hour or so. Then it got hot as the day went along. I swapped gear several times as I moved from humid and warm, to cold and wet, to hot and humid. All the same, it was an enjoyable ride through lovely country.
Traffic picked up once I got on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is free to travel; but it was also later in the day. Mostly motorcycles still, even though the long weekend is over. A few more than myself decided to stretch it out, I suppose.
Always hatin on the cauliflower
What's a woke folk to do? If we plant cauliflower in our community gardens, we're guilty of colonialism. If we plant yucca and plaintains, we're culturally appropriating. If we plant no community gardens, we're murdering Gaia and propping up Big Agriculture and capitalism, assuming we don't live in a produce desert. What's left? Planting in our own back yards? Elitist pigs! How dare we elevate ourselves over tenement dwellers, us and our land-grabbing culture?
If we grow no food, at least we can watch a culture consume itself.
If we grow no food, at least we can watch a culture consume itself.
Acting straight
This is one of those articles that send you to the thesaurus looking for an interesting new synonym for "unhinged." Greta LaFleur worries that Pete Buttigieg's Norman Rockwell treatment on the cover of Time Magazine represents the triumph of "heterosexuality without women." In this context, being straight has less to do with literal sex than with the awful sort of acting-white contagion that might lead black kids to do well in school in order to improve their lives and the futures of their communities.
We have oreos and bananas and apples as slurs for blacks or Asians or Native Americans who act too white. It will be trickier to devise a slur for gays who act too straight, but I imagine someone's working on it.
We have oreos and bananas and apples as slurs for blacks or Asians or Native Americans who act too white. It will be trickier to devise a slur for gays who act too straight, but I imagine someone's working on it.
Darth Vader takes over the Energy Star
It's hard to imagine a more irritating virtue-signal than Energy Star ratings, which apparently measure the degree to which an appliance lards on a lot of stupid options in an expensive cyborg brain that will only break expensively and often, while doing a poor job of whatever the appliance is supposed to do by restricting its use of water and power.
So I was delighted to see that the Koch brothers' evil plan to take over the universe has now advanced a step by bagging a coveted Energy Star award. In a few days, no doubt, we'll see this award reversed as abruptly as some university department's ill-considered extension of a speech invitation to a wrongthink reactionary.
So I was delighted to see that the Koch brothers' evil plan to take over the universe has now advanced a step by bagging a coveted Energy Star award. In a few days, no doubt, we'll see this award reversed as abruptly as some university department's ill-considered extension of a speech invitation to a wrongthink reactionary.
The smug party
In my distant youth I was taught to associate smugness with Republicans, not Democrats. As Tucker Carleton hilariously put it earlier this year, Republicans always denied they were the party of the rich. "We denied by the poolside, at the club. 'Boy, another bourbon, please!'" I instinctively associated the Democrats with individual rights, dignity, and freedom as well. Somewhere in the 90s all that changed for me.
A Quillette article ruminating on the existential shock of the Australian election included this chart showing the realignment of conservatives and liberals according to educational attainment, which tells us a lot about educational trends in the last few decades:
A Quillette article ruminating on the existential shock of the Australian election included this chart showing the realignment of conservatives and liberals according to educational attainment, which tells us a lot about educational trends in the last few decades:
What the election actually shows us is that the so-called quiet Australians, whether they are tradies (to use the Australian term) in Penrith, retirees in Bundaberg, or small business owners in Newcastle, are tired of incessant scolding from their purported superiors. Condescension isn’t a good look for a political movement.Combine this scolding with the demented balderdash emanating from ivory towers, and you've got a good recipe for people shaking their heads at the Church Lady and switching to another station.
How Much Is a Dragon Worth?
For aspiring knights and dames and hobbit-adventurers, Forbes staff writer Michael Noer does the analysis.
Click over for the point-by-point analysis if you wish.
Last year, to quell lingering suspicions that we simply “make-up” the net worth numbers for the Fictional 15, our annual ranking of the richest fictional characters, I decided to publish the calculations behind my evaluation of Smaug’s fortune, the dragon from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (See “How Much is a Dragon Worth.”)Taking into account a variety of factors including the estimated length of a dragon (64 feet), how many scales he has on his belly (822), the percentage of air in the treasure mound (30%) and the price of gold, silver and diamonds I estimated the ancient wyrm to be worth $8.6 billion.
The Internet disagreed.
Citing errors in everything from the value of the “Arkenstone of Thrain” to the price of mithril armor, Fictional 15 fans critiqued nearly every aspect of my calculation, usually concluding that I had vastly underestimated the old flamethrower’s net worth. One reader, gvbezoff, pegged Smaug’s wealth to be $870 billion, calling it a “conservative estimate.” For context, that’s about 12.5 times richer than Carlos Slim Helu, the planet’s richest non-fictional being.
Still, I am man enough to admit to making a few imaginary errors. So I carefully recalculated Smaug’s net worth taking into account the comments on last year’s post. And the Internet was right. He is worth a lot more than $8.6 billion. $53.4 billion more in fact. Let’s go point by point:
Click over for the point-by-point analysis if you wish.
Worst places to live
Someone has figured out the worst towns to live in for all fifty states. Most of them are pits for the usual reasons of poverty, joblessness, and crime, but some states, like Nebraska, apparently are so uniformly liveable that all the surveyors could find to complain about is that residents didn't have ideal access to fresh produce. The case against Derry, New Hampshire, is particularly thin: the cost of living is high in this well-employed, safe little town. In one Utah town--horrors--the nearest hospital was 10 miles away. I wish.
At least no one mentioned limited Starbucks accessibility or the over-prevalence of Chick Fil-A. Two other subjects studiously avoided were demographics and politics.
At least no one mentioned limited Starbucks accessibility or the over-prevalence of Chick Fil-A. Two other subjects studiously avoided were demographics and politics.
Nothing But Process Crimes
Byron York says what I have also been thinking: Mueller's failure to find a single plausible Russian agent, or even coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, largely puts paid to this saga. Most of the convictions were guilty pleas that weren't court-tested; many of them were for process crimes, that is, crimes that didn't exist until the investigation itself created them.
The "obstruction!" talk is an attempt at another process crime. There's no underlying crime whose investigation could be obstructed (to say nothing of the glaring absence of formal and even legal modes of obstruction, such as the exercise of executive privilege vs. Mueller). Impeachment is a political process, and you can in a sense impeach for anything you want, but it makes no sense to impeach a President over allegations of a process crime.
I am beginning to think that the Republican congressman who joined calls for impeachment is really working for Trump. It'll be even harder to ignore calls from the hard left base with a Republican siding them, but on the House side where his apparent defection doesn't change the math. Either the Democrats give in and spend the 2020 election season failing to remove the President in the Senate trial, or they refuse and demoralize/split their base going into the 2020 election cycle. Either way, Trump comes out ahead.
They should bury this and "Move On" as quickly as possible. But maybe they can't, with the flipside investigations into how the investigation came to be coming due.
The "obstruction!" talk is an attempt at another process crime. There's no underlying crime whose investigation could be obstructed (to say nothing of the glaring absence of formal and even legal modes of obstruction, such as the exercise of executive privilege vs. Mueller). Impeachment is a political process, and you can in a sense impeach for anything you want, but it makes no sense to impeach a President over allegations of a process crime.
I am beginning to think that the Republican congressman who joined calls for impeachment is really working for Trump. It'll be even harder to ignore calls from the hard left base with a Republican siding them, but on the House side where his apparent defection doesn't change the math. Either the Democrats give in and spend the 2020 election season failing to remove the President in the Senate trial, or they refuse and demoralize/split their base going into the 2020 election cycle. Either way, Trump comes out ahead.
They should bury this and "Move On" as quickly as possible. But maybe they can't, with the flipside investigations into how the investigation came to be coming due.
The View from Hornyhead
No trail to the summit, just a long push through the brush to reach this summit at the southwestern corner of the Middle Prong wilderness, Nantahala National Forest. The last hundred plus vertical feet are a real fight, bare stone precipices rather than anything you can walk upright. It's a long way from anywhere. Too bad there aren't more places left that are.
The real problem with fake SAT scores
You may have thought the real problem with monkeying around with measurements of scholastic aptitude was that lying to ourselves only leaves us with less trustworthy information to guide our actions with. No, no. The real problem is that jimmying the SAT scores to reflect the impact of adversity only obscures the real point, which is racial quotas, because they alone can purge the sin of slavery. Well, maybe racial quotas and a healthy dollop of reparations. Apparently only pitifully demoralized liberals still think measurable adversity is the real problem. Besides, how would you measure it? Quit wasting time and show us the money.
By the way, remember when "SAT" stood for "Scholastic Aptitude Test," before we started to pretend it was simply three neutral letters chosen more or less at random? "Scholastic" raises all kinds of uncomfortable issues, as does "Aptitude." "Test" produces anxiety. Soon we'll have to call it "banana," and we'll have to get to work on that hateful term "score."
By the way, remember when "SAT" stood for "Scholastic Aptitude Test," before we started to pretend it was simply three neutral letters chosen more or less at random? "Scholastic" raises all kinds of uncomfortable issues, as does "Aptitude." "Test" produces anxiety. Soon we'll have to call it "banana," and we'll have to get to work on that hateful term "score."
Climate what?
We were talking recently about the exhausting task of updating terminology in order to stay among the elect in the field of woke. The Guardian style guide is right there to help us:
The new terms aren't mandatory (yet). This is just a heads-up to would-be members of the elect, like a warning that the network will be down between 4 and 5 pm for updating. The true woke don't wait for written orders, anyway. They are exquisitely sensitive to more vague and preliminary currents than that: a frown, a slight turning away, a decrease in invitations to the right parties, signs that your own head could be next on the chopping block.
I applaud "climate crisis," with its built-in urgency scrubbed of any specifics, and "climate breakdown" is admirably content-free, but what's with "climate heating"? I thought the whole idea of "climate change" was to avoid the embarrassing lack of evidence for increased Btu's. Heating is such a stark term, no nuance, no subtlety. If "change" sounds too cuddly or Obama-like, surely they could try "disruption" or "shock." We've had a good run with "trauma" and "bombshell" lately. Climate annihilation? Climate Ragnarok? Climate weasels-ripped-my-face?
The new terms aren't mandatory (yet). This is just a heads-up to would-be members of the elect, like a warning that the network will be down between 4 and 5 pm for updating. The true woke don't wait for written orders, anyway. They are exquisitely sensitive to more vague and preliminary currents than that: a frown, a slight turning away, a decrease in invitations to the right parties, signs that your own head could be next on the chopping block.
I applaud "climate crisis," with its built-in urgency scrubbed of any specifics, and "climate breakdown" is admirably content-free, but what's with "climate heating"? I thought the whole idea of "climate change" was to avoid the embarrassing lack of evidence for increased Btu's. Heating is such a stark term, no nuance, no subtlety. If "change" sounds too cuddly or Obama-like, surely they could try "disruption" or "shock." We've had a good run with "trauma" and "bombshell" lately. Climate annihilation? Climate Ragnarok? Climate weasels-ripped-my-face?
More tipping points
Tipping which way?
The Washington Examiner marshals evidence that voters worldwide are wearying of expensive and unconvincing policies to address climate whatever. The Guardian finds it equally obvious that we're on the cusp of a worldwide conversion to true belief and deep sacrifice.
Or maybe the sides are just sorting out and we're about to go to war.
Or maybe the sides are just sorting out and we're about to go to war.
They don't need to be green or nude, either
From Powerline's always excellent "Week in Pictures," including a round-up of headlines (many involving our hero, "Florida Man"): Cocaine in the Thames is another problem eels don't need, says wildlife expert.
As Zippy the Pinhead used to say, "Toreador pants are something that make your feet look big, too."
As Zippy the Pinhead used to say, "Toreador pants are something that make your feet look big, too."
Uptick in law enforcement?
Maybe I'm just paying more attention, as a result of anxiety over a corrupt Deep State, but it's both alarming and encouraging to see four corrupt American defense or intelligence officials go to jail this year for spying for the Chinese between 2010 and 2017.
Maybe party time is over. Joe diGenova said recently that some of the RussiaGate offenders ought to retain five lawyers apiece. I'm thinking five law firms apiece, but we'll see where all this goes. We should have the IG report soon. The FISA court fraud alone is a big deal. After that, we'll see where U.S. Attorney Durham's efforts lead us, given that his powers are broader than the IG's: he can subpoena non-government employees.
I'm a little surprised no one has yet panicked and turned state's evidence. These guys ain't Gordon Liddy.
Maybe party time is over. Joe diGenova said recently that some of the RussiaGate offenders ought to retain five lawyers apiece. I'm thinking five law firms apiece, but we'll see where all this goes. We should have the IG report soon. The FISA court fraud alone is a big deal. After that, we'll see where U.S. Attorney Durham's efforts lead us, given that his powers are broader than the IG's: he can subpoena non-government employees.
I'm a little surprised no one has yet panicked and turned state's evidence. These guys ain't Gordon Liddy.
The Great Awokening
This Quillette article points out that not all true believers in the new Woke religion are cynical charlatans, because "[s]incere belief and status motives often conspire."
Because it allows a person priority access to crucial and coveted resources such as money and mates, the desire for status is probably a fundamental human motivation. And because that desire is primitive and powerful, many social practices and activities function at least partially to delineate status relationships. These can be analyzed as status systems and operate in predictable ways because, whatever its diverse manifestations, status has some invariant features. Most importantly, it is inexpansible. That is to say, its supply does not grow. Unlike the economic pie, the status pie remains roughly the same across time. Therefore, players in the status game inevitably inhabit a zero-sum world. If one person’s status goes up, then another’s must go down, which explains why people are exquisitely sensitive not only to gains in their own status, but also to gains in other people’s status. Another’s triumph inevitably rearranges the distribution of a finite and precious resource.And the zero-sum game explains why "people in Woke culture expend so much effort sending signals to each other and so little quietly working to improve people’s lives."
RIP Mr. Kelling
A founder of the "Broken Windows" approach to police work has died.
The endgame for much of academia and for “progressives” is to eliminate proactive policing in minority neighborhoods. These critics remain wedded to the idea that crime can be lowered only by solving its alleged root causes: racism and poverty. Kelling asserted the opposite: that constitutional, responsive policing is the best hope that law-abiding residents of high crime areas have to live free from fear, a right that people in safer neighborhoods take for granted. Portraying the police as a force for evil is one of the most destructive consequences of the 1960s revolt against traditional authority. George Kelling’s empirically based wisdom revived the understanding that protecting public order is an essential and humane function of government—and that the viability of cities rests on respect for the law.Mr. Kelling probably wouldn't have thought much of the "expressing pain in a bodied way" approach.
A Song on a Lute
This is a song without a long history, but it does have a history: it's from a 1990s video game called The Elder Scrolls: Arena, but was included in 2011's The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim as well. Skyrim, like the Conan movie of a few posts back, paid a real composer to produce a real score. This piece isn't part of that score, though, just an acoustic update of a tinny version written for early 1990s IBM PC sound cards. It's a surprisingly nice piece of music, considering.
The full soundtrack (which doesn't include this piece, but the true compositions) is here. Some of it is extraordinary.
The full soundtrack (which doesn't include this piece, but the true compositions) is here. Some of it is extraordinary.
"Intellectualization"
Today I learned of a Freudian concept with a built-in Kafka trap.
Here we get a pure form of the Kafka trap, though. The Kafka trap is (as I imagine all of you know) the kind of a trap in which declaring your innocence proves your guilt. The only way to prove yourself correct is to admit guilt, in which case, of course, you're declared guilty. In this case, the very act of questioning the validity of the theory under which you stand accused proves that you're guilty of the accusation. That blog post describing a Kafka trap would certainly be said to be an act of 'intellectualization'; any attempt by the author to refute the theory, for example in order to establish that this was a correct description of the world rather than a psychological defense mechanism, would be taken as evidence that they were involved in psychological defenses.
That's a problem because, as always, Freudian concepts are fielded as weapons.
But if a man like me lashes out violently at another person, the police are going to respond very differently. We would certainly be arrested -- actually arrested, taken away in chains and booked -- and possibly not released on bail before the trial, if a judge considered us at risk of lashing out violently again. As I've related before, the last time I got pulled over the cops immediately assumed bracketing fire positions, hands on their guns.
For a man like me, the ability to set aside emotion and respond intellectually is the only thing that creates safety. If I respond with my real emotions and body, I might well get killed by defense mechanisms society has built for that express purpose. As the recent book The Goodness Paradox points out, civilization and morality seem to have come to be in order to license and enable the killing of strong males. A male who cannot restrain his 'real emotions' and 'body' is subject to potentially deadly force by police, at essentially all times.
So I guess in that sense it is a 'defense mechanism,' but not a Freudian one. It's a real defense. It creates actual safety where otherwise there is grave peril. And that's not a bad thing, all psychoanalysis aside.
Among the intellectual defenses against analysis are a refusal to accept the logic of emotions, attempts to refute the theory of psychoanalysis,[19] or speculating about one's own problems rather than experiencing them and attempting to change.[20]...I'm often critical of the theory of psychoanalysis, especially Freudian analysis. It's characteristic of Freudian theories that you can't prove you aren't sick; they used to make movies about that, back when involuntary psychiatric imprisonment was a thing. You say you don't have an Oedipal complex, sir? Well, that's a sign that you're repressing it, and that's even more dangerous!
A woman in therapy continues to theorise her experience to her therapist – 'It seems to me that being psycho-analysed is essentially a process where one is forced back into infantilism...intellectual primitivism' – despite knowing that she 'would get no answer to it, or at least, not on the level I wanted, since I knew that what I was saying was the "intellectualising" to which she attributed my emotional troubles'.[33]
Here we get a pure form of the Kafka trap, though. The Kafka trap is (as I imagine all of you know) the kind of a trap in which declaring your innocence proves your guilt. The only way to prove yourself correct is to admit guilt, in which case, of course, you're declared guilty. In this case, the very act of questioning the validity of the theory under which you stand accused proves that you're guilty of the accusation. That blog post describing a Kafka trap would certainly be said to be an act of 'intellectualization'; any attempt by the author to refute the theory, for example in order to establish that this was a correct description of the world rather than a psychological defense mechanism, would be taken as evidence that they were involved in psychological defenses.
That's a problem because, as always, Freudian concepts are fielded as weapons.
Generally, you can only intellectualize when your body and life are safe. So it makes sense that people who are white, male, heterosexual, or able-bodied, are quickest to adopt intellectualization, while those who are brown and black, non-male, queer or who have a disability are so clearly angry, sad, and scared.The opening assumption is wrong, but I can see why she assumes it. Just the other day a feminist on a college campus flew into a rage and physically attacked some anti-abortion protesters. (Not for the first time.) This would be said to be 'expressing her real, deep pain,' in a 'bodied' way; which is to say, the violence would be licensed. And, indeed, the police did not even handcuff this slight female who repeatedly punched a man in the head. The news report describes her as having been 'arrested,' but if you watch the video you see the police explaining that they're just giving her a citation "which is the same thing as an arrest." Except for the arresting. So for her, it probably does seem like she can only intellectualize if she feels safe; when she doesn't feel safe, she must 'act out her real feelings' using her 'body.'
As a white female, I was raised with this idea that if you want to be heard, you have to be emotionless. It’s infused in our culture, that the rational, emotion-free argument is the best type of argument. The qualities of detached rationality are generally attributed to white men, and so white men are unconsciously taught to believe themselves to be fair and unbiased arbiters of all situations. Which is how you get seven white men signing away the healthcare rights of women around the world....
Then I became both a therapist and a feminist, at the same time.... I got called a bitch and accused of PMS-ing and laughed at and mocked–but I also found my people. I found whole humans who knew that we cannot bring ourselves to any conversation without bringing our bodies and real emotions.
But if a man like me lashes out violently at another person, the police are going to respond very differently. We would certainly be arrested -- actually arrested, taken away in chains and booked -- and possibly not released on bail before the trial, if a judge considered us at risk of lashing out violently again. As I've related before, the last time I got pulled over the cops immediately assumed bracketing fire positions, hands on their guns.
For a man like me, the ability to set aside emotion and respond intellectually is the only thing that creates safety. If I respond with my real emotions and body, I might well get killed by defense mechanisms society has built for that express purpose. As the recent book The Goodness Paradox points out, civilization and morality seem to have come to be in order to license and enable the killing of strong males. A male who cannot restrain his 'real emotions' and 'body' is subject to potentially deadly force by police, at essentially all times.
So I guess in that sense it is a 'defense mechanism,' but not a Freudian one. It's a real defense. It creates actual safety where otherwise there is grave peril. And that's not a bad thing, all psychoanalysis aside.
This Should Be Interesting
Twitter has chosen a stunning graphic to highlight that SAT story.
Over/under on how long it will remain up? I'll go with an hour.
Over/under on how long it will remain up? I'll go with an hour.
The privilege index
The annals of IQ insanity: college admission boards rely on SAT scores because professional educators associate high IQ with probable academic performance. Somehow they intuited that high school GPAs weren't 100% reliable at signaling IQ. SAT scores, in contrast, correlate with fantastic fidelity to IQ.
We barely are allowed to think, let alone talk, about what IQ is and why it might be valuable (but it doesn't make you a good person!). Nevertheless, experience keeps confirming uncomfortable theories that it has something to do with competence in academic, technical, or cognitive tasks, which, for now, we still sort of think is a good thing, at least in the neurosurgeon who's about to operate on us. Also, competence in those brainy areas--whether or not we're prepared to admit it is useful to society or praiseworthy in any way--correlates well with financial success and level of education. What's worse, it seems to run in families, which means that on the whole it also correlates well with the financial success and education of one's forebears. The horrifying cherry on top is that it correlates strongly with race, the uncomfortable implication being that race also must have something to do with inherited qualities, not all of which can be scrubbed away by the right research filter.
Well, we can't have that. What we need is an adjustment to SAT scores for adversity. What qualifies as adversity? Among other things, all the background conditions that correlate strongly with low SAT scores, such as parents with all the economic, professional, and educational characteristics of groups with low SAT scores. But that's no good, because the idea of parents sneaks back in that uncomfortable concept of inheritance.
Inheritance doesn't tell you everything by a long shot. SAT scores give a pretty sharp picture of a college-bound student's horsepower; circumstances give a fuzzy one, though strongly correlated. We ought to be ignoring the fuzzy signal and using the sharper one. Instead, we're pretending that the fuzzy signal is some kind of contraindication, if not an outright thought crime for which we have to do penance.
If IQ matters, inheritance is going to favor some students over others, an advantage that also will be broadly reflected in their circumstances. If IQ doesn't matter, we ought to chuck the pseudo-IQ tests and make college admission a free-for-all: a simple lottery, or racial quotas, or even an expansion of the wide-open public school system to age 22. Or, heck, federally mandate lifelong free education for anyone who still feels he hasn't reached his full potential as a neurosurgeon.
We barely are allowed to think, let alone talk, about what IQ is and why it might be valuable (but it doesn't make you a good person!). Nevertheless, experience keeps confirming uncomfortable theories that it has something to do with competence in academic, technical, or cognitive tasks, which, for now, we still sort of think is a good thing, at least in the neurosurgeon who's about to operate on us. Also, competence in those brainy areas--whether or not we're prepared to admit it is useful to society or praiseworthy in any way--correlates well with financial success and level of education. What's worse, it seems to run in families, which means that on the whole it also correlates well with the financial success and education of one's forebears. The horrifying cherry on top is that it correlates strongly with race, the uncomfortable implication being that race also must have something to do with inherited qualities, not all of which can be scrubbed away by the right research filter.
Well, we can't have that. What we need is an adjustment to SAT scores for adversity. What qualifies as adversity? Among other things, all the background conditions that correlate strongly with low SAT scores, such as parents with all the economic, professional, and educational characteristics of groups with low SAT scores. But that's no good, because the idea of parents sneaks back in that uncomfortable concept of inheritance.
Inheritance doesn't tell you everything by a long shot. SAT scores give a pretty sharp picture of a college-bound student's horsepower; circumstances give a fuzzy one, though strongly correlated. We ought to be ignoring the fuzzy signal and using the sharper one. Instead, we're pretending that the fuzzy signal is some kind of contraindication, if not an outright thought crime for which we have to do penance.
If IQ matters, inheritance is going to favor some students over others, an advantage that also will be broadly reflected in their circumstances. If IQ doesn't matter, we ought to chuck the pseudo-IQ tests and make college admission a free-for-all: a simple lottery, or racial quotas, or even an expansion of the wide-open public school system to age 22. Or, heck, federally mandate lifelong free education for anyone who still feels he hasn't reached his full potential as a neurosurgeon.
This guy was general counsel for the FBI?
James Baker, former GC for the FBI, is a confused man. A contributing editor for the website Lawfare, he posted a rambling account of his spiritual conflicts in opposing our dangerous president. Hatred, he counsels us, hasn't worked, as evidenced by the president's stubbornly steady poll numbers. Why don't we try love? By love, he doesn't mean something warm and fuzzy, he means full-throated bold opposition, in the tradition of Martin Luther King. Maybe that will bring Trump's polls down at last. Throw in some Dalai Lama, perhaps even lethal force, if spiritually appropriate. Whatever works.
At the same time, he's troubled by damage to his beloved FBI's reputation.
At the same time, he's troubled by damage to his beloved FBI's reputation.
One of my dearest relatives, who happens to be a supporter of the president, asked me last year, “Jimmy, is everyone at the FBI corrupt?” I was dismayed.It's possible that Baker, whose mind apparently is more unhinged than wonderfully focused by the prospect of his own hanging, would do well to give both hate and love a pass for now and concentrate on honesty, both internal and external. Some of this swirl of love and hate might come into sharper focus for him.
Isaiah 6:8
A brief movie review of Fury, which I just got around to seeing this weekend.
This was one of the harder movies to watch that I've seen, which means that it is a good war movie. There are several war crimes executed by good men, which is an accurate depiction of the nature of war. They do right sometimes, wrong often, and they're the good guys. They die well. It is honest about the brutality and the hardness of it all, and the ways in which they can come to love it.
The hardest scene to watch, though, is of an impromptu dinner party with some German locals. Half the tank crew wants to have a moment of normality and decency; the other half is so harmed and haunted by what they've done that they can't stand it, and try to destroy it. They're sorry, but they can't, and it's because they're too hurt to pretend things can still be normal.
It isn't an art film. It's not a masterpiece. But it's honest and it's direct, and that's not nothing.
This was one of the harder movies to watch that I've seen, which means that it is a good war movie. There are several war crimes executed by good men, which is an accurate depiction of the nature of war. They do right sometimes, wrong often, and they're the good guys. They die well. It is honest about the brutality and the hardness of it all, and the ways in which they can come to love it.
The hardest scene to watch, though, is of an impromptu dinner party with some German locals. Half the tank crew wants to have a moment of normality and decency; the other half is so harmed and haunted by what they've done that they can't stand it, and try to destroy it. They're sorry, but they can't, and it's because they're too hurt to pretend things can still be normal.
It isn't an art film. It's not a masterpiece. But it's honest and it's direct, and that's not nothing.
J. Roddy Walston & the Business
A young group with an interesting sound.
I liked this one better, though it's more erotic than we usually do here.
I liked this one better, though it's more erotic than we usually do here.
Giving or Taking?
Jared Diamond, a noted historian, says it's basically even money whether civilization will utterly collapse by 2050. What are those numbers based on?
On the other hand, he has some surprisingly positive things to say about the role of corporations.
Today, the risk that we’re facing is not of societies collapsing one by one, but because of globalization, the risk we are facing is of the collapse of the whole world.Well, I could say that collapse has a 50% chance of occurring: either it will, or it won't.
How likely do you think that is? That the whole network of civilization would collapse?
I would estimate the chances are about 49 percent that the world as we know it will collapse by about 2050.... At the rate we’re going now, resources that are essential for complex societies are being managed unsustainably. Fisheries around the world, most fisheries are being managed unsustainably, and they’re getting depleted. Farms around the world, most farms are being managed unsustainably. Soil, topsoil around the world. Fresh water around the world is being managed unsustainably. With all these things, at the rate we’re going now, we can carry on with our present unsustainable use for a few decades, and by around 2050 we won’t be able to continue it any longer. Which means that by 2050 either we’ve figured out a sustainable course, or it’ll be too late.
On the other hand, he has some surprisingly positive things to say about the role of corporations.
I see that corporations, big corporations, while some of them do horrible things, some of them also are doing wonderful things which don’t make the front page. When there was the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska, you can bet that made the front page. When Chevron was managing its oil field in Papua New Guinea in a utterly rigorous way, better than any national park I’ve ever been in, that certainly did not make the front page because it wasn’t a good picture.That sounds suspiciously like sanity. So maybe give him your ear, and see what you think.
Everything not mandatory is forbidden
I grew up in Houston, famous for its lack of zoning. In most cities, that's an unthinkable heresy. Blue-state types naturally embrace zoning as part of the cradle-to-grave involvement of government in virtually every aspect of life that otherwise might be guided by free choices between buyers and sellers, a/k/a vicious dog-eat-dog capitalism or, to troglodytes like myself, the free market.
All-powerful zoning predictable screws up market to the point that people are shocked to discover that housing prices are insane and there are an inexplicable number of homeless people whom society has failed to provide with attractive housing options. California is the poster child for this kind of thing. Having noticed that mandatory zoning has led to an unreasonable fraction of developable land's being set aside for single-family homes, today's activists have executed an abrupt about-face and announced that single-family zoning must be replaced by multi-family zoning in order to redress past inequities. One might think this kind of change might be pursued locally by changing the standards of the zoning committees, but why trust them to do that when you can ask the state government to make it mandatory for all cities? So they'll change from mandatory single-family to mandatory multi-family: anything but let the market adjust to what buyers and sellers want to do with their land. How would they know what's good for them?
All-powerful zoning predictable screws up market to the point that people are shocked to discover that housing prices are insane and there are an inexplicable number of homeless people whom society has failed to provide with attractive housing options. California is the poster child for this kind of thing. Having noticed that mandatory zoning has led to an unreasonable fraction of developable land's being set aside for single-family homes, today's activists have executed an abrupt about-face and announced that single-family zoning must be replaced by multi-family zoning in order to redress past inequities. One might think this kind of change might be pursued locally by changing the standards of the zoning committees, but why trust them to do that when you can ask the state government to make it mandatory for all cities? So they'll change from mandatory single-family to mandatory multi-family: anything but let the market adjust to what buyers and sellers want to do with their land. How would they know what's good for them?
Running Out the Guns on Abortion
Georgia's heartbeat bill was signed last week. Today the Alabama state legislature passed a law that is clearly unconstitutional under current SCOTUS jurisprudence just precisely in order to provoke a court challenge. Frankly, if I were the governor of Alabama -- the actual governor is a woman, by the way -- I would veto it in spite of all the reasons to oppose abortion. The Georgia law may not survive constitutional challenges either, but at least it aims at being a workable law: it defines the beginning of human life as the beginning of the natural heartbeat (philosophically indefensible, that, but it does track the equally wrong but actually legal standard for death as the end of the natural heartbeat). All legal protections start there.
Not citizenship, though, which requires the child being born under the 14th Amendment. The earliness of the heartbeat also means that abortion may not practically be an option for most mothers, which is going to be hard for the SCOTUS to swallow. I don't think the votes are there to support repealing Roe and Casey yet -- I'd expect Roberts to defect, and Kavanaugh perhaps given his commentary in the confirmation -- but the approach is defensible. Establish that the child is a legal person, alive and entitled to an equality of rights.
The Alabama law doesn't even try to construct workable standards. The legislature was clear that its intent is to provoke, rather than to craft a law that could apply to practical cases in the world. That is not the purpose of legislation, and there definitely aren't the SCOTUS votes to win given that it defies every single aspect of the extant jurisprudence. I would think a governor would rather not take a case like that to court.
Not citizenship, though, which requires the child being born under the 14th Amendment. The earliness of the heartbeat also means that abortion may not practically be an option for most mothers, which is going to be hard for the SCOTUS to swallow. I don't think the votes are there to support repealing Roe and Casey yet -- I'd expect Roberts to defect, and Kavanaugh perhaps given his commentary in the confirmation -- but the approach is defensible. Establish that the child is a legal person, alive and entitled to an equality of rights.
The Alabama law doesn't even try to construct workable standards. The legislature was clear that its intent is to provoke, rather than to craft a law that could apply to practical cases in the world. That is not the purpose of legislation, and there definitely aren't the SCOTUS votes to win given that it defies every single aspect of the extant jurisprudence. I would think a governor would rather not take a case like that to court.
Academia as a subprime mortgage broker
Allen Farrington at Quillette, on academia:
Parkinson’s Law holds that a task will take as long as the time allotted to complete it. It seems to be a kind of social equilibrium theorem applicable to any complex organisation. Normally such organisations would simply collapse under the weight of their own bureaucratic inefficiency, but academia is different. It will never be allowed to collapse because education is a right.
* * *
Peter Thiel has given a uniquely scathing critique of the insanity of this system. . . . It is effectively a Ponzi scheme. No wonder Thiel calls college administrators subprime mortgage brokers. They get a cut on selling pieces of paper that are only as valuable as we all pretend they are.All the local governments here just approved a county Economic Development Corporation, in the belief that a unified mouthpiece for rightthink from community leaders will attract new business and jobs. How it will achieve this goal remains murky, beyond the intention to bribe prospective employers with tax abatements, but there is much enthusiasm for "enhancing the workforce." Although it's unclear what anyone proposes to do to enhance the workforce beyond what we'd normally expect from public schools, the idea may be to create a para-academic institution in which useful knowledge is imparted to a select group of youngsters who want to learn it and can be expelled if they fail to learn or if they disrupt the classrooms too much. If that's the plan, I'll probably get on board, while regretting that we still have to fund the public schools with sky-high ad valorem taxes. Vouchers would let the parents choose the schools that produce results that suit their families, and watch the non-functioning schools die on the vine.
OK, we'll quit exposing you to wildfires
PG+E entered its second bankruptcy last year when it was threatened with $30 billion in damages from the horrific Camp Fire conflagration. Now it's determined never to cause anyone that kind of disappointment again:
The Camp Fire in November, along with fires from the prior year, exposed PG+E to an estimated $30 billion or more in claims from blazes, hastening its January bankruptcy. Since then, the utility giant has been under pressure to better ensure that its equipment won’t spark fires. Earlier this year, PG+E said it would widen the scope of its power shutoffs to include high-transmission power lines, potentially impacting nearly 10 times the number of customers compared to an earlier plan.Of course, there will be new kinds of disappointments.
John Adams vs. the Mob
I was eager to bring myself up to speed on America’s revolutionary history.Part of a piece chiding Harvard, and defending the ideal that even those accused of serious crimes deserve a proper defense. This ensures that the state exercises its power only when it has properly proven the charges, not merely when it has raised serious charges.
The most memorable story I heard during that tour was of a young John Adams, a future U.S. president, successfully defending Thomas Preston, a Captain of a redcoat British regiment who’d been accused of ordering the aforementioned massacre after British soldiers were hit with rocks and snowballs. When the administration of Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson put Preston and his men on trial, Adams agreed to serve as defence counsel, despite the fact he’d already staked out a reputation as a leading Patriot. Years later, he would declare that “the part I took in defence of [Captain] Preston and the soldiers, procured me anxiety and obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country. Judgment of death against those soldiers would have been as foul a stain upon this country as the executions of the Quakers or witches.”
We could use more rather than less of that. The recent Mueller investigation was characterized by serious charges being used to justify extraordinary exercises of power (e.g., violating the attorney-client privilege of the President of the United States in order to raid his home and office, seize his documents, and read them). These accusations were rarely tested in court because of the plea bargain process, in which very easy terms were offered for a guilty plea compared with the severity of the punishments if you dared to contest the charges. A man of adequate honor might refuse to plead guilty when he was not, but perhaps not; given the ruinous cost of an extended defense to his family, even a man of high honor might choose to prefer harm to himself over harm to his family.
A lawyer might now begin to worry about offering a defense, if he might himself become the target of a prosecution or persecution thereby. We need more capability to defend those accused of serious crimes in an actual court-tested case, not a lessened capacity. This is a pillar of our liberty that is under tremendous stress.
Easter Snow
A bit past Easter, but my mother said it was snowing where she was yesterday on Mother's Day.
These are the Uilleann Pipes, quite different from the great pipes usually featured here.
These are the Uilleann Pipes, quite different from the great pipes usually featured here.
Biden vs. AOC
I'm not inclined to be mean to the young lady from Brooklyn, or the Bronx, or whichever part of NYC she's supposedly from; I can't be bothered to remember much about them anyway, though I know from visiting that the Bronx is in the north and Brooklyn is in the south. Still, she's a celebrity of a sort within the party, so when she decides to go hard against the presumptive nominee it's interesting.
Labor
How does a government act when it genuinely wants its existing labor force to thrive? From a Claremont article about Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán:
“[W]e want a Hungarian Hungary and a European Europe,” he said. So he sought alternatives to Muslim migration that would allow him to keep Hungary’s full-employment economy from stoking inflation. He has stepped up efforts at reintegrating into the economy the backward but considerably more fecund Roma minority. He has lowered the minimum school-leaving age from 18 to 16. He has remobilized retired people. He has pushed the unemployed onto workfare.
And he has made it possible for the German factories that are the backbone of Hungary’s manufacturing economy to ask for up to 400 hours of paid overtime from their workers annually. So short of labor is Hungary that two strikes in January 2019—one in the 4,000-strong Mercedes plant in Kecskemét, one at the vast Audi plant in Györ, with 13,000 employees—ended with 20% and 18% raises for workers, respectively. In the past year Hungary has (very discreetly) offered residence to Venezuelan refugees of Hungarian background. And Orbán has drawn up a plan offering a $30,000 loan to first-time mothers that gets written off when the mother bears a third child, and grants every woman who raises four children an exemption from income tax for the rest of her life.
Beautiful, Warlike Music
The 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie transcends its genre at times, and in several ways, but never more than in the beauty of the score.
Someone made a good decision in hiring a real composer to write a real composition. It raises the movie -- sometimes good, often clever, sometimes silly -- fully into the realm of art.
Someone made a good decision in hiring a real composer to write a real composition. It raises the movie -- sometimes good, often clever, sometimes silly -- fully into the realm of art.
Glenn Reynolds is Right
The Sage of Knoxville:
BETTER THAT THEY SHOULD BE VICTIMS? Students who tackle shooters die as heroes. Some experts worry ‘we’re setting our kids up to be martyrs.’ “”We’re asking children to make executive decisions, life-and-death decisions.” We’re not asking them to. Life is forcing them to. And this isn’t unusual, but rather — since these “children” are teenagers — the norm for human existence. You could join the Roman legions at 14.
It is?
@Comey: "Reasonable," "totally normal step" to plant undercover sources in a political campaign.Was that supposed to be reassuring, hoss?
Heresy
A response to the Defend/Defeat piece that Google hated so much.
I welcome the determination of Williams and the Claremont Institute to protect the nation against the deleterious ideas and illiberal political aims of the purveyors of identity politics and political correctness. But I worry that the Claremont campaign proceeds from a flawed understanding of the ideas Williams hope to defeat and misconstrues the imperatives of prudence arising from the regime he wishes to preserve.That's OK, because the bulk of Americans are now too badly educated to recognize incoherence. They're ripe for the picking.
It is a theoretical and rhetorical error, I believe, to liken multiculturalism to slavery and communism.... the ideas that Williams groups under the multiculturalism label present an incoherent cluster of demands for power by resentful members of the elite which masquerade as a quest for social justice by the disadvantaged.
Big if True
The claims in this piece are explosive.
[Concerns that the Steele memorandum had many false claims] were flagged in a typed memo and in handwritten notes taken by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec on Oct. 11, 2016.Emphasis added.
Her observations were recorded exactly 10 days before the FBI used Steele and his infamous dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the campaign’s contacts with Russia in search of a now debunked collusion theory.
It is important to note that the FBI swore on Oct. 21, 2016, to the FISA judges that Steele’s “reporting has been corroborated and used in criminal proceedings” and the FBI has determined him to be “reliable” and was “unaware of any derogatory information pertaining” to their informant, who simultaneously worked for Fusion GPS, the firm paid by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton campaign to find Russian dirt on Trump....
[Kavalec] quoted Steele as saying, “Payments to those recruited are made out of the Russian Consulate in Miami,” according to a copy of her summary memo obtained under open records litigation by the conservative group Citizens United. Kavalec bluntly debunked that assertion in a bracketed comment: “It is important to note that there is no Russian consulate in Miami.”
Kavalec, two days later and well before the FISA warrant was issued, forwarded her typed summary to other government officials. The State Department has redacted the names and agencies of everyone she alerted. It is unlikely that her concerns failed to reach the FBI.
John Kerry and the Logan Act
Way back in 2004, when this blog was still young, I wrote a piece on John Kerry breaking the Logan Act. At that time I didn't realize that the Logan Act was a dead letter, nor that John Kerry's entire career was built on Logan Act violations and, indeed, outright treason in Paris when he met with the North Vietnamese to negotiate, while a serving naval officer, without the permission of his chain of command. Even then I knew Kerry wouldn't be prosecuted for it.
Sally Q. Yates apparently knew something else, because she used the Logan Act to go after Michael Flynn and George Papadapolous. The Mueller report scuttles the law, though, making clear that it is a baseless and probably unconstitutional law that has never been enforced in 200 years.
Today President Trump stated that John Kerry should probably be prosecuted, because he's actively working to prevent diplomatic engagement between the United States and Iran. Well, he won't be. The man has made his whole life out of this particular sort of perfidy. In just this way he rose to Senator, Secretary of State, and almost -- very nearly -- President of the United States. Treason prospers.
Sally Q. Yates apparently knew something else, because she used the Logan Act to go after Michael Flynn and George Papadapolous. The Mueller report scuttles the law, though, making clear that it is a baseless and probably unconstitutional law that has never been enforced in 200 years.
Today President Trump stated that John Kerry should probably be prosecuted, because he's actively working to prevent diplomatic engagement between the United States and Iran. Well, he won't be. The man has made his whole life out of this particular sort of perfidy. In just this way he rose to Senator, Secretary of State, and almost -- very nearly -- President of the United States. Treason prospers.
Death Prayers
Raven's suggestion of last week that we should have prayers for dying well got me to thinking of good examples. Our culture is not rich with them. One example that came to mind was the 1999 film 13th Warrior. Ironically, perhaps, both of the prayers are not Christian; both are nevertheless excellent.
Both are also too long. These are prayers to say when you have time. But an abbreviated version might do well.
Both are also too long. These are prayers to say when you have time. But an abbreviated version might do well.
Oddly Enough, The Answer Proves to Be "Yes!"
Past performance is no guarantee of future results, I guess.
Odd, I Haven't Heard Much About That
A school shooter in Colorado turns out to be a "juvenile female, transitioning to male." Or, as the UK Metro puts it, a "schoolboy."
Sources told the station that the unnamed boy’s motive went ‘beyond bullying and involved revenge and anger towards others at the school,’ adding ‘that at least one of the suspects was involved in legal and illegal drug use and had been in therapy.’Yes, well, the legal drugs will have been hormone injections -- testosterone, especially. What might be the psychological effects of injecting lots and lots of testosterone into someone who is already unstable enough to feel they need "therapy," and who also uses illegal drugs?
The Harms of Immigration to Migrants
A piece on the hardships it creates for migrants themselves begins with an admonition.
Of course, some of that bleeds over into areas where they are assigning the name of 'decadence' to things like allowing women to walk around with their hair showing. You'd think there would be a happy middle ground between purdah and public grotesques, but perhaps there is not. Free individuals may choose to do right, which is the blessing of liberty; but they may also choose to do wrong, which is part of the price.
In any case, I'm glad to hear a Cardinal point out that this is a misuse of the gospels.
In a recent interview with a French magazine, Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said it is wrong to use the gospel to defend illegal immigration. The reason many priests, bishops, and cardinals will not say so is because they are “afraid of being frowned upon, of being seen as reactionaries.”In Europe, a lot of immigrants are from the Islamic world. I've spent a lot of time listening to Muslims talk about all this, and they are keenly aware of that decadence. It is their most legitimate complaint against the West, the degree to which the decadent parts of our culture corrupt their own.
Sarah is not afraid of that. “It is better to help people flourish in their culture than to encourage them to come to a Europe in full decadence,” he said. “It is a false exegesis to use the word of God to promote migration. God never wanted these heartbreaks.”
Of course, some of that bleeds over into areas where they are assigning the name of 'decadence' to things like allowing women to walk around with their hair showing. You'd think there would be a happy middle ground between purdah and public grotesques, but perhaps there is not. Free individuals may choose to do right, which is the blessing of liberty; but they may also choose to do wrong, which is part of the price.
In any case, I'm glad to hear a Cardinal point out that this is a misuse of the gospels.
Contempt versus Contempt
Attorney General Barr was held in contempt today by the House Judiciary Committee for not doing something he is legally forbidden from doing, according to a law passed by Congress. The law states that knowingly violating the rules pertaining to grand jury secrecy may be "punished as contempt of court."
There's a rock and a hard place for you: choose either contempt of Congress or contempt of court. Barr made the right decision, though, because Congress in the current moment merits contempt. My former Congressman says as much himself.
There's a rock and a hard place for you: choose either contempt of Congress or contempt of court. Barr made the right decision, though, because Congress in the current moment merits contempt. My former Congressman says as much himself.
Battle Axes and Boat Axes
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."
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.
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