[T]urn your anger into votes. The gunfascists got into power because far too many of you thought, “Oh, we’ve had Democrats in power in Virginia before and it’s no big deal.” Okay, wrong. The Democrats today are not the Democrats of yesterday.And, as he advises, watch out for wusses in the Republican primaries, too.
"I dreamed I saw Kurt Schlichter last night...."
Organize!
Paid your own loans back? You're a chump
PowerLine reports candidate Warren's "Joe the Plumber" moment.
The Hill notes that the man cited his friend who makes more money than he does and, instead of paying off his loans, bought a car and went on expensive vacations.
“I saved my money,” the man said. “He made more than I did. I worked a double shift, worked extra … so you’re laughing at me.”Warren's riposte was devastating:
“No I’m not,” Warren responded.
Iran's Failure
Jim Hanson (formerly "Uncle Jimbo" of BLACKFIVE fame) has a piece on the failure of Iran to extend itself across the Levant. Their strategic situation has become much worse thanks to the Trump administration, even apart from the Suleimani killing.
Hail, RE Howard!
Today was his birthday. Let’s re-up Joel’s essay on his Conan stories as American mythology.
ANTIFA Did Make it Out to the VA March
And they were doing good work there, even. Recognizing a famous Holocaust denier, they challenged him and kept him from blending in and seeming acceptable.
I think it’s nice that we can come together on opposing tyrants like this dude, and that other dude in blackface or the Klan outfit.
I think it’s nice that we can come together on opposing tyrants like this dude, and that other dude in blackface or the Klan outfit.
The Definition of Tyranny
D29 left an interesting article in the comments below. It's an argument that much of what the regulatory state does is beyond unconstitutional, it's anti-constitutional. This is because it undoes the constitutional design of separation of powers, instead concentrating the three functions of government in the hands of unelected agencies like the Federal Trade Commission.
It's worth a read.
It's worth a read.
No More Peaceful Transfers of Power
Rep. Schiff confesses that there will be no acceptance that Trump "fairly" won the election later this year by members of his party.
What's stopping them from nominating someone besides Biden, if this Ukraine stuff is really such a big damage to Biden? There are plenty of other candidates, and no votes have yet been cast. There's no reason any of this Biden/Ukraine stuff should affect the November election at all. Run Bernie instead. Run Tulsi. Heck, run Yang. At least if he's called upon to defend America as President, he knows how to throw a fair axe.
Speaking of Tulsi, be sure to read her complaint suing Hillary Clinton for defamation. I suppose they won't be able to run her in November because of her questionable suicide.
What's stopping them from nominating someone besides Biden, if this Ukraine stuff is really such a big damage to Biden? There are plenty of other candidates, and no votes have yet been cast. There's no reason any of this Biden/Ukraine stuff should affect the November election at all. Run Bernie instead. Run Tulsi. Heck, run Yang. At least if he's called upon to defend America as President, he knows how to throw a fair axe.
Speaking of Tulsi, be sure to read her complaint suing Hillary Clinton for defamation. I suppose they won't be able to run her in November because of her questionable suicide.
Top vs. Bottom
A review.
That exposes Levin’s deep misunderstanding of today’s populism. It is not antinomian, it just wants laws to be made by legislatures, not executives, judges, or (worst of all) unaccountable bureaucrats. It is not mistrustful of all authority, just those authorities that have made themselves unaccountable to the very laws and bylaws they wield against others.
And it is not fundamentally cynical, just distrustful of elites with overgrown senses of entitlement and superiority.
Levin also misunderstands the culture war to which he frequently refers. He views the culture war as an epic struggle between partisans of the Left and Right that has knocked valuable institutions off the rails. Journalism, politics, academia, professional societies, religions: these institutions and others have been “deformed...into the contours of the broader culture war” to their detriment, and ours.
But institutions are not innocent bystanders in this war. They are the warriors. It is political parties, the media, corporations, and universities that have created, expanded, and sustained the culture war against tradition, evolved practice, received wisdom, and common sense. Today’s culture war is less a struggle between Left and Right than a war of Top against Bottom.
From the endless annals of weakly based scientific truisms
Radiation exposure is the worst thing that ever happened, only apparently not really. Wildlife near the truly awful Chernobyl disaster does surprisingly well, as does wildlife near the Fukushima evacuation zone.
A sidenote on the subject of anti-science: the level of public debate on vaccines is discouraging. No wonder we have Michael Mann and Greta Thunberg.
What should we take from all this? That humans are more detrimental to animals' survival than nuclear radiation?Not to mention human abandonment of their own pet animals. And let me put in a word for the devastating impact of human poverty on both wild and domestic animals and, indeed, nature in general. We're focusing on the wrong enemy here, as we so often do.
A sidenote on the subject of anti-science: the level of public debate on vaccines is discouraging. No wonder we have Michael Mann and Greta Thunberg.
Woke schtick?
Now, is this fair? Freddy Gray argues in the Spectator that the super-trendy progressives he encounters in public life turn out to be reasonable people in private interactions--in fact, that they are exploiting a persona for gig income, as an outrageous comic might do.
I have no doubt that there's a lot of this going around, the PC version of televangelist Jim Bakker, no more real than Chewbacca. But is it really true of most coworkers who obsessively share woke memes on social media? Are they only adopting protective coloration to avoid being pecked to death at the office, or do they believe that stuff?
Whether the beliefs are thoroughly examined at held at the deepest level I can't say, but I'd guess people in general--people outside show biz, at least--mean a good bit of what they say. To suggest that they're all faking, and congratulating them for being sensible in their private views, seems more of a gratuitous insult.
I have no doubt that there's a lot of this going around, the PC version of televangelist Jim Bakker, no more real than Chewbacca. But is it really true of most coworkers who obsessively share woke memes on social media? Are they only adopting protective coloration to avoid being pecked to death at the office, or do they believe that stuff?
Whether the beliefs are thoroughly examined at held at the deepest level I can't say, but I'd guess people in general--people outside show biz, at least--mean a good bit of what they say. To suggest that they're all faking, and congratulating them for being sensible in their private views, seems more of a gratuitous insult.
That must have ruffled some feathers
The President's non-impeachment speech yesterday to the Davoisie:
This is not a time for pessimism, this is a time for optimism. Fear and doubt is not a good process...to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow we must reject the perennial profits of doom and their warnings about the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune tellers...they want to see us do badly, but we won't let that happen. They predicted an overpopulation crisis in the 1960s, mass starvation in the 70s and the end of oil in the 1990s. These alarmists always demand the same thing - absolute power to dominate transform and control every aspect of our lives. We will never let radical socialists destroy our economy, wreck our country or eradicate our liberty. America will always be the proud, strong and unyielding bastion of freedom.
Cowboy Poetics
Colorado's having a Cowboy Poetry festival. The one older lady is singing a tune that was ironic even when Georgia native Johnny Mercer wrote it in the 1930s. It's all about how he's 'an old cowhand' in a world in which that's lost at least its original meaning: a cowboy who never saw a cow, who learned his cowboy songs from the radio, where the old Bar-X is a barbecue.
Roy Rogers made it famous, though, while rescuing all that for the next generation. It was huge in the 1950s, and still going in the 1970s. Time may come again.
Warning Order: Time to Prepare for Burns Night
It's the 25th, which is Saturday.
If you'd like that in less accented English, try this one.
My favorite of his works is, of course, Scots Wha Hae.
It's a terrible movie in so many ways. It knows nothing about the customs or costumes, tactics or weapons; the Battle of Stirling Bridge lacks a bridge, and the Battle of Bannockburn lacks the Bannockburn. They got everything wrong, except the one thing that matters most.
If you'd like that in less accented English, try this one.
My favorite of his works is, of course, Scots Wha Hae.
'Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,This is the moment that ends Braveheart, with Robert the Bruce giving an appeal to a poem not yet written.
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae yer gory bed,
Or tae victorie.
'Now's the day, an now's the hour:
See the front o battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power –
Chains and Slaverie.
'Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha will fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn an flee.
'Wha, for Scotland's king and law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or Freeman fa,
Let him on wi me.
'By Oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free.
'Lay the proud usurpers low,
Tyrants fall in every foe,
Liberty's in every blow! –
Let us do or dee.
It's a terrible movie in so many ways. It knows nothing about the customs or costumes, tactics or weapons; the Battle of Stirling Bridge lacks a bridge, and the Battle of Bannockburn lacks the Bannockburn. They got everything wrong, except the one thing that matters most.
“Criminal-Like Behavior”?
Don’t give them any ideas, Dershowitz.
I don’t find the argument strong. Treason and bribery aren’t “criminal-like,” they are crimes. The law is too complex and all-entwining as it is. If they’d been patient and careful, they would have found some crime. As their own manager admitted today, however, they were worried it wouldn’t happen before the election.
Congress makes the law. If they didn’t get around to making a law against whatever it is they don’t like, that’s on them. Goodness knows they have made enough other frivolous laws, in addition to the perfectly good ones we inherited.
UPDATE: The Devil you say!
I don’t find the argument strong. Treason and bribery aren’t “criminal-like,” they are crimes. The law is too complex and all-entwining as it is. If they’d been patient and careful, they would have found some crime. As their own manager admitted today, however, they were worried it wouldn’t happen before the election.
Congress makes the law. If they didn’t get around to making a law against whatever it is they don’t like, that’s on them. Goodness knows they have made enough other frivolous laws, in addition to the perfectly good ones we inherited.
UPDATE: The Devil you say!
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure not to leave anything in your car. "Inside Edition" journalists left bait on back seats with surveillance devices:
The “Inside Edition” crew used its tracker to find the thieves. They confronted the duo as they entered a train station.
* * *
Eventually, the man abandoned the [tracking] speaker. “Inside Edition” then tracked the stolen purse to a garbage can.
But while all of this was going on, thieves broke into the crew’s car and stole the camera equipment. As a result, five million people won’t see either theft, and “Inside Edition” is out thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
San Francisco has a new prosecutor, Chesa Boudin. His parents are murderers and he was raised by the notorious radicals (and criminals) Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
Price Controls: Good or Bad?
Bernie Sanders was just today renewing his call for 'nationwide rent control,' but for some reason it was a negative for Mayor Pete.
Pressed by Times editorial board member Binyamin Appelbaum about his work for a Canadian grocery chain that was fixing bread prices, Buttigieg was defensive in a way he hasn’t been for much of the campaign, uttering a swear (“bullshit”). Appelbaum’s dead-voiced rejoinder—“You worked for a company that was fixing bread prices”—forced Buttigieg to make the distinction that he merely consulted for the company and never, you know, actually fixed the prices.I understand why I think it's a bad idea to fix the prices of bread, exceptis excipiendis, but what's the issue for the New York Times? The price was fixed too high? Above zero?
Good Job, Virginia
Today's "Lobby Day" rally by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, joined by at least ten thousand others, was peaceful and patriotic.
Hopefully the message was received.
UPDATE: BB: Tragedy when no violence in occurs at rally.
Hopefully the message was received.
UPDATE: BB: Tragedy when no violence in occurs at rally.
I hope they've got food-tasters
The Bee is getting a little too close for comfort.
We must look to socialism, where wealth isn't created just to be distributed unevenly, but rather isn't created at all.
Bad Day for Warren
NYT endorses her... and also fourth-tier Klobuchar.
UPDATE: New Republic says it's a 'charade' that was 'undermined' by the dual endorsement. Don't you make things better if you undermine a charade? Apparently not.
UPDATE: New Republic says it's a 'charade' that was 'undermined' by the dual endorsement. Don't you make things better if you undermine a charade? Apparently not.
Tasks for the next generation of biologists
I wish I'd had this guy for a college professor.
I often tout his books, and wish he'd write more of them. He's a very talented popularizer.
I often tout his books, and wish he'd write more of them. He's a very talented popularizer.
Economic raving
Everything would be great if only the government could take over the economy and make it rational:
Last year, the S+P 500 rose by 29%, the NASDAQ by 35%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 22%. Middle-class Americans are increasingly reliant on their 401(k)s and pensions to live comfortably during retirement. Millions of other Americans depend on college-savings funds to help pay for their kids' educations. And even those without a stock portfolio benefit from a vibrant market, which generates profits that are invested in hiring, innovation and salaries while helping move money from unprofitable sectors to more profitable ones.
This chaotic churning of money turns off technocrats. Rather than taking the view that the growing economy is a messy but neutral marketplace where ingenuity and opportunity can create comfort and wealth, they see it as a giant pile of money that should be "invested" in massive, state-mandated social engineering projects. As far as I can tell, both Sanders and Warren are interested in effectively nationalizing large chunks of the health care and energy sectors.
And yet the media continue to cover the Democratic primary debates where such ideas are the currency of the realm as if they were completely normal.
Ouch
Stings:
Northam reminded everyone that Virginia is his state, his choice, and that it's not a state full of American citizens with God-given rights unless he declares it to be so.
He was frightened, however, to learn that Virginians own guns and can defend themselves if threatened by callous governments, unlike unborn babies.
Impersonal warfare
From Daniel McCarthy at the Spectator:
The outrage was hypocritical: drone strikes aerosolize wedding parties full of innocent people on a semi-regular basis, but the minute one takes out a general who had masterminded insurgency operations against US troops in a war zone, Congress suddenly has an attack of conscience. Like impeachment, this reveals more about the real character of the institution than a wise legislator would want known. Killing Soleimani, a man who deserved to die, was more controversial than ‘collateral damage’ in the form of civilian lives lost because Congress does not have the courage to question the underlying morality of the wars and prolonged occupations that are now a permanent feature of American foreign policy. What made Soleimani’s death so objectionable was that it was so unusual — so personal — when our political class likes to believe that war is now a science, to be conducted only as approved by the experts.
Impeachment all the way down
Matthew Continetti thinks this will be the first president to be impeached multiple times, a constant background noise.
Maybe Nancy Pelosi waited to send impeachment to the Senate because she was waiting for her pens to arrive....“Nothing says seriousness and sobriety like handing out souvenirs,” said Mitch McConnell.
Your Vote is Unconstitutional
Originally I posted this as an update to something below, but it's really worthy of its own post. From NBC News, an argument that Trump voters are violating the law and voting for Trump is probably unconstitutional.
Steppe-in Up
Here's about 40 minutes of traditional Mongolian music from the Altai Band. I enjoy this more than The Hu, although "Wolf Totem" and "Yuve Yuve Yu" are on my regular playlist now.
Dalia al-Aqidi
This is quite a video.
She's running against Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is in the Democrat +26 5th District of Minnesota. You might think her appeal to patriotism as herself also a Muslim female refugee might be wise, as Omar is frequently criticized for her open disdain for the culture and nation that took her in and raised her to power. However, you probably wouldn't expect her to tie herself so visibly to the American military, nor to repeatedly praise "my President."
It's an interesting strategy given the terrain. We'll see if it pays off for her. In any case, you should learn her name. My guess is she'll be around.
She's running against Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is in the Democrat +26 5th District of Minnesota. You might think her appeal to patriotism as herself also a Muslim female refugee might be wise, as Omar is frequently criticized for her open disdain for the culture and nation that took her in and raised her to power. However, you probably wouldn't expect her to tie herself so visibly to the American military, nor to repeatedly praise "my President."
It's an interesting strategy given the terrain. We'll see if it pays off for her. In any case, you should learn her name. My guess is she'll be around.
Medieval Metal
So, listening to The Hu on YouTube brings a lot of interesting recommendations. Apocalypse Orchestra was one of them. Not sure what I think, but it seemed appropriate to share here.
Getting It Wrong
Apparently we've been mistaken about the name of a building for thousands of years.
Dutch scholars claim that the name “Parthenon” – popularised in the Roman period - originally belonged to an entirely different building, not the vast stone temple that looms over Athens and attracts millions of tourists a year.It's hard to correct an error that old.
The real Parthenon was in fact an ancient Greek treasury which contained offerings to the goddess Athena, according to the research by Utrecht University.
Today known as the Erechtheion, it is located about 100 yards from the main temple on the Acropolis, the massive rocky escarpment that rises from central Athens.
Rather than being known as the Parthenon, the big temple should be known by its original ancient Greek name, the tongue-twisting Hekatompedon.
So That's How It Is, Eh?
Alan Dershowitz, noted scholar at Harvard Law and civil libertarian, has been demoted to "Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer" by CNBC thanks to his willingness to speak against the impeachment process.
West Virginia Swings for Fences
I read earlier this week that some West Virginia politicians were inviting most of Virginia to secede and join them. (Well, that's how we got West Virginia to start with, actually: it was the one act of secession from the Civil War that was allowed to stand.) Now I see that their legislature is considering a state sanctuary bill that is really pretty aggressive:
A bill introduced in the West Virginia House would set the foundation to create a gun sanctuary state by prohibiting enforcement of past, present and future federal gun control.... The bills include a detailed definition of actions that qualify as “infringement,” including but not limited to:My guess is that the Feds might have let you get away with anything except the refusal to accept taxes.
* taxes and fees on firearms, firearm accessories or ammunition that would have a chilling effect on firearms ownership;
* registration and tracking schemes applied to firearms, firearm accessories or ammunition that would have a chilling effect;
* any act forbidding the possession, ownership, or use or transfer of a firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition by law-abiding citizens;
* any act ordering the confiscation of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition from law-abiding citizens.
Bach on the Banjo
I'd never thought of it, but it turns out it's a match made in heaven. There are a lot of videos out there of Bach on the Banjo, but these are quite nice- Enjoy.
A Trade Deal with Mexico & Canada
This one is bigger. Axios says it’s a great deal for Democrats and organized labor and a complete rejection of Republican ideas; well, but mostly Democrats voted against it. With the China deal, this is about $2 Trillion in estimated benefit to American workers and farmers.
Interesting times.
Interesting times.
A Trade Deal with China
Some say it’s a watershed, and others that it’s just one phase that leaves the bigger issues unsolved. Still, one would think a deal of such consequence would garner more attention and discussion.
Remain in Mexico
A simple shift in policy made a huge difference at the Mexican border. Only a tiny fraction of "asylum seekers" were being granted asylum; the rest were being allowed to cross the border, fade into the landscape, and never appear at another hearing. President Trump negotiated deals with Mexico and Guatemala to hold the asylum seekers until the U.S. could process their claims. This amounts to a virtual wall that's even more effective in some ways that a physical one: a psychological barrier to crashing the gate and hoping for the best, with the odds overwhelmingly in your favor.
From the beginning, the unstoppable pressure at the border was from people who'd learned that the important thing was not following asylum procedures, but simply getting through physically in any way possible, including putting children at risk. Once they were through, they knew they were highly unlikely ever to have to worry about the asylum rules--or any immigration procedures--again. Not only did that encourage illegal border crossings, it encouraged them in overwhelming floods, for the strategic power of numbers.
Now, arrests at the border are so low that the detention facilities are under capacity, and nearly a thousand border patrol agents who'd been pulled off the border to administer the detention cells have been returned to the border.
Should we grant asylum to more people? Very possibly, but Congress should do it. Kicking down the gate and helplessly watching the incoming flood wasn't working.
From the beginning, the unstoppable pressure at the border was from people who'd learned that the important thing was not following asylum procedures, but simply getting through physically in any way possible, including putting children at risk. Once they were through, they knew they were highly unlikely ever to have to worry about the asylum rules--or any immigration procedures--again. Not only did that encourage illegal border crossings, it encouraged them in overwhelming floods, for the strategic power of numbers.
Now, arrests at the border are so low that the detention facilities are under capacity, and nearly a thousand border patrol agents who'd been pulled off the border to administer the detention cells have been returned to the border.
Should we grant asylum to more people? Very possibly, but Congress should do it. Kicking down the gate and helplessly watching the incoming flood wasn't working.
Sweet Caroline
People who hate the song also hate this moment very, very much.
I bought a motorcycle once from a Neil Diamond impersonator near St. Petersburg. I was incredulous when he told me that’s what he did, but you know what they say: everybody’s grandma retires to Tampa, and St. Pete is where her mother lives.
I bought a motorcycle once from a Neil Diamond impersonator near St. Petersburg. I was incredulous when he told me that’s what he did, but you know what they say: everybody’s grandma retires to Tampa, and St. Pete is where her mother lives.
Good Luck, Mike
Flynn withdraws guilty plea. It’s been obvious for a while he was subject to major prosecutorial misconduct. Plus, he drew fire from the beginning for the same reason Obama hired him for DIA: he called the intelligence community on its misconduct regarding Afghanistan.
For whatever he did do wrong, he’s been more than adequately punished. Also for much he did right.
For whatever he did do wrong, he’s been more than adequately punished. Also for much he did right.
Obviously Correct
Kansas man proposes trial by combat to resolve divorce. In accord with ancient female privilege, he offers to permit his wife to send her lawyer as champion, so that of the two of them only his life would really be at stake.
Her lawyer might consider a new profession, but hey: I’m pretty sure the legal profession would be improved by having more skin in the game!
Her lawyer might consider a new profession, but hey: I’m pretty sure the legal profession would be improved by having more skin in the game!
Quid pro quo
It wasn't just the $1.7 billion in cash on pallets.
In January 2017, Obama greenlighted the shipment of 130 tons of uranium to Iran.
If this all seems unbelievable, it’s because it is—and also because you’re probably still imagining that Obama’s goal was to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But once you understand the real purpose, these moves become much clearer. To wit: Why did Obama give the regime enough uranium to make 10 nuclear bombs? To pressure the incoming Trump administration to stick with the nuclear deal. If Trump chose to leave the JCPOA, he’d have to deal with the fact that with 130 tons of uranium already on hand Iran had an easier path to the bomb. In effect, the last president handed the Iranians a loaded gun to be pointed at his successor.
Propaganda, For and Against
A study in simple contrasts. I didn't realize Hitler was so well-known in Iran.
A Protest in Iran
The Iranian government painted the US and Israeli flags on one of the streets where the citizenry are protesting that government (this time openly demanding the Ayatollah resign).
The protestors are actively avoiding walking on those flags (I don't speak enough Farsi--which is to say not a single syllable--to understand what they're chanting).
Eric Hines
The protestors are actively avoiding walking on those flags (I don't speak enough Farsi--which is to say not a single syllable--to understand what they're chanting).
Eric Hines
The Rök Stone
Jackson Crawford explains the news that you may have seen this week about an alleged Viking climate prophecy.
What is food?
I have to wonder sometimes what most people think "nutrients" are. This peculiar Guardian article tries to discuss the thorny question whether eating meat is a good nutritional strategy, but can't resist the impulse to quote bizarre statements about what kind of nutrition we might expect to find in fruits and vegetables. Supposedly they've somehow been "drained of 50% of their nutrients" in recent decades. It has something to do with selecting for uniform shape and color, and the resulting loss of vitamins and "electrolytes" (which, as we know, are what plants crave).
If you spend any time reading popular literature about diet strategies (I recommend against this), you'll find people trying to argue that a healthy diet requires eliminating carbs, fats, and proteins. They honestly seem to believe there's some other source of calories, or that calories have become optional in the post-modern world. This is what happens when we forget what famine is and start telling each other, "It doesn't matter what I eat, I still put on weight!"--as if the process were magical.
Soon we will be reduced to blood-letting and cupping to counteract the Man's destruction of our precious bodily nutrients.
If you spend any time reading popular literature about diet strategies (I recommend against this), you'll find people trying to argue that a healthy diet requires eliminating carbs, fats, and proteins. They honestly seem to believe there's some other source of calories, or that calories have become optional in the post-modern world. This is what happens when we forget what famine is and start telling each other, "It doesn't matter what I eat, I still put on weight!"--as if the process were magical.
Soon we will be reduced to blood-letting and cupping to counteract the Man's destruction of our precious bodily nutrients.
Hans Jonas, Call Your Office
Scientists could use some advice from a philosopher this time. Jonas (see first comment) has written great work on what it means for something to ‘be alive’ or not; to be an animal, or not; and how the development of these capacities drives what he thinks of as a rising consciousness. We have also discussed older traditions here.
How would you distinguish “lifelike materials” with these characteristics from “life”? Purely because they were artificially created? What are the downstream consequences of that standard? Why would you assume them to be non-conscious, once they can seek light and food, and self-organize what they eat into themselves?
How would you distinguish “lifelike materials” with these characteristics from “life”? Purely because they were artificially created? What are the downstream consequences of that standard? Why would you assume them to be non-conscious, once they can seek light and food, and self-organize what they eat into themselves?
Credit
Life in Iran must be unimaginably hard right now. I give the Iranian government and people credit for reversing course on their denial of responsibility for the airliner their security forces shot down. Speaking the truth can be deadly at any time, but in that tinderbox it takes tremendous courage.
The other Middle East revolution
As Legal Insurrection says, "while you were focused on Soleimani, Israel became an energy superpower." And Turkey is torqued.
“Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom”
Nancy Pelosi channels Mao.
‘Absolutely total cooperation,’ Pelosi told reporters Friday when asked about the support she’s received from Democrats for withholding the articles. ‘We have 1,000 flowers blossoming beautifully in our caucus.’Given what Mao did to the flowers after they blossomed, if I were one of her caucus I’d be reaching for my Buck knife.
Starting to Get Right in Russia
Russian journals retract hundreds of scientific papers. Sure, it's easy to mock them and talk about all the ways in which they got so wrong; but the point is that they're trying to get right. Are American academics in our mock disciplines -- sociology, say, or political science, or that most popular of all majors psychology -- trying anything similar?
Smiles, tears
Are you wondering why we should care about the New York Times endorsement for president? Jim Geraghty explains the appeal:
Elizabeth Warren was more or less engineered in a laboratory to appeal to the Times editorial board. If she doesn’t get the endorsement, it’s a bad day for her.
And no matter what the editorial actually says, people will read certain meanings into the choice. If the Times endorses Joe Biden, it will be seen as a sign that the Times editorial board doesn’t have faith that the rest of the field can beat Trump. If the Times endorses Buttigieg, it will be seen as a sign that the Times editorial board wants the formula that worked for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — the young, smart, well-spoken rising star. If the Times endorses Bernie Sanders, it will be seen as a sign that the Times editorial board wants to lead the Socialist Revolution from the offices of a skyscraper in midtown Manhattan.
As for me, I hope that the process begins with each candidate first individually pouring his or her heart out, directly to a camera, talking about their hopes and dreams and what they feel they can offer the editors of the Times that the other candidates can’t. I hope they say what the endorsement means to them, and how it could be the start of something life-changing and unforgettable. I want to see an edited montage of each candidate talking with the editors, hopefully showcasing a wide range of moments showcasing their entire personality — impassioned, laughing, solemn. Then I want all of the candidates to come out in a group, dressed in their finest, and then deputy editor Kathleen Kingsbury comes out with a single rose, and they sort this out like on ABC’s The Bachelor — lots of heated competition, crying, and broken hearts.
When gentrification isn't the worst threat
A Guardian article moans that San Francisco residents don't have gentrification to kick around any more. Instead they have something more like Detroit.
In 2017, about one in every eight storefronts here was empty, and more businesses seem to have vacated since then. The diner was first to go: in 2015 rent suddenly went up, the diner’s owner refused to pay, and Sparky’s was no more. Our usual ideas about gentrification suggest neighborhood standbys get replaced by fancy boutiques and brunch-centric eateries. Instead, after Sparky’s came … nothing. Elsewhere, too, long-term leases timed out, rents increased, and the old neighborhood hangouts disappeared. Aardvark Books, which stood on Church Street for nearly 40 years, until 2018, is now a hollow storefront.The culprit? If you guessed the insane public policy common to deep-blue bastions like San Francisco and Detroit, the Guardian assures you you are mistaken. It's actually capitalism's fault.
Enter the Stone Age
What I find interesting about this claim is that, if it’s right, survival plays no apparent role in the change. In this way it is more like Chesterton’s view of cultural evolution — that the sacred comes first, and alters our physical culture — than like the standard account of natural selection as driven by survival. It’s compatible with a random change that may or may not prove to survive if it doesn’t add to survivability, though; except that it isn’t ‘random’ in the sense of mutations. It is a thing they somehow decided to do together, in a socially-specific way.
UPDATE: This is the passage I was thinking of, from Orthodoxy; Chesterton was talking about social contract theory rather than evolution, but the idea that the sacred came first holds in spite of the move from critiquing the one theory to the other.
UPDATE: This is the passage I was thinking of, from Orthodoxy; Chesterton was talking about social contract theory rather than evolution, but the idea that the sacred came first holds in spite of the move from critiquing the one theory to the other.
The eighteenth-century theories of the social contract have beenNow we do not know how this will turn out, and it may take longer than any of us are around to find out. We can readily imagine, though -- with Robert E. Howard as much as with Chesterton, as Howard describes this occurring over and over in his Conan stories -- these apes on the road to a rise to civilization, having found the necessary first step.
exposed to much clumsy criticism in our time; in so far as they meant
that there is at the back of all historic government an idea of
content and co-operation, they were demonstrably right. But they really
were wrong, in so far as they suggested that men had ever aimed at
order or ethics directly by a conscious exchange of interests.
Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you
if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction.
There IS a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other
in the holy place." They gained their morality by guarding their religion.
They did not cultivate courage. They fought for the shrine, and found
they had become courageous. They did not cultivate cleanliness.
They purified themselves for the altar, and found that they were clean.
Harsh but fair
Speaking of the Tim Cook of terror--the best shorthand I've heard in a long time for second-rate pseudolegacies--here is Kurt Schlichter's assessment of the Democrat presidential field. He thinks the nod definitely goes to Biden, but is less sure of the VP slot.
[M]aybe Biden will pick him for VP – if so, I’ve got $10 that says Smart Joe will get caught on tape at a rally explaining to disappointed feminists that, “Well, a gay guy counts as a woman, right?” You know that will totally happen.
Understudies
John Podhoretz ponders whether killing Soleimani is a fundamental change, or only the usual opportunity for a leadership rotation in terrorist circles. He comes down on the side of change:
As Podhoretz argues, deterrence isn't peace, and deterred enemies aren't friends. By the same token, enemies don't become friends when you cozy up to them and offer appeasement. Trump seems adept at using the carrot and the stick, which makes his foreign policy more coherent than the usual run of American deep-thinkers.
It may be true that if you kill one terrorist mastermind, another will rise in his place. But the fact is that masterminds like Soleimani do not grow on trees. If you think of him as the Steve Jobs of state-sponsored terror, then it seems plausible to likely that he will be followed by a less creative type — the Tim Cook of terror, say.I hope he's right. There's no doubt Soleimani had stiff competition in the eel-brain department, but as an effective leader maybe not.
As Podhoretz argues, deterrence isn't peace, and deterred enemies aren't friends. By the same token, enemies don't become friends when you cozy up to them and offer appeasement. Trump seems adept at using the carrot and the stick, which makes his foreign policy more coherent than the usual run of American deep-thinkers.
Thinking Too Much of Ourselves
A criticism of criticism. The fellow is from Brookings, which is institutionally suspect on Middle Eastern issues because it receives vast funding from Qatar; however, I see little wrong with the major point he's making on this occasion.
Maybe Major General Solemani was higher profile than most of Obama's victims -- though he was a Major General out of uniform, operating in a foreign country while under UN travel sanctions and US State and Treasury designation as the terrorist head of a terrorist organization that is itself a subset of a terrorist organization. He wasn't a higher profile victim than Qaddafi, though; and President Trump didn't overthrow a whole country just to get at him.
Speaking of which, Turkey is apparently moving forces into Libya to try to quell the remaining fires of the civil war Obama kicked off nine years ago. They have, of course, chosen to back the wrong side; but it's also the side Obama had picked, quite a few of whom were al Qaeda affiliates in the grand days of that movement. The Trump administration doesn't seem to care about Libya one way or the other, and will likely let the Turks decide the issue if they are able. Trump, at least, doesn't share the opinion that America is indispensable to these conflicts.
Those who said there will be war may not have realized there already was war.... Iran... may find new ways to escalate, but Iran had already been escalating. The regime of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, with its Iranian patrons, led by Soleimani, has been waging a brutal assault on Syrians for more than eight years. War, in short, has been happening—costing hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians their lives—since long before Donald Trump ordered the drone strike against Soleimani.Actually, his minor point is pretty good too.
In the aftermath of the strike, critics of the Trump administration’s foreign policy, particularly on the left, have described the move as one more rash American intervention that’s sure to further destabilize the region. Yet this formulation gives U.S. policy, for all its flaws, too much credit. Not everything is America’s fault; others are sometimes to blame; and no one, not even the weaker parties, are devoid of agency or freed of responsibility. The burden of de-escalation does not fall entirely on the United States; Iran, too, can choose to de-escalate.
There is also the problem of Trump himself. Because killing Soleimani was very much his decision—reflecting the impulsiveness and disarray a decision by him implies—it seems fair to assume that one’s view of the president will affect how one interprets the fallout from Soleimani’s killing. Correcting for subconscious bias isn’t easy, but at the very least, observers should be aware of the Trump effect.Well, indeed. One might begin trying to correct for this particular one by examining how one responded to President Obama's very regular targeted killings -- or whether you felt like the War Powers Act was being openly flaunted by Team Obama in its decision to overthrow Libya for no apparent reason.
Maybe Major General Solemani was higher profile than most of Obama's victims -- though he was a Major General out of uniform, operating in a foreign country while under UN travel sanctions and US State and Treasury designation as the terrorist head of a terrorist organization that is itself a subset of a terrorist organization. He wasn't a higher profile victim than Qaddafi, though; and President Trump didn't overthrow a whole country just to get at him.
Speaking of which, Turkey is apparently moving forces into Libya to try to quell the remaining fires of the civil war Obama kicked off nine years ago. They have, of course, chosen to back the wrong side; but it's also the side Obama had picked, quite a few of whom were al Qaeda affiliates in the grand days of that movement. The Trump administration doesn't seem to care about Libya one way or the other, and will likely let the Turks decide the issue if they are able. Trump, at least, doesn't share the opinion that America is indispensable to these conflicts.
Stuck in the last war
Jim Geraghty chronicles the state of the MSM reportage on who exactly it was that bombed the Saudi oil facilities several months ago. The early reporting included hostile suspicion of all Trump administration attempts to pin the responsibility on Iran. That went on for several months, until a magically quiet revolution reversed the story without any acknowledgement that the early reports were flat wrong.
Yesterday, Reuters: “Yemen’s Houthi group did not launch an attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in September, according to a confidential report by U.N. sanctions monitors seen by Reuters on Wednesday, bolstering a U.S. accusation that Iran was responsible.”
Also yesterday, a New York Times article declared: “with tensions between the United States and Iran at the highest level in four decades, the unexpected success of the September strike on the Saudi oil facilities is a stark reminder that Tehran has an array of stealthier weapons in its arsenal that could pose far greater threats if the hostilities escalate.”
Somewhere along the line, the American national news media either decided or realized that Secretary Pompeo and the U.S. government were not lying, were not making this up, and were not using shoddy intelligence to hype a threat from an authoritarian Middle Eastern regime. The declaration that Iran was responsible stopped being controversial, disputed, or unproven. It just became a fact, one that can be cited in an article about how dangerous the current moment is and the high risks of the president’s actions.
This is all leftover guilt about the Iraq War, isn’t it? So many of the people in foreign affairs journalism imbibed the “Bush lied us into war” rhetoric so deeply that they’ve concluded that American officials must be treated with way more skepticism than officials in secretive and serially dishonest authoritarian regimes. They say generals are always fighting the last war; apparently journalists are always covering the last one, too.
On Marriage
Or at least, on my marriage. Yesterday was a special day for me. January 7th wasn't a birthday, or anniversary, or indeed any particular date of note in and of itself. But January 7th, 2020 marked the day where I had been married to my wife longer than I had ever been single. Yes, I counted.
And while on one hand it represents just a statistical oddity, and was marked by no great fanfare, it was nonetheless important to me. And it struck me as the sort of thing that Cass would have marked on VC back in the day. And moreso, she would have some valuable insight into the institution of marriage, or time, or the relationship between men and women that would have sparked an interesting discussion. As I said, I've been reading my way through the archives (currently I'm on September of 2013), and I decided that since she's not posting about this sort of thing at the moment, I'll do my best to channel the inner Cassandra and find something interesting to observe. I can't promise I'll be successful.
And while on one hand it represents just a statistical oddity, and was marked by no great fanfare, it was nonetheless important to me. And it struck me as the sort of thing that Cass would have marked on VC back in the day. And moreso, she would have some valuable insight into the institution of marriage, or time, or the relationship between men and women that would have sparked an interesting discussion. As I said, I've been reading my way through the archives (currently I'm on September of 2013), and I decided that since she's not posting about this sort of thing at the moment, I'll do my best to channel the inner Cassandra and find something interesting to observe. I can't promise I'll be successful.
Official fictions
I am as usual very confused about international military strategy; the American people can count themselves lucky that I'm not their chief executive. Still, I've been impressed with Lee Smith's reporting on the appalling Russian collusion story to have some confidence in his ability to sift through propaganda and outright lies, so I thought I'd give his Iranian analysis a try:
The Iranian revolution was evidence to our ruling class of how much their fathers had gotten wrong—and thus proof of their own virtue.
* * *
U.S. policymakers preferred the fiction that Hezbollah was a homegrown product because it supported both their emotional needs and their policy goals: The West had earned the righteous anger of the natives, and there was nothing to be done except atone by way of offering human sacrifices.
* * *
Six U.S. administrations were complicit in turning Iran into a regional power. In that context, the Obama administration’s decision to flood Iranian war chests with cash and recognize its right to build a nuclear bomb was the logical culmination of the rot eating away at the Beltway for four decades. It was perhaps to be expected that an outsider who often doesn’t know when to keep quiet, and can’t stay off Twitter, would be the one to sing out like the boy in the fairy tale. It’s true, the emperor has no clothes. The rules have changed but that doesn’t mean the Iranians won’t be looking for revenge.
BB: Methodists Split Over Remaining Christian
Apparently a tough choice.
“There was just no way to reconcile differences,” said Rev. Lloyd Patrick, one of those dismayed by the recent push by traditionalists to follow the Bible instead of each person’s own heart. “A lot of people still want to follow Jesus -- a person from 2000 years ago who made no statements about pronouns and thus has no relevance today -- which is just silly since we all know so much more now and have a better grasp on morality than a bunch of ancient people.”
A Carol to Celebrate the Epiphany
Just thought a carol would be appropriate to celebrate today, the Epiphany. Allison Kraus and Yo-Yo Ma doing the Wexford Carol, for your enjoyment:
Hibernation
I almost thought it was Spring, with all the anti-war Democrats emerging. It's seems like only yesterday, that Smilin' Joe Biden went on record saying that if Iran attacked any American facility it would be considered an act of war and warrant "any" retaliation. I think Iran is way past due.
Something else to investigate
From the Spectator:
Why, you may ask, is the Obama shadow government continuing its efforts to resurrect the atrocious and inexplicably deleterious Iran nuclear deal? The answer to that question may lie in the following May 8, 2018 Tweet by one Raman Ghavami (@Raman_Ghavami) which was made following Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal and imposition of trading sanctions. Citing the senior adviser to Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, Ghavami’s Tweet reads in full as follows:
H.J. Ansari Zarif’s senior advisor: ‘If Europeans stop trading with Iran and don’t put pressure on US then we will reveal which western politicians and how much money they had received during nuclear negotiations to make #IranDeal happen.’ That would be interesting.
Can this be true? Were western politicians — including members of the Obama administration — paid by Iran to enter into the idiotic and dangerous Iran nuclear deal? Could this also explain why, as found by the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations, the Obama administration lied to Congress to gain approval of the deal while it worked behind the scenes to allow Iran access to U.S. financial markets? Could it be that officials of the Obama administration were and continue to be motivated by Iranian payoffs to sell out America?
That explains it
Presidential candidate Joe Biden makes a hash of answering the question whether he was lying when he claimed people could keep their plans under Obamacare, or simply didn't understand the legislation he was advocating.
No, look, the fact is that what I’m talking about now is that when – because I get asked the question – since, what I do is I’d add a public option to the existence of Obamacare, meaning that a Medicare-like option is available if in fact you – but there’s 160 million people out there who’ve negotiated a health care plan with their employer that they like and they don’t want to have to give up like Medicare for All requires. It says you have to give it up. You cannot have any private insurance.
* * *
But the fact is that when something’s taken away, when you – people didn’t know. I used to say to President Obama, “Mr. President, why don’t you take a victory lap? You got this passed. Let people know exactly what’s happened.”
…And he’d say, “We don’t have time to take a victory lap. We have too many things we have to do.” So people didn’t know, and we lost the House of Representatives after that passed. And people attributed to the fact that Obamacare passed and that was one of the arguments made, whether it’s true or not.
Continental drift
One of the best things about YouTube is its animated timelines for human or geological history. This one shows the movement of continents from the beginnings of large, organized life almost 550 million years ago. (Simpler life apparently started billions of years earlier, but left much more ambiguous traces.)
One of my favorite parts is the subcontinent of India shooting off towards Asia like something shot out of a sling. That's some impact. It started about 50 million years ago, which was before people, but after dinosaurs. India was hanging around down near Madagascar when it got caught on a fast conveyor belt that was getting sucked under Asia. It looks like a floating raft headed for a storm drain, but too big to fit. Australia is still on a collision path with Asia, though a much slower one.
This video was embedded in an interesting article from Watts up with That, summarizing the hot and ice ages over the last 550 million years, the point being that Earth's heating and cooling during geological eras is affected by the predominance or scarcity of continents in the tropical zones. We are currently in a 30-million-year-old ice age, a condition encountered only about a tenth of the time over geological timescales, but because we evolved during it, it strikes us as the way things ought to be for "life." In fact, however, we're in a geological brief interglacial period within a much more severe ice age. Humans wouldn't care for the more severe manifestations of a typical ice age.
Why are there ice ages? There is an interesting, but far from settled, link between the Sun's orbit through the Milky Way Galaxy and the typical 150-million-yearish cycle of ice ages.
One of my favorite parts is the subcontinent of India shooting off towards Asia like something shot out of a sling. That's some impact. It started about 50 million years ago, which was before people, but after dinosaurs. India was hanging around down near Madagascar when it got caught on a fast conveyor belt that was getting sucked under Asia. It looks like a floating raft headed for a storm drain, but too big to fit. Australia is still on a collision path with Asia, though a much slower one.
This video was embedded in an interesting article from Watts up with That, summarizing the hot and ice ages over the last 550 million years, the point being that Earth's heating and cooling during geological eras is affected by the predominance or scarcity of continents in the tropical zones. We are currently in a 30-million-year-old ice age, a condition encountered only about a tenth of the time over geological timescales, but because we evolved during it, it strikes us as the way things ought to be for "life." In fact, however, we're in a geological brief interglacial period within a much more severe ice age. Humans wouldn't care for the more severe manifestations of a typical ice age.
Why are there ice ages? There is an interesting, but far from settled, link between the Sun's orbit through the Milky Way Galaxy and the typical 150-million-yearish cycle of ice ages.
Food on the vine
This was fun. I'd seen some of these crops growing, like pineapples and brussels sprouts, but not others.
Sex Differences in America: A Partial List
It’s one-sided but it’s also AEI. The data is thus probably accurate, even if it is cherry-picked to make their point.
Cass asked a very important question
"Do chickens have lips."
Well, much like with the question for the ages answered over at Villainous Company (do cats have elbows), I posed this question to my veterinarian friends. And one of them has kindly answered:
"As a doctor of veterinary medicine as well as a proud Avian Biology degree holder...
..... Nah."
So there you have it, Cassandra. From as expert a source as I personally know.
Well, much like with the question for the ages answered over at Villainous Company (do cats have elbows), I posed this question to my veterinarian friends. And one of them has kindly answered:
"As a doctor of veterinary medicine as well as a proud Avian Biology degree holder...
..... Nah."
So there you have it, Cassandra. From as expert a source as I personally know.
A Study in Adjectives
Reason is worried about the spread of populism, which one of its sources defines as 'autocratization.' ("Autocratization" is defined by V-Dem as: "any substantial and significant worsening on the scale of liberal democracy. It is a matter of degree and a phenomenon that can occur both in democracies and autocracies….Semantically, it signals the opposite of democratization, describing any move away from [full] democracy.")
But wait a minute. "Populism" has its root in the Latin for 'people' just as "Democracy" has its roots in "Demos," Greek for 'people.' The first "populist" party in the United States was a late 19th century party of farmers and workers, just as the Democratic party transitioned into being during the 20th century. The article specifies that populists divide 'the true people' from another group who is exploiting or oppressing them, but just tune into one of the innumerable Democratic debates: they're all about how 'the people' are being exploited by various enemy groups -- the rich, billionaires, Republicans, white people or male people or privileged people of whatever sort. The rhetoric of the Democratic party has long been that it is the party of the honest, hard-working underdogs unfairly oppressed by the powerful; it only differs from moment to moment as to whether the system of power is racism, capitalism, sexism, or whatever else. Aside from the fact that one uses a Latin root and the other a Greek root, what's the difference?
Reason itself goes on to state that these populists aren't likely to go away soon because "People feel locked out of decision-making, and until that sense of democratic responsibility is restored, there's going to be one messy Brexit after another." If that's true, though, why would you describe "people" successfully contesting "being locked out of decision-making" as autocratization rather than democratizing? The Demos is capturing power; the system is becoming more responsive to the people who make it up, rather than whatever powers that had ruled it heretofore.
It may be that we are witnessing in America and Brazil a division of a nation into two "peoples," each of which has a democratic/populist mode of organizing. If so, both here and there it may be that division of the single nation into at least two nations is the only way to enable a democratic system to function in the healthy way, i.e., defending the interests of the people rather than imposing the will of one people onto another. Failing that, what you have isn't autocracy -- autocracy is what is ending. What you have are two different demos engaged in a struggle for dominance.
That's a serious problem, but it's not the problem these think tanks believe that they're experiencing. They are trapped in their adjectives, and unable to see the truth beyond their words.
But wait a minute. "Populism" has its root in the Latin for 'people' just as "Democracy" has its roots in "Demos," Greek for 'people.' The first "populist" party in the United States was a late 19th century party of farmers and workers, just as the Democratic party transitioned into being during the 20th century. The article specifies that populists divide 'the true people' from another group who is exploiting or oppressing them, but just tune into one of the innumerable Democratic debates: they're all about how 'the people' are being exploited by various enemy groups -- the rich, billionaires, Republicans, white people or male people or privileged people of whatever sort. The rhetoric of the Democratic party has long been that it is the party of the honest, hard-working underdogs unfairly oppressed by the powerful; it only differs from moment to moment as to whether the system of power is racism, capitalism, sexism, or whatever else. Aside from the fact that one uses a Latin root and the other a Greek root, what's the difference?
Reason itself goes on to state that these populists aren't likely to go away soon because "People feel locked out of decision-making, and until that sense of democratic responsibility is restored, there's going to be one messy Brexit after another." If that's true, though, why would you describe "people" successfully contesting "being locked out of decision-making" as autocratization rather than democratizing? The Demos is capturing power; the system is becoming more responsive to the people who make it up, rather than whatever powers that had ruled it heretofore.
It may be that we are witnessing in America and Brazil a division of a nation into two "peoples," each of which has a democratic/populist mode of organizing. If so, both here and there it may be that division of the single nation into at least two nations is the only way to enable a democratic system to function in the healthy way, i.e., defending the interests of the people rather than imposing the will of one people onto another. Failing that, what you have isn't autocracy -- autocracy is what is ending. What you have are two different demos engaged in a struggle for dominance.
That's a serious problem, but it's not the problem these think tanks believe that they're experiencing. They are trapped in their adjectives, and unable to see the truth beyond their words.
Fake News Today
BB: Hillary Clinton Slams Trump for not Taking a More “Hands-Off” Approach to Embassy Attack
Happy New Year, 2020
This was the year after “Blade Runner” (1982), and the year of 1989’s “Cyberpunk 2020.” I have heard that there will be a video game based on the latter coming out this year, except the year in the title is now 2077.
Yet we do have a kind of cyborg capacity in these smart phones with internet access almost anywhere. It’s transformed how we think and what about, not always for the better. Hip and knee replacements have gotten better: I often compete alongside guys with one or both, and they seem to perform just fine. I read that the Olympics have had to bar some prosthetic legs because they give too big an advantage to runners. Chemicals are frequently banned for the same reason.
So it’s not quite what we had imagined from the 1980s, but it’s not completely different either. I open the floor for further discussion along this line.
Yet we do have a kind of cyborg capacity in these smart phones with internet access almost anywhere. It’s transformed how we think and what about, not always for the better. Hip and knee replacements have gotten better: I often compete alongside guys with one or both, and they seem to perform just fine. I read that the Olympics have had to bar some prosthetic legs because they give too big an advantage to runners. Chemicals are frequently banned for the same reason.
So it’s not quite what we had imagined from the 1980s, but it’s not completely different either. I open the floor for further discussion along this line.
Hogmanay
The great Scottish New Year fire festival is tonight.
UPDATE:
A laid back, scholarly discussion. Sections include "Redding the House," "First Footing," and "Setting Things on Fire." The Protestants are the bad guys. The Edinburgh fireworks are impressive.
More of a small-town approach:
Synergy
So this post has two proximate causes, neither of which I had intended to have anything to do with the other, but together, they made it irresistible for me to post this. First, back in October, in my Facebook memories there was a post where I had asked two of my veterinarian friends if cats had knees, elbows, or something else entirely. I received back the technical answer (two knees, and two elbows, but the knees are officially called "stifles"), but for the life of me, I could not recall what in the world prompted me to ever ask such a thing.
Second, in following a link from Grim's post on the Feast of the Holy Family, I found myself reading other old posts. In the course of doing so, I ran across a story that linked back to Cassandra's blog Villainous Company. And from there, I started going through the archives. In there, I found this post. And suddenly, I remembered the whole discussion from five years in the past.
I had forgotten exactly how much I missed Cass' blog. It wasn't that the discourse was "better" than it is in the Hall, it was just different. The discussions there were wide ranging, mostly due to Cass' choices in topic selection, and there was a funny, friendly banter to it all. I still miss it.
Maybe I'm getting maudlin in my age. I don't know. But if you're still lurking Cass, I think the world could use more of your wit and wisdom. Anyhow... back to getting all misty eyed in the archives.
Second, in following a link from Grim's post on the Feast of the Holy Family, I found myself reading other old posts. In the course of doing so, I ran across a story that linked back to Cassandra's blog Villainous Company. And from there, I started going through the archives. In there, I found this post. And suddenly, I remembered the whole discussion from five years in the past.
I had forgotten exactly how much I missed Cass' blog. It wasn't that the discourse was "better" than it is in the Hall, it was just different. The discussions there were wide ranging, mostly due to Cass' choices in topic selection, and there was a funny, friendly banter to it all. I still miss it.
Maybe I'm getting maudlin in my age. I don't know. But if you're still lurking Cass, I think the world could use more of your wit and wisdom. Anyhow... back to getting all misty eyed in the archives.
Elliptical orbits
Salena Zito is generally worth reading, though I'll warn you that if (like my husband) you dislike the "pithy comments from the man on the street" style of political analysis, you should skip the first half-dozen paragraphs.
Zito sees the political landscape as undergoing a tectonic shift. First there is a long build-up of tension, as voters increasingly conclude they are being lied to by unserious people, then there is a catastrophic realignment. The 2020 outcome perhaps depends on the resolution of a deep ambivalence in the suburbs. Right-centrist voters long for dependability and civility, without always troubling themselves much about pure policy, but at some point they rebel against outright socialism even in its more pastel tones.
In the meantime, populist voters from both the left and right are an unpredictable disruptive force:
Zito sees the political landscape as undergoing a tectonic shift. First there is a long build-up of tension, as voters increasingly conclude they are being lied to by unserious people, then there is a catastrophic realignment. The 2020 outcome perhaps depends on the resolution of a deep ambivalence in the suburbs. Right-centrist voters long for dependability and civility, without always troubling themselves much about pure policy, but at some point they rebel against outright socialism even in its more pastel tones.
In the meantime, populist voters from both the left and right are an unpredictable disruptive force:
Democratic populists seek to copy Trump's success but not to win back the same populist voters who flipped margins by 32 points from 2012 to 2016 in places like Ashtabula, Ohio, or 18 points in Erie, Pennsylvania, both of which we profiled in "The Great Revolt." Democrats such as Warren and Sanders have given up on winning those places--and those Obama voters.
Instead, Sanders and Warren hope to emulate Trump's success with their party's version of the voters we called Perotistas, those whose participation in elections is irregular, even elliptical, and who pass into voting booths every decade or so like comets crashing into an otherwise orderly solar system, only to disappear just as abruptly.
Brilliant idea
We're starting to believe we have the last kitchen built since about 1990 that isn't an integral part of a great room, separated at most by an island. As usual, however, we're finding that our fuddy-duddy ways will put us on the cutting edge with enough patience. If ever we sell this house (instead of being carried out feet-first, my current ambition), we will market it as featuring the newest trend, a "discrete kitchen."
Rather than combining living, dining and kitchen in one open space, Beckford’s more traditional floor plans have created a new amenity, in addition to the development’s rooftop terrace, yoga rooms and private piano bar and lounge—the discrete kitchen.
“People like that you’re not looking at your kitchens from other rooms,” Ms. Russo said. “So many of these open kitchens, I think people are tiring of them and they are going back to the old school, the old architecture.”It goes along with another hot trend we saw developing a few years back: "away rooms" for people who originally thought they needed unobstructed sightlines from one end of the house to the other, so that their young children could be under constant surveillance. One of the few things I'd do differently if I were building this house again is pay more attention to the need for soundproofing at least one room. Either that or I need to develop some control over my dogs' barking when I'm trying to talk on the phone.
Anything I don't like is cruel and unusual
This is only a county court, so I'm not going to get too excited about it, but that doesn't mean I'll miss a chance to make fun of the mindset. A Denver local court struck down the city's ban on "urban camping" on the ground that it violates the 8th Amendment, because it would be cruel (and maybe unusual?) to criminalize camping on the street by people who have "nowhere else to go."
There's no limit to this approach, which focuses not on the particular punishment enacted by a callous public, but instead on the whole question whether it's a good idea to criminalize something.
Denver and San Francisco are providing a valuable public service as petri dishes.
There's no limit to this approach, which focuses not on the particular punishment enacted by a callous public, but instead on the whole question whether it's a good idea to criminalize something.
Denver and San Francisco are providing a valuable public service as petri dishes.
Feast of the Holy Family
Do all these continual feasts seem, er, 'problematic'? The early Medieval church thought so as well.
Sure, If You Work in Sherwood Forest
Question: Why not wear leggings (meaning yoga pants, I suppose) to work?
I don’t remember what specific combo of frustration and busyness led me to wear leggings to the office one day recently, but I do remember it felt magical. With nothing but a stretchy band and Nulu(™) fabric holding me in, I felt freer, like I was dancing through my duties, rather than trudging through them encased in polyester and wool. My computer seemed to run more quickly; my sources were more responsive; the PR people were less angry....Why not? It's appropriately gender-neutral, right?
Most everyone at my office is nicely dressed, from the occasional TV-ready suit-wearer to our fashion-conscious female editors. Occasionally, some mayor or other VIP stops by. Leggings are not part of this world. In fact, when I told my colleagues I was working on this article, several of them came to my desk, in their traditional slacks, and registered their complaints. “Tights are not pants,” people told me....
The other place where leggings are deemed unacceptable today: church.
Scary Scary Less Likely
But you should still be scared, says The Atlantic.
“It might not happen,” Fricker said. “But if there’s a chance that it could happen, then shouldn’t you involve that in your planning? If you’re hosting a picnic and it might rain, you don’t necessarily move the whole event, but you probably do make a Plan B. If you’re planning a city … you might as well keep this in the back of your mind.”OK. I'll pencil in a contingency plan for massive sea-level rise, like moving to a mountaintop in western North Carolina.
A Church Shooting in White Settlement, Texas
Attacks on religious celebrations continue to be in the news. After yesterday's stabbing spree at an Orthodox Jewish Hanukkah celebration (during a week in NYC that featured near-daily attacks on Orthodox Jews), today the attack was on a Church of Christ celebration.
UPDATE: Some analysis and advice for those who would do likewise.
A witness told CBS 11 News the gunman walked up to a server during communion with a shotgun and then opened fire. According to the witness, another church member shot the suspect....It is better, all the way around, for a religious community to be able to defend itself from these attacks. The attacks may not stop; hatred for the religion or simply for the religious may be too broad and too deep in our culture today. This is not new. Raymond Lull wrote about it in the Middle Ages.
During the incident, two men died from their injuries and another man was critically injured. Authorities believe the gunman is among the three but it’s unknown if he was killed or is injured.
Then if a knight use not his office, he is contrary to his order and to the beginning of chivalry. *** The office of a knight is to maintain and defend the holy catholic faith by which God the Father sent his Son into the world to take human flesh in the glorious Virgin, our Lady Saint Mary; and for to honor and multiply the faith, suffered in this world many travails, despites, and anguishous death. Then in like wise as our Lord God hath chosen the clerks for to maintain the holy catholic faith with scripture and reasons against the miscreaunts and unbelievers, in like wise God of glory hath chosen knights because that by force of arms they vanquish the miscreaunts, which daily labor for to destroy holy church, and such knights God holdeth them for his friends honored in the world and in that other when they keep and maintain the faith by the which we intend to be saved....There are some for whom such service is the most meaningful and proper way of expressing their faith. To deny them the right to do it is to deny them the expression of faith for which they are best fit, and which their soul finds its deepest and most worthy calling. Both the first and the second amendments should apply to the defenders of the faith, then; no government should stand between them and their sacred duty.
UPDATE: Some analysis and advice for those who would do likewise.
The Feast of Thomas a’ Beckett
The dispute over which he was killed makes King Henry seem like the good guy, especially given our own experience with the Church protecting violators in the clergy. Assassination was the wrong remedy, but the king was on the right side.
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