I question the motive/timing/hypocrisy
Another from Instapundit:
“Arendt had it right,” the late Sen. Pat Moynihan once told an interviewer. “She said one of the great advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.”
Another reason to impeach Trump
He's causing Betelgeuse to to nova by tweeting too much and producing carbon dioxide.
Asheville: Guess the Line of Business
If it helps, the same block on the facing street is bracketed by a store selling tarot card readings and witch supplies, and a crystal shop. So guess what kind of business this one is:
By the way, I passed through “Historic West Asheville” today as well. Now I better understand AVI’s complaints that he couldn’t find waffles in West Asheville. I think of West Asheville as a biker would, i.e., as an area of about ten miles across. I am morally sure that there is a Waffle House there somewhere. But Historic West Asheville has only head shops, a vinyl record outlet I’ve actually been to before, a holistic medicine training center, and hipster farm-to-table joints.
By the way, I passed through “Historic West Asheville” today as well. Now I better understand AVI’s complaints that he couldn’t find waffles in West Asheville. I think of West Asheville as a biker would, i.e., as an area of about ten miles across. I am morally sure that there is a Waffle House there somewhere. But Historic West Asheville has only head shops, a vinyl record outlet I’ve actually been to before, a holistic medicine training center, and hipster farm-to-table joints.
Flushing out political operatives
Roger Stone is not a nice man, so I'm not spending a lot of time weeping over his fate. Still, I don't like seeing political vindictiveness in a criminal prosecution. If his prosecutors were political operatives, which is what it looks like to me, I rejoice that they're quitting in a mass huff.
On Tomboys
Apropos of yesterday's post on Xena-type characters, another writer at the NYT -- this time Ms. Lisa Selin Davis -- laments the loss of "tomboy" characters. It's interesting that the Strong Female Lead character rose just as the tomboy character vanished. In a way they might seem like tokens of a type, in that both are female characters who express themselves in part through what Ms. Marling described as "masculine modalities." Davis denies that they are tokens of a type, however:
What strikes me here is that the tomboy character (and, I suppose, my wife) is even more masculine than the Xena-type character. Like Davis, insofar as I watched those shows as a kid (and we had much more limited options in those days), the tomboy characters were my favorite of the girls. It makes sense; there was a lot more to relate to with them, and they seemed like people you could have fun with doing things you liked to do anyway. Probably that dynamic explains the success of my marriage to some degree; we have always gone hiking, motorcycling, and with horses she always liked trail riding rather than the display sports like dressage (which was once a highly masculine sport, but now is generally not).
So it's not a desire to enforce rigid gender roles that bothers me about the Xena-type. Nor was it Xena herself; partly because of the ridiculous Beijing-opera wire work, I just found that show too silly to bother with back when it was around. But the proliferation of that type of character, long now a source of irritation, is here too recognized by a female writer and thinker as somehow harmful to women as well.
...the tomboy I refer to is Jo Polniaczek, from the 1980s sitcom “The Facts of Life.” That Jo was a working-class kid on scholarship at a fancy girls’ boarding school. Her signature hairstyle was two little ponytails that connected to a big one in the back. Her signature outfit was a leather jacket — once she even dressed up as Peter Fonda in “Easy Rider” for Halloween — and jeans. Her signature ride was a motorcycle — which she fixed herself....Emphasis added. I was struck by that because it could just as easily be a description of my wife. Mostly I fix her motorcycle, actually, but she's not afraid to do it if I'm not available and has performed field repairs and adjustments on a number of occasions.
When Jo joined “The Facts of Life” in 1980 for its second season, she was among many tomboys on the big and small screen in that era.... These were often my favorite characters, living examples of the feminist zeitgeist that told me I did not have to be feminine to be female: I could, and maybe should, dress and act like boys and have access to their domains...
But this kind of tomboy began to recede in the mid-1980s.... This was followed by the pink-hued “Girl Power” of the 1990s, which moved away from the more masculine-presenting tomboy toward an image that seemed to comfort the male gaze. Jo gave way to Sporty Spice, Xena, Buffy — coifed, petal-lipped and sometimes baring midriff — with the message that one didn’t need to sacrifice femininity to have power.
What strikes me here is that the tomboy character (and, I suppose, my wife) is even more masculine than the Xena-type character. Like Davis, insofar as I watched those shows as a kid (and we had much more limited options in those days), the tomboy characters were my favorite of the girls. It makes sense; there was a lot more to relate to with them, and they seemed like people you could have fun with doing things you liked to do anyway. Probably that dynamic explains the success of my marriage to some degree; we have always gone hiking, motorcycling, and with horses she always liked trail riding rather than the display sports like dressage (which was once a highly masculine sport, but now is generally not).
So it's not a desire to enforce rigid gender roles that bothers me about the Xena-type. Nor was it Xena herself; partly because of the ridiculous Beijing-opera wire work, I just found that show too silly to bother with back when it was around. But the proliferation of that type of character, long now a source of irritation, is here too recognized by a female writer and thinker as somehow harmful to women as well.
"Diversity" and "Fairness"
Via Instapundit, a university promotes a diversity of opinions and viewpoints -- as long as one of the sides is willing to pay to be heard.
"Doing Something" in Wuhan
This video is from The People's Daily, so it's the imagery that the PRC wants you to see about their response in Wuhan. For me it provokes a series of questions:
* What are these substances they are spraying with trucks all over town?
* What is the stuff they are spewing with hand sprayers? It's not the same stuff, judging by the much more dense fog.
* Is any of this stuff safe to breathe? Is it better for you than the virus?
* Why are they washing the outside of a jet plane?
* What are these substances they are spraying with trucks all over town?
* What is the stuff they are spewing with hand sprayers? It's not the same stuff, judging by the much more dense fog.
* Is any of this stuff safe to breathe? Is it better for you than the virus?
* Why are they washing the outside of a jet plane?
A Welcome Voice
As is well known to readers, this particular archetype -- the Xena Warrior Princess one, transposed into everything -- has long irritated me. Ms. Brit Marling, a former actress and filmmaker, writes of her own reasons for rejecting it.
I acknowledge those things, as well as the ways in which her feelings -- whether or not they are supported by facts -- are widely shared by many women. I don't want to do more than acknowledge those disputes, because what I want to do is recognize a point of agreement. I also want, and long for, movies that celebrate feminine strength on its own real terms. I miss that as much as she does, because I'm a man who loves women. I want women around, strong women, feminine women.
I long for the days when our movies once again can show women who are strong in the way that Isabeau was strong in Ladyhawke.
UPDATE: A ‘paradox’ of greatest unhappiness.
Enter, stage right: the Strong Female Lead.There's a lot in her piece that I am not quoting, some of which some of you may find highly sympathetic; some of which some of you will outright reject. I myself am always amazed when a woman thinks that women are the disposable sex in America, for example; she writes of domestic violence, which is a real problem, but men are far and away exposed to much more violence without anyone even thinking of it as a problem. The statistics she quotes on rape are long disproven, but even with rape, American men are more exposed to it than women thanks to our vast prison culture and disparities in just who gets sent to prison.
She’s an assassin, a spy, a soldier, a superhero, a C.E.O. She can make a wound compress out of a maxi pad while on the lam. She’s got MacGyver’s resourcefulness but looks better in a tank top.
Acting the part of the Strong Female Lead changed both who I was and what I thought I was capable of. Training to do my own stunt work made me feel formidable and respected on set. Playing scenes where I was the boss firing men tasted like empowerment. And it will always feel better to be holding the gun in the scene than to be pleading for your life at the other end of the barrel.
It would be hard to deny that there is nutrition to be drawn from any narrative that gives women agency and voice in a world where they are most often without both. But the more I acted the Strong Female Lead, the more I became aware of the narrow specificity of the characters’ strengths — physical prowess, linear ambition, focused rationality. Masculine modalities of power....
It’s difficult for us to imagine femininity itself — empathy, vulnerability, listening — as strong. When I look at the world our stories have helped us envision and then erect, these are the very qualities that have been vanquished in favor of an overwrought masculinity.
I acknowledge those things, as well as the ways in which her feelings -- whether or not they are supported by facts -- are widely shared by many women. I don't want to do more than acknowledge those disputes, because what I want to do is recognize a point of agreement. I also want, and long for, movies that celebrate feminine strength on its own real terms. I miss that as much as she does, because I'm a man who loves women. I want women around, strong women, feminine women.
I long for the days when our movies once again can show women who are strong in the way that Isabeau was strong in Ladyhawke.
UPDATE: A ‘paradox’ of greatest unhappiness.
Now That's Socialism!
Real Headline: "Rep. Ilhan Omar promotes call for GI Bill to apply to all Americans."
No limits on redistribution, apparently.
No limits on redistribution, apparently.
Who Doesn't Want to Depose Trump These Days?
Technically accurate headline: "Amazon wants to depose Trump after losing $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract."
Oh, right, homonyms.
Oh, right, homonyms.
Neuromancer
“We monitor many frequencies. We listen always. Came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. It played us a mighty dub.”In the story it was an AI. It's not hard to see how an AI could be optimized for something like this.
Hate and Anger
A worry, from David French:
But perhaps you want to stand on hate and try to banish it from Christian life. Well, then, a word from G. K. Chesterton describing the Saxon war against the Viking. King Alfred of the Saxons has received a thoughtless blow from a woman cooking cakes that leaves a red scar on his head, and for a moment he is angry with her and thinks of returning it.
Yet then he takes his anger and transforms it into an expression of hate. His hate is not against her, but against those who have deserved to be hated in the way that Aristotle suggests there are some who deserve our anger. This transformation is a kind of miracle in that it is an intervention that protects her from wrath. This little miracle enables the greater miracle of the victory to come:
In the end, you know, he brought the leader of the Danish army to Christ -- so the story goes. And if you believe the story, that which was done more sweetly for hate had a good end, indeed many good ends for many people. Salvation for some, if you believe the story, in which salvation of the soul is the most valuable prize of all. At minimum the victory brought stability for England, unity, prosperity, if you believe only demonstrable fact. But French wants to speak within the story, as Chesterton did.
Hate has no place in pro-life America. None. And embracing or defending hate—even hatred of the movement’s most vigorous opponents—for the sake of life contradicts the spirit of the movement and stands to do more harm than good to the political cause that so many Christians value the most.To what degree are you conflating "hate" with "anger"? Anger can be rational. So says Aristotle:
American Evangelicals represent one of the most powerful religious movements in the world. They exercise veto power over the political success of any presidential candidate from one of America’s two great parties. Yet they don’t wield that power to veto the selection of a man who completely rejects—and even scorns—many of their core moral values.
I fully recognize what I’m saying. I fully recognize that refusing to hire a hater and refusing to hire a liar carries costs. If we see politics through worldly eyes, it makes no sense at all. Why would you adopt moral standards that put you at a disadvantage in an existential political struggle? If we don’t stand by Trump we will lose, and losing is unacceptable.
With regard to anger also there is an excess, a deficiency, and a mean. Although they can scarcely be said to have names, yet since we call the intermediate person good-tempered let us call the mean good temper; of the persons at the extremes let the one who exceeds be called irascible, and his vice irascibility, and the man who falls short an inirascible sort of person, and the deficiency inirascibility.It's possible to be excessively prone to anger, and that is a vice; but notice that it's also possible to be deficiently prone to anger, and that is also a vice. The right soul is angry when anger is appropriate.
But perhaps you want to stand on hate and try to banish it from Christian life. Well, then, a word from G. K. Chesterton describing the Saxon war against the Viking. King Alfred of the Saxons has received a thoughtless blow from a woman cooking cakes that leaves a red scar on his head, and for a moment he is angry with her and thinks of returning it.
Yet then he takes his anger and transforms it into an expression of hate. His hate is not against her, but against those who have deserved to be hated in the way that Aristotle suggests there are some who deserve our anger. This transformation is a kind of miracle in that it is an intervention that protects her from wrath. This little miracle enables the greater miracle of the victory to come:
Then Alfred laughed out suddenly,Chesterton is here a poet, and 'anger' has two syllables while 'hate' has one. But he has a 'for' there that is disposable; he could have easily composed the line, "More sweet for anger and heart's desire," with no loss to the poetic form. He seems to be saying 'hate' on purpose, and in an explicitly Christian context in which one is commanded to love one's enemy. Alfred refuses to return a blow he has received, and instead turns his justified wrath against another more deserving.
Like thunder in the spring,
Till shook aloud the lintel-beams,
And the squirrels stirred in dusty dreams,
And the startled birds went up in streams,
For the laughter of the King.
And the beasts of the earth and the birds looked down,
In a wild solemnity,
On a stranger sight than a sylph or elf,
On one man laughing at himself
Under the greenwood tree—
The giant laughter of Christian men
That roars through a thousand tales,
Where greed is an ape and pride is an ass,
And Jack's away with his master's lass,
And the miser is banged with all his brass,
The farmer with all his flails;
Tales that tumble and tales that trick,
Yet end not all in scorning—
Of kings and clowns in a merry plight,
And the clock gone wrong and the world gone right,
That the mummers sing upon Christmas night
And Christmas Day in the morning.
"Now here is a good warrant,"
Cried Alfred, "by my sword;
For he that is struck for an ill servant
Should be a kind lord.
"He that has been a servant
Knows more than priests and kings,
But he that has been an ill servant,
He knows all earthly things.
"Pride flings frail palaces at the sky,
As a man flings up sand,
But the firm feet of humility
Take hold of heavy land.
"Pride juggles with her toppling towers,
They strike the sun and cease,
But the firm feet of humility
They grip the ground like trees.
"He that hath failed in a little thing
Hath a sign upon the brow;
And the Earls of the Great Army
Have no such seal to show.
"The red print on my forehead,
Small flame for a red star,
In the van of the violent marching, then
When the sky is torn of the trumpets ten,
And the hands of the happy howling men
Fling wide the gates of war.
"This blow that I return not
Ten times will I return
On kings and earls of all degree,
And armies wide as empires be
Shall slide like landslips to the sea
If the red star burn.
"One man shall drive a hundred,
As the dead kings drave;
Before me rocking hosts be riven,
And battering cohorts backwards driven,
For I am the first king known of Heaven
That has been struck like a slave.
"Up on the old white road, brothers,
Up on the Roman walls!
For this is the night of the drawing of swords,
And the tainted tower of the heathen hordes
Leans to our hammers, fires and cords,
Leans a little and falls.
"Follow the star that lives and leaps,
Follow the sword that sings,
For we go gathering heathen men,
A terrible harvest, ten by ten,
As the wrath of the last red autumn—then
When Christ reaps down the kings.
"Follow a light that leaps and spins,
Follow the fire unfurled!
For riseth up against realm and rod,
A thing forgotten, a thing downtrod,
The last lost giant, even God,
Is risen against the world."
Roaring they went o'er the Roman wall,
And roaring up the lane,
Their torches tossed a ladder of fire,
Higher their hymn was heard and higher,
More sweet for hate and for heart's desire,
And up in the northern scrub and brier,
They fell upon the Dane.
In the end, you know, he brought the leader of the Danish army to Christ -- so the story goes. And if you believe the story, that which was done more sweetly for hate had a good end, indeed many good ends for many people. Salvation for some, if you believe the story, in which salvation of the soul is the most valuable prize of all. At minimum the victory brought stability for England, unity, prosperity, if you believe only demonstrable fact. But French wants to speak within the story, as Chesterton did.
Dog Faced Soldiers, Pony Soldiers
Joe Biden may or may not have been thinking of these Redcoats, as the piece suggests, but the phrase "pony soldiers" is used in Hondo to refer to the US Cavalry. It differs, though, from "Dog-Faced Soldiers," who are infantry -- specifically the 3rd Infantry Division. It's their Division song; I learned it from them while working with their headquarters element in 2007 because their commanding general made them stand up and sing it to him every morning at the Battle Update Briefing.
That commanding general was Rick Lynch, who seemed very much to be attempting to reprise the role of George Patton. In spite of his cigar-chomping theatrics 3ID had a tremendous run of success during his time there, during which the entire division -- not just the headquarters but all four brigades -- were deployed from Anbar to the Mada'in, and from Baghdad to Al Hillah. The counterinsurgency campaign in that period saw violence drop by about ninety percent.
I guess he went on to become a Lieutenant General before he retired, which is pretty good. He once gave me one of his "challenge coins," which just for fun I dug out tonight to show you.
UPDATE: A reasonable comment on the 3ID page's apology for the Dog Face Soldier song:
That commanding general was Rick Lynch, who seemed very much to be attempting to reprise the role of George Patton. In spite of his cigar-chomping theatrics 3ID had a tremendous run of success during his time there, during which the entire division -- not just the headquarters but all four brigades -- were deployed from Anbar to the Mada'in, and from Baghdad to Al Hillah. The counterinsurgency campaign in that period saw violence drop by about ninety percent.
I guess he went on to become a Lieutenant General before he retired, which is pretty good. He once gave me one of his "challenge coins," which just for fun I dug out tonight to show you.
The dog is "Rocky," created by Walt Disney personally and donated to the division in what I imagine was a fit of patriotism. The coin has a notch in it, I was told, "Because Rocky took a bite out of it."
"Nous Resterons La" is a line from the First World War's deployment of the Third Division as a part of the American Expeditionary Force. It means "We'll stay here," which at the Second Battle of the Marne is just what they did.
I don't know how you get the two concepts confused, although I spent some time with various 1st Cavalry units too and it could be that they're more alike than either of them would like to admit. Maybe Joltin' Joe can throw in a "Buffalo Soldier" reference next time just for good measure.
The trouble with “honest” soldier songs is that they are generally unprintable parodies of other songs, while the trouble with “official” soldier songs is that they are generally phony-sounding, slick productions which completely lack spontaneity. At the beginning of World War II there was a need for a soldier song which could be accepted by the mud-slogging foot soldiers as well as civilian concert audiences – a song in the happy medium between “honest” and “official”.Fake but accurate, I think we call that these days.
The dichotomy we never tire of
Robert Plomin, in "Blueprint," compared popular assumptions about the heritability of various traits to the best we can do for scientific evidence for each trait. In every case but one, traits were much more heritable than people liked to think. The exception was breast cancer, whose heritability is overestimated 5x.
Table 2 How much are these traits influenced by genetics? [%] The first column of results shows the average opinions of 5,000 young adults in the UK. The second column shows results from genetic research.
Eye colour 77 95
Height 67 80
Breast cancer 53 10
Schizophrenia 43 50
Autism 42 70
General Intelligence 41 50
Weight 40 70
Reading disability 38 60
Personality 38 40
Spatial ability 33 70
Remembering faces 31 60
Stomach ulcers 29 70
School achievement 29 60
Verbal ability 27 60
Centrists and Democracy
A study suggests that support for democracy is weakest among centrist voters, not extremists.
A Real Crisis
The city and country face “wartime conditions,” Ms. Sun said. “There must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever.”
A Fine Rollicking Piece
Still sick, but I fear I'll be better soon. After that I'll have no excuses for all the work I'm not getting around to doing.
Thor's Praise
Just yesterday Kirk Douglas died at 103 years old.
They were just as set on the Vikings in his era; and in the era before his. Sir Walter Scott wrote a poem that opens with a celebration of Viking rapine, although what the poem is about is the conversion of the hero to Christianity.
They were just as set on the Vikings in his era; and in the era before his. Sir Walter Scott wrote a poem that opens with a celebration of Viking rapine, although what the poem is about is the conversion of the hero to Christianity.
Woe to the realms where he coasted, for thereThey fought big wars in the last century, and joyous ones in the century before. The Viking thing isn't new; what's new is the loss of faith in what were long thought to be timeless truths.
Was shedding of blood and rending of hair,
Rape of maiden, slaughter of priest,
Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast!
When he hoisted his standard black
Before him was battle, behind him was wrack!
Learn to code
It's not like the Iowa Dem caucus was trying to solve a difficult problem--but apparently it was beyond the skills of whatever novice they turned the coding problem over to.
Which still doesn't explain why three days later they still haven't managed to finish the calculations by pencil. There's just no explanation for any of this that should lead a voter to conclude he can improve life for Americans by voting for these people. Incompetence? Corruption? Inextricable mix of the two? It's all the same result, and it's what human institutions always get when the guiding principle is "you just have to leave us in power because Reasons."
Which still doesn't explain why three days later they still haven't managed to finish the calculations by pencil. There's just no explanation for any of this that should lead a voter to conclude he can improve life for Americans by voting for these people. Incompetence? Corruption? Inextricable mix of the two? It's all the same result, and it's what human institutions always get when the guiding principle is "you just have to leave us in power because Reasons."
Acquittal
As expected, President Trump was acquitted on both articles of impeachment. Mitt Romney cast the only crossover vote: to convict on abuse of power, but not on obstruction of Congress. That made the votes 48-52 and 47-53.
Down Sick
Got the thing the wife had after two weeks of standing it off. I’m going to lay in bed with beer until I feel better. Good luck to you until then.
Cloudy Days
The jet stream and the Polar Vortex are far to the north this winter; there is neither La Niña nor El Niño. As a result we are getting all our winter weather straight off the Gulf of Mexico, which makes this warm and wet. Nearly every day it rains.
People are sick around here, as well. It's a day of ambition on the grand scale, but locally it's little but sickness and rain.
People are sick around here, as well. It's a day of ambition on the grand scale, but locally it's little but sickness and rain.
To Hear the Lamentations of the Women
Specifically, Ms. Kara Swisher, and one other she cites below.
Who won? Who knows? Which is not exactly how the Democrats want to start off these critical primaries. This looks more like my octogenarian mom when her New York Post app does not load correctly than a political party leaning into the future.With 62% of the votes allegedly now being accurately reported, #MayorCheat is very slightly in the lead (in delegates; Sanders leads the popular vote). So-called "Frontrunner" Biden barely made viability. Warren is in third, not very far above Biden but comfortably viable.
This reminds me of another Democratic tech snafu: the debut of the glitch-laden and over-budget Obamacare website, technically called HealthCare.gov...
There was the hashtag #MayorCheat, alleging links between Pete Buttigieg and the company that built the app for the caucuses, Shadow — Could it have a worse name? No, it could not! — and also its funder, a Democratic digital strategy operation called Acronym.... As the writer Maura Quint noted on Twitter: “Feels like you can ask people to trust the process or you can name your election companies Acronym and Shadow like they’re rival gangs of supervillains in a movie where Spiderman teams up with G.I. Joe to save Manhattan, but you can’t do both.”
"Quality Control"
I'm pretty sure that means "editing."
UPDATE: The unity headquarters reporting room is apparently located in a boiler room, complete with furnace for undesirable results and documentation.
They're not even pretending anymore.
UPDATE: The unity headquarters reporting room is apparently located in a boiler room, complete with furnace for undesirable results and documentation.
They're not even pretending anymore.
Onion/Bee
DNC mulls asking Trump to run as a Democrat, to stop Sanders.
Trump supports impeachment, forcing Dems to oppose it.
In nominally non-satirical news, the Iowa caucus is turning into just about the goat rodeo that was predicted. Stephen Green says of the lollygagging, "This is a simple game. You count the votes, you report the votes."
Trump supports impeachment, forcing Dems to oppose it.
In nominally non-satirical news, the Iowa caucus is turning into just about the goat rodeo that was predicted. Stephen Green says of the lollygagging, "This is a simple game. You count the votes, you report the votes."
Rider's Journal: Snowmen and Seventy Degrees
It was 66 by the thermometer, but as you can see it hasn't been for long.
It was a nice day today, and I had a few hours this afternoon, so I took a short ride. The longest part of the ride was on North Carolina highway 215, which begins by a rafting and fishing shop (with a credible beer and burger food truck) at US 64, and heads north across the Pisgah Ridge at Beech Gap, then on to Waynesville and eventually I-40. I-40 will take you to Knoxville or Asheville, as you prefer.
Black balsams at this altitude.
I spent the ride listening to Outlaw Country, trying to pick a song to use as the model for the one you folks wanted me to write. I've got the basic structure of the song mapped, but I still need to put it into poetics that match a tune and rhythm. I'm most inclined to use this one:
But David Allan Coe might object, being still alive and ornery.
Another option is this one:
Willie Nelson is still alive too, but he's not so ornery; and since he literally invites you to steal the song in the lyrics, I doubt he'd complain about it.
Or maybe I'll think of something else. As long as it's a good excuse to take motorcycle rides instead of working, I'm game to keep thinking about it.
Super Bowl Ads
A few are making the rounds such that even I saw them, which means you've all seen them already.
But heck, let's watch them again anyway.
But heck, let's watch them again anyway.
Democrats Offline Not Liberals
A clean majority of non-Twitter Democrats are "Moderate," "Conservative," or "Very Conservative." Fifty-eight percent so identify, 49% choosing "moderate" and the rest one of the right-wing labels (which for some reason are depicted on the left side of the chart).
Of those who do have a Twitter account, 56% are either "Liberal" or "Very Liberal."
Of those who do have a Twitter account, 56% are either "Liberal" or "Very Liberal."
A New Quarantine
Wuhan is under a radical sort of quarantine, one in which only one resident per household may leave the house -- and that only every two days, and that only if masked. Roads are closed, public places are largely closed as well.
That's intense, but it's not a new approach. What's new is the digital aspect: if you're from Wuhan, your IDs and payment methods will no longer allow you to function anywhere else. China has flagged those IDs and issued orders to deny them service outside Wuhan. You have to go home even if you got out before, or you can't live because you can't buy things or rent hotels. You cannot buy gas to travel, you cannot go to a hospital outside of Wuhan if you develop the illness.
This is a good reason to keep cash on hand, in spite of the convenience of payment cards. The United States government won't do this to you -- today. But it could.
That's intense, but it's not a new approach. What's new is the digital aspect: if you're from Wuhan, your IDs and payment methods will no longer allow you to function anywhere else. China has flagged those IDs and issued orders to deny them service outside Wuhan. You have to go home even if you got out before, or you can't live because you can't buy things or rent hotels. You cannot buy gas to travel, you cannot go to a hospital outside of Wuhan if you develop the illness.
This is a good reason to keep cash on hand, in spite of the convenience of payment cards. The United States government won't do this to you -- today. But it could.
I Didn't Realize You Could Do That
I wish Atlanta had banned growth thirty years ago, like this town in South Carolina. It's actually a suburb of Charlotte, which sits on the NC/SC border.
But watch out, AVI:
But watch out, AVI:
Ms. McCauley, who moved here from San Jose, is leaving later this month. Her husband took a job in Boston and will telecommute from the far suburbs of rural New Hampshire.
“New Hampshire has that quiet feel that Lake Wylie used to have,” she said.
Anarchy
An interesting quiz. I matched up 93% with "Agorist," which they describe thus:
Agorists are market anarchists who seek to starve the state of its resources through counter-economics. The concept of counter-economics includes the gray market (unapproved economic activity) and the black market (illegal economic activity that obeys the NAP), but not the white market (state-approved economic activity) or the red market (violence, theft, and/or coercion). The original agorist was Samuel Edward Konkin III (also know as SEK3), who was dissatisfied with the American libertarian movement of his time. He, like Murray Rothbard and the anarcho-capitalists, supported extreme free market principles. Unlike them, however, he held that these principles, taken to their farthest extremes, supported traditionally left-wing goals such as solidarity and worker's self-management. Thus, Agorists consider themselves left-libertarians, and tend not to call themselves capitalists.They also have a "Which type of Socialist are you?" quiz. It gave me "collectivist anarchist," which was the kind of anarchism that I scored lowest on with the Anarchy quiz. My guess is that it's just the closest results I could get on a quiz about socialism.
Mother Jones Worries About Iowa
In addition to eliminating the Senate and the Electoral College in the name of democracy, the Iowa caucuses are also on the list:
Well, that's just a restatement of Chesterton: "Tradition is the democracy of the dead."
A dozen years ago, I set up shop at a Des Moines middle school to cover the Iowa caucuses on a snowy January night.... Back home the next week, friends asked for a debrief. I told them it reminded me of something I’d recently seen on YouTube: grindadráp, a centuries-old community organized whale hunt practiced annually in the Faroe Islands, when the animals are driven out of the North Atlantic into shallow bays and then beached and bludgeoned with clubs, or stabbed with gaffs until the water runs red. Both events were dynamic, homespun, an exercise of tradition, a visual spectacle—yet archaic and totally disturbing. How do these things happen in the 21st century? Could what I witnessed in Des Moines really be the best way to kick off the selection of the next Leader of the Free World?Sometimes old traditions are exactly the best place to locate democracy, as it happens. A form that has been stable for generations is a form that generations of people have chosen. If the good of democracy comes from considering the views of others and not only of a small group, why not include the choices of your fathers and mothers, grandfathers and great-grandmothers? If this was choice-worthy for so many for so long, why not consider that they perhaps had a point?
Well, that's just a restatement of Chesterton: "Tradition is the democracy of the dead."
Public/Private Partnership
South Bend has one.
La Casa in December 2016 began issuing the community resident card, branded as “SB ID,” to undocumented immigrants to help them conduct routine daily activities, such as picking up children from school or day care, providing identification to police, obtaining college transcripts, library cards and prescriptions, and clearing background checks needed to volunteer at schools....It’s like hosting otherwise official emails on a private server.
...the request for a South Bend card first came to Common Council members from parishioners at St. Adalbert Catholic Church. Buttigieg embraced the idea and the council approved $18,000 in the 2016 city budget to pay for the program.
But by the end of 2016, the city’s legal team had decided that cardholders’ identities might be disclosable under Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act if the city, a public entity, issued the cards, so La Casa agreed to do it instead, Centellas said.
“The program is run, operated and maintained by La Casa, so the data is all ours and there’s been no government dollars used in this,” Centellas said.
Unexpectedly
I was shocked to learn that price controls in the New York rental housing market depressed supply.
“A big majority of our housing stock of stabilized units have been occupied between 40 and 50 years. These units require up to $100,000 and sometimes more, to complete a gut rehabilitation. You don’t need to be a genius to understand it makes no sense to invest that much only to get an $83.00 rent increase,” one survey respondent told CHIP.
* * *
The Commercial Observer reports that the new rent laws are encouraging small- and mid-sized landlords to exit the market entirely, writing that “many property owners have woken up to a world where their buildings are worth 30 to 50 percent less than they were a year ago.”Stephen Green's take at Instapundit, because crony capitalists love them some crony capitalism:
Easy prediction: Big, connected players will snap up these properties at a steep discount, at which point the city will grant relief and exemptions from the new regulations.
Germpocalypse
Like many people, I'm keeping an eye on the Wu Flu news. It's not a nice bug, but so far it's not looking like a truly horrible one. Here is a fairly dispassionate report. The spread has been showing an extremely stable pattern of doubling the reported cases every 48 hours like clockwork. The mortality rate looks close to 2%, scary but not utterly shocking, especially when you consider that it's a rate applicable only to cases severe enough to warrant going to a doctor. There is good reason to think that's the tip of the iceberg, with most cases appearing in such a mild form that people simply experience cold symptoms or perhaps no symptoms at all. Nor is the transmission rate particularly amazing: far less than measles, for instance. We're not, in other words, looking at an epidemic that will kill 2% of the world's population.
Still, it's a nasty bug, particularly for people with pre-existing conditions and those in countries with inadequate heroic medical intervention in case of respiratory collapse.
Still, it's a nasty bug, particularly for people with pre-existing conditions and those in countries with inadequate heroic medical intervention in case of respiratory collapse.
"The Attraction of Thor"- on Why the Catholic Church is Losing Men.
Fr. Brad Sweet has penned a rather interesting article on his thoughts on why we see some men drawn to neo-paganism and away from the Catholic church, and how that might be related to the feminization of both our societies and the church itself. It's an interesting read, and as a chaplain to the Royal Canadian Navy, he has a rather interesting perspective on this.
It was also interesting to find out that the Canadian military has allowed beards in all branches of service.
Fr. Sweet is also on twitter as @BradBradSweet
Men need to be challenged, need to prove themselves worthy. The church used to make that more present."And there we have the attraction of Thor. These and many other men are not going to identify with Catholic "lite". Their lives are hard, and full of risk. They are fathers and soldiers or sailors or aviators. They seek not comfort but fortitude and a priest and Church that can be of help to maintain this duty and purpose in life as fathers and warriors."
It was also interesting to find out that the Canadian military has allowed beards in all branches of service.
Fr. Sweet is also on twitter as @BradBradSweet
“The Western” in Saudi Arabia
Good gracious.
It reminds me of this old post, except the Saudis are less obvious about using us as fertility gods. Less obvious: note all the women are unveiled.
UPDATE: Per Douglas in the comments, this event was actually held in Bahrain.
It reminds me of this old post, except the Saudis are less obvious about using us as fertility gods. Less obvious: note all the women are unveiled.
UPDATE: Per Douglas in the comments, this event was actually held in Bahrain.
Remoaning
Project Gutenberg, where I spend so much time online, is apolitical except on one designated "Political" forum. The politics there have a marked leftist tinge, which shouldn't be surprising given the academic focus and the fact that members come from many countries.
Today one of the few conservatives posted a cheerful note of congratulations for Brexit Day, which naturally drew a number of cheerless responses. I posted brief responses to the first few, adopting what I consider the moderate view: without presuming to dictate to my British brethren what they should want for themselves, I merely observe that this is what they in fact chose.
That got a handful of sour notes about how difficult it is to divine what the "people really want." I suppose so, but I'd rather go with the popular vote as a reasonable barometer than indulge in mindreading or the imposition of what's best for them by someone else's lights. What then surprised me most was a series of posts arguing that Brexit was unfair because of its impact on British expats. Expats in France, for instance, no longer can expect to be eligible to run for local office in the French villages they have chosen for themselves. So Brexit's anti-choice, see? One fellow is unhappy that he let his British passport expire so his kids could never drag him back to Britain "except in a box," but now he expects his free EU health benefits to be discontinued.
Maybe I'm hard-hearted, but I'd say the right solution in both cases would be to apply for citizenship in the countries these people have chosen to live in. Why blame Great Britain or Brexit? They can perfectly well go on as EU citizens if they like.
Today one of the few conservatives posted a cheerful note of congratulations for Brexit Day, which naturally drew a number of cheerless responses. I posted brief responses to the first few, adopting what I consider the moderate view: without presuming to dictate to my British brethren what they should want for themselves, I merely observe that this is what they in fact chose.
That got a handful of sour notes about how difficult it is to divine what the "people really want." I suppose so, but I'd rather go with the popular vote as a reasonable barometer than indulge in mindreading or the imposition of what's best for them by someone else's lights. What then surprised me most was a series of posts arguing that Brexit was unfair because of its impact on British expats. Expats in France, for instance, no longer can expect to be eligible to run for local office in the French villages they have chosen for themselves. So Brexit's anti-choice, see? One fellow is unhappy that he let his British passport expire so his kids could never drag him back to Britain "except in a box," but now he expects his free EU health benefits to be discontinued.
Maybe I'm hard-hearted, but I'd say the right solution in both cases would be to apply for citizenship in the countries these people have chosen to live in. Why blame Great Britain or Brexit? They can perfectly well go on as EU citizens if they like.
Ride On
Corb covers AC/DC:
Ian Tyson was a Canadian Country musician from the '50s on. Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan all recorded songs he wrote. Here's his most famous song:
Corb's new album is Cover Your Tracks.
Anyone going to see him in Dallas?
Ian Tyson was a Canadian Country musician from the '50s on. Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan all recorded songs he wrote. Here's his most famous song:
Corb's new album is Cover Your Tracks.
Anyone going to see him in Dallas?
Crazy Politics? Check Out France
How's this for a headline? "French firefighters set themselves alight and start fighting against police."
The pictures are kind of amazing. Even among the impeachment spectacle and Brexit marching out of the European Parliament, France has managed to top us all.
The pictures are kind of amazing. Even among the impeachment spectacle and Brexit marching out of the European Parliament, France has managed to top us all.
Nobody Cares if Nobody Likes You
A study on likeability, especially in politics but with ramifications for the workplace and in general.
I don't know if this is true or not, but maybe it is. It's hard for me to decide if my own experience is telling. Certainly I like Tulsi Gabbard, in many respects; I'm still not going to vote for her, because her opinions frequently suggest to me that she's dangerously disqualified for the position. Certainly I did not like Hillary Clinton, but I also didn't think she was qualified -- chiefly disqualified on ethics!
Perhaps it doesn't matter as much as the report suggests, since we often find ways to like people who are useful to us. Kamala Harris is well-liked by those who would vote for her, in spite of some very unlikable ethical lapses as a prosecutor and a Senator. If you were opposed to her anyway, it's easy to find something not to like; if you were inclined to support her anyway, maybe that means you'll find a way to like her.
I think perhaps the experience of Sarah Palin points that up. When she stood on the stage and winked, the shockwave of her likability ran through the nation. But by the end of the campaign, she was one of the most disliked people in the nation. People decided to dislike her, I infer, because they were afraid she would otherwise win. And so, even as she palled around with the Saturday Night Live crew that was mocking her, even as she offered them free babysitting (even as she said "there is much to admire about our opponent," a sentiment that it is hard to imagine hearing expressed today), they decided to despise her and worked hard at it.
It still may be unfair that women depend so much more on being liked, but if the results are right it is also women who are bringing the biggest weight on liking you (or not). Men at least give each other a break; women could do the same. Maybe men could learn to give women a break, but would women learn to give one to men? Equality is parity, is it not? (No; sometimes, but not always.)
According to a study published in The Economic Journal, likability matters among women and among mixed-gender groups but not among men alone. In other words, women want both sexes to be likable, and men want women to be likable, but they don’t care so much about other men.... In short, women always need to be likable, and men only have to worry about it half the time....What he said was actually much better than that: he said, "On a good day, my wife likes me."
For men, it can even pay to be unlikable. The fact that Trump is a pompous blowhard has somehow become a point in his favor. Sanders actually benefits from having the unlikable Clinton say, as she did last week, “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him.” (Cleverly, Sanders shot back, “My wife likes me.”)
I don't know if this is true or not, but maybe it is. It's hard for me to decide if my own experience is telling. Certainly I like Tulsi Gabbard, in many respects; I'm still not going to vote for her, because her opinions frequently suggest to me that she's dangerously disqualified for the position. Certainly I did not like Hillary Clinton, but I also didn't think she was qualified -- chiefly disqualified on ethics!
Perhaps it doesn't matter as much as the report suggests, since we often find ways to like people who are useful to us. Kamala Harris is well-liked by those who would vote for her, in spite of some very unlikable ethical lapses as a prosecutor and a Senator. If you were opposed to her anyway, it's easy to find something not to like; if you were inclined to support her anyway, maybe that means you'll find a way to like her.
I think perhaps the experience of Sarah Palin points that up. When she stood on the stage and winked, the shockwave of her likability ran through the nation. But by the end of the campaign, she was one of the most disliked people in the nation. People decided to dislike her, I infer, because they were afraid she would otherwise win. And so, even as she palled around with the Saturday Night Live crew that was mocking her, even as she offered them free babysitting (even as she said "there is much to admire about our opponent," a sentiment that it is hard to imagine hearing expressed today), they decided to despise her and worked hard at it.
It still may be unfair that women depend so much more on being liked, but if the results are right it is also women who are bringing the biggest weight on liking you (or not). Men at least give each other a break; women could do the same. Maybe men could learn to give women a break, but would women learn to give one to men? Equality is parity, is it not? (No; sometimes, but not always.)
World Ending, Women and Children Hardest Hit
The Guardian may have set a record for closeness of approximation to that famous satirical headline.
Farage Rides Again
One last time at the EU Parliament, Nigel Farage makes his point about why the EU project is bad.
Then, just at the end, the chairwoman makes his point for him. Loud and clear.
Then, just at the end, the chairwoman makes his point for him. Loud and clear.
Corrupt research
Too much "research" is tax-funded resume-buffing and policy-bolstering.
This dilemma reminds me of the "government is the word for the things we do together" thinking. Government is also the word for ways to break all sensible links between the source of money and the reasonableness of the uses to which the money will be put. You think it's bad when tobacco manufacturers crank out research on lung cancer, or fossil fuel companies produce research on climate change? Just get unelected federal bureaucrats into the mix. There are no real brakes on that car. Nothing we've ever tried works better than decentralizing the decisions and leaving each contributor as much as possible in charge of his own decision whether to keep pointing his own resources at a particular goal.
As Richard Feynman said, "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
Related: with interesting tie-ins to Wuhan medical research and what appears to be the standard-issue $50K/month corrupt international gig, available only to those with appropriate access to the tax-and-influence machine.
This dilemma reminds me of the "government is the word for the things we do together" thinking. Government is also the word for ways to break all sensible links between the source of money and the reasonableness of the uses to which the money will be put. You think it's bad when tobacco manufacturers crank out research on lung cancer, or fossil fuel companies produce research on climate change? Just get unelected federal bureaucrats into the mix. There are no real brakes on that car. Nothing we've ever tried works better than decentralizing the decisions and leaving each contributor as much as possible in charge of his own decision whether to keep pointing his own resources at a particular goal.
As Richard Feynman said, "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
Related: with interesting tie-ins to Wuhan medical research and what appears to be the standard-issue $50K/month corrupt international gig, available only to those with appropriate access to the tax-and-influence machine.
Scots Wha Hae
A genetic map of the Scottish population, superimposed upon a set of maps of Dark Age kingdoms, shows that the population has changed little in a millennium and a half.
Warning Order: Þorrablót
If you want an experience less Scottish and more Icelandic, enjoy this video.
Be sure to watch the parts about the cuisine. I don't want to hear any more complaints about the haggis.
Be sure to watch the parts about the cuisine. I don't want to hear any more complaints about the haggis.
Progress in Indonesia
Women are overcoming their shyness and taking up positions of power in Aceh province:
Whether and how to address our objections with them is a difficult question.
Here, public whipping remains a common punishment for scores of offenders for a range of charges including gambling, adultery, drinking alcohol, and having gay or pre-marital sex. But the job has always been done by men. Until now....Aceh is interesting because it's intensely Islamic, but has proven highly resistant to terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda. Aceh's particular take on Islam is so deeply held that these foreign groups find their different orthodoxies around Islam aren't acceptable there. They're more successful in the urbane regions of Indonesia, where people are persuadable about what Islam is supposed to mean. Non-Muslims who happen to be there have the option of not being tried under the religious law, too, so to some degree this is inside baseball from a culture that is policing itself. Those standards aren't ours (in particular we object to rape victims being punished for the extramarital sex!), but they are theirs, and they enforce them in a way that holds down on extremism that threatens us. If we were to go and try to interfere with their practices, they'd become enemies rather than somewhat queer and very distant 'neighbors.'
But convincing women to participate has been no easy task, and it's taken years to assemble the first female squad, according to Safriadi, who heads provincial capital Banda Aceh's Sharia Implementation Unit.
Eight women -- all Sharia officers -- agreed to be floggers and were trained in the appropriate technique and advised how to limit injury.
Whether and how to address our objections with them is a difficult question.
Masks Selling Out
There's a news story that surgical masks are selling out across the US as people prepare for a feared incursion by the Chinese coronavirus. I'm not sure how helpful a mask really is in preventing transmission -- perhaps it does more to prevent you from infecting someone else than otherwise.
Still, surgical masks aren't your only option. You can also hit the hardware store. N-type masks are supposedly good against at least some biologicals, I don't know how well it works against this particular virus, of course, but if you're concerned and you can't get a surgical mask, try one that's made for particle filtration.
Still, surgical masks aren't your only option. You can also hit the hardware store. N-type masks are supposedly good against at least some biologicals, I don't know how well it works against this particular virus, of course, but if you're concerned and you can't get a surgical mask, try one that's made for particle filtration.
Endorsement: Bernie Sanders for Democratic Nominee
As longtime readers know, I am a life-long Democrat. The part of the party to which I was attached was the oldest part, but it has largely ceased to exist in the current generation. It was Jefferson's part, in other words, and Jackson's; lately it was Sam Nunn's and Zell Miller's. Jim Webb (war hero Marine, former Senator, former Secretary of the Navy, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, diplomat, scholar, author) made a run at the nomination in 2016 and failed, to the sorrow of the nation whether it knows it or not. His departure from the field led us into the contest in which our options were Clinton and, well, you know the rest.
At this time the Democratic contest has narrowed to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, with the other candidates seeming to be also-rans. I could hardly agree less with Bernie Sanders on public policy or political philosophy. Nevertheless, he is the better man.
He is the better man because he is a man of his convictions; Biden, as far as I can tell, has no lasting ones. Bernie was arrested with the Civil Rights marchers in the 1960s, visited with the Soviets on his honeymoon, and has been a self-declared Socialist since the era when most Americans viewed that as a synonym for both "Communist" and "Satanist." Bernie really believes what he claims to believe.
You may not be impressed by his convictions insofar as you think that the convictions are bad, since it will reliably mean that he will attempt bad things. That is a strategic error. Even if you are unalterably opposed to his convictions, an enemy of conviction is to be preferred. A man of conviction can be predicted; on the principle of 'know thy enemy as thyself,' per Sun Tzu, he is the better choice of an opponent.
But also, he is the better man because he does not seem to despise anyone. Jim Webb and he became friends, and supported each other at the first debate in 2016. Bernie took fire in that debate and elsewhere for being willing to avoid gun control; he said, rightly, that coming from Vermont he had to respect the wishes of the rural population. That sentiment will serve him and the nation well should he happen to be elected.
Finally, he is the right man to lead the Democratic field in 2020 because he is the purest advocate for their animating vision. They need to know now whether or not that vision can in fact take root in America; we all need to know it. The answer to that question will determine a very great deal of future history.
For all of these reasons, then, I endorse Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.
At this time the Democratic contest has narrowed to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, with the other candidates seeming to be also-rans. I could hardly agree less with Bernie Sanders on public policy or political philosophy. Nevertheless, he is the better man.
He is the better man because he is a man of his convictions; Biden, as far as I can tell, has no lasting ones. Bernie was arrested with the Civil Rights marchers in the 1960s, visited with the Soviets on his honeymoon, and has been a self-declared Socialist since the era when most Americans viewed that as a synonym for both "Communist" and "Satanist." Bernie really believes what he claims to believe.
You may not be impressed by his convictions insofar as you think that the convictions are bad, since it will reliably mean that he will attempt bad things. That is a strategic error. Even if you are unalterably opposed to his convictions, an enemy of conviction is to be preferred. A man of conviction can be predicted; on the principle of 'know thy enemy as thyself,' per Sun Tzu, he is the better choice of an opponent.
But also, he is the better man because he does not seem to despise anyone. Jim Webb and he became friends, and supported each other at the first debate in 2016. Bernie took fire in that debate and elsewhere for being willing to avoid gun control; he said, rightly, that coming from Vermont he had to respect the wishes of the rural population. That sentiment will serve him and the nation well should he happen to be elected.
Finally, he is the right man to lead the Democratic field in 2020 because he is the purest advocate for their animating vision. They need to know now whether or not that vision can in fact take root in America; we all need to know it. The answer to that question will determine a very great deal of future history.
For all of these reasons, then, I endorse Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.
Sorting out the front-runners
People are beginning to suggest this week that it's a race between Sanders and Biden to oppose Trump. There are signs the D establishment will pull out all the stops to kneecap Sanders in favor of Biden, the theory being that they're comfortable with Biden's crony capitalism but terrified of Sanders heartfelt (though reckless) anti-capitalism.
Here's how I frame the approach of the three candidates: Biden is a true-blue crony capitalist. Sanders despises the "capitalist" part of that equation, while Trump is at least skeptical of the "crony" part.
To adopt a different spectrum of organization: on a scale of enthusiasm for centralized command-and-control economies, Bernie is all in for control by an enlightened socialist elite, Biden favors control by cronies, and Trump genuinely prefers a more free market with distributed control in the hands of as many ordinary Americans as possible.
Here's how I frame the approach of the three candidates: Biden is a true-blue crony capitalist. Sanders despises the "capitalist" part of that equation, while Trump is at least skeptical of the "crony" part.
To adopt a different spectrum of organization: on a scale of enthusiasm for centralized command-and-control economies, Bernie is all in for control by an enlightened socialist elite, Biden favors control by cronies, and Trump genuinely prefers a more free market with distributed control in the hands of as many ordinary Americans as possible.
To the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns
We attended a Burns Night supper this evening.
Robbie Burns
That’s a haggis, in case you’ve never actually seen one. Note that the supper did not serve a choice of beer or wine or whisky. All three were served together.
To Fight Discrimination, Discrimination
On race and sex, but also national origin.
Wall Street's biggest underwriter of initial public offerings in the U.S. will no longer take a company public in the U.S. and Europe if it lacks a director who is either female or diverse. Asia is not yet included in the firm’s new policy.Soft bigotry of low expectations, that last.
Le quatrième pouvoir, c'est moi
Lots of good links from Maggie's Farm this morning. Here's one about Laura Ingraham's report that the New York Times quashed a story about a White House meeting on the eve of Trump's inauguration, involving Eric Ciaramella and Ukrainian officials, and addressing the problem of Hunter Biden's Burisma connections.
Ingraham asked the NYT why they quashed the story. The answer was, in effect, we did it because it's what we do.
Ingraham asked the NYT why they quashed the story. The answer was, in effect, we did it because it's what we do.
That's me, "fringe thinker"
Somebody better shut me down.
I like the term "anti-establishment conservative content." These days it turns out I get to be conservative and anti-establishment at the same time, a childhood dream fulfilled. This one's good, too:
“YouTube, Reddit and Facebook have allowed fringe thinkers to bypass traditional gatekeepers and reach millions of people directly.”I'm shocked to learn that conservative argument "gets clicks by generating fear and outrage, not by appealing to reason." That would never happen on the left.
I like the term "anti-establishment conservative content." These days it turns out I get to be conservative and anti-establishment at the same time, a childhood dream fulfilled. This one's good, too:
Senior CNN Reporter Oliver Darcy says citizens resist his reporting because they “just won’t digest facts.”You can believe me, because I never lie, and I'm always right!
A monopoly on charity
The usual response by command-and-control monopolists to the anxiety that they'll be outcompeted by the private sector:
The same journalist who wrote the recent Time cover story also authored a book savaging philanthropy as “an elite charade” that does more harm than good, a tool of injustice in a rigged system, a means of suppressing dissent, a way of disguising merciless taking by appearing to give back. He attributes to donors every imaginable motive -- vanity, cynical reputation laundering, undemocratic manipulation, drop-in-the-bucket cheapness -- except altruism and good faith. For these fashionable arguments the work was anointed a “book of the year” by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and NPR.
Other critics make the same arguments. Philanthropic giving is “an undemocratic exercise of power” which should be wielded only by the state, says Stanford’s resident philanthropy academic. Even well-intentioned charitable efforts must be shut down, say the new activists, because they undercut the revenue and authority of the federal government. Powerful interests ranging from elite media to Democrats running for president insist that only government officials should be allowed to improve public welfare and reform society.
Sky Eyes
It is a surprising fact that, if you go up to the right height, roads and human construction become obviously visible though they may be thousands of years old. Though they may, in fact, be completely invisible if you are walking the land, from above you can see clearly where once men scarred the earth.
For example, spy satellites have recently discovered an older city than any on record — a city long forgotten. Robert E. Howard was right.
For example, spy satellites have recently discovered an older city than any on record — a city long forgotten. Robert E. Howard was right.
The buzz
The Bee reports on Schiff anxiety:
"When the Founders wrote that founding document thing, they never imagined there would be electoral outcomes that Democrats did not agree with."
Democrats also said they even have hard evidence that the 2016 election was compromised by Republicans voting for Trump.
That's something you don't hear very often
Something described as a "grinding" facility in NW Houston blew up early this morning, damaging houses in a surprisingly large radius. Two deaths have been reported, apparently from right at the blast site.
Watching the local news coverage, I was struck by three things. First, police and firefighter representatives are completely comfortable switching back and forth between fluent English and Spanish. Second, the warning to potential looters was fierce and completely believable, including the advice to consider what happened to Harvey looters (a 20-year sentence, in one case). Finally, residents were gently encouraged to search their yards and roofs for body parts. That's a first for me.
The blast showed up clearly on weather radar, a signal covering several square miles. Here's a shot from a front-porch security camera that was far enough away to require a couple of seconds for the shock wave to hit.
Watching the local news coverage, I was struck by three things. First, police and firefighter representatives are completely comfortable switching back and forth between fluent English and Spanish. Second, the warning to potential looters was fierce and completely believable, including the advice to consider what happened to Harvey looters (a 20-year sentence, in one case). Finally, residents were gently encouraged to search their yards and roofs for body parts. That's a first for me.
The blast showed up clearly on weather radar, a signal covering several square miles. Here's a shot from a front-porch security camera that was far enough away to require a couple of seconds for the shock wave to hit.
"I dreamed I saw Kurt Schlichter last night...."
Organize!
[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.
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.
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