Yesterday police tried to answer a call in the Seattle Open-Air Faculty Lounge about a shooting that killed one and put another in the hospital in critical condition, but they're turned back by a mob.
Today, I see flag-waving bikers are headed for our newest experiment in brotherly love and tolerance here in the Amerika.
Flavortown, Ohio
A petition.
Midwest cuisine must have gotten a lot better than I remember if that's even a serious discussion.
Midwest cuisine must have gotten a lot better than I remember if that's even a serious discussion.
Formulas
"The image does not reflect our values" is a handy way to justify acts of symbolic extirpation of whatever group happens to be in the crosshairs on a given day, without having to explain any tortured so-called reasoning. In the beginning of an iconoclastic movement, people make at least a token effort to explain that an image is stereotyped or otherwise insulting. Now all that's necessary is to mutter "image" and "values," then destroy the thing while giving the stink-eye to whoever is presumed to have been associated with erecting it in the first place, or perhaps to anyone who objects or even acts befuddled about the rationale for its destruction.
It's important to conduct these ritual destructions quite often, according to increasingly bewildering standards, in order to keep everyone off balance and remind them who makes the rules.
It's important to conduct these ritual destructions quite often, according to increasingly bewildering standards, in order to keep everyone off balance and remind them who makes the rules.
The DACA decision makes no sense
I've read it now, and I've read the dissent. The majority opinion is baffling. The dissent is written in an English I can understand and seems to be making straightforward points.
Juneteenth
If you happen to be one of the very many Americans who have never even heard of this holiday before, here's a writeup explaining it. It's a pretty obscure holiday until this year; although I've been aware of it since 1992, when I moved to Atlanta for school and encountered it there, I've gone several years at a stretch without hearing or seeing it mentioned.
Still, this year may be the year it becomes mainstream among Americans.
Still, this year may be the year it becomes mainstream among Americans.
Good Treasons
George Washington's statute was destroyed in Portland last night, a logical development of the current effort to purge America of America. Allahpundit writes:
Washington and Jefferson were on the right side, almost. Lee's side was wrong. Yet that still isn't the right view of Lee, and it could be that the right view can't be had at this hour. Lee fought for Virginia to keep it from being destroyed. Sheridan's burning of the Shenandoah Valley is a practical example of what Lee feared, which fears caused Lee to take up arms to protect his home. Perhaps Lee was wrong there too; if he had taken command of the Union forces, as offered, he might have been better able to protect Virginia from men like Sheridan and Sherman. He was, as he has often been charged, too Napoleonic in his understanding of war; Sherman and Sheridan fought the way the Russians fought Napoleon, only they got to lay waste to the land of their enemies rather than their own. Lee never thought to do likewise to Pennsylvania or points north, to his moral credit but his strategic loss.
The North won because it was willing to do things that are now formal war crimes, war crimes they repeated against the Lakota and Cheyenne -- indeed, the same men repeated them. They repeated them against the Apache and others. Once Washington is purged for his embrace of slavery, they'll come from Lincoln and Grant. They'll come for Sherman and Sheridan. They'll come for the whole roster of the late 19th century for its brutality against the Native Americans, and also against the labor unions. And then they'll come for the 20th century too.
This whole project is a sort of treason itself, as a matter of fact. It's a levying of war against America by destroying everything that ever was America. There will never be a rock strong enough to hold against this tide, because America is and always was made up of human beings -- and human beings do wrong, all of us do. No one has clean hands.
We have to learn to live with that. The ones who are setting themselves up as judges of their ancestors won't have clean hands either; they too will rule with fire and war, as indeed they have already begun to do where they have managed to gain a foothold. There is no future of natural right and flourishing human liberty on the other side of their victory, should they gain it. There is only the show we have seen so many times before.
The problem he isn't grappling with is that Washington and Lee weren't just alike in having slaves; or in fighting for a system that preserved slavery; or in being Virginians; or in being generals of armies. They're also alike in being secessionists, i.e., traitors from the perspective of the governments they fought against.Some of the skepticism about removing Confederate tributes is due to southern cultural pride but I suspect most of it outside the south springs from the understandable fear that lefties who come after Robert E. Lee today will come after George Washington tomorrow. A statue of Thomas Jefferson was toppled just a few days ago in Oregon, in fact. If the left insists on bundling the Founding Fathers together with the Confederate leadership and making racism, including slaveholding, the disqualifying factor in honoring influential Americans of the past then the public will feel it has no choice but to protect that entire bundle. We’re not giving up Washington and Jefferson, period. But if treason against the United States is the disqualifying factor then the Confederates can be unbundled and discarded.If these people can’t or won’t distinguish between a monument to someone *despite* their view of slavery and a monument to someone *because of* their view of slavery then the righteous cause of purging the country of tributes to degenerate traitors will derail.
This nation came out of a long tradition of beneficial treason, good treason, treason in the name of the best of the human condition. It was born of the tradition that fought King John at Runnymede and compelled from him the Great Charter of Liberties, Manga Carta Libertatum. It is out of the tradition that produced the Declaration of Arbroath in Scotland, in defiance of yet another tyrannical English king, which stated that "It is not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself." The Scottish national motto was Nemo Me Impune Lacessit, which means, "No One Touches Me With Impunity," or if you like, "No One Messes With Me Without Getting Hurt." That sentiment was also given in Scotland, as later in Alabama, in the words of John 20:17: Noli Me Tangere, usually translated "Touch Me Not," but also:Rooting out treason won't save America, because America as a project began in treason. What is important is to distinguish the good treasons from the bad ones. The good ones are the ones that advance the cause of natural right and human liberty; the bad ones are the ones that seek to violate natural rights, as the Marxists do but as the Confederates also did, or human liberty, as the Marxists think they don't but really do, and as the Confederates certainly did.
The values of this new nation are rooted in the principle of rebellion against authority. They are the values of a people who do what they think is right, and will hand you your heads if you try to force them to kneel to your judgment instead of their own. The Founders considered the philosophy of the Greeks. They considered the history of the Romans. They took stock of their reflections on the righteous judgment of God. Then they pledged their fortunes and their lives, and their sacred honor, and did what they had decided was right without fear.
Washington and Jefferson were on the right side, almost. Lee's side was wrong. Yet that still isn't the right view of Lee, and it could be that the right view can't be had at this hour. Lee fought for Virginia to keep it from being destroyed. Sheridan's burning of the Shenandoah Valley is a practical example of what Lee feared, which fears caused Lee to take up arms to protect his home. Perhaps Lee was wrong there too; if he had taken command of the Union forces, as offered, he might have been better able to protect Virginia from men like Sheridan and Sherman. He was, as he has often been charged, too Napoleonic in his understanding of war; Sherman and Sheridan fought the way the Russians fought Napoleon, only they got to lay waste to the land of their enemies rather than their own. Lee never thought to do likewise to Pennsylvania or points north, to his moral credit but his strategic loss.
The North won because it was willing to do things that are now formal war crimes, war crimes they repeated against the Lakota and Cheyenne -- indeed, the same men repeated them. They repeated them against the Apache and others. Once Washington is purged for his embrace of slavery, they'll come from Lincoln and Grant. They'll come for Sherman and Sheridan. They'll come for the whole roster of the late 19th century for its brutality against the Native Americans, and also against the labor unions. And then they'll come for the 20th century too.
This whole project is a sort of treason itself, as a matter of fact. It's a levying of war against America by destroying everything that ever was America. There will never be a rock strong enough to hold against this tide, because America is and always was made up of human beings -- and human beings do wrong, all of us do. No one has clean hands.
We have to learn to live with that. The ones who are setting themselves up as judges of their ancestors won't have clean hands either; they too will rule with fire and war, as indeed they have already begun to do where they have managed to gain a foothold. There is no future of natural right and flourishing human liberty on the other side of their victory, should they gain it. There is only the show we have seen so many times before.
Local Currency to Help Citizens and Save Small Businesses?
Tenino, WA, is printing its own currency to help local businesses. The town set aside $10,000 to back their local currency and are issuing it as a form of welfare for townspeople having trouble making ends meet during the pandemic. A key point is, only local businesses accept the currency. So, it helps two demographics.
Apparently, a lot of towns did something like this during the Great Depression. The article has an interesting history of the phenomenon.
Apparently, a lot of towns did something like this during the Great Depression. The article has an interesting history of the phenomenon.
Turns out COVID doesn't know how to tell why you're in a crowd after all
Houston protestors are starting to report COVID cases now. Newsweek's approach is priceless: starting with the brave declaration of one sufferer that she doesn't regret her courageous stand for an instant, and continuing with the Houston Mayor's explanation that it's too soon to blame the protests for the new outbreak, because the Texas governor "packed people into bars and restaurants."
The only thing they left out was some sniffing over the bitter clingers who plan to attend the Bad Man's Tulsa rally.
The only thing they left out was some sniffing over the bitter clingers who plan to attend the Bad Man's Tulsa rally.
Wild Atlanta
The Atlanta police in zones 3, 4, 5, and 6 are not at work tonight. That’s the core of the city, minus only a couple of rich Republican zones in the north.
Guess we will know more tomorrow about how much the city needs them. Fire dispatch is down too, reportedly.
Guess we will know more tomorrow about how much the city needs them. Fire dispatch is down too, reportedly.
Fake News Today
Another Felony Murder Charge in Georgia
This time against the officer who killed Rayshard Brooks. I stand by my earlier assessment of felony murder as a tactic by prosecutors hoping to avoid a trial. However, there is a twist in this case. The D.A. is a Democrat in a runoff election, and thus has a powerful incentive to charge aggressively in order to ensure the Democratic primary base in that heavily-black district will vote to re-elect him.
Going for a capital charge has a potentially huge downside if the officer defends himself rather than pleading to avoid the death penalty. You almost certainly can't convict an officer who shot a suspect while carrying out an arrest against a subject who had violently resisted for the underlying felony, without which you can't convict on the capital crime either. If these elevated charges go down in court, the Atlanta Police will face another riot.
Does the jury then convict to avoid the riots, and send an officer of the law to his death? That would be unprecedented in my lifetime, but so is much that we are seeing today.
Going for a capital charge has a potentially huge downside if the officer defends himself rather than pleading to avoid the death penalty. You almost certainly can't convict an officer who shot a suspect while carrying out an arrest against a subject who had violently resisted for the underlying felony, without which you can't convict on the capital crime either. If these elevated charges go down in court, the Atlanta Police will face another riot.
Does the jury then convict to avoid the riots, and send an officer of the law to his death? That would be unprecedented in my lifetime, but so is much that we are seeing today.
Don't Know Much About History
As the comments point out, this comes on the heels of Tim Kaine declaring -- on the floor of the US Senate -- that the United States invented slavery, which is itself of a piece with the argument that the states had invented 'marriage' by passing laws to regulate the immemorial practice.
Destruction and Desecration of Statues
This is not our first rodeo, so I have a developed position on destroying statues: I'm always against it. I don't care who put the statue up, and I don't care why. Preservation of art is a worthwhile project even if only for future historians, who will want to be able to encounter the art and examine the expression of values by ancestors they no longer otherwise know how to approach. The Taliban was wrong, ISIS was wrong, and we're wrong to be doing it now.
I can appreciate efforts to 'recontextualize' statues, for example by putting up plaques that explain what you take to be the problems with their depiction. That's useful to future historians as well as current citizens, and it deepens the discussion across the generations about what the right values are.
Extreme cases may even permit the relocation of statutes from highly public places to museums or warehouses. Removing Nazi statues certainly may be justified; removing horrid modern art to make way for works of genuine beauty certainly is. Even these things should not be destroyed, though, at least not works of art that entail actual working and/or actual art.
Just as there are extreme cases that may justify removal, though, there are also paradigm cases in which desecration or destruction is especially wrong. The cause of human liberty was advanced a long way by Robert the Bruce and the Declaration of Arbroath, as has been frequently remarked here; and as far as I know, there is with the Bruce no admixture of tyranny (as there is, in the case of slave-owning, with Jefferson or Washington, two of Bruce's few near-peers in the cause of human liberty). The argument that his heart being taken on Crusade after his death was the mark of some sort of racist bias versus Muslims is ridiculous. "Race" wasn't a concept important to the 14th century; religion was, and the Muslims were waging war just as hotly on the Christians as vice versa.
It may be hard to say where to draw the line, but it wherever it is right to draw it is somewhere safely distant from Robert the Bruce.
I can appreciate efforts to 'recontextualize' statues, for example by putting up plaques that explain what you take to be the problems with their depiction. That's useful to future historians as well as current citizens, and it deepens the discussion across the generations about what the right values are.
Extreme cases may even permit the relocation of statutes from highly public places to museums or warehouses. Removing Nazi statues certainly may be justified; removing horrid modern art to make way for works of genuine beauty certainly is. Even these things should not be destroyed, though, at least not works of art that entail actual working and/or actual art.
Just as there are extreme cases that may justify removal, though, there are also paradigm cases in which desecration or destruction is especially wrong. The cause of human liberty was advanced a long way by Robert the Bruce and the Declaration of Arbroath, as has been frequently remarked here; and as far as I know, there is with the Bruce no admixture of tyranny (as there is, in the case of slave-owning, with Jefferson or Washington, two of Bruce's few near-peers in the cause of human liberty). The argument that his heart being taken on Crusade after his death was the mark of some sort of racist bias versus Muslims is ridiculous. "Race" wasn't a concept important to the 14th century; religion was, and the Muslims were waging war just as hotly on the Christians as vice versa.
It may be hard to say where to draw the line, but it wherever it is right to draw it is somewhere safely distant from Robert the Bruce.
Oh the Humanities
Trauma from George Floyd's death will result in students receiving higher grades... at Oxford.
Congratulations to West Point
They have graduated their first Sikh female cadet. Normally these “first!” stories don’t interest me, but I am glad to see the military availing itself of the opportunity represented by Sikh culture.
“My grandfather was an armor officer in the Indian army, so I grew up hearing about tanks and his recollection of fighting in the mountains of northern India," Narang told Task & Purpose. “Everything he told me grew my interest in the military … he embedded that culture of service and giving back to your country.”That is the kind of thing I wish more Americans of all stripes felt.
Treat it as an unplanned donation
Or an attack of undocumented shoppers.
Someone is going to have to sit these children down and teach them some of life's long words.
Someone is going to have to sit these children down and teach them some of life's long words.
Biological Sex & SCOTUS
Interesting logic at work here from Gorsuch.
The author of the piece has another bit of logic to advance.
"An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex," Gorsuch writes. "Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids."That's really plausible; the only issue is that mere statutory law should not be able to override constitutional protections for religious liberty. An Orthodox/Catholic/Muslim employer who declines to employ gays because they don't wish to provide material support their spouse is acting according to an ancient religious doctrine in each case. They're not motivated by mere animus, but by an attempt to live according to orthodoxies that are being declared illegal here -- exactly what Amendment One forbids.
The author of the piece has another bit of logic to advance.
To be clear, the court could deliver one of greatest legal protections for gay and transgender workers specifically because it acknowledges a fact deemed heretical by the most vocal woke activists: Namely that biological sex is real.
For years, the wokes have attempted to cancel everyone from right-wing trolls to liberal scientists for pointing out that biological sex is a scientific reality, one that specifically validates gay and transgender folks as a distinct class. And now the court has decided that because of that distinction, they're a protected class.... This is a victory for gay and transgender people, and hopefully one that puts to bed this hysterical canard that acknowledging the reality of biological sex is somehow hateful or dangerous toward transgender folks.
Emergency Lockdown
It is clearly a mistake to have given the government the idea that it can order people into house arrest for their own protection any time it decides to issue an emergency.
Second, what is the legal mechanism for issuing lockdown orders to the community via Twitter? All Americans do not use Twitter; I wouldn't use it myself if I weren't required to do so. It's a poisonous hole of a website that any reasonable person would be wise to avoid. If one should encounter police, could one be arrested for violating a Twitter order? Is there some other mechanism for issuing these orders? Is there an adequate lawful basis for allowing the police to constrict basic rights on their own, without consulting even the governor, let alone the legislature?
Third, I hope the bear had a nice romp through the empty town streets.
Shelter in PlaceFirst of all, black bears are really not very dangerous at all. If treated with respect, they will generally not harm anyone and will move along in their own good time.
At the request of Lower Makefield Township Police Department, all residents requested to shelter in place due to a black bear sighting. Specifically the Yardley Hunt Development residents. If sighted please call 911 immediately. The Game Commission is en route. pic.twitter.com/sFNzk80Vyt
— Lower Makefield (@LMTPD) June 14, 2020
Second, what is the legal mechanism for issuing lockdown orders to the community via Twitter? All Americans do not use Twitter; I wouldn't use it myself if I weren't required to do so. It's a poisonous hole of a website that any reasonable person would be wise to avoid. If one should encounter police, could one be arrested for violating a Twitter order? Is there some other mechanism for issuing these orders? Is there an adequate lawful basis for allowing the police to constrict basic rights on their own, without consulting even the governor, let alone the legislature?
Third, I hope the bear had a nice romp through the empty town streets.
To Be an Independent Mind in the University is Not Tolerated Today
There's an open letter going around, apparently from a professor in the history department at UC Berkeley, and it's not what you'd expect. It's a very well thought through, careful, and serious letter about the current issues of race, policing, and the black community, and I highly recommend reading it (Pastebin deleted it, but the internet is forever). As you might expect, it's not been well received by the rest of the UC Berkeley History Department, apparently:
Of course, that it wasn't well received is unsurprising, but that the *department* would openly come out and tweet a condemnation, and claim it goes against their values- without stating why or how- was a bit of an eyebrow raiser to me. It's perhaps the most anti-intellectual thing I've seen in the University wars and the shutting down of the right on campus. Typically, they do this via individual counter opinions and student uprisings, or bring in outside agitators to shut down campus speakers, or some other proxy. To have a department come out like this is a bit shocking honestly. Though the ability of anything like this to shock me diminishes by the day as we see more and more like actions.
Up the Militia in Minneapolis
The police being useless and on track for dissolution, armed citizens secure their neighborhoods.
A Speedbump on the Road to Revolution
Truck drivers say they won’t deliver to cities that disband police departments.
Tough luck, Minneapolis! I’m sure you’ll come up with a suitable substitute for food delivery. Of course you could go the capitalist route and pay more until people are willing to dare the risk. Probably citizens won’t mind the increase in food prices as much as they’d mind starvation.
Unfortunately embracing capitalism would defeat the purpose of the revolution.
Tough luck, Minneapolis! I’m sure you’ll come up with a suitable substitute for food delivery. Of course you could go the capitalist route and pay more until people are willing to dare the risk. Probably citizens won’t mind the increase in food prices as much as they’d mind starvation.
Unfortunately embracing capitalism would defeat the purpose of the revolution.
Joe Biden on "Juneteenth"
In fairness, a lot of people don't know what "Juneteenth" is. I did my undergrad studies in downtown Atlanta, which was the first time I'd heard of it. It wasn't a celebrated holiday in the mountains, but it was a big deal in the city.
Also, the conflation of the holiday celebrating liberation from slavery and the completely separate (and much later) Tulsa massacre isn't exactly his fault either. His surrogates are complaining that it's racist of Trump to give a talk in Tulsa on 19 June. Somebody probably tried to explain that to him, and he just didn't follow the details of the explanation.
Trump probably doesn't know why 19 June is significant either; and may well not have heard of the Tulsa massacre either. These men are 70+ years old, and their educations won't have focused on such things the way contemporary education does. Americans were still being taught that their country was a beacon of hope with noble principles in those days.
It's just strange to see an old man like Biden trying to play in the grievance culture war he plainly doesn't understand. He knows he's supposed to accuse his opponent of racism; that's been part of the playbook for decades. It's just the need to know all these intersectional details that's confusing him.
Also, the conflation of the holiday celebrating liberation from slavery and the completely separate (and much later) Tulsa massacre isn't exactly his fault either. His surrogates are complaining that it's racist of Trump to give a talk in Tulsa on 19 June. Somebody probably tried to explain that to him, and he just didn't follow the details of the explanation.
Trump probably doesn't know why 19 June is significant either; and may well not have heard of the Tulsa massacre either. These men are 70+ years old, and their educations won't have focused on such things the way contemporary education does. Americans were still being taught that their country was a beacon of hope with noble principles in those days.
It's just strange to see an old man like Biden trying to play in the grievance culture war he plainly doesn't understand. He knows he's supposed to accuse his opponent of racism; that's been part of the playbook for decades. It's just the need to know all these intersectional details that's confusing him.
A Small Correction from the Lancet
A major journal of medicine, the Lancet once made a massive and obviously political estimation of the death toll in Iraq. By pure coincidence, the error correlated with the US presidential re-election race of George W. Bush -- in fact it was published just days before the election.
This time, the election correlated with a massive error by the journal is the Presidential re-election of Donald Trump. The error? A little thing, really. Just a complete retraction of the paper the published on the dangers of hydroxychloroquine for COVID patients. Small stuff, hardly relevant.
This time, the election correlated with a massive error by the journal is the Presidential re-election of Donald Trump. The error? A little thing, really. Just a complete retraction of the paper the published on the dangers of hydroxychloroquine for COVID patients. Small stuff, hardly relevant.
Ground Glass Pizza
Not one of the most desirable toppings, but the National Guard was served it anyway. Fortunately years of eating Army cooking and MREs had made them immune to irritants in the stomach lining.
Happy Birthday, Schlock
Schlock Mercenary is 20 years old. The artwork has gotten better, and the storylines have developed with the kind of depth that can only occur with a long run. Recent years have been sadly marred by wokeness, which has diminished the overall quality as it does everywhere it appears. Still, the core story remains interesting.
They're wrapping up the basic arc of those two decades too, for those of you who followed along. If not, and if you're inclined to binging comics, by all means start at the beginning. The early years especially were a lot of fun.
They're wrapping up the basic arc of those two decades too, for those of you who followed along. If not, and if you're inclined to binging comics, by all means start at the beginning. The early years especially were a lot of fun.
Warlords in Seattle
As expected, autonomous anarchy was short-lived. I'm not opposed to anarchist free zones, not at all; but they're going to need to think through the self-defense issues. You can't set up a new way of life without defending a space in the world for it. The most obvious way to fail is to be overrun, either from the outside or from strongmen on the inside.
Maybe next time.
Maybe next time.
The One Night Hotel
Two good voices. Landry sounds like a cross between Townes Van Zandt and Gordon Lightfoot, while his duet partner, Brandi Carlile, reminds me of Bonnie Raitt.
Chicago melts down
Chicago's mayor and aldermen are reduced to swearing at each other and asking difficult questions like, "How in the world are we going to get businesses to rebuild in war zones when we seem to have no plan?"
Some of the neighborhoods are starting to implement their own plans:
Some of the neighborhoods are starting to implement their own plans:
Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th Ward) told Lightfoot he was worried that the looters would attack homes where many people have guns and concealed carry weapons.
Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) said he was concerned that residents would take matters into their own hands and become vigilantes.Seattle's down the tubes, too.
Catastrophe
A friend brought me a copy of Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character by E. B. Ramsay. I was reading through it tonight, and wanted to convey one of its stories. A young man was translating the Iliad and his teacher rebuked him for using the word catastrophe. That word is Greek after all, and the task was to translate. The boy proved unable to give a good translation in rhyme.
His teacher said this reminded him of his all master. The old man had been prone to using big words that the parishioners might not know. One of them was ‘catastrophe.‘ So when he heard himself say it, he explained that catastrophe meant the end of a thing.
The next day, some boys pranked the old man by attaching a piece of bush to his horse’s tail. The horse was a good one and didn’t spook, and thus the man never knew of it until he got into town. Then he was made aware by a woman from his congregation who came up to him and said, “Pardon me sir, but there’s a bush tied to your horse’s catastrophe.”
His teacher said this reminded him of his all master. The old man had been prone to using big words that the parishioners might not know. One of them was ‘catastrophe.‘ So when he heard himself say it, he explained that catastrophe meant the end of a thing.
The next day, some boys pranked the old man by attaching a piece of bush to his horse’s tail. The horse was a good one and didn’t spook, and thus the man never knew of it until he got into town. Then he was made aware by a woman from his congregation who came up to him and said, “Pardon me sir, but there’s a bush tied to your horse’s catastrophe.”
Fennario
What will your mother think, pretty Peggy-O,
What will your mother think, pretty Peggo-O,
What will your mother think, for to hear the guineas clink,
And the soldiers marching before you, O?
New USAF Chief of Staff
Senate confirmation was 98-0. He had three thousand hours in fast movers, and several significant command tours.
Freedom and Protest
Asheville is reporting ongoing fatalities from the virus, but "chiefly concentrated in nursing homes" according to a print article I read earlier today. Meanwhile, the nation has emerged from lockdown to intensely populated, dense protests over issues that have been known issues for decades, and which by most available measures have been improving anyway.
I wonder how much of this nationwide protest movement is an expression of the desire to be free of lockdown? For months people languished at home, watching their lives fall away, longing for friends and companionship. Suddenly it's OK to get out and be with everyone you wanted to be with, provided only that you join one of these marches. All restrictions are lifted! Just join the throng.
People who had come to believe that enjoying any little liberty was tantamount to manslaughter are suddenly able to feel virtuous about going out and being with their friends. All it takes is a little submission: take a knee and pledge your loyalty to Wokeanda, Forever.
It's no wonder they're having such success. They opened a door to repressed desires, and made it a virtue to express them -- so long as you express them just this way.
I wonder how much of this nationwide protest movement is an expression of the desire to be free of lockdown? For months people languished at home, watching their lives fall away, longing for friends and companionship. Suddenly it's OK to get out and be with everyone you wanted to be with, provided only that you join one of these marches. All restrictions are lifted! Just join the throng.
People who had come to believe that enjoying any little liberty was tantamount to manslaughter are suddenly able to feel virtuous about going out and being with their friends. All it takes is a little submission: take a knee and pledge your loyalty to Wokeanda, Forever.
It's no wonder they're having such success. They opened a door to repressed desires, and made it a virtue to express them -- so long as you express them just this way.
By their Fruits
By coincidence, I was rereading the end of The Ballad of the White Horse the other day. After a book-length epic poem, Chesterton allows his King Alfred the Great to sum up the lessons he wants his contemporary readers to take.
In some far century, sad and slow,I suppose he thought that's where he was in 1903, or he wouldn't have written a book about it. It certainly sounds familiar today.
I have a vision, and I know
The heathen shall return.
"They shall not come with warships,
They shall not waste with brands,
But books be all their eating,
And ink be on their hands....
"They shall come mild as monkish clerks,
With many a scroll and pen;
And backward shall ye turn and gaze,
Desiring one of Alfred's days,
When pagans still were men....
"By this sign you shall know them,
The breaking of the sword,
And man no more a free knight,
That loves or hates his lord.
"Yea, this shall be the sign of them,
The sign of the dying fire;
And Man made like a half-wit,
That knows not of his sire.
"What though they come with scroll and pen,
And grave as a shaven clerk,
By this sign you shall know them,
That they ruin and make dark;
"By all men bond to Nothing,
Being slaves without a lord,
By one blind idiot world obeyed,
Too blind to be abhorred;
"By terror and the cruel tales
Of curse in bone and kin,
By weird and weakness winning,
Accursed from the beginning,
By detail of the sinning,
And denial of the sin....
You Guys Like Music?
Check yourself vs. our current position. It's just a Terminator remake, from 1990, but it has a lot to say about where we are, and where they thought we'd be. The radio announcer says it'll be 110 downtown; and you know, it sometimes almost is, in July, in some towns even on the east coast. In 2016 when the DNC was in Philadelphia it was 108. I know because I was there. But we're not in anything like the constant dust-storms.
I guess there was an almost-hit song from the soundtrack.
Who Do You Think You’re Fooling?
D-Day was the biggest ANTIFA rally in history! Also, Winston Churchill was an intolerable racist who should receive no public honors.
UPDATE: Even Gandhi?
UPDATE: Even Gandhi?
Buildings and Things that Matter
The Philadelphia Inquirer has removed its top editor over a column he approved entitled "Buildings Matter, Too." You can still read the column, but it now has an eleven word headline.
She had a good point, the column's author, and the editor did his job by selecting the piece for publication and drawing attention to it with a punchy headline. In today's atmosphere, however, that's enough to have ended his career.
UPDATE: The Cultural Revolution continues, this time at NYT.
Does the destruction of buildings matter when black Americans are being brazenly murdered in cold blood by police and vigilantes?...Indeed the damage in multiple cities is evident already.
“People over property” is great as a rhetorical slogan. But as a practical matter, the destruction of downtown buildings in Philadelphia — and in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and a dozen other American cities — is devastating for the future of cities. We know from the civil rights uprisings of the 1960s that the damage will ultimately end up hurting the very people the protests are meant to uplift. Just look at the black neighborhoods surrounding Ridge Avenue in Sharswood or along the western end of Cecil B. Moore Avenue. An incredible 56 years have passed since the Columbia Avenue riots swept through North Philadelphia, and yet those former shopping streets are graveyards of abandoned buildings. Residents still can’t get a supermarket to take a chance on their neighborhood.
She had a good point, the column's author, and the editor did his job by selecting the piece for publication and drawing attention to it with a punchy headline. In today's atmosphere, however, that's enough to have ended his career.
UPDATE: The Cultural Revolution continues, this time at NYT.
Book Update
I received a proof today of the second attempt at getting a paperback version of Arms and White Samite. Thanks to Douglas' help, and the patience of the cover artist, most of the problems are fixed. There remain a few persistent issues that will require more work and another proof, but in a few weeks we might have a final version.
It is already much better, though. It's just not right.
It is already much better, though. It's just not right.
Right to Peaceful Protest
It’s too important to be limited by virus mitigation, but only if the cause is good enough. Don’t take my word for that; here are nearly thirteen hundred public health experts asserting it.
“Money quote: ‘This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders. Those actions not only oppose public health interventions, but are also rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for Black lives.’”
“Money quote: ‘This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders. Those actions not only oppose public health interventions, but are also rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for Black lives.’”
"Define Racism"
It's a Socratic point, and one that brings us back around to the kinds of problems that Socrates tried to illustrate during his life. (That video in which the discussion was taking place, by the way, is a vivid warning of what kinds of genuinely terroristic tactics are available.)
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is after a definition of piety. Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for murder; he claims that it is pious to do this because his relationship with his father should not blind him to the justice of the prosecution. Socrates suggests this is merely an example of something pious, not a definition of piety itself. Euthyphro decides that piety is doing what the gods love, and impiety doing what they dislike; Socrates presses him to explain whether the pious thing is pious because the gods love it, or whether -- and this is crucial -- they love it because it is pious.
There's a similar problem with racism. A lot of people accused of racism don't actually even believe in race. How can you be a racist if you reject that race represents something biologically real? The answer is that you take (or endorse) actions that disproportionately harm people of some races and not others. Yet this assumes the validity of race as a form of analysis; if race isn't real, why would you try to cash out its effects in terms of the harm 'to races' whose reality you have already rejected?
The best answer seems to be the one floated by Charles Mills and others, which is that race can be rejected biologically but not socially. Socially, race is real even if in fact there are not "races" in any meaningful biological sense. Then, rejecting race as a social phenomenon because you rejected it as a biological phenomenon is a category error, a serious philosophical mistake.
That still leaves us with problems. Given that the social phenomenon is based on an incorrect view of human nature and biology, we might wish to move to a more correct view. Yet because we have to continue to evaluate things in terms of the social account of race, we end up baking that view into our future. We can't leave it behind if we have to carry it with us, and constantly check ourselves against it. How do you build a society without race if you're judging progress by constantly referring to race? It's dead weight, but treated like a lodestone.
The second problem is that the social view is often incoherent, which makes it a poor lodestone anyway. In the discussion linked, the woman is charging racism based on the fact that a man suggested that this kind of violence was unsurprising in Mexico. There are two sets of problems with that.
The first is that Mexico includes people of many different genetic heritages, who are even less plausibly 'one race' than, say, denizens of Scotland (many of whom, these days, are from the Indian subcontinent). The fact is that the Mexican government has been involved in a decades-long fiction about 'La Raza' designed to paper that over. Yet if we can eliminate racism by constructing new races, well, why not start doing that here? Rather than continuing to recognize existing social definitions of race in America, might we not instead follow Mexico and institute a new 'American race' that ignores genetic heritage?
The second problem is that violence in Mexico is unsurprising for reasons that are severable from race, 'race,' or La Raza. If you're unsurprised by a violent assault in a country largely run by extraordinarily violent criminal cartels, well, why wouldn't you be? There's no reason to rope biological commentary into it. Mexico is violent because it is badly governed, especially in terms of the absence of a Second Amendment. The people endure the cartels and their violence not because they are genetically primed to do so, but because they are disarmed. The police are assassinated not because they are inferior or corrupt, but because the populace cannot provide them with effective support. They're too terrified to work with the police because they are kept defenseless.
The second problem, in other words, turns out to be that the incoherence of the definition ends up allowing it to be used in places where the concept is actively damaging to attempts to fix the problem. "It's all racism" suggests the problem is in people having a negative view of the chaos in Mexico, rather than the problem lying in the absence of positive steps to empower the citizens to defend themselves.
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is after a definition of piety. Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for murder; he claims that it is pious to do this because his relationship with his father should not blind him to the justice of the prosecution. Socrates suggests this is merely an example of something pious, not a definition of piety itself. Euthyphro decides that piety is doing what the gods love, and impiety doing what they dislike; Socrates presses him to explain whether the pious thing is pious because the gods love it, or whether -- and this is crucial -- they love it because it is pious.
There's a similar problem with racism. A lot of people accused of racism don't actually even believe in race. How can you be a racist if you reject that race represents something biologically real? The answer is that you take (or endorse) actions that disproportionately harm people of some races and not others. Yet this assumes the validity of race as a form of analysis; if race isn't real, why would you try to cash out its effects in terms of the harm 'to races' whose reality you have already rejected?
The best answer seems to be the one floated by Charles Mills and others, which is that race can be rejected biologically but not socially. Socially, race is real even if in fact there are not "races" in any meaningful biological sense. Then, rejecting race as a social phenomenon because you rejected it as a biological phenomenon is a category error, a serious philosophical mistake.
That still leaves us with problems. Given that the social phenomenon is based on an incorrect view of human nature and biology, we might wish to move to a more correct view. Yet because we have to continue to evaluate things in terms of the social account of race, we end up baking that view into our future. We can't leave it behind if we have to carry it with us, and constantly check ourselves against it. How do you build a society without race if you're judging progress by constantly referring to race? It's dead weight, but treated like a lodestone.
The second problem is that the social view is often incoherent, which makes it a poor lodestone anyway. In the discussion linked, the woman is charging racism based on the fact that a man suggested that this kind of violence was unsurprising in Mexico. There are two sets of problems with that.
The first is that Mexico includes people of many different genetic heritages, who are even less plausibly 'one race' than, say, denizens of Scotland (many of whom, these days, are from the Indian subcontinent). The fact is that the Mexican government has been involved in a decades-long fiction about 'La Raza' designed to paper that over. Yet if we can eliminate racism by constructing new races, well, why not start doing that here? Rather than continuing to recognize existing social definitions of race in America, might we not instead follow Mexico and institute a new 'American race' that ignores genetic heritage?
The second problem is that violence in Mexico is unsurprising for reasons that are severable from race, 'race,' or La Raza. If you're unsurprised by a violent assault in a country largely run by extraordinarily violent criminal cartels, well, why wouldn't you be? There's no reason to rope biological commentary into it. Mexico is violent because it is badly governed, especially in terms of the absence of a Second Amendment. The people endure the cartels and their violence not because they are genetically primed to do so, but because they are disarmed. The police are assassinated not because they are inferior or corrupt, but because the populace cannot provide them with effective support. They're too terrified to work with the police because they are kept defenseless.
The second problem, in other words, turns out to be that the incoherence of the definition ends up allowing it to be used in places where the concept is actively damaging to attempts to fix the problem. "It's all racism" suggests the problem is in people having a negative view of the chaos in Mexico, rather than the problem lying in the absence of positive steps to empower the citizens to defend themselves.
Headlines from 2020
Slate: “Non-violence is an important tool for protests, but so is violence.”
That’s true, actually, but it does elide the moral question.
That’s true, actually, but it does elide the moral question.
"Rule of Law"
It's pretty much dead now, isn't it? First we had governors assuming emergency powers often in direct violation of the Constitution and their own state constitutions; now we've got widespread support for rioting. Bernie Sanders has an 8 point plan (some of which are very good and reasonable, like ending qualified immunity) that would replace many cops with social workers, and District Attorneys in blue cities won't prosecute rioters.
The other day Minneapolis police managed to ignore rioters but arrest a guy for defending his business from looting and arson. Why should a jury go along with that?
The other day Minneapolis police managed to ignore rioters but arrest a guy for defending his business from looting and arson. Why should a jury go along with that?
An Attempted Coup at NYT
Andrew Sullivan is right about this one.
It's worth noting that all of this chaos is happening in the blue cities and blue states. The target of Antifa and their ilk isn't you and me, it's blue institutions. The NYT is in danger for the same reason that the Minneapolis Police Department -- controlled by Democrats since 1978 -- is in danger. The Hard Left is trying to win control of the left-leaning powers, which in fact control most of America's cities and therefore much of America's wealth.
They might come for us later, or they might decide it's too much trouble especially since they'll have taught police, who might possibly have tried to carry out gun confiscations in red America, that their only friends are in red areas and red states. The hinterlands may be too hard a nut to crack if police won't enforce their laws here, and juries won't either.
It's worth noting that all of this chaos is happening in the blue cities and blue states. The target of Antifa and their ilk isn't you and me, it's blue institutions. The NYT is in danger for the same reason that the Minneapolis Police Department -- controlled by Democrats since 1978 -- is in danger. The Hard Left is trying to win control of the left-leaning powers, which in fact control most of America's cities and therefore much of America's wealth.
They might come for us later, or they might decide it's too much trouble especially since they'll have taught police, who might possibly have tried to carry out gun confiscations in red America, that their only friends are in red areas and red states. The hinterlands may be too hard a nut to crack if police won't enforce their laws here, and juries won't either.
Night-Fire Practice
I can hear my neighbors shooting tonight, a fairly impressive array of hardware. It's all too methodical and regular to be any sort of gunfight; they're just practicing and making sure everything is in good order.
They're going to be so disappointed when there's no reason to use all that stuff. These hub city ninjas aren't about to drive out shadowed dirt roads in the high mountains, where one human habitation can't be seen from the next. They'd be terrified by the sight of such an empty road, long before they ever got out to someone's trailer or cabin. Everyone knows what happens to people who go out beyond the Fields We Know into the Wilds Beyond.
It's even in the folk songs: "Once a stranger climbed old Rocky Top, looking for a moonshine still. Stranger ain't come down from Rocky Top, reckon he never will." "Well, I wonder where that Louisiana sheriff went to? You can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou."
It is an irony that Mad Max (1979) treated the cities as a kind of safe place, with the wilderness controlled by violent motorcycle gangs. It turns out it's the other way around. Police protection doesn't protect. Every night our cities burn with fire, and every night our mountains linger through the long gloam to twilight, fearsome, lonesome, and at peace.
They're going to be so disappointed when there's no reason to use all that stuff. These hub city ninjas aren't about to drive out shadowed dirt roads in the high mountains, where one human habitation can't be seen from the next. They'd be terrified by the sight of such an empty road, long before they ever got out to someone's trailer or cabin. Everyone knows what happens to people who go out beyond the Fields We Know into the Wilds Beyond.
It's even in the folk songs: "Once a stranger climbed old Rocky Top, looking for a moonshine still. Stranger ain't come down from Rocky Top, reckon he never will." "Well, I wonder where that Louisiana sheriff went to? You can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou."
It is an irony that Mad Max (1979) treated the cities as a kind of safe place, with the wilderness controlled by violent motorcycle gangs. It turns out it's the other way around. Police protection doesn't protect. Every night our cities burn with fire, and every night our mountains linger through the long gloam to twilight, fearsome, lonesome, and at peace.
The Real History of Antifa
Kyle's a good guy, and a careful worker in his field, which is the study of radical organizations. You can trust his findings.
Concerns about Government Power
Some of us have been here for a while, as Ellen Reynolds at the Federalist notes.
Distrust of government is a tradition going back to our founding. “I am not a friend to a very energetic government,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison. “It is always oppressive.”It would be nice if these newly-shared concerns opened a path forward to solutions such as shrinking the size and power of the government -- to include the police agencies. We could even have fewer laws!
As a result, the founders carefully limited the scope and power of the federal government. Since then, conservatives have continued to be skeptical of strong government and big government programs.... But in the last century, liberal progressives have celebrated the expansion of the federal government and its growing power. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a champion of the Left, who transformed the size and function of the federal government, specifically the executive branch, when the Brownlow Committee recommended the creation of the Executive Office of the President in 1937. (Roosevelt’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover, was criticized when he replaced the president’s singular secretary with four aides.) Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, lauded by the Left, dramatically increased the role that the federal government played in Americans’ daily lives.
Under the administration of democrat Lyndon Johnson, federal programs (and their influence and power) expanded again, with “Great Society” initiatives such as Medicare, Medicaid, federal involvement in education, and public housing programs. Certain bureaucratic failures of these programs aside, the Great Society posed another reach by the federal government into Americans’ lives.
Today, a man who was almost the Democratic presidential nominee (twice) advocates for dramatically expanding the power of the federal government. Sen. Bernie Sanders has plans for the nanny state to become the provider of higher education, housing, healthcare, child care, and even high-speed internet. He also wants to erase the constitutional right to bear arms, and plans to pay for his excessive programs by taxing Americans.
For the last hundred years, the Left has been the standard-bearer for the growth of government. And suddenly, they’re reaping the results. They’re horrified at a strong federal government and its power to police its constituents. On behalf of limited-government conservatives: welcome to the club.
The Perils of Gentrification
There is more than one peril. One is that it will bring the Left's rich, white faction into conflict with minority group factions -- such as in this post, "Cats v. Communists."
But perhaps sometimes the friction produces not just conflict but hybrids.
But perhaps sometimes the friction produces not just conflict but hybrids.
Beginning in the 1960s and the ’70s, with the Weather Underground terrorists, and continuing in the 1990s, with “black bloc” vandals traveling around the world to smash office and hotel windows at global financial meetings, there has been a violent subculture on the radical left in the United States and Europe. For the most part, the members of groups like Antifa, the latest incarnation of the violent left, have always been the pampered children of the white overclass. Twenty-somethings who are poor and working class lack the money to buy fancy black ninja outfits and the leisure to spend time plotting in advance of demonstrations....The article is generally down on these spoiled children playing ninja, but sympathetic to the working class that's being supplanted. For those who remain on the fringes of the gentrifying areas, police are used intensively to protect the Cat Cafes owned by children of the overclass. This produces occasional brutality, which produces protests, which the children of the overclass feel very proud about joining and supporting. But they're the ones who are stealing, in the analysis of the poorer members being run out of those neighborhoods. The overclass children are stealing not just the neighborhood itself, but also the right to speak about these issues -- framing them instead in ways that are about the overclass' children's own issues.
What is new about the nationwide riots of the last week that have followed the death of George Floyd is the convergence of these two previously separate streams—traditional urban riots in poor neighborhoods triggered by police-related incidents, and the ideologically motivated vandalism by young white members of the overclass in downtown districts. This convergence is the result of hub city gentrification....
Gentrification explains why there are so many white young adults, both ordinary protesters and anarchist vandals, compared to African Americans in the videos we see of protests and riots in big cities across the United States, compared to images of urban riots in generations past. Thanks to rising rents, young white leftists and liberals have been displacing the nonwhite working class and poor, many of them social conservatives, in places like Brooklyn and Oakland and Austin.
The black poor and working class first had their urban industrial jobs taken away from them by corporate executives in the white overclass who offshored them to Mexico or China. Then they were replaced in their former urban neighborhoods by the hipster children of the white overclass. Now even their grievances like protests against horrific police brutality are stolen from them by their supposed allies in the white overclass and turned into an occasion for virtue-signaling or vandalism by the elite.They're sure too that they're the ones on the right side, the very side of justice.
Oops!
As the Russia hoax unravels, Rod Rosenstein admits to Congress that he wouldn't sign the Carter Page FISA warrant with the facts now in evidence.
A Headline You Don't See Everyday
"Bolivian orchestra stranded at ‘haunted’ German castle surrounded by wolves."
I suppose it's no surprise given the year we've been having.
Test Post #2
This post is also being written in 'the New Blogger,' which I'm told is going to become the default soon. This time I'm writing the HTML code by hand like I usually do.
BB: "Episcopalians Confused By Strange Book Trump Brought To Church."
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, though, was nonplussed, saying she was confused by the strange book Trump had brought to church.... "No real Christian reveres a book like that. Well, maybe the Communist Manifesto or something. But not an old-looking leather book. It looks like one of those religious books, and Jesus wasn't about religion. He was about causing societal upheaval and burning things down."
Some Episcopalians suggested it was a cookbook and that Trump was only offering to bring something to the next church potluck. Others said it was a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a revered religious text among the Left.There might be some good casserole recipes in there.
A Test Post
This post is being written with "the New Blogger," which I'm told will become the default soon. I've still been using the old one; we'll have to see if this changes things dramatically.
Here's a piece on the interview Rush Limbaugh gave with a radio host called "Charlemagne tha God" (apparently the same one Biden was talking with whom he, Biden, told that 'he ain't black' if he doesn't know how to vote). I think the author raises some good points:
RUSH: How do you stop it? (crosstalk)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: I have a question for you. I want to know. How are you gonna use your privilege as a white male to combat this prejudice. You got a direct line to Donald Trump. (crosstalk)
RUSH: No, wait a minute, I don’t buy into the notion of white privilege. See, I think that’s a liberal —
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: You’re being —
RUSH: That’s a liberal — (crosstalk)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: You’re being delusional.
RUSH: — political construct right along the lines of political correctness. It’s designed to intimidate and get people to shut up and admit they’re guilty of doing things they haven’t done. I don’t have any white privilege — (crosstalk)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Do you know what white privilege is? White privilege is that what happened to George Floyd would not have happened to a white man.
RUSH: If what happened to George Floyd had happened to a white man we probably wouldn’t have even heard about it.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Huh?
The pause lasted more than four seconds, as Charlamagne and his colleagues were caught by surprise.
Of course there have been white victims: Tony Timpa, for example, died in the custody of Dallas police in 2016. But his death did not provoke riots or become a national cause — nor did anyone take it as evidence of the conduct of police in general.
Charlamagne had not considered the problem from that angle. But what was even more revealing was that he was unwilling to discuss solutions to racism unless they involved Rush Limbaugh committing to ending “white privilege.”
In other words, Charlamagne gave power over his life, over black America itself, to a white man.
“An Unarmed Person Comin’ at ‘Em with a Knife”
More lessons on violence from Joe Biden. It’s the latest in a series.
You know, Joe, severing the femoral artery reliably leads to death too.
You know, Joe, severing the femoral artery reliably leads to death too.
Ymar’s Post
We are going to try something new, whereby Ymar gets a post of his own to comment upon. He’s agreed to put all the metaphysical commentary here, rather than in other posts. Those interested in that approach to understanding current events can thus get all of it in one place.
Today’s is the first such post.
Today’s is the first such post.
Insurrection Act
The President didn’t say it in so many words, but whoever wrote the speech knows what he just said satisfies the terms for invoking the 2002 version of the 1807 Insurrection Act. Of course, there is in fact an insurrection ongoing, but it’s still worth marking. Battle-hardened paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne will soon be deploying to American cities.
Have faith in them. They took the same oath we did.
Have faith in them. They took the same oath we did.
Second look at home schooling
Did too many parents get a look at the public schools' typical offerings via ZOOM?
We asked 626 registered voters, “Are you more or less likely to enroll your son or daughter in a home school, neighborhood home school co-op, or virtual school once the lockdowns are over?” In response, 40.8% said they were more likely to choose one of the alternative schooling methods, while 31.1% said they were less likely to do so.
While home schooling is often associated with conservative or religious families, surprisingly, there seems to be no significant difference here with respect to party affiliation. In fact, Democrats were slightly more likely (45.7%) to express increased interest in home schooling, compared to Republicans (42.3%).
The data gets even more interesting when you look at the breakdown by ethnicity. Only 36.3% of whites said they were more likely to choose home schooling, and just 38.2% of Hispanics. That number was much higher for blacks (50.4%) and Asian Americans (53.8%).
The Ships at Sea
The nearly-forgotten virus exposes a threat to naval forces: what if a single case aboard could disable a major warship, even a fleet? Fortunately, that is not the case this time out.
The Theodore Roosevelt has now returned to sea, and the final data offered by the Navy remains at 1,102 cases, with only one reported death. Presumably, additional deaths aboard the ship would qualify as a “significant change,” and thus we can assume that, while still tragic, only one person, 41-year-old Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., died of the virus. The Navy has not disclosed whether Thacker suffered from any underlying health conditions.Unfortunately, staying young is not an option. Staying healthy may not be either, although staying in shape is something most of us can do.
Doing some simple math, COVID-19 aboard the Theodore Roosevelt had a death rate of 0.09 percent, while the estimated death rate for the seasonal flu is 0.1 percent.
This data point offers incredibly useful insight into how COVID-19 affects a young and healthy population. Most enlisted sailors are under 30 years old.
A similarly low death rate has been seen on France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, where more than 1,000 sailors contracted the virus but zero died. These death rates are even lower than estimates in a new CDC report, which estimates the death rate for people under 50 years old at only 0.05 percent.
No Help from Police in Raleigh
At the capital of my new home state, the police chief says that she will not put an officer in harm's way to protect your property from destruction. We have to understand, she says, that it's not just law enforcement that is racist: it's the whole society. The police chief is in favor of group punishment of Americans for our collective sins.
North Carolina law currently does not allow for the use of lethal force to protect property, either, so citizens protecting their own businesses are putting themselves in grave legal peril. For the moment, at least: I expect that after the election we may well have some new laws on that subject. Also, you might have trouble finding a jury to convict someone for protecting their businesses after the police chief formally disavowed any duty to (or interest in) such protection.
North Carolina law currently does not allow for the use of lethal force to protect property, either, so citizens protecting their own businesses are putting themselves in grave legal peril. For the moment, at least: I expect that after the election we may well have some new laws on that subject. Also, you might have trouble finding a jury to convict someone for protecting their businesses after the police chief formally disavowed any duty to (or interest in) such protection.
Armed Voluntold
You should probably be prepared to hear this.
If the police dispatcher tells you "Do what you have to do," what are you prepared to do? You're a citizen. You have the right to keep and bear arms, and a duty to protect the common peace and to uphold the republic.
Some of you took oaths to the Constitution, but probably all of you said the Pledge of Allegiance at some time in your life. Did you mean it?
If the police dispatcher tells you "Do what you have to do," what are you prepared to do? You're a citizen. You have the right to keep and bear arms, and a duty to protect the common peace and to uphold the republic.
Some of you took oaths to the Constitution, but probably all of you said the Pledge of Allegiance at some time in your life. Did you mean it?
The Issue of the Day: Anarchists and Police Reform
Ah, the Russians again. It's almost nostalgic, especially since once again there are no actual Russians.
They're not less dangerous for being loose; the IRA was organized loosely in cells, just because it made them nearly impossible to finally break. You could shut down a cell, maybe get at two others connected to the one you broke, but there were always more.
I do take the point that there are serious issues in need of real reform, especially in terms of the relationship of the police to the community. I've written about that often, but here is a post that gets (in a calm and non-aggressive way) at what I think is the heart of the problem. Here is another post aimed at anarchists who want to protect marginalized communities. Here is a proposal for replacing professional police with volunteer citizen units. Here is a piece on why professional police tend to be non-accountable to the public more than armed volunteers.
“I’m not reading the intelligence today, or these days — but based on my experience, this is right out of the Russian playbook,” Rice, who served as national-security adviser to president Obama, said in a CNN interview on Sunday. “But we cannot allow the extremists, the foreign actors, to distract from the real problems we have in this country that are longstanding, centuries old, and need to be addressed responsibly.”These aren't 'little green men.' They're organizations that have been gathering loose armies of indoctrinated college kids for decades, and training them to think and act like Communists. Most of these people are not foreigners, although some of the funding for this (again, loose) network may be from abroad.
They're not less dangerous for being loose; the IRA was organized loosely in cells, just because it made them nearly impossible to finally break. You could shut down a cell, maybe get at two others connected to the one you broke, but there were always more.
I do take the point that there are serious issues in need of real reform, especially in terms of the relationship of the police to the community. I've written about that often, but here is a post that gets (in a calm and non-aggressive way) at what I think is the heart of the problem. Here is another post aimed at anarchists who want to protect marginalized communities. Here is a proposal for replacing professional police with volunteer citizen units. Here is a piece on why professional police tend to be non-accountable to the public more than armed volunteers.
The High Feast of Pentecost
WHEN Arthur held his Round Table most plenour, it fortuned that he commanded that the high feast of Pentecost should be holden at a city and a castle, the which in those days was called Kynke Kenadonne, upon the sands that marched nigh Wales. So ever the king had a custom that at the feast of Pentecost in especial, afore other feasts in the year, he would not go that day to meat until he had heard or seen of a great marvel. And for that custom all manner of strange adventures came before Arthur as at that feast before all other feasts. And so Sir Gawaine, a little tofore noon of the day of Pentecost, espied at a window three men upon horseback, and a dwarf on foot, and so the three men alighted, and the dwarf kept their horses, and one of the three men was higher than the other twain by a foot and an half. Then Sir Gawaine went unto the king and said, Sir, go to your meat, for here at the hand come strange adventures.The Quest for the Holy Grail began on Pentecost, and it was also the day when every year that King Arthur would have all his knights re-swear their oaths.
The king established all his knights, and gave them that were of lands not rich, he gave them lands, and charged them never to do outrageousity nor murder, and always to flee treason; also, by no mean to be cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asketh mercy, upon pain of forfeiture of their worship and lordship of King Arthur for evermore; and always to do ladies, damosels, and gentlewomen succor upon pain of death. Also, that no man take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for no law, ne for no world’s goods. Unto this were all the knights sworn of the Table Round, both old and young. And every year were they sworn at the high feast of Pentecost.In Malory's day, such oaths marked out the duty of a knight; in our day, the duty of a citizen. We now are the ones with the right and the duty to keep and bear arms, and the duty to decide what is treason and by whom.
It may well be that this year more than any year we have to consider carefully what that duty entails.
“Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide”
What’d you think you were paying them to do, Slate?
Longtime readers know that I have long held a dire view of American policing; I’d like to see all SWAT-type units disbanded, all military weaponry reassigned, and the police move back to a more traditional “peace officer” rather than “law enforcement” model. Certainly the police in Minneapolis behaved disgracefully, and many others have over the years. There’s a lot to criticize.
But come on. They could have been clearing streets with fire all weekend. Overall the response has been remarkably restrained.
The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane.“At least one instance.” But probably more, right? Cops were likely hunting for opportunities to shove old people down stairs, too.
Longtime readers know that I have long held a dire view of American policing; I’d like to see all SWAT-type units disbanded, all military weaponry reassigned, and the police move back to a more traditional “peace officer” rather than “law enforcement” model. Certainly the police in Minneapolis behaved disgracefully, and many others have over the years. There’s a lot to criticize.
But come on. They could have been clearing streets with fire all weekend. Overall the response has been remarkably restrained.
Home delivery favorites, lockdown-style
We haven't ordered any home-delivery meals during the lockdown, mostly because practically no one around here will deliver to our location in the boonies. It's interesting to see what's trending in different states. I confess I had never heard of "Bubble Tea," a favorite in three states. Apparently it's an iced tea-based drink with milk and tapioca pearls, sort of milk-shakey. Spam musubi also was a new one on me, as were boo buns (sweetened bread rolls). Poke bowls (sushi salad) look good, but I've never encountered one.
Everything else on this map is something I'd seriously consider ordering if I were in a city where it was available and I was stuck in a hotel room or something, without room service, which is more and more often the case these days. Hamburgers, chicken wings, Asian food of various sorts, sure.
Crawdads were a Texas favorite, though not with us. I mean, I like crawdads, but it wouldn't occur to me to order them for home delivery.
Everything else on this map is something I'd seriously consider ordering if I were in a city where it was available and I was stuck in a hotel room or something, without room service, which is more and more often the case these days. Hamburgers, chicken wings, Asian food of various sorts, sure.
Crawdads were a Texas favorite, though not with us. I mean, I like crawdads, but it wouldn't occur to me to order them for home delivery.
All depends what you're angry about
Protest the lockdown? Expect to be arrested, because no matter how angry you are, safety first.
Protest the murder of George Floyd? Expect to be coddled, because we understand how angry you are. Also because we don't want you to burn the city down, which we can be pretty sure those anti-lockdown types won't do.
If DeBlasio wants to make it 100% clear it's about the control, not about public health, he's doing it right.
Protest the murder of George Floyd? Expect to be coddled, because we understand how angry you are. Also because we don't want you to burn the city down, which we can be pretty sure those anti-lockdown types won't do.
If DeBlasio wants to make it 100% clear it's about the control, not about public health, he's doing it right.
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