The Cult of State

David Wurmser, Senior Analyst for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy, asks and answers a question about our government's about-face.

How did the United States turn 180-degrees from supporting Israel in the first days of the war to where it functions now as a shield for Hamas, from understanding its paradigm had collapsed along with the parallel reigning paradigms in Israel – “they now get it” or as the Israelis say, “the token dropped” – to seeing the United States appearing to double down on policies that seem to emanate from those failed paradigms.... First, let me set aside ideology and the particular way in which this administration reacted to the collapse of paradigms – it just doubled down in its imagery. It saw October 7 confirming the imperative of establishing a Palestinian State under the PLO and the necessity of reaching a strategic condominium with Iran to stabilize the region[.]

If you read the whole article, you'll find that he doesn't actually believe that the Biden administration ever supported Israel, and in fact that they saw the greatest threat from the beginning as Israel actually crushing its enemies (or, as State likes to call them, "partners for peace"). The bureaucracy just carried on doing what it could to undermine Israel until the President finally caught up with them. 

What I want to focus on, though, is this 'doubling down' in the face of clear evidence that the earlier belief was false. A "Two State Solution" was never viable, but it was pursued lovingly for decades by State Department diplomats and Democratic politicians. October 7 should have been the moment 'the token dropped,' and everyone realized that there was just no peace to be had with a politics like the Palestinians' embrace of Hamas or the PLO. However, that's not how human brains work.

Have you ever noticed that when you present people with facts that are contrary to their deepest held beliefs they always change their minds? Me neither. In fact, people seem to double down on their beliefs in the teeth of overwhelming evidence against them. The reason is related to the worldview perceived to be under threat by the conflicting data.

Both of those articles draw their examples from a left-leaning perspective, but the point is well understood. It's not just cultists who return to their belief in the coming spaceship or apocalypse in the face of clear evidence that their initial prediction was wrong. It's a cognitive bias that afflicts most people, maybe all of us.

In the grip of such an irrational, though perfectly normal, impulse to reaffirm a worldview proven false, it is no surprise that irrational decisions are made. Here is a partial list of the ones being made right now. I would add to that list the fact that they claim to be concerned about innocent suffering, but they are denying Israel precision weapons that would limit innocent suffering. Israel has plenty of dumb bombs they can drop if we won't sell them the smart ones. If you want a really ugly war, like the one we just had in Syria, reduce their ability to be discriminate. The Israelis are not going to stop fighting just because they have to use less precise weapons, not against an enemy that could do an October 7, not against one that has promised to keep doing it over and over if they can. This is a betrayal of the Israelis, but also of the noncombatants under fire in a war they can't escape.

Some are talking about how this is an impeachable offense, since Trump was impeached for a lesser version of the same thing. It's not, though; Trump was impeached for being Trump, and not a member of the establishment in good standing. There's no way Congress will hold Joe Biden to the same standard, especially since it's what State really wants him to do. The establishment will back this most establishment of ideas, irrational and destructive though it is. That's the real standard, membership in the club, which you obtain in large part by fidelity to the club's ideas and values especially when those ideas and values are disproven by the facts of the world. That's how you show your real loyalty. Anybody can do things that work; you're proving that you'll do stupid stuff that emphatically and repeatedly fails in pursuit of these things. 

If any of them read this, which they won't, it wouldn't matter at all. They'd just come up with another story about why they were right after all, and this was the only way.

Still The King

"No disrespect to Bob Wills, who used to own this place, but to me, Waylon Jennings is still the king." 
-Charley Crockett

I wouldn't make a competition out of it. Either way le roi est mort, vive le roi. It's nice to see one of Waylon's classic guitars back in service, though, even if for just one night. 

They put it on over their hat just the same way.

Storms

The storms that swept the South last night had us out clearing fallen trees until 4:30 AM. One dropped on my truck, busting the passenger side headlight assembly, rear view mirror on that side, and damaging the quarter panel. Oddly it didn’t hurt the hood that I can tell; somehow in the hard wind it struck sideways. 

I’m luckier than my neighbor, who woke up to a tree on his house as well as two of his vehicles. All of us escaped injuries, though, which is the main thing. 

We All Need Some Silliness in Our Lives

 Kid's better than me.

Another crooked cop, busted.

Hoplophobia

The Swiss Army Knife will soon be available without a knife.

“In some markets," Carl Elsener, the fourth-generation CEO of Victorinox explained, "the blade creates an image of a weapon." 

Anyone who has ever owned a Swiss Army Knife -- I've had one since I was 12, and joined the Boy Scouts -- knows that it is not in any way a weapon. It's below three inches in length and the blade doesn't lock. It doesn't even look like a weapon, it looks like the simple tool that it is.

Knives are one of the most useful tools ever invented, which is why literally every human society has always invented it. Some people are so scared of weapons that they want to eliminate things that don't even look like weapons but might be imagined to look like weapons, even though they're not functional as weapons.

Firefighters and Cancer

Via Instapundit, a small part of a big problem.

By federal law, the interior of these vehicles are required to contain flame retardants, or chemicals that make it harder for them to combust in a crash.

These chemicals have been a legally mandated part of modern cars since the 1970s, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) passed a law requiring their use.

It’s arguable how effective this protection is. 

Patrick Morrison, of the International Association of Firefighters, said in a statement on the study that these chemicals do little to prevent blazes — but instead simply make them “smokier and more toxic.” 

If you are burning a hydrocarbon, which includes wood as well as fossil fuels, what you're doing is oxidizing a chemical made of of hydrogen (H) and carbon (C). Since you're combining that with oxygen (O), the main -- almost the sole -- byproducts of combustion are going to be water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). If combustion is not complete, you'll also get carbon monoxide (CO), which unlike the other two is toxic because it blocks your blood's absorption of oxygen by combining with the hemoglobin instead of oxygen (O2). 

All these additional chemicals get into the smoke and cause a cancer risk, as well as other risks. Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) is especially deadly because it bonds to your hemoglobin even more effectively than CO, meaning that you can go home feeling a little woozy and die in your sleep. It'll look like you over-exerted yourself at the fire and had a heart attack, but what really happened was that progressive oxygen starvation killed you by causing organ failure. This is why anyone who dies within 24 hours of fighting a fire is considered to have died in the line of duty by law, to make sure families aren't denied compensation just because the firefighter went home apparently safe and sound.

Cancer is a longer-term problem, and one we're learning more and more about. Getting some of these chemicals out of our homes and cars is an important start on addressing the issue.

Man or Bear?

Apparently there's a thing going on around the internet right now in which women are asked if they'd rather encounter a strange man or a bear out in the woods. Women are often choosing the bear, and some people don't like that. 

I have three things to say about that.

1) I heard one woman ask how men felt about the same question. I have to tell you, meeting a bear on a hike in the woods is 100% of the time the high point of the hike. I love to see a bear. If I see sign of a bear, I'll often stalk it in the hope of seeing the bear. Black bear or grizzly, seeing a free bear in the wild is awesome. Seeing another hiker, by contrast, kind of diminishes the experience of being alone in the woods. I prefer to avoid that.

2) It’s a plausible answer to prefer the bear if you're worried about being subject to violence. Many of us who’ve spent part of our lives learning to kill weren’t doing it out of concerns about bears. We were always thinking of the danger of other men. 

3) That said, social media in especial seems to have inflated people's idea of how risky life is. There's almost no murder in most of America. You can be excused for not knowing that if you watch or read the news, because they try to sell you on murder. But mostly America is very safe.

Men suffer from violent crime at higher rates than women across the board, just as they commit suicide at higher rates and die younger. For some reason social media wants to make women afraid, and definitely doesn't want them to take the obvious pragmatic step to deal with dangerous men. That would help against bears, too, if you're careful in your selection of arms and ammunition. (I like a double-action revolver in .45 Colt or .45LC/.454Casull, or alternatively .44 Remington Magnum/.44 Special. Well, I actually prefer a single-action, but that's not for amateurs.) 

So on points 1 & 2, I agree; but I would add the caution of point 3. There's some reason they want to make you afraid and drive us apart, and I'd be more cautious about that than even of a strange man in a forest -- especially if you've purveyed for that matter in the sensible and obvious manner.

A Kind Word for DOT

I heard a song tonight with unprintable lyrics -- but a trucker song, so I'll link it with a stern language warning for those of you even a little bit sensitive about such things -- that was very hostile to the Department of Transportation. I think mostly people are, remembering punitive regulations and endless, slow construction. I had a good experience with them this weekend, though, so in the spirit of fairness I wanted to point it out.

We got a call on Sunday about a tree down on a mountain road up here, within two minutes of another call for a medical emergency. I went to clear the tree, as my ability to lift and move heavy objects is greater than my ability to help people in medical necessity. We have several EMTs and a couple of paramedics on our crew, but I am not among them. Lifting and carrying I can do OK.

The tree was across one lane, and it had brought down several other entangled trees such that the lane was blocked vertically as well as horizontally. I did what I could with a Stihl chainsaw, dragging the stuff I could cut out of the way, when thankfully DOT showed up as well. They had a pole saw and what is locally called a "trackhoe," meaning any sort of excavator -- a smaller, towed one in this case.

As a result we were able to transition to traffic control while they used the excavator to pull the high branches down low, where the pole-saw could trim them out of the way. In less than an hour, the thing was cleared from the highway and we could all go on our way.

So, you know, they're not all bad. Spare a thought for the highway crews that keep the way clear, however awful the bureaucrats are. 

Divisions

Any of you who participated in the recent wars know that the basic unit of the US Army is the Brigade Combat Team (BCT), which the Army adopted based on the success of the USMC's smaller Regimental Combat Teams (RCT). Though they had historic relationships both higher and lower, to divisions or battalions, the BCT was the basic maneuver unit. It might be 3/3 ID (3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division) but it could deploy without the 3rd Infantry Division headquarters and work with any division HQ that happened to be in place. Battalions might have historic resonance as well -- many regiments only include one battalion, and the Army now even explains regiments (falsely) as just a historic term for Ranger and armor units. More famous regiments, like the 505th of the 82nd Airborne, include more that one battalion. 

Wretchard points to this article from the Army Times that suggests that the wheel is turning again.

But, as the U.S. shifted its focus toward adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, the Army had to examine its role, and how it would fit into the new strategy. The Army sees its role as providing major ground combat power for large-scale combat operations. To do that, they’ll have to fight with divisions and corps — which range from 12,000 to 45,000 soldiers, respectively. Those formations’ headquarters units will orchestrate the battle, striking deep with long-range fires, attack aircraft and hooking into joint capabilities from the Air Force, Navy and Marines.

The last time the service fought with a division was in the 2003 Iraq invasion. Before that, the last major combat operation of that scale was in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War.

The Army, at least, is expecting more and bigger wars in the years to come. I keep seeing similar worrying signs from our European allies. They all seem to think that there's a big war coming, and that we'd best be preparing for it. 

Send You Back to Georgia

Heaven forfend. 

I’m happier in the high mountains than in the state where I was born because my father had descended out of them seeking work. All the same, there are parts of Georgia I wouldn’t mind seeing again — at least from October through March. 

Oh

I don’t want to spend my time blogging about Trump, but it’s really important to say something about this level of corruption. If we don’t, who will?

Cannon unsealed a trove of new documents in the case that also revealed that an FBI agent had testified that the General Services Administration (GSA) was in possession of Trump's boxes in Virginia before ordering Trump's team to come get them. The same boxes that the GSA had been holding and ordered Trump’s team to retrieve ended up being the boxes that contained classified markings, raising questions about whether the Biden administration had set up Trump.

"So an entire pallet full of boxes that had been held by GSA somewhere outside of DC is dumped at Mar-a-Lago," independent journalist Julie Kelly noted. "Apparently these are the boxes that ended up containing papers with 'classified markings.'"

Its like the J6 cases. Republicans like law and order as a rule. They’d have let those people go down without complaint, if only the prosecution had been evenhanded and applied the ordinary law. Instead, we’ve seen novel theories of law applied to them at the same time that administration-friendly protesters have been let to walk free. 

So the FBI maybe seeded the residence with classified documents, then leaked its raid to the press, to whom it announced having found classified documents. Trial was scheduled for the height of the Presidential election campaign season. One of several. 

Don’t think we don’t see what you’re doing with the rule of law. Do fear the consequences of convincing ordinary people that the laws are corrupt. 

Irony in the Court

I was reading this bit on the fact that the judge in the Trump 'hush money' case worked for the DNC before this trial, and donated money to Biden, and that his daughter is now raising money for Biden, and I suddenly realized a significant irony at work. 

This trial is based on a very novel legal theory, as Reason magazine points out. Even heavily excerpted, it takes a long explanation to convey what they think constitutes the felony here.

Contrary to Colangelo's spin, there is nothing "pure and simple" about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against Trump. To begin with, Trump is not charged with "conspiracy" or "election fraud." He is charged with violating a New York law against "falsifying business records" with "intent to defraud."...  Ordinarily, falsifying business records is a misdemeanor. But it becomes a felony when the defendant's "intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof." Bragg says Trump had such an intent, which is why the 34 counts are charged as felonies.

Bragg had long been cagey about exactly what crime Trump allegedly tried to conceal. But during a sidebar discussion last week, Colangelo said "the primary crime that we have alleged is New York State Election Law Section 17-152." That provision says "any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

In other words, Bragg is relying on this misdemeanor to transform another misdemeanor (falsifying business records) into a felony. But the only "unlawful means" that he has identified is Cohen's payment to Daniels.... [and] Trump was never prosecuted for soliciting that contribution. There are good reasons for that. The question of whether this arrangement violated federal election law hinges on whether the hush money is properly viewed as a campaign expense or a personal expense.... proving that allegation beyond a reasonable doubt would have been hard, as illustrated by the unsuccessful 2012 prosecution of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.... Given the fuzziness of that distinction, it is plausible that Trump did not think the payment to Daniels was illegal.... 

The fact that Bragg is relying on an obscure offense that apparently has never been prosecuted speaks volumes about his eagerness to convert the Daniels hush payment into 34 felonies. That strategy will prove "twisty," Connor said, because "you're having an underlying crime within an underlying crime to get to that felony."

If Trump did not recognize the hush payment as "unlawful," it is hard to see how his "intent" in falsifying business records could have included an intent to conceal "another crime." And that's assuming a purported violation of federal campaign finance restrictions counts as "unlawful means" under Section 17-152.

So the issue is that there's a twisty path by which one alleged misdemeanor could have led to another alleged misdemeanor, assuming mens rea can be proven for both, which allows one to aggravate the other into a felony. The felony is that there's an conspiracy to "promote or prevent the election of any person." 

The gag order in this case, however, is plainly an undisclosed campaign contribution to Biden, by a judge who has also made disclosed campaign contributions to Biden and who is a long-time DNC affiliate. Gagging Trump during the campaign is an undisclosed in-kind contribution, and part of a rather open conspiracy to "promote" Biden's election and "prevent" Trump's. 

In other words, while it is difficult to say whether Trump is guilty of the offense he is charged with, or even if it's a plausible thing to charge someone with given the circumstances, it's abundantly clear that the judge in the case is guilty of the very thing he's being asked to judge. It is the case he is judging that is itself the vehicle for his own apparent offense against the very law he is adjudicating. 

How ironic. 

The Fall Guy

I took my wife to dinner and then to see The Fall Guy in the theater last night. I don't often go to the movies anymore, but this one came up with a trailer that convinced me that it would reward being seen on the big screen. 

Ironically but cleverly, most of that footage didn't make the final cut of the movie, including the song overlay, so you don't really feel like they put all the best parts in the trailer. The trailer is another good part.

Now I also thought I'd like this movie because I remember the old television show it was based upon. That show was made at a time when Hollywood stunts were still all real, and it was an ode to stuntmen and their work as much as anything else. This movie is like that too. It celebrates stuntmen publicly and visibly, and rather pointedly notes in the movie that there is no Academy Award for stuntwork. As such, it's exactly the kind of celebration of the labor of the unknown hard working man (and woman) that I like to see. 

Speaking of the old TV show, there are several points in the film that pay homage to it. The two stars, Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, have a prominent cameo at the end. They have what looks like the original truck to drive around in scenes set in California, and new-model trucks done up to look like it in the Australia scenes. As the ending credits roll (the cameo scene actually follows them), they play a slightly-altered version of the original TV theme song.

The major alteration is that they removed the names of the actors mentioned in the original, of whom only Clint Eastwood would still be known to younger audiences today. Rather than substitute new actors and actresses, they wrote substitute lyrics that would be timeless in character. 

The plot is not groundbreaking, and if you can't see the plot twists coming you haven't been watching movies long. Still, it's nice to see Hollywood produce a workmanlike product in the old style while celebrating the hard work of the people who take the hard hits to make it all look so fine. Oh, and as you might expect, the stunts are really good.

World's Strongest Man

Speaking of strength sports, and Strongman in particular, the WSM competition is going on right now in Myrtle Beach. The same Strongman friend who sent the picture told me that he knows the American competitor, who used to rep 750-pound deadlifts in sessions lasting as long as three hours. That puts his 1RM north of a half a ton, and indicates a lot of conditioning as well. 

I know one of the competitors who didn't make the final cut but just narrowly missed it, Marcus Crowder. I never competed against him because we are in different divisions as well as different weight classes. I am in the Masters division, meaning 'old' not 'great'; he is, obviously, in the open division. Likewise, I compete in what Strongman considers the Middleweight division, although it would be Heavyweight in boxing or pretty much any other sport. Crowder is a Super Heavyweight.

He is very strong, and if he's not in the finals this year, likely as not he will be one of these days. 

Good luck to all, and may injuries be avoided in spite of the limit-pushing seeking of excellence.

In Praise of Tulsi Gabbard

American Greatness is making the argument for Tulsi Gabbard as a running mate. I'm sure everyone here knows what they think of her already, good and bad.

I will say this for her, though: when she ran for the Democratic nomination, suddenly she found herself deployed as a serving military officer just when it would derail her campaign, and she never once complained about it. She went and did her duty honorably, and made no attempt to avoid it.

A lot of observers, including myself, thought the sudden call-up to deploy looked like a motivated favor by the brass to remove her from the race after she brutally derailed Kamala Harris' campaign in the first debate. Washington insiders get payoffs like that, because sitting Senators have a lot to say about military appropriations. 

I don't like Tulsi's position on gun control (she has at least rhetorically seemed in favor of it) nor her support for Assad in Syria (although that is tempered by an understandable desire to limit the instability in the Middle East, and a generalized opposition to us getting into more wars). I do like many other things about her. 

Honor, though, is always the main thing. She has shown that she has this quality, and I don't know of another politician today that I would say that about. 

UPDATE: I see she has a new book out, which suggests that she may have been thinking about timing it’s release with this moment. So maybe she is interested in the job. 

Marine Sets World Record in Deadlift

This story's headline surprised me. The deadlift is one of the big, compound lifts that involves a lot of muscle groups. Marines, however, are held to strict BMI standards, and as such will tend to have less muscle mass than other competitive deadlifters at their same height who are unencumbered by BMI. 

Part of the mystery evaporated when the story explained that the record was for a particular weight class, which means that the muscle mass differential was somewhat controlled. More of it evaporated when it turned out to be a female Marine. Women normally have higher fat in their body complex, so if this female Marine had managed to get lean and muscular they would have a little more play in their BMI than would a male Marine. 

But then I read that the deadlifting world record was broken by 40 pounds. That's extraordinary. The interview explains that “Honestly, it kind of felt kind of weightless,” she said. “It was not easy, but not the strain I thought it would be.” 

I did not really notice at first that the interview was only granted on the condition that this female Marine not be named. I did ask around my Strongman community if anyone had heard anything about it. One of them had a photo. 

I'll put it after the jump.

The Spirit of '76

You've heard of the North Carolina frat boys who rushed to hold up the American flag to keep it off the ground until it could be re-hoisted. They were pelted by the anti-American, pro-Hamas mob as they strove to keep our flag from falling. The story reminds me of that of Sergeant Jasper, a famous figure from the American Revolution, who made his fame securing the flag of a newly independent South Carolina that fell under fire; and who died securing the American flag also under fire. Fortunately the fire at UNC was not deadly, but there is a parallel in the spirit. 

Giving a sense of how the public feels about all of this, an effort to raise money to throw them a proper fraternity party is closing on half a million dollars. A right-wing-themed beer company is promising to provide free beer, so that will leave quite a budget for the other aspects of the party. (Perhaps they might wisely use some of it to retire any student loans they've undertaken.) 

The event reminds me of an old Doonesbury cartoon from the Reagan era, where one of the old radicals went to a college campus only to find himself among frat boys with no sympathy for "pinkos." The radicals have returned, but the frat boys are still there like always.

The Spirit of '68

An article linked by Instapundit reminds me of something I once knew but had long forgotten.

The most powerful and influential form of radicalism in the Western world today has no real name in the United States. It does in France, or at least its adherents do: les soixante-huitards, “the ‘68ers.”

The reference is to a series of riots, very similar in form and complaint against the United States and the West, that swept the Western world in 1968. In one of those moments that reminds of the remark that history repeats itself 'the first time as tragedy, the second as farce,' this year's Democratic National Convention will also be in Chicago, allowing a repeat of the 1968 protests of that same event in that same city by those of that same ideology.

That event ended with police crackdowns that the media boldly criticized and bravely put on camera for the whole world to see, only to be disappointed when it turned out that the American world broadly approved of police crackdowns on these radicals.

The American national news media, whose correspondents had been among the victims of police brutality at the convention, were at the forefront of criticism of the Chicago police. According to journalist Barbara Ehrenreich: "In a rare moment of collective courage, the editors of all the nation's major newspapers telegrammed a strong protest to Mayor Daley." National NBC newscaster Chet Huntley announced to the nation on the evening news that "'the news profession in this city is now under assault by the Chicago police'."

However, to the surprise of the news media, and many of the people who had witnessed the Chicago "police riot", the general public did not take their side. "Polls taken immediately after the convention showed that the majority of Americans — 56 percent — sympathized with the police, not with the bloodied demonstrators or the press." A poll taken for the New York Times "showed an 'overwhelming' majority respondents supported the police in Chicago." CBS reported that 10 times as many people had written to them disapproving of their coverage of the events as had written in approval." Dailey himself received "scores of letters", praising him and especially attacking the press and demonstrators.

One aftereffect of this "backlash", was soul-searching by the "media class" who "spent the next few years" in "almost reverent" examination of the white working class/middle class, mostly non-coastal strata of population dubbed "the silent majority" (by soon-to-be-president Richard Nixon) and "Middle America".

Trump stands in the place of Richard Nixon this year, which is part of the farce; although he'd really like to be Reagan, and to reprise the 1980s, which he would do in a farcical way. The historical rhyme is clear enough, however, even if it's only a near-rhyme.

This is CNN

Seventy Democrats to only 21 Republicans voted against a bill to oppose Antisemitism. So who did CNN make the face of the story? And now it’s a story about Republican antisemitism. 

Never Thought I’d Say This…

…but Roll Tide. 

UPDATE: That was the Crimson Tide; whereas at the Harvard Crimson, the most normal thing was the streaking. 

Requiescat in Pace Duane Eddy

Lukas Nelson

A nice tribute.

The Survivor

The Cathedral of May

Welcome to the warm time of the year. 

Glory is the Reward

 

The motto of the Scottish Clan Robertson (also known by their Gaelic name, "Donnachaidh," which means "Duncan" and refers to another family in the clan) is Virtutis Gloria Merces. This is usually translated as "Glory is the reward of valor." However, a more obvious and literal translation is "Glory is the reward of virtue." As an essay that Dad29 linked today points out, both translations are proper.

Opening with a meditation on the film "Act of Valor," which was put together by Navy SEALs and combat veterans of the Global War on Terror, the essay eventually turns to concepts of Aristotelian ethics as filtered through Romans like Tacitus and later Christians like Thomas Aquinas. I think that many of you will find that you enjoy reading it. 

It does raise the point that the Roman influence really wants to cash this "virtue" talk in terms of "manliness." That's not true in the Greek, where the term is arete and means "excellence." There's no suggestion that this is an especially manly quality, or linked to manliness, even though all the same virtues are under consideration. That is if anything a difficulty today, as young feminists may be inclined to dismiss this ethical school out of the sense that it has nothing to say to them, and perhaps holds them in disdain. In fact, everyone needs courage and self-mastery, justice and practical wisdom. Those aren't qualities that can afford to be lost in translation.

One might ask why glory should be the reward of virtue. Why not self-satisfaction, or peace of mind? Aristotle opens by saying that the ends of ethics -- i.e. the study and pursuit of virtue -- shouldn't be honor, of which glory is a form. This is because people can be unjust, and not bestow honors upon you even if you deserve them. Something more personal -- your own flourishing and happiness -- is what he thinks you should be seeking through virtuous behavior. 

Yet for those who attain what Aristotle calls the capstone of virtue, honor is the chief concern: not in the sense of 'what people happen to honor,' but 'what is most worthy of honor.' He does not care what other people tell him is most worthy, but what his own reason and discernment do. To do what is most worthy of honor, using your virtues to excel in its performance, is the highest sort of work and demands the highest sort of person. 

And that, of course, is glorious.

More on EVs

I talked about the EV issue we were discussing yesterday with a buddy of mine who builds electric motorcycles. He's long thought that EVs were very plausible for the trucking industry, and would enjoy wider adoption. Here's what he said about the current situation.

Yeah. Botched rollout across the board. All the world wanted was a small electric pickup truck for tooling around town, but nooooo, they had to exclusively build insane luxury EVs instead.

I think after my [electric] tractor is done I'm going to start looking for a donor small pickup for an EV swap and build the only vehicle I will ever need. Maybe a Chevy LUV or Nissan Hardbody if I can find either. Both of those are the perfect size and indestructible.

The plug-in hybrid is the best design for consumers in my opinion. Toyota was right about that. From a government policy perspective I'd have done a tiered push where there'd have been a rebate for all EVs under a reasonable weight class to incentivize non insane designs, and I'd give half the amount for a plug in hybrid rebate. That way people are still going in the direction you want with adoption but you're not accidentally incentivizing only options that are worse for the environment than small gas cars and not boxing people into only EV if the current tech doesn't work for them.

Obama or Biden should have bit the bullet and committed to resources to building charging networks if they wanted this to work. Instead they did the neoliberal thing and tried to get private businesses to handle it for them. You know, because that worked so well with Obamacare and with tax prep and with...

It's true that Obamacare tried to preserve private insurance, sort of, rather than going to a full-scale socialized medical system. I don't think it worked very well, although I have my doubts that the US bureaucracy could do any better with a socialist medical system. Maybe some places can do it well, but as we've seen with the VA -- where the class of people who use the system enjoy significant public honor over what ordinary citizens do -- our government just can't do it well.  

Crowbar

 

Hard Times for EVs

Like a lot of towns, the nearby town of Waynesville has mounting capital needs. They are considering a tax increase to cover them, but also asking for voluntary budget concessions. 

[Police] Chief David Adams said he’d be willing to give up some of his department’s equipment requests — Sutton said he wouldn’t allow the police department to go without new body armor — in exchange for a 3% COLA and so other departments could get some of their needs fulfilled. At the top of Adams’ cut list was the proposed electric vehicle. 

So, "We'll give up our new electric vehicle in return for a raise." 

Other departments were eager to give up their electric vehicles in return for nothing at all.

Elizabeth Teague said the same about a proposed electric vehicle for the planning department — it’s not completely necessary.

There's an understatement. 

Still, these two concessions alone will save close to three hundred thousand dollars. Not 'save Waynesville,' save Ford. 

Ford Motor Company reported a whopping $132,000 loss on each electric vehicle (EV) sold during the first three months of 2024, amassing a $1.3 billion loss.

 Coincidentally, it will also save Waynesville a smaller amount of money.

History & Tradition

The purpose of any institution is to preserve traditions. That might not be obvious today, when so many institutions have been corrupted by the progressive ideology, so that they are actively undermining traditions. However, the only reason to set up an institution of any kind is because you have something you like that you want to see carried forward. 

All that's going on with the current corruption is that the 'thing they like' is the permanent revolution, which they are trying to make even more permanent by embedding it into institutions. That's what institutions do, and it's why a revolutionary movement must either seize control of the existing ones, replace them, drive them out, or destroy them. You can consider how during the Reformation, the English royalty sought to drive out the Catholics and replace them with their own bishops and church; or how in the French Revolution, the anti-clerical and anti-Catholic movements were part and parcel of the whole "Year One" business. The institutions are the enemy of revolution unless they are seized by the revolution.

For that reason, the NYT is really worried about this whole "History & Tradition" mode of inquiry that is gaining traction in the US courts with conservative jurists. They open with what they take to be a sympathetic example: the rejection of a student-run drag show on campus.

[T]he president of West Texas A&M, Walter Wendler, announced in March 2023 that he was barring the event from campus. In a statement on his personal website, Wendler called drag shows “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny.” Spectrum WT sued, arguing that Wendler’s decision to cancel the show was a “textbook” example of discriminating against speech based on viewpoint.

Legally speaking, Spectrum WT had a strong case. Since the 1970s, the Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects speech on public university campuses, “no matter how offensive” and despite “conventions of decency....” 

But the lawsuit landed on the docket of Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee [who] had a new tool, supplied by the Supreme Court. Known as the “history and tradition” test, the legal standard has been recently adopted by the court’s conservative majority to allow judges to set aside modern developments in the law to restore the precedents of the distant past....

In March, the Supreme Court rejected the student group’s request to hold a second annual drag show on campus. Kacsmaryk’s decision is now pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Also unresolved is a larger question: How much will the scope of American liberty change as conservative judges impose the past on the present?

Again, though, the point of institutions -- including the law, including constitutions like our own -- is to impose the past on the present (and the future). The reason you create a constitution is to say to the future, "These standards are so important that they must be upheld, even as things change, unless there is sufficient agreement on changing them that you can do it through the constitutional process." The point of institutions like churches is to say, "These truths are eternal, and as years and ages roll along, they need to be remembered and included." 

Now, on the question of where the 'History & Traditions' of the United States fall on this particular issue, I think you could make different arguments. We have a strong history of supporting free speech and expression; and, actually, both drag shows and the very similar institution of minstrel shows originate in the United States, and have enjoyed long-term popularity. Minstrel shows aren't done anymore, but there's no formal prohibition of them: they've just fallen out of cultural favor, as people have come to accept that an actor of one race making fun of exaggerated caricatures of another race is unacceptable. 

For now, the same judgment hasn't been made about drag shows even though the argument against them is parallel: such shows entail an actor of one sex making fun of exaggerated caricatures of the other sex. Yet in fact, female megastars like Beyoncé  (locally of "Jolene" remake fame, although I imagine her actual fans would say that was the least of her fame) have adopted personae and language that is drawn heavily from drag (e.g., "Slay, Queen!" and all that bit). 

On the other hand, one could state that America has also had a long set of 'time and place' requirements that allowed such things to occur without destabilizing the general culture's sense of public morals. Both of these arguments are defensible, and making defensible arguments about how to resolve a dispute is what the courts ostensibly exist to do.

The NYT raises other things later that probably concern it more, like the effect of "History & Tradition" on their long-desired project of disarming America. Still, probably what really upsets them the most is restoring earlier America and earlier Americans to a kind of position of power, giving our ancestors a say in what comes next. To this, I must remind them of Chesterton's dictum: Tradition is the democracy of the dead. The opinions of those who came before us, and who did so much to build all that we have inherited, deserve to be at least considered in deciding how we proceed with what they gave us.

Runaways

Cherie Currie, the singer for the 70s supergroup The Runaways, has decided that she's not into the whole Democratic Party thing anymore. She joins Johnny Rotten of The Sex Pistols in having made the move.

There have long been questions about how right-wing punk rock always was, though. As Rancid guitarist and independent punk rocker Lars Frederiksen (of Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards) puts it, "Just because I dress like this/ doesn't mean I'm a Communist." 

Poor Baby

My dog Conan found a rattlesnake tonight. I didn’t see the snake, but the wounds from the fangs are too wide for a copperhead and we don’t have moccasins on the mountain. Timber rattlers we definitely have. 

Antivenin is expensive! But he’s my dog. 

UPDATE: 

The morning finds him alive and capable of standing and moving short distances under his own power. He’s drinking and shows no initial signs of organ failure or wound sepsis. He let me bathe the wounds, and the swelling is already beginning to subside. I hope that he is going to be fine in a little while; he is both young and strong. 

UPDATE: 

We did lose a chicken last night, because we were off at the vet instead of home to lock them up in their coop safely and their guard dog wasn't there either. This morning one of them was dead outside the door. A chicken for a dog is a good trade, but it underlines his value as a member of the family.

Grownup is as grownup does

A teachable moment at an otherwise apparently education-free university. The always interesting Jazz Shaw at HotAir notes that Columbia students are slowly waking to the fact that arrests aren't all cachet.

[T]he students are fearful that their arrest records and suspensions will "follow them into their adult lives." Based on their recent actions, I realize that we're not dealing with the fastest set of tractors on the farm here, but I have a news flash for these rioters. Nearly every one of you is at least 18 years old and some of the juniors and seniors are in their twenties. You are already in your "adult life," despite the fact that you're not acting in a very mature fashion.

* * *

As of this morning, [the Columbia students'] encampments are still in place and the university is still "negotiating" with them. This is precisely the type of "education" that they shouldn't be receiving. The school is teaching them that they can get away with violating the law without consequences under the guise of free speech. All freedoms have limitations when they begin adversely affecting others. It's a harsh lesson, but it's one that these rioters need to be taught.

New Willie Nelson

A Duel

 

Compared to What?

My wife is from Indiana, so I spent a little time there when I was younger. We haven't been in quite a few years now, but I remember the place as pretty conservative. The capital city, however, has a prosecutor and a police chief who are a little disappointed in his fellow citizens.

“What's upsetting to me is, if you look at the month of January, I think we had 18 homicides during that month,” said Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears. “Fourteen of those were being investigated for self-defense, meaning that someone lost their life, and that case might ultimately be cleared. But that doesn't do anything for that family who lost someone."

...On Jan. 3, a man allegedly wrestled a gun away from an intruder in his home, then shot and killed the man. On Jan. 5, a woman shot and killed her boyfriend who was allegedly attacking her.... Someone died, but no one was ever charged with a crime. 

"So, we're just seeing a significant increase in the number of self-defense cases because we're seeing too many situations where both parties are armed, where multiple parties are firing their weapons during these very simple disputes," said Mears.

The past two weekends, apparent arguments escalated to mass shootings in and outside Indianapolis nightclubs.

"We have to be better to each other, be better human beings,” said IMPD Chief Chris Bailey. “We're better than this. We have to treat each other better."

I don't think the evidence supports the claim that "we are better than this," or that urging people to be better human beings much reduces the incidence of crime. Perhaps it ought to, but as I understand the purpose of police chiefs and prosecutors, they exist as a recognition that it doesn't actually work.

What do they think 'a better human being' would do when she is attacked in her home by a stronger male in an act of domestic violence? Submit to him? 

What would the better man do if an intruder with a gun breaks into his home, once he wrestles away the gun that the intruder brought into his home? Or maybe the better man wouldn't resort to the wrestling, even? 

Sometimes violence is how things get put right. If you have a problem with the violence in these cases, shouldn't your lectures on 'being better human beings' be targeted at the abusers and home invaders? 

Wilderness Safety

Today the WaPo has an article called "How women can stay safe while running or hiking alone," which was later retitled to "Running or hiking solo? 9 ways to stay safer while exercising alone." The article is mostly not bad. Stay aware! Trust your instincts! But also, take care of known health risks that you may have; tell others; prepare for the weather; cultivate situational awareness.

Then they get to "Carry ten essentials." Their suggestions are not terrible. However, as a public service, here's the slide from that section of the course for Search and Rescue teams.

You can use your judgement about the helmet. Bugs really are a big deal, though; and having a fire starting kit, which WaPo recommends, is a great idea if you're hiking just in case you get lost. It's a good way to stay warm and a good way to signal rescuers. Proper clothing against the weather is important. And, yes, light but calorie-dense food and a two-liter supply of water is a great addition to your kit. 

Really, not a terrible article. It's a great time to get out and see the beautiful world. Just, you know, take responsibility for your own affairs. 

Crazy Congresswomen from Georgia

One of my Senators is not too happy with one of Georgia's elected representatives. 

Sen. Thom Tillis’s (R-N.C.) comments to CNN on Tuesday were particularly biting. Amid Greene’s efforts to oust McCarthy’s successor, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Tillis called her a “waste of time” and a “horrible leader.”

“She is dragging our brand down,” Tillis said. “She — not the Democrats — are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”

Tillis added, “I’m embarrassed to have actually lived geographically in her district at one time before she was there.”

I'm not too impressed with Tillis himself, who is reliably bad on issues of liberty like unfettered domestic spying. (My other Senator is even worse; he's on that list too, and has used his office to profit wildly from insider knowledge.) He may think he's better for the brand, but that brand looks pretty tarnished to me. 

However, I would just like to point out that Greene is only the latest in a Georgia tradition -- you could even call it an Atlanta-area tradition -- of sending wild-eyed Congresswomen to Washington. Cynthia McKinney was a long-time Georgia politician, sometimes a Democrat and other times a Green Party member -- even their presidential candidate in 2008. She endorsed a metric ton of crazy ideas in her time, including a suggestion that there were widespread hidden executions following Hurricane Katrina. She claimed that 'Bush knew' about 9/11 and let it happen on purpose; separately, that "Zionists" carried out the attack. She also reliably took the side of America's enemies in her foreign policy work, and was ever-ready to support Hamas or really anyone who was against Israel. Even David Duke.

On September 11, 2023, McKinney promoted a livestream called "Can Black People and White People Work Together to Defeat Our Common Enemy" with the Star of David, indicating that the "common enemy" is Jews. The livestream was to be hosted by Ayo Kimathi, the author of Jews Are the Problem and described by the ADL as "antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ Black nationalist extremist" and David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and anti-semite.In the livestream, Kimathi explicitly advocated for ties with White nationalists to actively eradicate "the Jew."

That said, she was also right some of the time. She saw through NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, and she was opposed to that Gaddafi business I was just talking about in the last post. Her ideas were often way out there, but sometimes she saw things others didn't. She was an honest representative of her district, where many of those views are very popular. 

There are hundreds of people in Congress. The few crazies who get in there aren't the real problem: it's the majority that are outright crooked and power-hungry. It doesn't hurt Congress to hear some wild ideas now and then, especially since just a few of them turn out to be true. At least someone is speaking what they think is true and not just parroting the approved lines. 

The Perils of NPR

It was just a couple of weeks ago that we took notice of a self-criticism of NPR by one of its senior journalists; he is, of course, no longer employed there. Speaking the truth is a firing offense in many institutions, and while that in itself is a good reason to criticize the institution, it is far from unique.

Now, however, City Journal has posted an interesting bit of investigative journalism about the new boss there. 

During the volatile Arab Spring period, under a constantly rotating series of NGO affiliations, Maher went to multiple countries that were undergoing U.S.-backed regime change. Beginning in 2011, for example, she traveled multiple times to Tunisia, working with regime-change activists and government officials. In 2012, she traveled to a strategic city on the Turkey-Syria border, which had become a base for Western-backed opposition to Bashar al-Assad. That same year, she traveled to Libya, where the U.S. had just overthrown strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

During much of 2011, Maher worked for the National Democratic Institute, a government-funded NGO with deep connections to U.S. intelligence and the Democratic Party’s foreign policy machine. The organization was “set up to do independently what CIA had done covertly worldwide,” says national security analyst J. Michael Waller. While initially some distance supposedly existed between NDI and the intelligence services, that relationship has devolved back to “the gray zone,” per Waller, and it appears that they often work in concert. “NDI is an instrument of Samantha Power and the global revolution elements of the Obama team,” Waller explains. “It has gone along with, and been significant parts of, color revolutions around the world. It is very much a regime-change actor.”

The broader argument the article makes is that we have been subject to a 'color revolution' here at home. NPR is part of the information warfare apparatus of the victorious coalition, which is tied to the same power structure that overthrew Gaddafi and then endorsed as his replacement the 'Government of National Accord' (GNA) even though that required the State Department delisting several foreign terrorist groups who belonged to GNA in order to allow for our official support. 

That is not to say that it is the CIA, or that the CIA is doing anything to influence American elections. It is to say that the people who learned to use the CIA and the NGO archipelago to overthrow foreign governments during the Obama administration are the people currently being discussed here. They are spread widely among the seats of power in media, government, and the tech corporations. As they all belong to the same class, they have no need of a conspiracy because they all already know what their class interests are and how to advance their membership in that class. 

As Time Magazine put it in early 2021, there was a "shadow campaign" to "fortify" the election using illegal and therefore unconstitutional methods to change voting rules. The article is remembered for being eye-opening and a sort-of confession, but it was wholly celebratory of the shadow campaign and its outcomes. 

Likewise we probably all remember the fervent and constant repetition in the press that there was "no evidence" of any irregularity with the election, which was the most safe and secure ever. Information warfare is an important part of this sort of effort. Controlling the terms of the debate keeps the people from speaking the truth, even when they know the truth. It's not sufficient -- the courts played a crucial role in refusing to consider any of the cases brought, dismissing them all on standing or timing grounds -- but it is a necessary condition. 

The Grave of Plato

New technology allowing the reading of those ancient scrolls seems to have identified the precise place where Plato was buried. 

Automatic Disbarment

A judge who behaves this way should be impeached, as well as disbarred. 

She told us, ‘Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.'

In point of fact, deprivation of rights under color of law is a Federal crime. The statute is confusing in its wording, so perhaps she has a defense in claiming that she was not motivated by prejudice (but would equally deny that right to everyone, under color of law). She ought to be arrested and charged, though, and obligated to make that defense as a former judge to a jury of her peers— her fellow citizens, I mean, not legal elites. 

Hawaii is trying the same thing. It’s a sort of small scale secession, refusing to be bound by the parts of the Constitution that they disapprove of existing. 

A Modest Proposal

How to save American colleges: an essay.

All higher-education courses could be done online via bots with no need for expensive classrooms, dorm rooms and other physical facilities.

Instead of paying college costs currently approaching $100,000 a year, students could earn their degrees conveniently and inexpensively from the comfort of their own homes. Moreover, they would be given access to bots that they can use to take tests and write any essays required by the instructor bots. The students’ test answers would no doubt be perfect, and their essays would be persuasive and error-free, which would allow all students to be given A grades without having to disrupt their lives by attending classes, listening to lectures or reading. 

It's a clever idea, which we are likely to adopt more completely than we like to admit.  

Rodeo Songs

David Foster added a link to a list of some of his favorite rodeo songs in the comments to the bullriding post below. I'm raising it to a post because I wouldn't want anyone to miss it. 

Duty to Protect Yourself

Omri Ceren makes note of a message sent to Jewish students at Columbia University. Mostly the message pertains to the fact that Jews can no longer assume that they will be safe at Columbia, given the atmosphere of abuse and hatred that has been allowed to proliferate there. 

Omri rightly points out that conservatives have been subject to censorship and exclusion for decades on the argument that their events might 'make students feel unsafe.' Actual calls for students who are Jewish women to be raped, or Jewish students to be killed, or Jewish students actually being stabbed in the eye, apparently don't warrant any special notice by the university administration. 

It's important to know who your friends are, and who they are not, I suppose. 

That said, I do wish to object to something the Orthodox rabbi said whom Omri quotes. He writes, "It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus." Perhaps "as Jews" is carrying some weight here, but it absolutely is everyone's job -- and right, and duty -- to ensure their own safety at all times. Even where it is forbidden by positive law, it is demanded by natural law. No positive law is legitimate that disarms a threatened people, nor one that purports to strip them of the right to defend themselves. 

Columbia is in New York City, one of the parts of America with the least legitimate laws as regards self-defense and the right to keep and bear arms. This is a good time to reflect on how evil such laws really are. 

Laws repugnant to the Constitution are null and void. It's time to start defying them accordingly, and enforce the rights with which Nature and Nature's God endow you.

Infinity and the Divine

Last week while I was in Vegas, Dad29 had a post about infinity. I foolishly promised to respond to it, and will attempt to do so now.

There’s a lot to be said about the use of the concept of infinity in theology, which I will write about once I’m not traveling. Different major theologians have thought that it was a wonderful way to think about God; others have disliked the usage for various reasons. Nicholas of Cusa, one of the fans, had diagrams meant to convey the impossibility of finite minds grasping God. Others thought other things.

To be clear, I'm one of the ones who doesn't like the concept of infinity as applied to God, ironically because I think it is too limiting. Mathematicians talk about infinities as having different sizes, which there are good proofs for but which I also think is wrong. 

Infinities crop up regularly in physical calculations, and you can just cancel them out when they do: if you get an infinity on one side and another on the other, you can cross them out like you would an "x" in algebra. The calculations work just fine. It doesn't matter if the infinites are "countable" or not, which is the point the mathematicians are making about them being of different sizes. Maybe that has to do with infinity as applied to physical reality, as opposed to within the theory of math. I hold with Aristotle, however, that actual infinities -- physically real ones included -- are impossible. The Church strictly disagrees with me, and Aristotle, on this point. So do many (most?) modern mathematicians. They are persuaded by the same evidence as me in the opposite direction: since we can use the infinities algebraically, they must be actual. My sense is that since we can use them so in spite of their allegedly (provably!) different sizes, they aren't actual infinities but a place where our mathematical models are reaching their limits. There's no reason to think our mathematical models are right, and very good reasons to think they aren't quite. One such: no human beings before us have ever made mathematical models that really were quite right when applied to reality. 

The impossibility of an actual infinity is an important feature of the proof of God given by Avicenna, which Aquinas gives in brief in the Summa Theologica in spite of the fact that he ends up endorsing actual infinity. To put it in basic terms, every existent thing gets its existence from something else that already exists. You came to be because your parents already were, and they were able to bring you about. If an infinite series were possible, then there is no need for a thing-that-exists-without-being-made to have started the chain. God's necessity stands on the fact that divine existence is necessary in order to account for everything else that follows: the whole chain needs to be rooted, grounded, on something that already existed before anything was made. (There is a second proof along this line as well, in which Avicenna is pleased to say that it just wouldn't be determined if everything actually existed without the necessary divine existant; I'll leave that as an exercise for very interested readers.) 

The fact is that infinity as we know how to discuss it is a feature of reality, meaning that we understand it as well as we do because of concepts that pertain to this world. Perhaps, as Pythagoras said, the math is what makes the world; perhaps, it is our model of the world. Either way, it belongs to this world and not to the eternity beyond the world. A transcendent God that genuinely exists beyond our reality would not be bound by it, and it is not helpful -- I think, against the Church's considered opinion which any devout Catholic should take as authoritative in spite of my dissent -- to try to apply it to God. 

We generated these ideas from our own ideas about mathematics and how they work. All of that belongs to this place and our experience of it. I don't believe it translates beyond the wall of creation. It might, but I see no reason why it must. I'm not entirely convinced we are correct about how it applies here, and I see no reason to believe that it ought to apply there. 

The Night Ain't Over Yet

Rodeo Riding

Unexpectedly, the Washington Post writes an in-depth piece about one of the great rodeo riders of our day. 

From under a black felt cowboy hat, hair blacker than coffee runs to the collar of his black shirt. The impression of severity is relieved by blue eyes the color of his jeans and a smile crease from the habit of grinning around a Marlboro. It’s an arresting face, burnished by years of outdoor chores, smoke, roistering humor and pain soothed by shots of Jägermeister. It befits arguably the greatest rodeo bull rider who ever lived and certainly the hardest-bodied, a man who never conceded to any power. Until a bull broke his neck.

“I always knew something like this was going to have to happen,” he says.

Indeed. Every rodeo rider knows something like this is a constant danger.  

The Post deserves some credit for this one. It's a pretty good piece. There is some fulminating in the middle about whether or not rodeo is cruel or should be allowed to exist, given that there is no practical reason for anyone to ride bulls -- and limited need, these days, to break horses. Ultimately, though, raising that concern probably just lets readers of that persuasion feel like their perspective is understood, and allows them to engage with a moving story about a courageous man who loved to ride hard and now has to leave it behind. 

Except for the bull, that is. He took the bull home, where it lives a life befitting a retired rodeo star.

Petra

By the great Stoney Edwards, he followed Charley Pride’s success and made this song a hit in 1973. 

Who Are You?

Daniel C. Dennett died today at the age of 82. His work on intentionality -- by which he meant the inside-your-mind view of yourself, as well as the supposition you take about other people's -- was widely discussed in his own lifetime. The second of those links, to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, will lead you to believe that this is a relatively new field for philosophy, heavily influenced by the philosophy of language.

In fact, however, the basic work is Aristotelian, and the major figure not even mentioned in the SEP article is the Medieval churchman and philosopher* Peter Abelard. By coincidence it's also the subject of an essay sent by Dad29, written by James V. Schall of the Society of Jesus.

At least four famous, not-often-enough-repeated Aristotelian questions can be asked of any given thing when we try to figure out what and why it is. They are: 1) “What is it?” – a tree, a rabbit, a planet? 2) “Is it?” That is, does it exist rather than not exist? Does it stand outside of nothingness? 3) Who or what put it into motion or into being? 4) “Why is it in existence?” What is the reason for which it now exists?

Of human beings, we can add a further question: “Who are you?” That is, each of us has a particular, singular, unrepeatable existence unlike any other being that ever existed, but we are still human. Each human “what” is a “you.”

This is actually a very surprising thing for Aristotelian philosophy, because the basic explanation of things is that they are matter put into a particular form. Yet no matter how precisely similar the form is -- twins were well known in antiquity, but it is true also of clones -- the two objects end up having a completely different inner sense. Intentionality is how you try to predict how other people will behave, but it also entails a recognition that they are beings with their own perspective, which you then try to judge.

It's a topic much too vast to cover in a blog post, but if you're interested in it we can go through some of the writings about it in more detail. In any case, requiescat in pace Dr. Dennett.

* Probably the most famous thing about Peter Abelard is that he was castrated by an angry uncle who didn't appreciate his relations with niece Heloise, the latter of whom also went on to become an important figure in the church and in letters. Abelard relates the story (noting that the law blinded and castrated also the uncle and his kinsmen) in the Historia Calamitatum, i.e., 'The Story of my Calamities.' 

The Army has a Navy?

Possibly not a great one. The mission to build a floating pier off Gaza isn't going well Beege Welborn hopes it will be at least a helpful wake-up call.

What this exercise attempting to cross the Atlantic has proven is that we may not need tankers. Our poorly maintained and continually neglected naval vessels, be they Navy or Army, may not be capable of making it to the conflict to begin with.

If someone watching this circus unfold wakes the hell up realizing we are in one hell of a self-inflicted hurt locker and starts to yank chains to immediately effect change?

Then, this crackpot pier idea will be that blessing in disguise.

Home on the Mountain

I have returned to my mountain fastness, after an exhausting near-week in Vegas. 

The spring has advanced rapidly in my absence. When I left on Saturday, the trees were showing signs of green buds; now everything is busting and blooming. 

UFC

One of the things I’m doing out here is visiting with the UFC.

View from the VIP gallery.

They Sure Have Pretty Sunsets

The one thing that isn’t fake in this town is the beautiful Mojave sky. This was taken by the roller coaster in the same casino with the bar mentioned below. 

Coyote Ugly

Everything in Vegas is fake, but this is a special case of fake. Coyote Ugly is a fake Vegas version of a fake Hollywood version of a fake New York City version of a Texas Honky-Tonk. I went in just to see it, which required a ID check even though I could not possibly be underage, and then being wanded by a bouncer with a metal detector. This was amusing given that the crowd struck me as wholly unthreatening children, but I suppose it is part of the act. 

It really was dressed up like the kind of place I’d like if it were real. There was an Indian Motorcycles neon sign, and the walls were decorated with old saddles, Jack Daniels signs, and cowboy hats which were in turn decorated with abandoned bras. 

I had the one beer and then left. The bouncer asked me if I had gotten my hand stamped so I could get back in later. I said I wouldn’t be back. He said he’d remember me if I changed my mind. I’m sure he will, and I’m sure I won’t. 

Las Vegas

The weather is nice in the Mojave right now. I’m in town for a few days on business, if any of you happen to be out this way. 

The worst place on Earth.

My Mother Writes

She was looking through old papers today, and…

...I came across a letter written by your 4 year old preschool teacher. It said you had hit a boy named John. You told her that sometimes John hit you first but not that day. You said you only meant to give him a little muscle but you had eaten all your spinach and you hit him instead.

She said she doubted that I had eaten any spinach. I said you ought to give a boy who admitted that he hit first credit for being a straight-shooter. 

A Reverse for Liberty

Unfortunately the undesirable compromise seems to have emerged. Apparently part of the compromise was reducing the term of the renewal from five years to two, so that Trump could potentially sit on the next renewal as President. I assume that means that the fortifiers of democracy are fairly certain that the election can be stolen fortified; but perhaps they’re simply desperate to keep the power to spy warrantlessly on the people through the election. 

More Lies and Dictatorial Actions

A chief item of the long-held desiridata of the gun control movement has been to 'close the gun-show loophole,' which we have discussed here many times. It's intended as a backdoor way of preventing anyone from transferring a firearm without going through the Federal government, which would open the door to Federal registries and confiscatory measures. Congress has often discussed it, lo and for decades, but has never done it. 

Since no democratically legitimate effort to pass such a law has proven possible, the Biden administration has simply issued a 'final rule' pretending that such a law was on the books all along.

The rules clarify who is required to conduct background checks and aims to close what is known as the “gun show loophole” — which refers to the reality that gun-show sellers and online vendors are subject to much looser federal regulations than vendors who sell at bricks-and-mortar stores.

That is not and has never been the least bit true, but the media reliably claims that it is true in order to justify the gun control it wants. In fact, sellers have had the same regulations whether or not they were selling at a gun show; if they were in the business of selling guns, they had to do the background checks. If they weren't, they didn't whether they sold a gun at a show or anywhere else. Now, they pretend that the law requires pretty much anyone who wants to sell a gun to obtain a Federal Firearms License (an expensive prospect) and also to conduct background checks. 

More to come, Biden promises in a festival of lies intended to justify such things. Some of the lies are his; mostly, again, they're the media lying to frame his remarks for him. 

A Victory for Liberty

I won't go so far as to say that it was an act of political virtue or wisdom, but it's a win for American liberty all the same. Hopefully no compromises emerge, and FISA/702 goes away forever. 

Throw me in that briar patch

I can only be amused by the prospect of young people with absurd notions of effective public policy announcing that they're going to give the finger to all us old jerks by declining to vote this fall. That'll teach us to have bequeathed them a world in which the government doesn't supply all their daily needs.

Baby child, you just go right ahead and finish up that 10-year degree in Self-Actualization. Under no circumstances produce anything of value to others in order to procure the kind of unfair perks your elders lucked into. Never run for office or support anyone who does. That's society's job.

A Western Story

Everybody knows that John B. Stetson invented the famous version of the American cowboy hat, but even I had never heard until today who invented the famous version of the cowboy boot. In the spirit of the story about Walgreens' in the Prohibition post, here's a corporate history of that company.

I don't own a pair of cowboy boots right now, but I wore out a measure of them back when I rode horses a lot. It's a style that seems ostentatious at first, but every apparently ostentatious aspect ends up having a practical ground. The high heel keeps your foot in the stirrup so they don't slip out the front of it. The pointed toes let it slip in and out from the back side easily, simplifying mounting and reducing the hazard of dismounting (especially when it is done without the rider being the one who intended it). The elaborate stitching stiffens the leather, letting it stand up tall against thorns and other hazards. 

On the occasion, here's a piece by Molly Tuttle, a young singer of Western tunes. 

This was NPR

This self-critical view from the inside is going around today. It's always good to see people reflecting on themselves in this way, and I hesitate to criticize it. Plenty of people will do that. I am just glad to see an attempt at honest self-reflection here. 

Bottom Scandal of the Year

With everything wrong with education, I would think this scandal wouldn't merit an article. "Over $100" was spent for a dubious purpose? Seven dollars and twenty-seven cents over, in fact. I haven't seen a grocery bill that low in several years now.

I realize there's a generalized opposition to teaching kids about sex, especially 'alternative' sexualities; but these are young adults, college students, and there's got to be a point at which you let them do adult things. 

As for the instructor being the author of "pornographic stories, including at least one story involving a graphic description of gang rape," we read Last Exit to Brooklyn in high school. I obviously haven't read this story to compare them, but the novel is both infamous for that very thing and also normally assigned by literature departments. If you want to address that problem, the place to start isn't with the $100 thing.