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.

Shelter in Place

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

First 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.

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.

Ymar's Post

On Monday.

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.

Beverly Hills Cops

We just want to expose you to a conversation, and you get all tear-gassy.

Bryson City

Sadly, not the Bee

But this is how "largely peaceful" counter-protests get reported:

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.

Higher Dimensions

Swedish scientists say your brain can’t handle more than 11.

Cross-Tied Like a Stallion

Oil change today, new tires soon for the wife’s scoot.

Ymar’s Post

Friday.

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.

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.

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.

On Modeling

The governor of South Dakota has some important points to make.

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.

Ymar’s Post

For Wednesday. This Archbishop who wrote the President sounds a lot like you.

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:

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.