A BLM protester at a church that was having an AR-15 giveaway (as apparently it does occasionally) explains that “there are devils in there.” The irony is in his fellow protester’s project.
Actually, some metaphysical commentary would legitimately be on topic for this post too. Just try not to derail the discussion, if any.
Now, Children, Let’s Not Get Out of Hand
Cancel culture was all fine and good until left-wing academia began to feel the heat.
Sorry, Chomsky et al. Your little monsters were always going to eat you. You’d have known that if you hadn’t romanticized your view of Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
Sorry, Chomsky et al. Your little monsters were always going to eat you. You’d have known that if you hadn’t romanticized your view of Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
Virtue Signaling is Psychotic
Apparently in the technical sense.
Readers know that I am suspicious of psychology in general, and never more than when it tries to reduce political differences to psychological errors. So I advise a grain of salt here, though truly the virtue signaling is becoming insufferable.
Readers know that I am suspicious of psychology in general, and never more than when it tries to reduce political differences to psychological errors. So I advise a grain of salt here, though truly the virtue signaling is becoming insufferable.
Glimmers
As the COVID case count rises dramatically in Texas, and even in my little county, which sprang from 5 to near 40 cases in a few weeks, the controversy I'm following most closely is whether the case increase also portends an increase in deaths. So far, thank goodness, there have been no deaths in my county. The death rate in Texas has increased modestly, but nowhere near as quickly as the case rate. I'm not inclined to celebrate just yet, because death is a lagging indicator, but the case increase has been going on for several weeks now. If the death rate were going to spike, it probably ought to have spiked by now. I'm holding my breath and hoping for good news in the coming week or two.
This Reason article has some encouraging statistics in it. The sad news is that one reason the death rate was so high early in the pandemic, besides the doctors' need for time to develop better treatments, was that we gave it carte blanche to rip through nursing home populations. Now that the average age of patients is dropping, so is the death rate.
The mask/no-mask controversy continues to rage, distorted by a bizarre insistence that masks must be either 0% or 100% effective, and that all masks are alike. My own view is that passing laws equating bandanas with effective N95 masks is basically an admission that what we're talking about now is a government-mandated symbolic expression, never a good idea in my book. Still, I readily admit that I can't prove the widespread wearing of masks outside the home is useless, much as I suspect it is.
Locally, we're also at each other's throats over whether closing the beaches is prudent and compassionate, or useless and fascist. On the one hand, the beaches are an excellent place to be, far better than hanging out indoors for all but the most severely isolated and careful people. On the other hand, in my county, keeping the beaches open inspires visions of a huge human wave of tourists from the dirty, dangerous cities--and tourists will pack bars and restaurants rather than staying on the nice, clean beach. My approach is not to frequent bars and restaurants, but my neighbors legitimately fear that when others frequent bars and pick up the virus, they don't keep it to themselves. Again, that's why I'm not going out much. Barhoppers are not coming into my house. But that approach is cold comfort to people who still have to encounter the public at work every day.
There's a lot of fear-fueled fury. I continue to urge people to be more patient with each other about how we all interpret some unclear and contradictory data. As usual, that's a losing battle with many. Facebook is even more hysterical than usual. I view my job there as pointing out as politely and dispassionately as I can that we're leaping to conclusions about some things, and that while caution is useful when the data are unclear and the maximum downside is severe (however rare it may be), we don't have to believe passionately in the most pessimistic possible interpretation of events. Surely that message reaches a handful of people.
I'm particularly interested in one area of confusion. We know that a large percentage of virus carriers are asymptomatic, maybe something like 40% overall, with huge differences in specific populations like jails or children. We also hypothesize that asymptomatic carriers are X% as contagious as symptomatic carriers. There are pretty good ways to get a handle on the first number, while the second remains elusive. A surprising number of people conflate the two, and become convinced that 40% (if not 100%) of asymptomatic carriers are contagious, and not just a little bit contagious, but just as contagious as a severely ill coughing, sneezing patient with a high fever, and furthermore, that "science has proved it." This conviction appears impervious to information or argument in most sufferers. If I say we have no consensus yet on how contagious the asymptomatic carriers are, I get back, "But how can you deny that lots of carriers are asymptomatic!" There's just no disentangling the two ideas in many people.
This Reason article has some encouraging statistics in it. The sad news is that one reason the death rate was so high early in the pandemic, besides the doctors' need for time to develop better treatments, was that we gave it carte blanche to rip through nursing home populations. Now that the average age of patients is dropping, so is the death rate.
The mask/no-mask controversy continues to rage, distorted by a bizarre insistence that masks must be either 0% or 100% effective, and that all masks are alike. My own view is that passing laws equating bandanas with effective N95 masks is basically an admission that what we're talking about now is a government-mandated symbolic expression, never a good idea in my book. Still, I readily admit that I can't prove the widespread wearing of masks outside the home is useless, much as I suspect it is.
Locally, we're also at each other's throats over whether closing the beaches is prudent and compassionate, or useless and fascist. On the one hand, the beaches are an excellent place to be, far better than hanging out indoors for all but the most severely isolated and careful people. On the other hand, in my county, keeping the beaches open inspires visions of a huge human wave of tourists from the dirty, dangerous cities--and tourists will pack bars and restaurants rather than staying on the nice, clean beach. My approach is not to frequent bars and restaurants, but my neighbors legitimately fear that when others frequent bars and pick up the virus, they don't keep it to themselves. Again, that's why I'm not going out much. Barhoppers are not coming into my house. But that approach is cold comfort to people who still have to encounter the public at work every day.
There's a lot of fear-fueled fury. I continue to urge people to be more patient with each other about how we all interpret some unclear and contradictory data. As usual, that's a losing battle with many. Facebook is even more hysterical than usual. I view my job there as pointing out as politely and dispassionately as I can that we're leaping to conclusions about some things, and that while caution is useful when the data are unclear and the maximum downside is severe (however rare it may be), we don't have to believe passionately in the most pessimistic possible interpretation of events. Surely that message reaches a handful of people.
I'm particularly interested in one area of confusion. We know that a large percentage of virus carriers are asymptomatic, maybe something like 40% overall, with huge differences in specific populations like jails or children. We also hypothesize that asymptomatic carriers are X% as contagious as symptomatic carriers. There are pretty good ways to get a handle on the first number, while the second remains elusive. A surprising number of people conflate the two, and become convinced that 40% (if not 100%) of asymptomatic carriers are contagious, and not just a little bit contagious, but just as contagious as a severely ill coughing, sneezing patient with a high fever, and furthermore, that "science has proved it." This conviction appears impervious to information or argument in most sufferers. If I say we have no consensus yet on how contagious the asymptomatic carriers are, I get back, "But how can you deny that lots of carriers are asymptomatic!" There's just no disentangling the two ideas in many people.
Rest In Peace, Ennio Morricone
He has been featured here so many times. [UPDATE: For some reason, Google has taken archive searches for Grim's Hall offline, at least here; yesterday it showed many posts over decades, but today I have allegedly never mentioned him before last week.]
What a glorious legacy he leaves behind.
What a glorious legacy he leaves behind.
Rest in Peace Charlie Daniels
A sad farewell to one of the few remaining greats of the old days.
He's remembered as a Red White and Blue Conservative, but like many people he aged into that. My favorite of his songs is this one, in which he is still a longhaired singer with an uncertain relationship to the rednecks he lives among.
He's remembered as a Red White and Blue Conservative, but like many people he aged into that. My favorite of his songs is this one, in which he is still a longhaired singer with an uncertain relationship to the rednecks he lives among.
Good (non-COVID) medical news
DNA tests aren't just for heredity and risk factors now. A blood sample can yield a zillion fragments of damaged DNA bases with reliable signatures for many types of very early--treatable--cancer. The WSJ is behind a paywall, but this Google link takes you to an article entitled "Cancer Screening Leaps Forward."
AT Pipeline Canceled
Duke and Dominion Energy claimed their 600 mile pipeline along or under the Appalachian Trail would protect the natural heritage of the area. Having observed the end results of their previous projects, I can agree that they can be coherent with natural beauty in some ways, but certainly not that they leave unchanged the sense of being in a wilderness.
They won at SCOTUS, so this decision is a choice the companies are making themselves. I wonder why they would make such a huge decision following a long, vigorous, successful, and expensive defense. Perhaps partly they decided that the government would not be able to protect their investments from sabotage; or would not be willing to do.
Malice or incompetence?
As so often with journalists, it's hard to tell.
Does anyone have *any clue* what Trump was rambling about during his insane Mount Rushmore speech (as dark a speech as any American president has ever given)? If someone is trying to tear down statues of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, I haven't heard a d*** thing about it.I'd almost be willing to bet my sister, for example, hasn't heard a d*** thing about it. The cloak of silence is powerful. The Upton Sinclair quotation nails it:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.I notice that Seth Abramson inserted the requisite descriptor "dark," but I hope someone warns him he left out "divisive." That's no way to stay off the tumbrel.
Cancelling the wrong stuff
From Ed Driscoll:
When cancel culture comes for FDR, will the New Deal also be cancelled as well?
Related: Ross Douthat on The Ghost of Woodrow Wilson: Just as “Jefferson’s memorial wasn’t built to celebrate his slaveholding, [Princeton’s] Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs wasn’t named for Wilson to honor him for being a segregationist…the school will remain his school, whatever name gets slapped upon it, so long as it pursues the projects of enlightened progressive administration and global superpowerdom. Obviously there are people, right and left, who would prefer that one or both of those projects be abandoned. But they aren’t likely to be running the renamed school. Instead, it will continue to be run by 21st-century Wilsonians — who will now act as if their worldview sprang from nowhere, that its progenitor did not exist, effectively repudiating their benefactor while accepting his inheritance.”My husband wants to know when we can expect the income tax to go away.
Not Even Slightly Fake News
”Americans Excited To Celebrate Their Liberty While Confined To Their Homes By The Government.”
“I sure am glad I live in a free country," said one man in California as he checked his phone to see what the current unilateral mandates by his governor would allow him to do this year....
Guidelines released by governors across the country so far include the following:
Launching fireworks inside
Barbecuing inside
Watching fireworks on YouTube since they're probably illegal in your state anyway
Whispering "God Bless America" so as not to upset your neighbors
Wearing a mask while inside your home to muffle any patriotic songs or statements
Forgoing hamburgers and hot dogs in favor of more sustainable food products like bugs and tofu
Sitting in silence and contemplating how much you hate America
The Elite Eats Its Own
An article at American Mind suggests that we are just watching a street-fight among the elite's children, over the future of our nation, to which none of us are admitted.
A new study by Pew research says only 1/6 of the protesters are Black. Four out of five are Democrats. This is not the poor working class fighting for a livable wage. It’s an act of performance art staged and underwritten by our nation’s elite, in the tradition of Woodstock or Occupy Wall Street.... This is a generational fight within our ruling elite class. For decades, the elites have taught their children that America is a bad place. It’s an evil country, they say: To be patriotic is to be ignorant about America’s many sins. Be woke, the upper classes bark at their kids! Open your eyes to all that is wrong with the U.S. and its history.But it's almost Independence Day, and I'm not feeling it. I love my country -- not my government, but definitely my country -- and I'm not willing to give it up. I'm willing to run up the black flag, but not quite ready to give up the red, white, and blue one.
America’s elites are scrambling to find ways to show they’re on the side of the oppressed so that they, too, can be considered victims.... One writer put it this way: This is a revolution that comforts the comfortable.
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