Red Lines

Michael Anton has a new essay that I think is very important because it lines up with a project of my own: the new state of Appalachia, which I someday hope to form out of elements of North Georgia, East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, West Virginia and parts of Western Virginia. No big cities -- even Knoxville and Asheville will be omitted. Just good Highlander country, ideally a near-anarchy governed on voluntary lines such as I've been describing lately.

Anton is a very smart and well-educated guy whom I've met several times and have mentioned more than once before. I don't think he and I have much in common except the occasional idea; and sometimes not even that. But he's definitely worth reading once he sits down and maps something out, whether you end up agreeing with him or not. 

This time, I do. 

Genius Stinks

Well, maybe not, but it can be overrated. This article begins with 'creative genius,' but it then considers even physical prowess that is out of the ordinary.

Researchers have analysed the make-up of basketball and football teams, for example, to find out how the addition of highly rated players improves overall team performance. When analysing the World Cup, for instance, they examined how many of each nation’s players came from the most prestigious clubs, such as Manchester United or FC Barcelona. Surprisingly, they found that the benefits of that exceptional individual talent were often underwhelming. Thanks, perhaps, to the star players’ rutting egos, the teams with the highest number of stars often failed to collaborate effectively.

I don't know if the issue is really ego, though it might be; but it could also simply be that the rest of the team has trouble synchronizing with a physicality that is far beyond its average. In any case, I have noticed this effect in teams that try to buy themselves into a great position by recruiting 'genius' players. A team that thinks and acts as a team is often more effective in a team sport than one that is made up of people who are trying to support a single genius. 

Of course, not all sports are team sports. Sometimes there's a case for the lone gunslinger.

Fake News Today

BB: New Amazon Bond Film

Amazon has purchased MGM Studios and the famous Bond franchise for $8.45 billion, according to reports. Current Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos expressed his excitement over the purchase.

"We are looking forward to bringing the story of British superspy James Bond into new and exciting directions!" said Bezos. "I can't give away too much, but I can say that the next Bond film will be a story about how a powerful organization taking over the world is actually a good thing!" 

DB:  AWOL numbers skyrocket after Air Force transitions to camouflage that actually works

HT: Optimus Prime Forced to Walk Everywhere After Truck Form Fails Highway Safety Inspection

Advice For The People Running Biden

 Since we're watching JP, he has some very good advice for the people running Biden.

Welcome to the Trans Community

 

A Handsome Precedent

The current administration is abolishing ICE by administrative action.

Yesterday [a Washington Post reporter] published a follow up that makes clear the Biden administration is abolishing many of ICE’s duties even if the agency itself still exists. Last month the agencies 6,000 officers carried out just 3,000 deportations. This is all thanks to the new rules put in place by the administration.

I look forward to using the same treatment on the ATF, FBI, IRS and so many others. They may still exist as ceremonial units similar to the Military Knights of Windsor or the Royal Company of Archers. Eventually a sensible Congress can dispose of them, but in the meantime, they can all be rendered harmless along just the way that our current President is paving for us now.

Great Success

It's been a year since the death of George Floyd, a man whose death greatly enlarged his life. Let's check in on the progress being made by our progressive heroes.

60 Minutes Speaks Some Truth

I wonder how this idea ever got past their editors?

On Sunday, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired an important news segment on the phenomenon of detransitioning — when a person who identified as transgender and undertook various interventions to confirm a cross-sex identity later rejects a transgender identity and embraces his or her biological sex. Many transgender activists have objected to news outlets covering these important stories....

Garrett told 60 Minutes that he went from taking hormones to getting his testicles removed in just three months, far short of the WPATH guidelines, which suggest a year’s worth of continuous use before such drastic “bottom surgery.” He later got a breast augmentation.

“But, instead of feeling more himself, he says he felt worse,” 60 Minutes reported.

“So, more depressed after you transitioned than before?” Stahl asked.

“I had never really been suicidal before until I had my breast augmentation,” Garrett replied. “And about a week afterwards I wanted to, like, actually kill myself. Like, I had a plan and I was gonna do it but I just kept thinking about, like, my family, to stop myself.”

“It kind of felt like, how am I ever going to feel normal again, like other guys now?” he remarked.

An aside: surprising that it wasn't after his castration that he had this experience, but after the cosmetic surgery to add fake breasts. I would have thought that the castration would be the traumatic event after which you could 'never feel normal' -- at least, not like a normal guy. The change in hormone balances already being effected by drugs would have become greater with the removal of one's natural source of testosterone. Yet apparently it was the visual difference of appearing to have breasts that was the real psychological shock.

Good to see some breakthrough discussion of this, though. These really are permanent, life-altering changes. No one should go through with this without a complete understanding of what it is going to entail, including the understanding that some people who do go through with it really regret it afterwards. Instead, it sounds like even the limited protections in the guidelines are being ignored by everyone involved.

Blue Militia

Lee Smith makes a striking observation.

This week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators auditioned for the chance to join already established Democratic Party militias antifa and Black Lives Matter by attacking Jews in New York and Los Angeles.... Since the late spring, many have noted that these blue militias have typically avoided laying waste to red regions. And it is strange, if you think the Democrats have mobilized criminals and psychopaths and other semitragic misfits to target those they claim are the true enemies of democracy, tolerance, and brotherly love—the more than 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump. Presumably, blue militias know that if they campaigned in rural or even suburban America they would be met by a well-armed citizenry. 

Still, why burn down their own neighborhoods? Again, here the Middle East is the key to understanding. And if you know anything about that region, you know that the answer is because that’s their job—not to confront their alleged red state enemies, but to remind their neighbors and fellow Joe Biden voters that their security, indeed even their lives, depend on them keeping the faith, no matter how much the party’s pet projects might hurt or offend them personally.

If Smith is right, something very different from ordinary politics is happening in our country now. Republicans seem to think they’ll just win it at the next election; but these kind of mobilizations in nations like Venezuela have generally heralded the end of legitimate elections. 

Dry Run

Officially there’s not yet a drought in Western North Carolina. However, Glassmine Falls is dry. You can see what it looks like usually at the link. Here’s what it looks like today:

This dry weather makes for great riding, though. As the Robert Duvall character says of cowboying in Broken Trail, “It’s a great life when it’s not raining or snowing.” Riding in the rain isn’t so bad, but it’s best when it’s sunny and warm. 

Back tonight with any luck. 

On the stove

Tonight is lamb meatballs in tomato sauce with poached eggs, using our neighbors' tomato bounty. About 10 lbs of tomatoes have been blanched, peeled, and seeded, and are bubbling on the stove, leaving another equal amount to be processed in a day or two. Leftover bread has been crumbled for the meatballs. This dish (or something like it) is called a lot of things around the Mediterranean, including Kefta Mkaouara and Shakshouka, but I think those names refer only to the eggs in spicy tomato sauce, while the meatballs are optional. My philosophy is to add meatballs to anything whenever possible.

Combat Veteran Lee Marvin on Marines

 A contrast with the recruiting ad for the Army we recently saw.

Imperial & American Pints

This came up in a recent discussion. I am in a pub that serves them, so here is an Imperial Snakebite versus an American pint glass with water. 

Friday Night Concert

 Chilling out on a Friday with an hour and a half of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats

On the Road Again

Be back Sunday, Inshallah. Motorcycle is calling and the weather looks perfect. 

Recruiting Video Comparison

China, Russia, US

H/t Kozak over on Ricochet.

Don't Go Quoting Chairman Mao

Joltin' Joe Biden ignores the Beatles' advice in his commencement address to the Coast Guard. It's a silly thing to do, for two reasons. 

First, it's Chairman Mao. 

Second, the Chinese don't in any sense live up to the idea that women are equally important to men. Even when Mao said it, it was just a pat on the head. Women in China continue today to be treated as second-class subjects, though they are now free of the forced abortions of the 'One Child' period (except the Uighur women, who are still enduring forced abortions and sterilizations). To cite the Chinese Communists as an aspirational model to American women who are now college graduates is madness: these American women are already going to enjoy vastly greater privileges than their Chinese counterparts. 

Third, why not follow that up with an insult aimed at the graduating class?

Rock 'n' Cynicism

I have always loved rock, but some of my favorite rock songs are pretty cynical about the business of it or the lifestyle or even the audience. Here are four of those I came up with. If you know others, please post them in the comments.

Background

This Certainly Won't Calm Conspiracy Fears

Soros kicked in $2M to elect Maricopa County sheriff now stonewalling election audit

More than four years before Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone used his law enforcement credibility to resist subpoenas in the Arizona Senate audit of the county's general election, he was running for the office he now holds.

Crucial to the Democrat's victory over incumbent Republican Joe Arpaio: $2 million from progressive megadonor George Soros.

It was the largest single donation Soros made in a local race in the 2016 election cycle, according to a Politico report at the time. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, kicked in another $250,000 to the pro-Penzone effort.

...

Liberal Media Viewers Are Misinformed About Crime in America

At least according to Rasmussen Reports:

Fewer than 50 unarmed black suspects were killed by police last year and more people were killed with knives than with so-called “assault weapons,” but viewers of MSNBC and CNN are far more likely than Fox News viewers to get those facts wrong.