The Times considers it paradoxical that a Jew of North African descent whose ancestors arrived in France only 70 years ago should be a French nationalist. These same journalists can’t understand why most Hispanic American citizens are hostile toward illegal immigration.Already this man without a party has illustrated just how far France has lurched to the right.As a friend notes, no one ever lurches to the left.
One-way lurch setting
Powerline recently posted a video by the newest "mini-Trump" French presidential candidate, an immigration skeptic (i.e., racist omniphobe unperson) about whom the bien-pensants are in full meltdown mode. Today's followup notes the NYT's somber warnings:
Col. Shames, Last of WWII "Band of Brothers," Passes
Col. Edward Shames, final surviving member of the World War II parachute infantry regiment known as the “Band of Brothers” which inspired the HBO miniseries and book of the same name, died Friday. He was 99.
According to his obituary posted by the Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory and quoted by Breitbart:
He made his first combat jump into Normandy on D-Day as part of Operation Overlord. He volunteered for Operation Pegasus and then fought with Easy Company in Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne.
...
When Germany surrendered, Ed and his men of Easy Company entered Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest where Ed managed to acquire a few bottles of cognac, a label indicating they were ‘for the Fuhrer’s use only.’ Later, he would use the cognac to toast his oldest son’s Bar Mitzvah.
Here is Col. Shames talking about his experiences:
Toughness
I'm not much impressed with David French lately; his criticism of Kyle Rittenhouse showed that he doesn't understand citizenship, let alone heroism. In his latest piece, though, he raises a reasonable point: his sort did fairly well during the Cold War, in contests with the Soviets, and advanced the ball to some degree for a time during the Reagan era in other ways as well.
Sadly, he then departs into a criticism of toughness as a masculine virtue. Worse, he decides to fight it from the (friendly to Atlantic readers) ground of criticizing Donald Trump. This is a sideshow; the discussion that is worth having is whether or not the elite approach to conflict with the left is still capable of advancing any balls, or indeed if it has any to advance.
This is the meat of the argument, dispensing with that part that is personal criticism.
Indeed, the logic of the movement presses toward direct action. If you tell enough people that the future of the country is at stake, that their political opponents have corrupted democracy, and that only the truly tough have what it takes to save the nation, then speeches about unmanly ideologies will never be enough. Trolling on Twitter will, ironically, come to look like a hollow remedy, itself a form of weakness.Thus we see the increased prevalence of open-carried AR-15s at public protests, the increased number of unlawful threats hurled at political opponents, and outbreaks of actual political violence, including the large-scale violence of January 6.One of the most dangerous developments in our contentious times has been a growth in radical ideologies bolstered by radical intellectuals who often treat decency and even peace as impediments to justice. The riots that ripped through American cities were inexcusable expressions of political fury (and sometimes pure nihilism) that were too often rationalized, excused, and sometimes even celebrated. The author and academic Freddie deBoer has compiled a depressing list of articles, essays, and interviews in prominent publications excusing and justifying violent civil unrest.The right-wing cult of toughness, in its distinctly Trumpist version, is no exception to this trend. When it is drained of limiting principles and tied to a man who would rather seek to upend our nation’s constitutional order than relinquish power, then the threat to the republic is plain. That threat will remain until the supposedly weak classical liberals on the left and the right do what they’ve always done at their best—rally in defense of liberty, the rule of law, and the American order itself.
I'm not sure what to make of the treatment here. David French doesn't like AR-15s; well, he's wrong there, but the open carry of them at protests is being done on both sides. These demonstrations look very different. In Richmond, VA in 2018 some 22,000 armed citizens showed up to protest a raft of gun rights infringements proposed by the governor. As no less than Reuters reports, "Despite fears that neo-Nazis or other extremists would piggyback on the Richmond rally to stoke unrest... [there was] just one arrest, a 21-year-old woman taken into custody for wearing a bandana over her face after twice being warned that masks were not allowed."
On the left, just a week ago we saw masked men with guns openly intimidating a jury in Georgia -- not, as it turned out, that it was necessary. They would have gotten their way without such things. Yet here, too, French is missing the point. He wants to equate the January 6th riot with the whole history of riots across America, and the ongoing lawlessness. We already know that January 6th featured many Federal informants and agents, though, actively encouraging violent acts -- and a Capitol Police force of 2,000 who did not deploy adequate forces, and a National Guard that stood aside for reasons yet to be revealed.
Ultimately, the government ought to live in fear of what the citizens might do if it misbehaves. That's the only way to avoid governments that are ready to engage in democide and concentration camps. They should worry the whole time they are in power about what we might do if they cross the line. Then, perhaps, they might govern within the lines instead of well outside them.
Citizens still need to be accountable for how they protest, with arms or without. All the same, as the Declaration of Independence states, we ultimately have the right to do away with this or any government if it betrays its duty. It is wise and proper that this right is backed up by the means to make it real.
Single Action
If you're following the Alec Baldwin story, what he's saying about what happened doesn't make much sense. The weapon he used to shoot the two women was a single action revolver. I carry these myself sometimes, especially for horseback riding when there's just a chance I might get thrown if the horse should panic (which might be occasioned by a stick on the trail it mistakes for a snake, horses being unreasonable animals). The modern single action revolver is about the safest firearm you can carry. It will not go off by accident.
This is because you have to cock the hammer before the trigger does any useful thing. Once the hammer is cocked, the trigger has to be used to release the hammer to decock the revolver, or to fire it. But until it is cocked, the revolver isn't going to do anything at all unless you throw it in a fire.
The only way the revolver might have fired without him pulling the trigger is if a sear broke internally, but that's almost impossible. These things are made out of cold-rolled steel.
Textiles
Late at night I exchange texts with one of my oldest friends, who among other things spins, dyes, and weaves. I send her progress reports on my Christmas projects, lately the puppet stage panel paintings, and she shows me what she's quilting or weaving. Last night she sent these ravishing pictures of a cotton/silk fabric dyed with indigo. She didn't spin the thread, but she did weave them on one of her astounding number of looms. She's trying to figure out how to line them with velvet and use them in a protective drape for a concert grand.
My husband alerted me to this story about woven fabrics excavated in Turkey that appear to date from at least 6500 B.C. The fiber is oak bast. Bast is a fiber found on the inner surface of the bark or outer material of "dicotedonous" flowering plants, which are about half of the flowering plants, I take it. Wiki tells me that people have extracted bast fibre from "flax (from which linen is made), hemp, jute, kenaf, kudzu, linden, milkweed, nettle, okra, paper mulberry, ramie, and roselle hemp." My weaving friend adds yucca.
An Institutional Pattern
Like other large institutions that have had members commit sex crimes against children, the CIA tended to handle things internally -- leading to minimal consequences for horrific crimes.
One employee had sexual contact with a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old. He was fired. A second employee purchased three sexually explicit videos of young girls, filmed by their mothers. He resigned. A third employee estimated that he had viewed up to 1,400 sexually abusive images of children while on agency assignments. The records do not say what action, if any, the CIA took against him. A contractor who arranged for sex with an undercover FBI agent posing as a child had his contract revoked.
At least there were some consequences, I guess, unlike with the IRS targeting scandal or (thus far) Russiagate.
False Flag Terror is an Old Problem
The Weather Underground plotted an assassination by their white members in blackface, in order to spark a revolution.
Helpful Advice
"Fed up with higher gas prices? Get over it."
We understand that for many people $3 a gallon is painful — especially lower-wage earners with older, bigger cars that get poor gas mileage. But help is on the way in cleaner-burning cars with tax incentives to bring down their price.
Ford just provided some welcome and telling evidence of that. It’s building an all-electric F-150 truck for 2022. So we won’t have to give up popular pickups to help ease climate change.
As part of his “Build Back Better” spending plan that recently cleared the House, Biden hopes to offer up to $12,500 per electric vehicle to spur consumer demand.
Hear that, low wage workers? If the President's agenda passes, which will drive inflation to unheard of new heights, you'll get $12,500 off the new electric vehicle you won't be able to afford. Base price is north of $39,000.
Don't get me wrong -- the new electric Ford may well be great. Electric trucks are outperforming expectations. There's still the huge issue of much of that electricity being generated by burning coal or fuel oil, but in places where hydropower is widely available -- like here -- it might be a viable choice for those who can drop tens of thousands of dollars on a new vehicle. The range is looking respectable, and there is plenty of power in that model.
It's not going to solve the problem of lower-wage earners dying on the vine as inflation eats their wages, though. Those subsidies are not going to enable poor people to buy a brand new truck. The BBB agenda will only worsen their problems, should it pass, by further driving costs for necessities through the roof.
The Irish Art of Lilting and What it Means For You
Thought some here might be interested in this ...
A 50-year mistake
Although we probably won't see a decision until this summer, the newly dominant conservative members of the Supreme Court appear to be responding well to Mississippi's argument that the issue of abortion should be left to the states:
But rather than painting an ideological argument framed around complex philosophical, ethical and moral considerations, Stewart argued the court should itself simply be neutral. Abortion, he said, should be outside of the court’s jurisdiction entirely, because the constitution places responsibility for these types of issues, which represent the intersection of changing science, theology, morality and medicine, not with judicial fiat, but with the democratic process.
“On hard issue, after hard issue, the people make this country work,” he said. “Abortion is a hard issue. It demands the best from all of us, not a judgment by just a few of us.”
Inclusive Language
Poor old Bernie.
The one commenter says that "It's not hard to use trans-inclusive language," but it really is for those of us born before yesterday. What exactly are you supposed to say here? "If you are a woman -- or a man -- who might be giving birth..."?
This was literally a Monty Python sketch within our lifetimes, kids. They were on your team back when your team recognized physical reality as a relevant factor. This whole thing was a sendup of Christianity, not at all conservative. Bishops came out to protest it. BBC specials were done about whether or not this kind of discourse was acceptable in polite society, and not because it treated women as the only ones who could have babies.
An Advent Calendar
My sister sends this unique calendar, which is also a case of beer.
The first beer describes itself as a “grumpy German helles.”
More puppet scenes
At this rate I may manage to get both puppet stages in the mail in time for Christmas.
Paintings From the Hall
Speaking of paintings, which rarely enter my mind, my wife is having a sale on her fine art paintings. Both her landscapes and her work from life are on sale (and on display, if any of you happen by Asheville, both at the Asheville Gallery of Art and on Woolworth’s Walk).
The latter includes this fellow, which I’ll be sad if she sells because he currently hangs in my stairwell. A soulful hound is a fine companion.
She loves to paint portraits of striking dogs and horses, by the way, so if you have one you’d like painted she does sometimes take commissions for such orders.
Crafty time of year
At Christmas the urge to paint often comes over me. This year I'm working on a couple of puppet stages for a toddler great-niece. I found on Etsy a clever folding stage with wings that open up, which seemed to lend itself toward painting different sets on each panel. I ordered two, thinking I wouldn't have time to paint one before Christmas, so I'd send the blank one for now and follow up later with the other after painting it, but the work is going so quickly that it seems I'll have time to let the first one dry in time to wrap and ship it. The first one has just three panels:
Then it occurred to me that I can paint the back side, too, and she can turn it around. I've just started on the second stage now, having completed the first panel of six.
The Feast of St. Andrew
It is often remarked that Andrew was a strange choice for a patron of Scotland, which has several native saints of her own.
All the same.
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