It's amazing how slippery this slope is: allowing people to kill other people they find problematic is always hugely popular.
Assisted Suicide #5 Canadian Death Cause
This study doesn't capture the whole truth, because it doesn't consider abortion. In the United States, abortion is the leading cause of death of Americans assuming that unborn Americans count as Americans. It kills more Americans than cancer or heart disease; some years, more than both together. I'll bet that's true in Canada, too.
Democracy in Action in Georgia
In my old 11th Congressional District, where I lived for several years, the Democratic Party elected a candidate in a democratic primary who has some conservative values. They are now running a write-in campaign against their own candidate in response.
The thing is, you couldn't possibly win the 11th District without some conservative values. It includes some of the wealthy northern suburbs of Atlanta, where all the conservatives moved in the 70s-90s, and stretched well up into the north Georgia mountains (the part I have lived in being there). No candidate without such values stands a chance. So the small-d democratic primary process worked: it identified the Democratic candidate most likely to win in a very conservative district.
There's very little evidence of faith in small-d democracy left in the Democratic Party, I fear.
Old Fort
Report from Old Fort is that it’s not doing well. If any of you are still looking for places to help, they seem to need it. We’ve begun gathering supplies for them, but there may be better ways of reaching them from where you are.
Blowing Rock
Up on the north end of the state, my favorite little mountain town of Blowing Rock is having trouble drawing visitors. October is normally one of their best months, with all the leaf traffic; this month, it's pretty bare.
I go up there when I go to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, as it's just a few miles from the mountain. When riding the line up to DC, I always try to stop over there. I imagine it's quite gorgeous right now. If you're up on that end of things, try to stop by. Be sure to eat at Hobbit Mellow Mushroom pizzeria.
Old Glory
Amused by the Althouse/WaPo/Atlantic fray over the semiquincentennial (yes, really), I went to look for the 1939 classic cartoon about the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge itself was controversial, being authored by a Socialist and having in it a dedication to the union being "indivisible," at one time a very controversial point (as, indeed, it deserves to be separate from the older issues around why it once was: a union that you cannot leave is a prison, not an exercise in free association but a sort of domination by whomever comes to control it).
Ironically, the only full version I saw on YouTube is dubbed into Ukrainian (and even that version seems to hang up after a while). I suppose Ukraine has more reason than many Americans to feel patriotic about us and our traditions just now.
I wanted to watch it again because the 1939 version of the story -- drawn up amid other American disputes in the run-up to World War II -- might be worth considering. This was the part they thought was uncontroversial, after all: Paul Revere's ride, the Revolution, the Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. If I recall correctly, it elided the Civil War into a dispute not much explored, but that was presented as having been resolved by the Gettysburg Address (another uncontroversial as a popular American moment).
To do something similar today, you'd have to cut out everything after the Revolution; and even before then, you'd have to already be addressing the controversies over the Western Expansion, which after all began with General Lachlan McIntosh's efforts in the Ohio River Valley during the Revolution (or even earlier, with British colonialism).
On the other hand, the exercise does show that the nation's history has always been more controversial than we like to remember. Just the other day I mentioned Thomas' Legion of Indians and Highlanders, which is a good example of how much more complex the history is than fits either narrative:
- The simplified 1939 version of history had the British as the Bad Guys in the Revolution, Westward Pioneers as the Good Guys and Indians as the bad guys, the Union as the Good Guys and the Confederates as Misguided Sons and Daughters;
- The revisited ~1969 version has the British as the Bad Guys for being Settler Colonists, but the American Revolutionaries as also Bad Guys for the same reason; Native Americans as the Good Guys; the Union still as the Good Guys while fighting against slavery, but the Bad Guys while fighting against the Native Americans.
- Yet the Cherokee were on the British side of the Revolutionary War (Bad!) and then the Confederate side of the Civil War (Bad!). Nevertheless, they have to be shoehorned into the Good Guys side because they were Natives (Good!).
None of those unified views of American History really works out. Literally the same people who won the war against slavery, Sherman and Sheridan and Custer and their troops, are the ones who fought the war that the later movement wants to call a "genocide" against Native Americans. The same people are the heroes and the villains. In the Revolution sometimes too: Thomas Jefferson is at once the author of the Declaration of Independence, and a slaver who forced Sally Jennings into a secret adulterous affair that lasted for many years.
Also other American conflicts: Jim Bowie, hero of the Texas revolution and martyr of the Alamo, smuggled slaves into the United States and ran a land fraud operation; his sometime partner in slave-smuggling, the pirate Lafitte, was a hero of the War of 1812. That whole business was so confused that when John Wayne wanted to do the Alamo, he adopted in the Iliad as his model instead of using the real historical figures at all.
We could do the same thing, reaching for mythology since the history is too complicated. Fighting over who wore the white hats in American history is otherwise not going to be a clean exercise. The truth is more interesting, but there's a lot of accepting one ends up having to do about how flawed even the best of humanity can be.
Life in a comedy sketch
From a Twitter report on remarks Elon Musk is giving today:
"I got a bunch of nutty stories. SpaceX had to do this study to see if Starship would hit a shark. And I'm like... it's a big ocean. There are a lot of sharks! It’s not impossible, but it’s very unlikely. So we said, 'Fine, we’ll do the analysis. Can you give us the shark data?' They were like, 'No, we can’t give you the shark data.'
Well, then, okay, we’re in a bit of a quandary. How do we solve this shark probability issue? They said, 'Well, we could give it to our western division, but we don’t trust them.' I’m like, 'Am I in a comedy sketch here?!'
Eventually, we got the data and could run the analysis to say, 'Yeah, the sharks are going to be fine.' But they wouldn’t let us proceed with the launch until we did this crazy shark analysis.
Then we thought, 'Okay, now we’re done.' But then they said, 'What about whales?'
When you look at a picture of the Pacific, what percent of the surface area do you see as whale? If Starship did hit a whale, honestly, it’s like the whale had it coming, cause the odds are... so low. It’s like Final Destination: Whale Edition.
And then they said, 'What if the rocket goes underwater, then explodes, and the whales have hearing damage?' This is real!
US 276 & NC 215
In an update to a post a few below, I mentioned that I was surprised by the Haywood County statement that a couple of our high mountain highways were back open. I decided to scout them this afternoon on the bike, and can report on the veracity of that claim.
I decided to ride over to Brevard, and then to scale US 276 from that side to Wagon Road Gap, where I entered Haywood County. First of course, I had to get to Brevard.
Entry to Wolf Gorge, off NC 281.
Wolf Lake, right by the powerhouse (which is why there are so many electrical wires).
Lunch in Brevard at the Casa Mexicana taqueria, empenadas and flautas.
Wagon Road Gap atop the Pisgah Ridge, viewing one of at least two "Cold Mountain"s in North Carolina.
The Haywood side is much less clear for travel. It's technically open as advertised -- I got the bike all the way across it to the junction to NC 215, and then all the way back over Pisgah Ridge at Beech Gap. However, the road is in much worse condition. Pavement is broken at many places, so the highway suddenly becomes a gravel road, especially at stream crossings where the highway itself is washed away. In at least one place, only one lane is traversable so the road becomes single-lane.
Both highways are in that condition in Haywood County, but you can make the journey if you are patient and careful. It's very pretty right now.
Lake Logan showing some wear and tear, but also beautiful foliage.
The Devil's Courthouse, viewed from the Jackson County side of Beech Gap.
Altogether a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. The roads are more or less open, as advertised. I don't think they're ready for heavy traffic yet, but the random adventurer will find them welcoming enough.
Two Songs of Ancestral Labor
Here is a pair of songs that are both about men who inherited their father’s line of manual labor. One is very sad; the other is not.
The sad one has the upbeat banjo.
Ghost Gun
A religious tune in the manner of Johnny Cash.
Cash himself spent a lot of his career in gospel, especially following his salvation from Nickajack Cave. It wasn’t his most popular work, but his heart was in it.
The Apple Harvest Festival
Waynesville celebrated its annual festival as scheduled this week, although it was still canceling events as recently as last weekend. I went with my wife, and we found a very heavy crowd for the occasion. This may be partly because not everywhere is open, including the much-larger Asheville still being mostly in recovery.
One of the groups present was a small collection of Protestants singing hymns a cappella and occasionally preaching their faith in the truth of the Bible. Nobody told them they were at the wrong party, though if you preferred beer or marijuana oil to biblical exegesis both were also available. So was barbecue, mashed potatoes, apples (of course!), baked goods, and many kinds of art. Pretty much something for everyone, including the many dogs in attendance, for whom there were drinks for free and costumes for sale.
Waynesville's going to have a hard time rebuilding its lower section, called "Frog Level," which was badly flooded by the nearby stream during the hurricane. Its main street is on a fairly high bluff, however, and survived mostly intact.
The town is named after Founding Father "Mad Anthony" Wayne, having been established by one of the soldiers who fought under him during the Revolution. It's also where the last battle in the Civil War was fought, at least in the eastern United States, when Thomas' Legion of Indians and Highlanders surrounded and obtained agreement to surrender from the last active Union detachment in the region, only to have the Legion surrender themselves instead when word of Lee's surrender arrived in town.
Good to see them at least getting a start on a return to normal. It's a pretty little town, and home to my favorite pub in the Carolinas.
UPDATE: An official statement by Haywood County, the local government, about what is and isn’t open.
I’m surprised that 215 is back open so quickly. Both that and 276 are high mountain roads with exposure to wind and flood.
UPDATE: See new post above for a fuller description of the conditions of these roads.
Racism in Politics
A hundred years ago, politics in the South were explicitly racist. At some point that stopped; one might argue about when, but for a long time explicitly racial appeals have been off the menu. Almost everyone regards that as an advance, including myself.
Here’s an ad that showed up in the mail. It doesn’t mention the word ’race’ nor the name of any race; it depends for its effect on you knowing that things like quotas and hiring are targeted that way. I’ve been turned down for Federal jobs because I don’t have the right demographic background; they didn’t even ask about my qualifications before telling me I was disqualified.
So, fair play, because it’s true? Or out of bounds, because it is racist/sexist?
Engineering Contest
Knowing when you need advice is a good thing.
The road through the Pigeon River Gorge is indeed in a challenging place. There will definitely be future floods with the power to destroy it. A contest to come up with the best approach is a great idea, and shows a willingness by the government to be informed by private thinking that is encouraging.
Well, When You Put it That Way...
I might actually get enthusiastic about my vote. More than a little truth in it, I suppose.
From Twitter.
Communication in an Emergency
Earlier this year I got my ham radio license and so during the recent hurricanes I paid attention to emergency communications. Then I did some research to sort out what I think would be the best way to handle communications if the cell network and electric grid were down. Here are the useful bits of what I learned for anyone interested in preparing for the next disaster.
By way of caveat, I'm new to ham radio, not any kind of expert, and obviously you should assess your own situation and come to your own conclusions for emergency preparedness. I do hope for those not familiar with the topic that the following provides some good starting points for your research, and I would be very interested in your thoughts and knowledge.
As you can guess, probably the best individual emergency communication technology is satellite. There are satellite phones, but a quick look shows them to be $800 or more and require a subscription. A common option used by hikers, etc., is the Garmin InReach Mini 2, which is $400 for the item plus a $15 per month subscription for GPS tracking and satellite texting. There is also satellite internet, like Starlink, but that requires electricity. These really aren't too bad, but there are much cheaper, if less reliable, options.
The Ion
A very short dialogue, the Ion by Plato has Socrates discussing artistic interpretation with a rhapsode, whose job was to perform Homer to the delight of audiences and the award of prizes. The argument is straightforward; you can read it in just a few minutes if you wish, and you won't have trouble following the argument without much commentary (but here is some anyway, if you like).
It is an early salvo in Plato's war against poets and similar figures (Ion is not quite a poet, just a reciter of poetry who can also expound his thoughts on its meaning). This war is carried on at much greater length in the Republic and Laws. There, however, Plato is especially concerned with poets who assign to the divine beings immoral acts and motivations; here, Plato has Socrates question whether Ion is really capable of understanding well enough to do any of the things he claims to do. We might analogize to our own culture's desire to imbue pop culture icons with moral clarity as well as whatever physical beauty or talent they may have; why else care what actors or singers endorse politically?
Socrates here does something that the later dialogues avoid, which is to endorse (perhaps ironically) the idea that the rhapsode is in fact inspired by the divine directly. He makes an analogy of his own, to a magnet:
The gift which you possess of speaking excellently about Homer is not an art, but, as I was just saying, an inspiration; there is a divinity moving you, like that contained in the stone which Euripides calls a magnet, but which is commonly known as the stone of Heraclea. This stone not only attracts iron rings, but also imparts to them a similar power of attracting other rings; and sometimes you may see a number of pieces of iron and rings suspended from one another so as to form quite a long chain: and all of them derive their power of suspension from the original stone.... For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles.Many are the noble words in which poets speak concerning the actions of men; but like yourself when speaking about Homer, they do not speak of them by any rules of art... and he who is good at one is not good any other kind of verse: for not by art does the poet sing, but by power divine.
Now if that is true then the poets who are inspired to ascribe to the divine beings various immoral acts or impulses do know what they're talking about because they are directly informed by the divine. That would greatly complicate the later Plato's arguments against poets who write such things; it is the philosopher that has the problem, because the poet is channeling divine energy and inspiration into their work.
The commentary I linked warns of the danger of hubris to the poet or rhapsode in making the claim, and suggests that they are required then to engage philosophy on its own terms in order to justify their positions. Yet the philosopher has no divine inspiration to compare with this; logic and analysis, like mathematics, model the world as well as the human mind can do it, but the poet has direct inspiration from beyond the veil. Or so they claim, and so Socrates here appears (ironically?) to grant.
It seems reasonable to say that Ion doesn't really have that kind of direct connection to the divine, no more than our own celebrities; but what about Homer or Shakespeare? Or, as you might prefer, what about the Biblical poets and prophets? Inspired perhaps by the divine, they have composed works of art that have moved the hearts and minds of generations of humanity, though translated into many different languages and taught to people who have very different cultural assumptions and practices. Many today still strive to structure their lives according to the words of such poets and prophets; and very few are inclined to reject them in favor of philosophy, but rather tend to try to find a way to accommodate their philosophy to their faith in such poets and prophets.
As usual, and following Plato's example, I leave the matter open. What I first and always liked about Plato was the invitation he offered to all of us to try to understand and participate in these ancient discussions.
Safe Passage
Following the rapid deaths of the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, Israel has made a peace proposal:
Netanyahu offers a deal: those who hand over hostages will receive permission to leave Gaza (granted immunity and safe passage)... Netanyahu: Hamas will no longer rule Gaza, this is the beginning of the day after. To the Hamas terrorists - whoever holds the hostages and lays down his weapon, we will allow him to live and whoever harms them - blood on his headKnesset Speaker Amir Ohana posted a message in Arabic on X: "A year ago he was a hero, now he is annihilated. Where will you be in a year? Return the kidnapped, lay down your weapons, save your souls." - to the people of Gaza.
That's the best offer they're likely to hear today.
There could be peace by tomorrow if they were as rational about the situation they have made for themselves.
Asheville Resumes Normal Search and Rescue
One of the hardest-hit areas has decided to end emergency search and rescue operations, returning to normal procedures.
Thousands of volunteers checked and re-checked at least 15,982 households, helping worried loved ones find reassurance that their friends, family and neighbors were safe.
The scale and success of these volunteer efforts in the emergency should be encouraging to all.
'The Opposition is Crazy'
In general, I dislike appeals to psychology in politics. I don't mean this as a criticism of those who work in psychology out of a sincere desire to help particular individuals who are suffering. I'm talking about the attempt to paint your opponents as crazy. Most likely your opponents aren't crazy; they're driven by interests that diverge substantially from your own, to the point that the course of action that seems obvious and correct to you seems crazy to them.
Nevertheless, as the excellent British documentary The Century of the Self points out, psychology captured the imagination of the leadership in the early 20th century and never let go of it. It captured their imagination partly because it terrified them, suggesting that the human beings they led were actually wild animals driven by unconscious forces that were basically irrational. However, the real key to the elite love of psychology was the fantasy of control it offered: as those few who understood the secret drives and forces at work, we could master and manipulate them -- and, thereby, exert real control over the rest of humanity.
Today I see this at work on both the left and the right. At Hot Air today, here's a whole post about how much mental illness there is on the left. On X, here's a post about why Democrats are having trouble with young men that asserts, inter alia, it's because young men are crazy. Especially the white ones.
Third, we’re facing a mental health and social isolation crisis. Young men are lonelier and struggling with mental health issues at higher rates, partly fueled by social media and the erosion of traditional community institutions (churches, men’s groups, etc.). White men in America are four times more likely to commit suicide than any other group. This is a national crisis, and we’re barely talking about it.Fourth, there’s an identity crisis. Gender roles and societal expectations are shifting (which is a good thing!), and young men are left wondering where they fit in. Without positive role models, many gravitate toward toxic figures like Donald Trump, because at least someone is speaking to their frustrations—however inartfully (which is being generous). Democrats haven’t done enough to offer better alternatives, though I think we’re starting to, with people like Tim Walz, Pete Buttigieg, and Doug Emhoff stepping up as strong role models.Fifth, forming relationships—especially romantic ones—has become harder. Economic pressures and the rise of online dating have created new dynamics that are disincentivizing young men (and women, for that matter) from building meaningful connections. This only adds to their sense of isolation and fuels resentment, particularly toward women and those who are economically better off....We can’t keep acting like white men don’t have real issues. Everyone is suffering from something, and everyone deserves to have that suffering addressed by their government. If we address these issues with the same seriousness we give to other communities, we won’t win them all—but we don’t have to. We’re building a multicultural coalition to move this country forward, but we can’t ignore the real challenges young white men are facing.
An aside: I'm not sure that anyone deserves to have the government address their suffering -- haven't they already suffered enough?
Leaving that alone, though, the Hot Air post begins on the relatively solid ground that a lot of actual diagnoses have been given to young liberal women. Even that is doubtful to me: I think you get a mental health diagnosis essentially anytime you ask for one, because that's the only way to get your insurance to pay for whatever it is you want, and the psychologist/therapist/doctor/whomever wants to get paid. Thus, I don't think 'more mental health diagnoses' actually demonstrates more mental health issues: I think younger people are more likely to seek out psychology/therapy than older people, women than men, and liberals than conservatives for what amount to cultural reasons. If old conservative men went to therapy at the same rate as young liberal women, in other words, I'd assume they'd receive diagnoses of some sort at the same rate -- i.e., approximately 100% of the time, so that the money can flow.
It is interesting that Hot Air views the gender issue as already a mental health issue, while the liberal poster views the changes in gender identity as a good and healthy thing that is nevertheless provoking mental health issues (apparently by not providing 'better alternatives,' which may begin with the fact that the poster himself seems to think that fake-combat-veteran-and-non-CSM Walz represents a better alternative).
What really is driving this deep division isn't, I submit, craziness. It's interest. The administrative state directly employs or supports a vast percentage of our population. Its interests and theirs are aligned to such a degree that they will tend to support it.
Because that state has become ossified and thereby nonfunctional, however, it is harming us all. Also, as Weber knew from the beginning, the administrative state is inherently corrupt, and creates a class of administrators that rules in its class interests in a way that diverges from the public good. The interest in significant reform (or replacement) is therefore also quite large.
Both of these collections of interests are rational, rather than the working of some deep irrational urge. We do need reform, but those deep and powerful reforms will definitely disrupt the rice bowls of tens of millions of people. It's going to cause real pain when the reforms come.
To my way of thinking it still needs to be done, and ultimately it's better to do it in a planned and intentional way than to wait for the eventual unplanned collapse. I can easily understand why public school teachers shudder at the thought of a thoroughgoing reform of the way we educate children, though; or academics of academia; or Federal/state employees of the civil service; or those who have obtained degrees in social sciences the revocation of the power of Human Resources over corporations and society; or those who are heavily invested in the big corporations, the loss of regulatory barriers to entry for new competitors; etc.
Clearing all that away is wise and necessary, but the considerations about how much suffering it will entail are rational ones. Your opponents may sometimes scream and wail as they contemplate it, but they are not thereby crazy.
Operation Airdrop
I’ve been talking about all the volunteer help and donations we got during the recent hurricane. Smoky Mountain News wrote up an article about the volunteer air supply effort for those who would like to read more.
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