Shuttering FEMA

In NC, our new President suggests shuttering FEMA and just sending money to the states as necessary. 

That's only a very slight change from what is done now. For the most part, local responders are the front line -- we were the ones out the morning of Helene and for weeks afterwards -- with the state stepping in to provide support that the local organizations don't have. (For example, we have Swiftwater teams and rescuers -- I am one myself -- but the state has Swiftwater teams that have more equipment than we do locally, especially including boats.) The State governor declares a state of emergency, and that opens up a big funding window for local responders as well as increased ability for the National Guard to support us. FEMA's chief role is to coordinate providing additional Federal funding, and occasionally to provide personnel that mostly help fill out forms and verify the details so that money can flow. 

Their direct aid provision role is quite limited; I never once saw a FEMA employee doing anything, although I've heard there were some teams triaged to other areas. Other states, though, will also send resources across state borders to help (as in California now, where fire departments have deployed strike teams from as far away as, yes, North Carolina in support of local crews).

In general I'm always in favor of closing down parts of the Federal government, or government in general. Making things voluntary whenever we can, privatizing when we can't rely on volunteer resources alone, localizing when we can't privatize, driving things down to the lowest possible level is always what I like to see. Therefore, instinctively I like this idea.

It would require some combination of cutting red tape on all those forms and verification processes, and/or funding state/local employees to do the same stuff where tape can't get cut.

"As Equals"

Today the NYT ethicist asks the question, "What's the rule about looking at women in public?"

Glancing at someone in a public place is always permissible; there’s often a fleeting moment of mutual acknowledgment — perhaps a slight nod or smile — before both parties look away. This momentary connection is part of how we experience our shared social world. No doubt if you find the person attractive, your glance may well linger involuntarily for a moment. But prolonging that moment further can cross a line. We can’t control our initial notice of others; we can control our subsequent choices. I suspect your ‘‘quick’’ glance wasn’t so quick.

In public settings, it’s generally intrusive to display sexual interest. That it may sometimes be welcomed doesn’t change the situation. Yes, a brief friendly glance that produces a smile and a direct reciprocating look can mean you’re being invited to maintain eye contact. But if there’s any doubt, the unease caused by leering is bad enough that you should err on the side of averting your gaze. In your case, there normally should be doubt. Being aware of whatever shortcomings we may have in the skills of everyday life can guide us toward better practices. Just as people who know they have a poor sense of direction learn to check maps more often, someone who struggles to read social signals around looking would do well by being reserved and not risk making others uncomfortable. It’s a matter of taking the trouble to do what, for you, doesn’t come naturally, and adopting habits that respect everyone’s dignity.

When it comes to men looking at women, in particular, there’s a broader social context in which women often experience unwanted attention or feel unsafe. The sexual etiquette I’ve described allows men and women to enjoy public spaces as equals. 

Something weird is going on with these definitions of  'equality.' The other day we were talking about an assumption that women would need rights men don't have in order to have equality. Here we've got a rule that applies to men only -- though especially to men who 'have trouble reading social signals,' meaning unequally even among men -- which somehow make men and women 'equals' in public spaces.

In Iraq we were given similar advice: not to look at or acknowledge the presence of women at all. That was only a stronger version of this advice -- to err on the side of caution by looking away -- but it certainly wasn't effective at creating a more equal society. I gather that the ethicist thinks this is going to work better because the intent is now to avoid offending the women, as opposed to avoid creating an offense to which their male 'guardians' would be obligated to respond. It's nevertheless strange that 'the rule' in New York City, of all places, should so closely resemble the rules in Baghdad or Kuwait City.

Loving Big Brother

I was reminded of the haunting close to 1984 when reading this piece from the NYT about a woman who rejected the Presidential pardon she was given. 

A retired drug and alcohol counselor who lives in Boise, Idaho, she pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a misdemeanor offense for entering the Capitol during the riot and was sentenced to 60 days in prison and three years of probation.

She said she did not want a pardon.

“Absolutely not,” Ms. Hemphill said in an interview on Wednesday. “It’s an insult to the Capitol Police, to the rule of law and to the nation. If I accept a pardon, I’m continuing their propaganda, their gaslighting and all their falsehoods they’re putting out there about Jan. 6.”

Ms. Hemphill, 71, who was called “MAGA Granny” in some news headlines, has said that she no longer supports Mr. Trump or believes his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. She said that a therapist had helped change her view of the attack by telling her she was “not a victim of Jan. 6; I was a volunteer.”

I'm not sure how fair my reaction is. On the one hand some of what happened on January 6th that year was genuinely bad and/or foolish behavior, for which it would be legitimate to feel sorry on reflection. One could consider this exactly the sort of rehabilitation that the system is supposed to produce (even if it rarely does).

On the other hand, the prosecutorial abuses we are now seeing come to light are stunning, fully enabled by DC judges and DC juries that are so hostile to Republicans, especially Trump supporters, that it calls into question whether it is even possible to hold a fair trial in that venue. The treatment of the prisoners, both before and after trial, is horrifying to see in America. Kurt Schlicter, a lawyer in Texas, has been making the argument that none of the trials were fair enough to be considered valid by our usual standards.

She got off fairly light, probably due to her age and sex, which is also arguably unfair but at least rationally defensible. I can see how she might want to put it all behind her; and her willingness to love big brother got her a glowing NYT profile, for whatever that's worth. I worry more about the role of therapy in bringing about this transformation than I do about the prison abuses, perhaps. The abused prisoner at least still maintains mental clarity about who is using power to dominate whom; perhaps my concern with that independence of thought is misplaced. Maybe it's health and not Stockholm syndrome encouraged and deepened by 'therapy' that she is displaying here. 

Perhaps.

Forgiveness

My Gutenberg project this week has been a biography of George M. MacDonald by his son Greville MacDonald. I've never been able to read the father's books, though I wanted to like them upon reading C.S. Lewis's raptures about "Lilith" and other stories. Lewis thought highly enough of MacDonald to make him the central teacher in "The Great Divorce," a favorite of mine. I'm going to try again with "The Princess and the Goblin." In the meantime, here is an excerpt from one of MacDonald's many letters to his wife, which made me see why Lewis was so devoted to the man:

I was preaching last Sunday about forgiveness, and I felt that not to forgive was just to send one to the hell of our little universe. Not to be forgiven and taken in by any human heart is the worst mishap that can befall. May I be taught a lesson hard to learn. You do not need it so deeply as I do--you only break out in thunder and lightning! I have a cold smile deep in my heart like a moth-eaten hole, when I feel really wronged....

Bambi to Burger

My mother bought us a quality meat grinder for Christmas that I’m finally getting to use tonight. It’s a real upgrade. If you are thinking about butchering your own venison or other game, or just want to buy in bulk and save on the butcher bill, I recommend it. 

Caption Contest

 There are a few images that come to mind.

"Angel Eyes"

"Mortal Kombat"

Perhaps some of you have clever thoughts, though? 

Model 1902

There's been a lot of talk about the dancing with 'a military sword' at the Inaugural ball. Since some of the regulars here are enthusiasts of the blade, I thought it worth pointing out that it was specifically a M1902 saber, currently in use by both the Army and the Air Force for all purposes for which swords are required. 

The Marine Corps uses two different swords, one for NCOs and another for officers. Vance just accepted one of the Army swords for the occasion, but he is entitled to his own on occasions when he might still wear the dress uniform. He elected civilian attire for this National Holiday as is appropriate for a Vice President. I have heard that NCOs in the Army can sometimes use the 1840 sword, but I have never seen it done.

“Ph.D.-Level”

Noticing this story about “Ph.D.-Level” AI, I have to assume that the phrase is similar to “Milspec.” I mean that it sounds more impressive the less you know about what it actually entails. 

See how effective faculty meetings are at achieving basic goals for a while, or spend time with actual military-spec equipment and supplies, and you get a different perspective. 

Sweeping Clemency

Gee, this might be shocking except that just earlier today…

But now it really isn’t, is it?

Scandalous Clemency

The last hours of the outgoing administration involved scandalous exercises of the pardon power. They are themselves demonstrations of the wickedness of the departing order. I suspect that there will be significant investigations into everyone pardoned, since there are crucial truths to uncover around each of them and they cannot now claim 5th Amendment protections. 

One defensible exercise was the clemency granted to Leonard Peltier. His conviction was always dubious, based on the testimony of the same FBI that was engaged in the COINTELPRO operations against the recently-mentioned MLK. The FBI hasn't just been bad in the last few years; this wannabe secret police has been bad since its foundation. Gun battles with them ought to be considered gently by juries, under the assumption that they probably deserved whatever resistance they provoked. Instead he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and, eligible for parole since 1993, has been kept in harsh conditions amid regular beatings likely encouraged by the prison guards. 

Biden was typically cowardly here, not pardoning the one character on his list who might have merited a pardon. He just gave him clemency to "lifetime house arrest." What a disgrace.

UPDATE: More on Leonard Peltier’s case. 

A Big Day

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. He was a complex figure, much more than his simplified hagiography makes out, but he definitely did some good things as well as whatever bad things he may have done. 

In Mississippi and Alabama, it's also Robert E. Lee Day. Exactly the same sentence applies to that gentleman as to the one previously mentioned.

Also there's some other stuff going on.

It's still too cold here. 7 degrees this morning, windchill according to the National Weather Service down to twenty below. 

Tribute to a Shared Birthday

 

Whitey Morgan & the 78s

What took me to Asheville was that a great Outlaw Country band was playing at the local music hall. Tonight they’re playing in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium. I don’t know why they’d come through this area to get there: I-40 is closed, and the route to Tennessee is far harder from Western North Carolina than once. 

The band has been recording and touring for 15 years now, and they’ve really matured in the last few. Their sound has deepened and sophisticated. I’ve heard that they spent some time with the last of the Waylors while Waylon’s old band was still alive, and learned how to make the rich sound that that band used to make in the ‘70s. Whether that’s true or not, they’ve now had time to fully integrate their approach. They really sounded good last night. 

They also had some kind words for the audience coming out to see them during such a hard time, and played multiple encore songs. 

In spite of the reputation of Outlaw acts and the promotional material promising a ‘rowdy’ show, it was a friendly crowd. A guy in a cowboy hat offered to buy me a beer. I thanked him and said I was ok. An hour or so later I walked to the bar, and another guy insisted on buying me a beer. Everyone was happy and there was no unpleasantness at all. 

The ERA and Abortion

Several of the articles about Biden’s (or more likely some junior Twitter staffer’s) declaration on the ERA held that it might somehow grant women a right to abortion. I have been trying to understand how this argument is supposed to work. 

My reproductive right (singular) as a man is that I have the right not to engender a pregnancy by forgoing sex. That’s the only right I have: no one may legally force me to breed against my will. Equality with that is already the law. 

As far as abortions go, I have no rights whatsoever. I have no right to demand one, should I engender a child I don’t want; I have no right to refuse one, should a child whom I desperately want be in danger of abortion from his mother. Women thinking the ERA will grant them a right to abortion surely don’t want equality with me on these points. Equality would mean no rights at all. 

Men can’t even terminate their legal duty to financially support an unwanted pregnancy, or the 18 years that follow. (Nor do I wish for them to do so; one ought to care for one’s children.) 

Here I finally found Senator Gillibrand making her version of the argument. 

“It’s the clearest pathway to challenge Dobbs’ holding that women in their reproductive years have no right to privacy, but arguably, men do,” she told POLITICO, referencing the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

There’s no male right to privacy in a court case alleging paternity. A man can’t tell the court that it’s none of their business if he fathered the child or not. Now in many states, a mother can abandon her child at certain places (often including fire departments) and be freed of all responsibility; every state has some version of this “safe haven” law. This does not apply to fathers who wish to be freed of their children.

It’s a little alarming that the main right this group seems to want is the right to kill unwanted children. However, I would like at least for everyone to understand that there is no parallel right being enjoyed by men. Equality with us means substantially fewer rights than women currently enjoy. 

Für Elise

Elise asked me for names of charity organizations still helping in western NC. I visited Asheville and Swannanoah and checked around. Most of the local churches did a big thing before Christmas, and are currently paused because they got hit by the hurricane too. However, Baptists on Mission still has a big operation going here. 

Meanwhile, Savage Freedoms is the group that was operating out of the Harley Dealer running helicopter operations. They are the go-to local group. 

That Harley dealer just reopened after 12 weeks of mud removal and repair. I went by there to ask the question about who was leading operations. SF is led by one of their customers, former Special Forces, and mostly comprises their customer base. 

Great people. They gave us a tour of everything after I explained that we were Jackson County firefighters who were looking for ways to help them. They have made a space for a sister shop from Chimney Rock, which was completely destroyed, on their back porch enclosure. I bought some stuff from them. 

Those seem to be the top two right now. 

Asheville is in tough shape. Swannanoah is worse. Not only the River Arts District but also the Biltmore village was totally destroyed. Giant piles of debris and mud everywhere. Most of the roads are open now, even if there’s no longer anything to service, but some near the river still aren’t. 

Almost all the fast food places are closed because of the water boiling order. Few restaurants are open except the ones with real kitchens so they can just boil water. Lots of businesses are badly damaged and may never reopen. 

We Don't Task By Email

When I was in Iraq, periodically somebody at higher headquarters would send an email down and then act offended when the unit in the field didn't get right on it as if it had been an order. Military orders between units follow a formal procedure, and are issued (usually as a 'FRAGO,' or 'fragmentary order' that updates a larger OPORD, or 'operations order') according to formal processes. So issued by the higher headquarters' operations officer, and signed by the commanding officer of that unit, it is a legally binding order that must be obeyed. An email from some staff officer to someone at a subordinate unit is not a legally binding order. Thus, occasionally some overeager staff dude would have to be reminded that "We don't task by email." 

Someone needs to explain to Biden's staff that X.com is not a constitutional organ.

There are two processes for amending the Constitution, and the office of the President has no role in either of them. The Archivist who records the changes does work for the Executive branch, but their job is only to record changes proposed by Congress and ratified by the states, or else proposed and ratified by the states alone. The President's opinion, however expressed, is entirely irrelevant to this process. 

UPDATE: To whit.

Asheville Hungers for Money

Buncombe County is considering that most hateful of things to a government, cutting spending. What could drive such a drastic step?

Much of the estimated shortfall, which ranges from $15.1 million to $25.7 million, is tied to reduced sales tax revenue and unpaid property taxes. While state law doesn't allow property tax waivers due to natural disasters, the collection rate as of Jan. 13 was nearly 1% lower at the same time last year.

Anticipating that some property owners who sustained damage to their property will have difficulty paying their tax bill, paired with increased unemployment, the county is projecting property tax revenue to fall by 2-2.5% this year, resulting in a $4.8 million to $6.5 million loss. Property tax is the largest revenue stream for the county.... 

In November, Buncombe County’s Tourism Development Authority estimated that the county would see a 70% decline in tourism in the last quarter of 2024. For businesses, that could mean a $584 million loss in revenue, the Citizen Times previously reported.

The county is also projecting to receive up to $11.6 million less from the state and federal government, permitting and licensing, and other services like EMS fees.

Emphasis added. 

I've been amazed by the tone of the journalism and remarks from government officials about the property taxes. 'You just owe us the money; it doesn't matter if you lost everything. It's the law! You've got to magic that money out of thin air for us, even though the property that your wealth was based upon was destroyed. We don't care that you can't even borrow against it because it all washed away. We recognize that you may "have difficulty" paying us given that your life savings was destroyed, but by thunder we intend to get it. We passed a law!'

Meanwhile, note that the state and federal inputs are actually expected to decline by eight figures this year. It's not just that storm aid isn't coming (not to North Carolina; California is slated to get lots). The year-over-year inputs are being sharply reduced.

Again, though, this is ultimately for the good. Cutting government spending will be good for Asheville, as it will be for everywhere where we manage to get government spending cuts. A lot of it is public-sector salaries and hiring, which are inflated. They're also looking at the public school system, which really ought to be eliminated entirely and replaced with private/voucher systems. The public education system, like the prison system, has at this point become positively harmful to the civilization it purports to support. We'll be better off the more thoroughgoing the reform finally turns out to be. 

Stoicism without Attribution

It's common for great ideas to be stolen -- Quentin Tarantino admits that he rather wantonly stole from earlier filmmakers in his work. One rarely sees it done so brazenly as with this "new" book. It's just Epictetus, for those of you who remember us going through that in 2022. It's not even all of Epictetus, just one core insight of his popularized with contemporary stories. 

People are getting tattoos with her book title. The hostess is swooning. It's an amazing display of a sentimental response to a plagiarism that the journalists and their audiences are too ignorant to recognize. 

"Aristotle's Masterpiece"

Long-suffering readers know that I have spent a lot of time with Aristotle's works, which I integrate regularly into analysis of contemporary events. How strange for me to discover that there was a hugely popular work attributed to Aristotle, republished for centuries, which I had never heard of until this morning. 

Books explicitly designed for sexual education also existed in the period [i.e. Regency England]. One well-known work was the grandiosely titled Aristotle’s Masterpiece, first published in 1648 but regularly revised and reprinted throughout the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. (No connection to the ancient Greek philosopher is supported by the historical record.) The manual includes descriptions and diagrams of sexual anatomy, including an explanation of the clitoris as crucial to female pleasure.... Though Aristotle’s Masterpiece and its later editions were often published anonymously, print runs were high and the book sold extremely well — even when the medical information therein was considerably out of date.

One of the most consequential events in theology as a branch of philosophy followed a similar misattribution: Plotinus' work was translated into Arabic under the title "the Theology of Aristotle." In fact the Neoplatonic and Aristotelian metaphysics weren't even especially compatible, but the misattribution caused the Islamic philosopher Avicenna to spend a decade or so developing a system that harmonized them. This system was extremely helpful to later Christian philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, who wanted to incorporate rediscovered Aristotelian natural philosophy (i.e. science) into a Christian intellectual world that had strong Neoplatonic foundations thanks to some early saints. To this day, much of Catholic theology rests on Avicenna's work as reinterpreted by Aquinas and others. 

It's not clear that this other work had a similarly titanic effect. Hopefully it improved some marriages, however, which is not a small thing for human happiness. 

Good Girls

As the days grow longer again, the flock has resumed laying. They’re keeping me stocked up with protein including all the great amino acids.