"Defending Democracy Together"

A big story this morning is that Bill Kristol has been outed as the recipient of millions of dollars of USAID (closed as of this morning!) and State Department money, laundered through the Rockfeller Philanthropy Advisors foundation. 

A part of this story nobody has yet mentioned that I've seen is that the particular focus of the Kristol entity is anti-Trump politics. This is the US government (in)directly funding political operations against a disfavored political party/candidate.

Back before Trump came into power, Kristol was headlining a conference on American and Israeli Nationalism. Shockingly given his remarks on the subject since Trump became a leading figure, he was at the time a huge proponent of American Nationalism -- the conference was called "The Case for Nationalism" and he was the leading exponent of the American version. Once Trump came on the scene, he discovered that there was a lot more money to be made opposing the principle he had once intensely advocated. We knew, therefore, that he was not genuinely principled. 

But this rises above the level of scandal. This is money laundering US taxpayer funds into an active effort to inveigh against the election of a particular candidate in our internal elections. It is almost certainly illegal. Especially insofar as USAID's budget is informed by input from a certain intelligence agency, it is explicitly illegal for them to engage in information operations within the United States for the purposes of influencing American citizens. Even to the degree that influence cannot be shown in court, the administrative state funding efforts to sway voters on a partisan basis is going to violate who knows how many campaign finance laws. 

Anabasis III

Before we reach the great battle at Cunaxa, which is where modern Baghdad stands, some internal tensions start to appear. The army's core is of natures, Greek mercenaries and Persians who have some reason to be loyal to Cyrus (and therefore, because of the tight family relation, also some reasons to be loyal to his brother the Great King). It is noteworthy that the tensions erupt within the ethnic groups, and that it is the presence of both groups together that allows for them to be resolved. Diversity, in this case, is their strength.

Clearchus and Menon are two of the Greek mercenary captains, each of their own band. They quarrel, and a third of the captains -- Proxenus -- steps in to try to stop it, which further enrages Clearchus (who felt he was unduly offended by Menon's troops). Cyrus comes between them, and his argument that brings peace is this: "If you don't stop fighting right now, all these Persians 'friends' around us will kill us all." Cyrus is himself Persian, indeed a very Prince of Persia, a satrap, and a man to whom all these men have sworn bonds of friendship and loyalty. Nevertheless he knows that they will turn their knives on him if he loses the security of a united Greek bodyguard. The Greeks grasp and believe in his argument, and return to sensible behavior. 

A very young Grim at COP Dragon on the Euphrates during the Sunni Awakening.

We were in much the same position with our 'allies' in Iraq. They were working with us because the US forces were much stronger than anyone around them. They had bonds of friendship and loyalty with us, sealed with dinners and presents and payments of cash; also they had bonds with the enemies around us. If we had seemed to fall into weakness, as through disputes with each other, they would immediately realize that they were going to be killed by our enemies once we were too weak to support them. Each would have wanted to be the first to turn on us, in order to tell our enemies -- also their relatives or co-religionists -- that they were the ones who had done us in and removed us as a problem.

The Sunni tribal leaders we were working with often had the most to fear from their own minor cousins or outlying uncles. Those might advance themselves by treasonously reaching out to those contacts they had with relatives, friends, and our enemies -- and then acting at a moment of weakness to replace the traditional sheikhs or other leaders. The apparent friendship and peace was bought by strength, but they were always pulled in both directions by their pre-existing ties. If the facts on the ground changed, the pull in the other direction could instantly become too strong.

Later Cyrus and his army find that an enemy band ahead of them of about 2,000 cavalry is burning the land to make sure there is nothing to feed their army. One of Cyrus' allies, a fellow Persian, proposes to take some cavalry and go round them up. Cyrus approves this, but the traitor instead sends a messenger ahead to warn the Great King of the maneuver. The messenger further betrays his lord and brings the message to Cyrus. A council is called, with the Persians all present and the Greeks as well, and a death sentence is pronounced on the Persian traitor. Both the Greeks and the Persians unanimously proclaim his death, the Greeks providing an excuse for his relatives to agree. 

I would also like to draw attention to one moment of genuine excellence about the Persian conduct on this march. Herodotus says a lot in praise of the Persians, Greece's traditional enemies, and Xenophon observes at least one thing that really merits the same sort of praise. 

...once they found themselves involved in a narrow way, where the deep clay presented an obstacle to the progress of the wagons. Cyrus, with the nobles about him, halted to superintend the operation, and ordered Glus and Pigres to take a body of barbarians and to help in extricating the wagons. As they seemed to be slow about the business, he turned round angrily to the Persian nobles and bade them lend a hand to force the wagons out. 

Then, if ever... good discipline was to be witnessed. Each of those addressed, just where he chanced to be standing, threw off his purple cloak, and flung himself into the work with as much eagerness as if it had been a charge for victory. Down a steep hill side they flew, with their costly tunics and embroidered trousers--some with the circlets round their necks, and bracelets on their arms--in an instant, they had sprung into the miry clay, and in less time than one could have conceived, they had landed the wagons safe on terra firma.

Herodotus claimed that the Persian nobility was raised from youth only to do three things: "to ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth." That common discipline in the face of company hardship is exactly what you would expect of men like that.  

The Feast of Saint Brigid

A very welcome feast.

Today is the feast day of St. Brigid, which also marks the end of my beer fast through Dry January. I may have to reschedule the dry month for a less tiresome season in the future. Today as on other years, though, it is a festive day here. 

I did get a motorcycle ride today as hoped, too. Leaving behind a miserable January of intense cold, sickness, and sobriety is very welcome. To your health!

Impoundment

So for the last week I've been thinking that a lot of these moves we've seen have been about trying to push a court fight on the impoundment power. Today the Washington Post affirms that a document claiming that intent exists, although the Trump team denies writing it. 

The presentation, obtained by The Washington Post and other news outlets, outlines in new detail how the White House could revive an obscure and controversial power known as impoundment, potentially allowing Trump to cancel federal funds as he sees fit.

Under a law enacted in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the president may invoke that authority only in limited cases with clear notice to Congress. But the slide deck suggests Trump officials may seek to trigger a court case that could declare that law unconstitutional, ultimately enabling Trump to reduce or eliminate entire funding categories on his own.

If there is to be any chance of saving the United States from the debt default that is otherwise coming on down the tracks like a freight train, Presidents will need to recover that power. Contra the Post, impoundment doesn't take away Congress' power of the purse -- only Congress can appropriate money, not Presidents. It does provide a check on that power, which Congress has been using ruinously for decades. Such checks and balances are a normal feature of the constitutional system. 

The Post also fails to note that this power was used first by Thomas Jefferson, and then by every president for over a century. It's the normal way our system has operated, in other words; it was cut off by statute as part of the fight against the hated Richard Nixon. The statute probably isn't constitutional, and certainly an originalist jurist will find much to support in an argument that the power was historically and widely used for a very long time.

Nor is this a terribly controversial thing to think: "Most recent presidents supported the restoration of the impoundment power, including Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Politicians such as John McCain, John Kerry, Al Gore, Pat Buchanan, Jeb Hensarling, Russ Feingold, Joe Lieberman, Judd Gregg and Paul Ryan also supported the restoration of the power."

It does suggest that the 'Anarcho-Capitalist' Argentina is behind these and also the personnel moves, which are designed to break the power of the administrative state and the spendthrift legislature so that the country can resume a sustainable financial course. Argentina is doing great, by the way.

Anabasis II

Cyrus has already crossed the Euphrates, wisely not leaving that for later as it grows quite wide further south. He puts the river on his army's right hand and begins a much more punishing march south. Because he was not resisted at the Gates of Syria by the army that fled before him, he knows that word will now be coming to his brother of his advance in force. Persia is a large empire, with its people spread out quite widely. Once word gets to his brother, the Great King will have to send riders out to summon aid from various places, and then that aid will have to come to him. Thus, the tempo of the march shifts from leisurely and with many rests to rapid; and Cyrus’ force, now concentrated instead of dispersed, moves together towards the coming battle. He hopes to force his brother to combat as early as possible, to prevent the opposing force from being any larger than can be helped.

This is all perfectly in accord with the best military science. We still teach young officers to 'disperse for movement, concentrate for attack.' In the first books Cyrus showed himself clever in his stratagems for raising and concealing a large army, and for getting past the structural roadblock of Cilicia. Now we see he is also possessed of a good tactical mind. He understands maneuver and he understands the logistics of the lines of communication. Xenophon understands them too, as clarified by some occasional remarks on why he thinks Cyrus did this or that.

The Euphrates from a pontoon bridge we stretched across it near Yusufiyah.

Although Cyrus had taken the trouble of purveying for some extra supplies, the forced march rapidly exhausts their stores of grain; what remains for sale in the civilian 'market' that is accompanying him is so inflated that the army has to start eating only meat. They attain this by hunting wild asses and large fowl native to the area -- I did not observe any of these birds, nor the ostriches he mentions, during my time there -- but probably also by eating many of the pack animals that they mention losing. 

They move through what would today be Anbar province in Iraq. Many of the ancient place names are disputed, and it is not clear even to our scholars exactly where some of these cities were. The city of Charmande is not otherwise attested; some scholars think it was Anah, Iraq. The country they are moving through is spare of food in spite of the Euphrates; only once it approaches the Tigris does the effect of the two rivers render the land lush. 

Oranges on the Euphrates, March 2008

However his description of the smells of the country does remind me of my own time on the Euphrates. These days the smell is mostly from the orange groves that grow along the river. I also remember it as a country filled with sweet-smelling bushes, quiet except for the noise of the moving army, full of people who would probably have preferred to be left alone but who were usually friendly to the heavily-armed men moving among them (as one might wisely be). Strange to think that this scene has been repeating itself in their neighborhood for at least two and a half thousand years, and probably twice so long.

Anabasis I

The first four chapters of Book I of the Anabasis detail the development of Cyrus' determination to wage war against his brother Artaxerxes The Great King of Persia, the assembling of his army from many pieces gathered in secret, and its passage and assembly on a fairly leisurely march to the Euphrates river. At the time of their father's death, Cyrus was satrap in the west of the Persian lands, which are cut off by a kingdom called Cilicia, which is close to modern day Armenia (and indeed there would later be an Armenian kingdom by that name). Here's a better map to understand the problem Cyrus faces in getting his forces around Cilicia. The king of Cilicia also holds the rank of satrap, and is placed there kind of to keep an eye on the younger brother Cyrus, whom The Great King had initially tried to just kill at the time their father died; only his mother's intervention saved Cyrus and got him this solution. To win the surprise attack he needs, Cyrus has to make this maneuver through territory held by his watchdog without alerting his brother. 

Cyrus draws his army from multifarious sources and some clever stratagems that make it seem as if he is dutifully quelling several problems at once on the western frontier, all the while sending the proper tribute to his elder brother. As a result, he is able to assemble a substantial force of more than ten thousand hoplites, the elite heavy infantry of the Greek world, as well as certain supporting light infantry called peltasts. He invites the Queen of Cilicia to join him and, in the manner of a Bene Gesserit, she comes and convinces him to put on a display and revue of the army so she can take its full measure; she also, likewise in that same manner, sleeps with him. 

He moves them a little out of his most direct route to maintain the pretense that he is doing one of those dutiful quellings, such that there is very little violence in this first stage. He sends the Queen home with a unit of his men, two companies of whom -- a hundred hoplites -- are lost somewhat mysteriously.  As a consequence Tarsus -- yes of St. Paul fame, but currently the headquarters of the King of Cilicia -- does get sacked by the remaining force out of a sense of anger at their lost comrades. By the time Cyrus arrives, the king has withdrawn to a fortress; they meet and exchange a very large ransom (to Cyrus) for a set of 'honor gifts' (fine robes and golden fittings for horses, that sort of thing). Cyrus uses this and other monies to convince his mercenaries, who still haven't been told they are going to take on the Great King, to push on into Syria to the Euphrates.

You might ask about supply lines. Cyrus has been planning for this for some time, and he has his fleet meet him at a pair of twin fortresses in mutual opposition called the Gates of Syria. There are also merchants whose business model is to follow mercenary armies like this; soldiers, well paid and especially these by the time Cyrus is done bribing them, are expected usually to buy their own food and whatnot. However, Cyrus wants to push across the desert so he has made additional provision. 

A lot hinges on speed and surprise. Cyrus' force is chiefly made up of powerful units of infantry that can hold the ground against almost anything during the era; you will notice that the force that abandons its fortress and flees from them to warn the Great King has a reported 20-1 numerical advantage over them. Even so, better part of valor. That figure is probably inaccurate; the actual estimate of the big battle to come was roughly a 4-1 numerical advantage for the Persian Great King.

If you are reading the translation that I am, the translator dubiously chose to use 'miles' for the word representing distances, farsang. This is for the convenience of the reader, but the ancient term is interesting. The Greeks and Persians measure distances kind of like we Americans do, by using time. We say, "It's an hour and a half to the airport," which estimate does not deploy a unit of measure of distance at all. There's a rough equivalent because everyone was moving on foot, or usually a walking horse if traveling a long way; and most people in good shape who are used to it can get along about fifteen to twenty miles a day. That seems to be about the pace the army was moving on the way down to the Euphrates, although they take long rests in between stages -- days to as much as a month -- because they're pretending not to be advancing on the Great King and because it allows the army to assemble across several routes. Thus, the size of the force is concealed until its final assembly.

At the crossing of the Euphrates, Cyrus finally has to admit to his men that he's leading them against the Great King of Persia. They did not sign up for this, and are predictably upset. He has prepared a convincing argument, however, at least from the mercenary's perspective: about four months' pay as a bonus per man, in addition to their regular wages. On consideration, they elect to go with him. 

In the next section we will enter into what is present day Iraq, along the river Euphrates where I spent quite a bit of time myself.

Heady Days

A friend of mine just forwarded me a copy of that email sent to Federal employees. It's stunning reading. I'll give you one bit of it to get your heart going: 

If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce. At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but....

Emphasis added. Now you're talking.

Thoughts on the burgeoning revolution are everywhere. I don't think I'll try to add to them, not for now.

UPDATE: The 'office of gun violence prevention' is already gone.

The Year of the Snake

Today is the Lunar New Year. You can read about the zodiac system here. My wife and I were in China for the start of the Year of the Snake some 24 years ago today. It’s a highly festive occasion, the Lunar New Year. 

Fritz Leiber adopted “the Year of the [Animal]” for his fantasy world Nehwon, but he didn’t spell it all the way out.  Unlike Tolkien who would write volumes of backstory and create whole languages, Leiber preferred the illusion of depth. Each approach has its advantages, but Leiber’s was decidedly easier. Fantastic stories all the same. 

Heroic Literature and the Flu

I've been fighting the flu for a few days. For some reason, the experience made me realize a key difference between Arthurian and most other heroic fictions. If you read Robert E. Howard, for example, you will find his heroes suffering wounds, being enslaved, being thrown into dungeons to die, even being crucified; but they don't seem to get sick or suffer long periods of weakness from injury. 

Sir Thomas Malory's knights, by contrast, very often undergo periods of severe injury or illness that cause them to lose their prowess for a time. The story of Elaine of Astolat is driven by Lancelot getting seriously injured and needing to spend time in her care in order to recover. Often knights who are injured are cared for by religious men who were themselves formerly knights. It is a more complete picture of what a life of risk and hardship entails, and identifies ways in which good things can come out of such periods. (In Elaine's case, a very good thing might have happened if only Lancelot had not been so set upon Guinevere; instead it is of course a tragedy.) 

Often I have mused on how non-Arthurian fairy tales are very good models for how to live life up until adulthood; once you have married, you're just supposed to live 'happily ever after.' (Chesterton thought so too; two chapters of Orthodoxy are on the subject of fairy stories as a model for life.) Only the Arthurian stories seem to provide much help for those who aren't still coming of age, but are grown men expected to deal with the hardships and temptations of life. 

Hopefully I'll be mostly better in another day or two. Once I am, I'm hoping to start the winter reading/commentary that we usually do here. I think this year I will not do a philosophical work but one allied to philosophy: Xenophon's Anabasis, a heroic story that involves quite a bit of hardship and suffering. Xenophon was an Athenian who didn't really get along with the leadership of Athens, partly because of his friendship with Socrates, and partly because he preferred Sparta's ideals and ways. Anabasis is the story of his leadership of a group of Greek mercenaries, "The Ten Thousand," as they survive a losing battle in Persia and then have to walk all the way back to Greece. 

If any of you wish to join me, I'll hopefully be starting that series soon. (UPDATE: I will be reading the Rex Warner translation, because I have it on hand. The Gutenberg translation is by E. J. Chinnock. I doubt the differences will be major, but if we run into anything confusing the Greek is available to check which translation was most accurate.)

A young death

My young nephew, not quite 40, died suddenly this week. It was a shock and yet not completely unexpected, given the complicated state of his mental and physical health. He was struck down savagely by bipolar disease at the age of 18, a blow that was followed by some of the predictable physical catastrophes that strike people given to passing out in snowdrifts, as well as bolts from the blue like cancer. At his memorial service this Saturday in Philadelphia, I will read (or have someone read for me) this elegy:

I have an affectionate but long-distance perspective to offer on our departed loved one, Luke.

He would call or text occasionally, to offer a cheerful greeting or update, or sometimes to ask very simply and directly for help. I was never present for the crisis times and can only imagine how devastating they were. The picture his life presented to me was of a young man whose life was upended by illness, and who tried diligently for 20 years to build a nest in a hurricane. He never gave up his search for a loving home and meaningful work, and what more does any of us ever want?

God rest you, my young nephew: your illness and trouble are over now.

Bounty Hunting

You've got to set priorities in this kind of work. Is it really worth it?

It's not. I did it for a while in Savannah going on thirty years ago, and it was not at all worth it.

I do have a friend who is a bounty hunter currently though. She's the wife of the guy I go to for motorcycle repairs when it's more than I can handle. Locally the bounty hunting is run through the school board(!). It's a little complicated, but somehow bail bonds turned out to be a worthwhile investment for them. 

Happy Songs

James linked a piece by Sippican Cottage on happy songs. (Thanks to Tex, I knew of them from the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys). He warns that "The possibility of a thousand-way tie is more likely than a Top Ten list."

Fair enough! But it strikes me as odd that there are no bluegrass songs on the list. It's the happiest music of all!

Well, as long as you don't pay close attention to the words.

Simplicity in Cooking

I gather from our fantasy movies that are roughly Medieval in setting that people think the Medievals were inclined to nothing but roasted meat -- spiced with salt if anything -- bread and beer. Fancy people preferred wine, but otherwise just ate better versions of the same thing: salt and pepper, white bread instead of brown. It was a simple time, rustic and basic.

Yet in fact: 

...it is certainly quite odd by modern culinary lights to cook a capon in red wine, cut it up, and then fry the pieces before serving them with the cooking broth reduced to a sauce flavored with spices, thickened with the liver and white meat pounded into a paste and with powdered almonds. Like other similar dishes, this one (Brouet of Capon, recipe 35) is a harmonious composition, where the flavor and texture of the meat itself are mingled with the aroma and savor of a vivid sauce, making a unified impression as the dish gives the tongue a momentary surprise with its supple crispness.... We confess that we have lost both the desire for such culinary intricacy and the very notion of it, and that it is no longer of interest. Yet as historians... it is our job to highlight the gap between today's gastronomic system and that which informed medieval culinary practices. 

-Redon, Sabban & Serventi, trans. Edward Schneider, The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 22.

The use of advanced pre-cooking techniques to create flavor and differentiate texture is not wholly lost. When describing how to create a venison braise, for example, I advised browning the meat, then the vegetables in the grease used to brown the meat, then assembling them together and braising them to get a richer flavor than you would get from just putting it all in the pot with liquid alone. There are still some modern recipes with pre-cooking stages, some of which use fire as did the Medieval ones.

It is much less common, though. We tend to give our recipes variety by changing the ingredients instead: for lunch we will have venison, last night roast beef, perhaps chicken for dinner. At a time when there was less variety of ingredients and more time to devote to the exercise of cooking in the kitchen, these more sophisticated approaches made more sense. 

In any case our ancestors were much different from how we often imagine them as a culture. They were smarter, more sophisticated, and rather wiser than we often give them credit for having been. 

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.