Althouse: At the Tuesday Night Café...

November 13, 2018

At the Tuesday Night Café...

... you can talk about anything you want.

45 comments:

stevew said...: 3:30am wake up call tomorrow for a flight from BOS to LGA to ROC. Can't wait . Customer meetings Wed and Thurs. Back home Thursday night. Working from the home office Friday, likely to shut that down around 4pm. Not complaining, happy to be gainfully employed and engaged.; 11/13/18, 7:06 PM
Jupiter said...: Here's some MeTooage I hadn't heard about;

https://quillette.com/2018/06/21/a-literary-inquisition-how-novelist-steven-galloway-was-smeared-as-a-rapist-even-as-the-case-against-him-collapsed/; 11/13/18, 7:08 PM
rehajm said...: The Dem nomination race is shaping up to be 100 seagulls and an overturned garbage truck.; 11/13/18, 7:12 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Brits have made a deal surrendering to EU's rule over them after leaving the EU and pretending that is a Brexit.

At this rate Trump is the only truth speaker left.; 11/13/18, 7:13 PM
Big Mike said...: Nikolas Cruz, the young man who murdered his classmates down in Broward County, Florida, and Ian Long, the mass shooter in Thousand Oaks, California, had something in common besides shooting sprees that killed a dozen or more innocent people. It turns out that both had been evaluated by qualified psychiatrists who pronounced that each was “no danger to himself or to others.”

Is there some legal way to punish psychiatrists who get it so thoroughly wrong? Given what I know of 21st century society,I doubt we can even pull their licenses to practice.; 11/13/18, 7:14 PM
Drago said...: rehajm: "The Dem nomination race is shaping up to be 100 seagulls and an overturned garbage truck."

Careful now. You're talking about a "magnificent" group of lefties. Every one of whom sets LLR hearts aflutter.; 11/13/18, 7:14 PM
Howard said...: It's not an exact science BM... sociopaths are expert at appearing normal when they have too.; 11/13/18, 7:23 PM
Pianoman said...: I took the Professor's advice, and stopped caring about what happens in Florida.

Every state determines their own Senators and Governors. If they want to draw a name out of a hat, and proclaim that person the Senator -- then that's up to them. And if they want to allow crooked politicians to "count the votes until their man wins", then that's up to them too.

It's up to the People to keep those shenanigans from happening. And if the People refuse to fix their government (as is happening here in California), then that's none of the country's business.

I hope justice prevails, but there's more to life than hanging on everything that Drudge links to.; 11/13/18, 7:25 PM
Henry said...: Is there some legal way to punish psychiatrists who get it so thoroughly wrong? Given what I know of 21st century society,I doubt we can even pull their licenses to practice.

They might be hit by lightning.

Which is essentially what they were supposed to diagnose.; 11/13/18, 7:28 PM
Big Mike said...: @Howard, do you have evidence that either was a sociopath? Psychology and psychiatry won’t beome sciences until there are punishments for getting it wildly wrong.; 11/13/18, 7:33 PM
Big Mike said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/13/18, 7:33 PM
rehajm said...: Woodward has cautioned reporters covering the president in recent months, once telling The Atlantic that the American people “see the smugness” of some in the press and that “following the facts” without injecting feelings and opinions into reporting is one way to help regain the trust of the public.

Without the smug and the feelings and the opinions they are nothing. None of them could do straight reporting anyways.; 11/13/18, 7:44 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Big Mike ... Your'e up on this topic. I've come to understand that the high school shooters were on (or were supposed to be on) anti-depressants. Is this accurate?; 11/13/18, 7:44 PM
Jupiter said...: Blogger Big Mike said...
"Psychology and psychiatry won’t beome sciences until there are punishments for getting it wildly wrong."

I can see no good reason to suppose either one will ever become a science. Science properly deals with those things which are subject to prediction by rules which can be objectively stated and applied. The fact that we would like something to be predictable does not make it so.; 11/13/18, 7:57 PM
Ken B said...: Love the CNN lawsuit. Love how Acosta said to the guard “I don’t blame you” — as if there were some reason! — and the sues the guy!; 11/13/18, 8:01 PM
MadisonMan said...: That story about Steven Galloway: Wow.; 11/13/18, 8:13 PM
gbarto said...: Big Mike: For every nutcase who goes off, there are a hundred who just sit there muttering in their corner. Giving psychiatrists legal means to jail anybody who might someday snap is an invitation to Soviet style abuse of mental illness charges. We're not talking about guaranteeing that people interviewed by a psychiatrist won't become a problem; we're talking about whether there's solid enough evidence to deprive them of liberty without due process of law.; 11/13/18, 8:21 PM
Birkel said...: Nikolas Cruz was registered to vote while awaiting trial for his murders.
He was registered by the same people who now cannot count votes according to the laws of Florida.

They seem competent.; 11/13/18, 8:23 PM
Birkel said...: RE: crazy people and psychologists

We should put people in mental health facilities like we did during the 1970s.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Nurse Ratched are not useful for public policy discussions.

The US in the mid-1900s was not the USSR under Stalin, ffs.; 11/13/18, 8:26 PM
mockturtle said...: The Brits have made a deal surrendering to EU's rule over them after leaving the EU and pretending that is a Brexit.

I'm glad my husband isn't alive to see this. He would be turning in his grave if he were in one. Instead, his ashes are tossing restlessly inside their wooden cask. I can hear them from across the room. And he had oft told me there would always be an England. :-(; 11/13/18, 8:39 PM
Hagar said...: I feel like Trump and his main appointees is the only government we have at present.
The Democrats have no leaders and no platform beyond adamant opposition to anything and everything that Trump proposes or does, and the Republicans must be off to a retreat somewhere, or maybe they have disbanded or just quietly failed to pay their state incorporation fees.; 11/13/18, 8:48 PM
Jupiter said...: MadisonMan said...
"That story about Steven Galloway: Wow."

Yeah. Really something. To her great credit, Margaret Atwood (Handmaiden's Tale) has been prominent among his defenders. She had the temerity to point out that women cannot have human rights unless there are human rights, just as women cannot have the vote unless there is voting. Huh.; 11/13/18, 8:57 PM
J. Farmer said...: I wrote this off topic in the eyebrow post:

OT, but holy shit is the just announced Brexit deal a terrible loss for the pro-Brexit British. Having a pro-EU Europhile like Theresa May at the helm has always been an absurdity. May should have stepped down after her foolish decision to call a snap election resulted in a loss of seats for the Tories and the forcing of the government into coalition with the DUP. An utter disgrace.; 11/13/18, 9:01 PM
J. Farmer said...: @mockturtle:

And he had oft told me there would always be an England.

Indeed. I imagine the Scottish will be out of the UK within the next generation. Devolution has already granted Scotland a great deal of independence from London. I also imagine the rise of an English national party. UKIP is already essentially playing that role. Considering all the attention we have been paying to the last century's world wars, it is a cruel irony of history that the UK fought two major wars and sacrificed its empire only to wind up as a province of a German-dominated superstate.; 11/13/18, 9:05 PM
David Begley said...: Badgers won. Looked good.; 11/13/18, 9:05 PM
Big Mike said...: @gbarto, are you planning to teach me the alphabet next? Maybe the times tables? Yeah, I get all that. Why can't the people entrusted to evaluate people whose words and actions frighten their loved ones do a better job?; 11/13/18, 9:06 PM
etbass said...: The Brits have made a deal surrendering to EU's rule over them after leaving the EU and pretending that is a Brexit.

Guessing that means Muslims will continue to flood into the country. In a couple generations, UK will just be another Muslim province of the EU.; 11/13/18, 9:12 PM
Big Mike said...: In tribute to mockturtle's late husband.; 11/13/18, 9:14 PM
J. Farmer said...: @etbass:

Guessing that means Muslims will continue to flood into the country. In a couple generations, UK will just be another Muslim province of the EU.

A bit overwrought but essentially true. The introduction of mass migration into Europe has resulted in the rise of European identity politics in Eastern Europe but also to a lesser degree in Italy. AfD in Germany and Front National in France are similarly making inroads. Now where have I seen this story before?

It's also worth remembering that US foreign policy in North Africa and the Middle East has seriously exacerbated this problem. But then again, as Steve Sailer quipped, the neoliberal slogan is essentially "invade the world, invite the world."; 11/13/18, 9:22 PM
Big Mike said...: Meanwhile, I see that people are seriously floating the idea that Arizona Governor Ducey should appoint Martha McSally to John McCain's old seat when Jon Kyl steps down, as he is expected to in the near future. I profoundly disagree! If she can't campaign harder than she did for Jeff Flake's old seat then she doesn't deserve to be in the Senate.

My two cents, as someone who has only been to Arizona three or four times in my life.; 11/13/18, 9:31 PM
mockturtle said...: Big Mike, I agree McSally is a lousy campaigner but it doesn't follow that she would be a bad Senator. I'd much prefer Kelli Ward but she lost the primary to McSally. I'd just as soon Kyl stayed in the seat.; 11/13/18, 9:52 PM
mockturtle said...: In tribute to mockturtle's late husband.

Thanks, Big Mike. Exhilarating but a little sad, too. 'Never shall be slaves' may be another empty promise as the UK slouches toward Mecca.; 11/13/18, 9:58 PM
Wince said...: Thanks for the update, Steve.

Don't forget to do those TPS reports.; 11/13/18, 10:24 PM
Big Mike said...: but it doesn't follow that she would be a bad Senator

But neither does it indicate that she’d be a good one.; 11/13/18, 10:28 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: WHen Great Chunk Talk:

Listen.

https://comonocreerendios-lem.blogspot.com/2018/11/pantaleones-pizza-denver.html; 11/13/18, 10:50 PM
FIDO said...: Wait till the voters have their say about what their Parliament has done.

Maybe some of the immigrants England will let into the nation will be Broward County vote counters, so that will immunize them from the voices of the people.; 11/14/18, 4:55 AM
Tank said...: J. Farmer said...

I wrote this off topic in the eyebrow post:

OT, but holy shit is the just announced Brexit deal a terrible loss for the pro-Brexit British. Having a pro-EU Europhile like Theresa May at the helm has always been an absurdity. May should have stepped down after her foolish decision to call a snap election resulted in a loss of seats for the Tories and the forcing of the government into coalition with the DUP. An utter disgrace.

Really, May was against Brexit to begin with; after it passed, a pro-Brexit leader should have been the one to implement it. The people did not vote the way the elites wanted, so they found a work around. Very sad; I wonder if there will be an uprising to reverse this, or is England too far gone?; 11/14/18, 6:19 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Blogger Big Mike said...
but it doesn't follow that she would be a bad Senator

But neither does it indicate that she’d be a good one.

11/13/18, 10:28 PM

Certainly it doesn't follow. Many had reservations about McS, for one thing a reluctant Trumper at best. It would be a pity to have TWO Arizona snowflakes in the Senate AGAIN. Better he should appoint Arpaio for the short term, whose heart is undoubtedly in the right place, and let the voters in 2020 draw from a fresh deck of cards (surely he wouldn't run again at his age).

Cindy McCain meanwhile has outlived her usefulness to the Republic.

And the overarching lesson is that state and national GOP simply MUST develop an infrastructure to defend elections. There should be a playbook by now!

Tank said...

Really, May was against Brexit to begin with

Right, and why was anybody trusting her to do the job in the first place? How TF did that happen?

'You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.' - To Neville Chamberlain
Winston Churchill

'If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.' -- W. C.

Put that in your childless pipe and smoke it, Miss May!; 11/14/18, 7:22 AM
Francisco D said...: Meanwhile, I see that people are seriously floating the idea that Arizona Governor Ducey should appoint Martha McSally to John McCain's old seat when Jon Kyl steps down, as he is expected to in the near future. I profoundly disagree! If she can't campaign harder than she did for Jeff Flake's old seat then she doesn't deserve to be in the Senate.

McSally seems oddly passive with no fire in the belly. I wonder if she is emotionally burned out from her military service. I only voted for her because she was not a Democrat and because Sinema ran a disgraceful and deceitful campaign.

A lot of people here did not vote for McSally because they do not think she is conservative. That partly explains why Doug Ducey got a lot more votes than her. (The other reason is that David Garcia was a terrible candidate who did not really campaign).; 11/14/18, 7:22 AM
Big Mike said...: And the overarching lesson is that state and national GOP simply MUST develop an infrastructure to defend elections. There should be a playbook by now!

@Bad LT, Under Reince Priebus, the RNC did just that from 2011 through 2016. Granted, his efforts were aided because under Obama and Wasserman-Schultz, the Democrats' focus was on the top of the ticket and not further down, costing them over a thousand seats at the state and Congressional level. Still, without a Republican infrastructure in place those thousand seats would not have been picked up. But right now the head of the RNC is Mitt Romney's niece.; 11/14/18, 8:09 AM
Big Mike said...: A lot of people here did not vote for McSally because they do not think she is conservative.

That's PRECISELY what I was afraid of! There is a huge (YUGE!) asymmetry between lefties and conservatives and it's this: if the lefties have to choose between a Democrat more moderate than they'd like and a Republican, then they take what they can get and vote for the Democrat. If conservatives are faced with the choice between a Republican more moderate than they'd like and a Democrat much further left of center, they pick up their marbles and go home.

If they want to know why they lose every battle in the neverending culture wars, that's how it happens. The way to win at politics is quite simple: if you can't get a roast turkey with all the trimmings, at least come away with a turkey sandwich and negotiate for a slice of cheese and some mayo. Conservatives, if they can't get a roast turkey with all the trimmings, they'd rather starve.

When I was much younger and more active in local politics, I used to get thoroughly upset at this attitude on the part of conservatives.

Well, Francisco, anyone you know in Arizona who chose not to vote for senator because McSally was not conservative enough, they now have a senator who is open in her contempt for them. And she's right.; 11/14/18, 8:20 AM
Big Mike said...: A question for Arizona residents regarding who to send to the senate when Jon Kyl steps down, as he is expected to. Would Jan Brewer like the job?; 11/14/18, 8:21 AM
mockturtle said...: A question for Arizona residents regarding who to send to the senate when Jon Kyl steps down, as he is expected to. Would Jan Brewer like the job?

I'd prefer to see Kyl stay in at least until the next election.; 11/14/18, 8:36 AM
Big Mike said...: @mockturtle, wouldn't hurt. Next to Sinema he certainly seems to be the grown up in the room. But it's up to him and life doesn't always give us our preferences.; 11/14/18, 9:16 AM
RobinGoodfellow said...: Blogger Howard said...
It's not an exact science BM... sociopaths are expert at appearing normal when they have too.

So what’s the point? If the so-called science is no better than chance at identifying a characteristic that it has defined, then I suggest you don’t have a science.; 11/14/18, 3:22 PM