March 18, 2019

At the Quiet Mouse Café...



... you can talk about anything you want.

But under the new comments policy, you'll have to wait at least a few minutes before you'll see your comment, and if you're abusive or terribly boring, you won't see it at all.

ADDED: "if you're abusive or terribly boring, you won't see it at all" — a decision not to publish your comment doesn't mean that you're necessarily either "abusive or terribly boring." Those are just 2 things that will result in nonpublication. There are some other things too, but most of them are inapplicable in a café. Please don't feel too bad if a comment you've written doesn't make it. But avoid what's abusive or terribly boring and you'll be a long way toward getting published.

88 comments:

Seeing Red said...

Have President Trump’s uncompromising denunciations of Bob Mueller’s ‘witch hunt’ been effective? It appears so, based on this USA Today/Suffolk University poll. Currently, 50% of Americans consider Mueller’s investigation to be a witch hunt, while 47% disagree. Independents believe Trump has been the victim of a witch hunt, by 54%/42%.”

The former boss of the ex-British spy who produced the uncorroborated, salacious dossier on President Donald Trump’s alleged Russian collusion says the document is “overrated,” and wouldn’t comment on the character of the man who wrote it.

Both via Insty.

Nancy said...

I love the new comment policy! Eliminating all the did too, did not backs and forths.

n.n said...

Technically, a warlock hunt.

And, now, Casper the Quiet Mouse.

Henry said...

Terribly boring, boring of censorable terribleness, sounds like something to strive for.

Googling boring art brings up John Baldessari's Will Not Make Any More Boring Art:

“As there wasn’t enough money for me to travel to Nova Scotia, I proposed that the students voluntarily write ‘I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art’ on the walls of the gallery, like punishment. To my surprise they covered the walls.”

Sarah from VA said...

I'm interested to know how much censorship is actually happening. The comment threads are certainly shorter than I would expect them to be under the old policy. The one about Stuyvesant High alone would've hit 200 or 300 by now. But how much of the shortening is self-censorship vs. Althouse-censorship?

My gut feeling is that Althouse is actually censoring very little. Deleting the first "So-and-so, you ignorant slut" then prevents the necessity for the indignant response, the jab in return, hauling up examples of bad behavior from previous threads, other people reminding everybody else not to feed the trolls, an argument about what a troll is, etc. etc.

So I'd say that though we're seeing 30-50 percent as many comments as before, there's probably only been actual moderation of 2-3 percent of what's been submitted. Curious to see the numbers, though. Maybe after a week or two, when things settle down.

(Also curious about how many comments reference the possibility of them being deleted. Probably a lot.)

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Kirsten GIllibrand sounding pretty strong on MSNBC tonight. I’m surprised.

Meade said...

"My gut feeling is that Althouse is actually censoring very little."

Your gut feeling is very accurate. So far, almost nothing has been censored. Less than 1%. Commenters are self moderating. As it should be.

On your final question, the answer is: fewer than a dozen, so far.

Gunner said...

Will The View ever hire a host to represent the majority of white women who voted for Trump? The two RINO ignorami currently there are an embarrassment to the non liberal-hags watching. At least Hasselbeck and Bila provided some ideological diversity.

Hagar said...

I don't think "the Mueller investigation" is a "witch hunt."
The authorities that hunted witches in the old days believed in the existence of witches.

roesch/voltaire said...

I wonder if the pillow talk gossip between George and Kellyanne has produced and the unrepressed version that can only be expressed by the other in the form of tweets?

traditionalguy said...

Meek mouse is my favorite mouse.

Lawrence Person said...

Here's this week's Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update, chock full of Betomania and Betomania takedowns...

narciso said...

No that's crimethink, there was jedidiah villa who was skeptical but not acid, a long time ago there was Hasselbeck who was pro tea party.

Bay Area Guy said...

So what Althouse is saying is that boring or abusive comments are sufficient for a quick non-publication, but not necessary for a brisk non-publication.

Whew! I think I got it.

Lucien said...

Suppose someone compiled a list of every musical group in which at least one member had gotten a blow job from an underage groupie, and called each one a pedophilic child rapist: then how much music would be left to listen to if all such groups were blacklisted?

Matt Sablan said...

Wait, no terrible boring?

I guess my steam-powered giant drill schematics have nowhere to go on the Internet after all.

Francisco D said...

So far, almost nothing has been censored. Less than 1%. Commenters are self moderating. As it should be.

The main reason I supported the new policy is that it seemed to greatly limit my desire to write something negative about someone who annoyed me.

It's better to stick to the issues and ignore the trolls.

Michael K said...

Googling boring art brings up John Baldessari's Will Not Make Any More Boring Art:

My daughter is his personal manager, He is very ill.

Bay Area Guy said...

I'm hoping Cory Booker wins the Dem nomination and taps Andrew Yang as his running mate.

"Booker-Yang!" sounds like something Harvey Weinstain would exclaim while chasing an actress around in his bathrobe.

stevew said...

Kirsten GIllibrand, she's brave, and if you aren't sure, just ask her. Given the evolution of her views I think she does not know what that word, brave, means.

"So far, almost nothing has been censored." Damn! If true I am disappointed. If more is weeded out, i.e.; not published, then the more valuable my published comment is judged to be.

Seriously though, I think I only posted 3 or 4 comments today and can say for certain that I spent more time composing each one. The idea for each came quickly, as it usually does, but I labored over the writing a bit more to make sure I was as clear as possible.

"If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter."

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Donna Brazile is joining the Fox News network. That’ll be interesting.

stevew said...

As for witch hunts - I live in the neighborhood of the originals as conducted across Salem Village (now Danvers, MA). In fact, we are quite close to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead. There are monuments all over this part of Massachusetts (Essex county and Boston's north shore) to the victims of those witch trials. This Trump witch hunt ain't nothin' by comparison, Rebecca Nurse, and many others, was executed for her trumped up crimes.

readering said...

So you think Nancy Pelosi has power? From the UK Guardian:

"Theresa May’s government has been plunged into constitutional chaos after the Speaker blocked the prime minister from asking MPs to vote on her Brexit deal for a third time unless it had fundamentally changed. With 11 days to go until Britain is due to leave the EU, May was forced to pull her plans for another meaningful vote because [Speaker] John Bercow said she could not ask MPs to pass the same deal, after they rejected it twice by huge margins."

Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

It's odd how interested I've become in the mice recently. Never used to pay much attention to them, but now their eyes seem to call out "look at me."

This mouse is quiet in two ways: It's soundless/voiceless, and its colors are quiet, like deliberately smudged pastel chalk. But somehow it has great presence.

I see the reference to Casper above from n.n.--so maybe somewhere there's the ghost of a squeak.

readering said...

Lucien, apparently they were listening to you over at Myspace: "MySpace Says It Lost 12 Years Of User-Uploaded Music"

readering said...

From the WSJ: "A blowup in a restaurant between American Media Chief Executive David Pecker and his general counsel for media led the lawyer to leave the publisher immediately."

Why, do you suppose? Interesting story.

chillblaine said...

"Die Hard," isn't a true Christmas movie. The one movie that will bring us all together at Christmastime is, "Trading Places."

Dan Aykroyd wears a Santa Suit, gets drunk, and discharges a firearm at the office Christmas party. The hooker doesn't do drugs; she's got a heart of gold AND pretty decent hooters.

"Trading Places," is also a fun conversation starter! Nature or nurture? The only bad part is the ending; they should have returned the money, because that was insider trading. I hope they make a sequel, wherein, Randolph and Mortimer transition to female and indulge their true love, filmmaking.

cronus titan said...

History teaches that self-moderation is not necessarily a good thing.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Myself, I would call that a ghost mouse. Very spooky. We don't have those in Jersey, or perhaps they are quickly eaten by their parents or siblings before the humans see them.

Today I posted 3 comments, and I was 3 for 3 with the moderation. OK, but one of my comments was (as I thought) a mildly non-PC joke about our favorite socialist it-girl. It made the cut, but it occurred to me that in moderating the comments, our Hostess takes a greater degree of ownership in the content of her blog, whereas, in the prior regime, there could be a degree of deniability ("comments are not moderated"), so the content was ostensibly all on the commentators.

Make of that what you will, but so far so good, as far as I'm concerned at least.

Maillard Reactionary said...

readering @8:49 PM: If you were attacked by a Pecker in a restaurant, what would you do?

Judge not.

Big Mike said...

My links to YouTube videos of pet mice and pet rats are probably too boring.

Be said...

I like how your mouse / rat pictures generally have blue eyes. I don't believe I've ever seen a rodent with blue eyes in all the time I've interacted with them. I have blue eyes, myself, and have always considered myself a lab rat.

Thank you for the new comment policy.

wildswan said...

Desperately Seeking Sanctuary of The Mind in the Time of the Hive, I've watched noir from the Forties, westerns but then I knew the conventions too well; but now I'm watching movies by early comedians, SNLers: The Apartment, Ground Hog Day, The Blues Brothers.

and Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyM7AJiC0Nk - Nichols and May Academy Awards. This is from the day when lots of people watched the Academy Awards and yet you could make jokes about mediocrity. Now nobody watches and you can't make jokes and mediocrity is the love that dares not speak its name.

narciso said...

I think Wolfe follows a similar archetype with McCoy as Landis did with winthorpe, of course the latter hinged on the prince and the pauper. Places ends after new years though.

narciso said...

Beaks is a bagman probably from some intelligence outfit hired by the Duke bros, it reminds me of mailers pet theory about Watergate they were tapping the other offices including the fed.

BudBrown said...

Does a pea under the mattress count as either abusive or terribly boring?

walter said...

For boring, but NIMBY.

320Busdriver said...

Turns out the FAA delegated much of the certification of the 737MAX, Boeings attempt to compete with Airbus' 32xNEO narrowbody airliner, to the manufacturer.

What could go wrong?

Now the pieces are coming together after 2 of the airliners crashed killing everyone aboard and the jet is grounded and investigators look for the cause. It appears from what is known is that a new system implemented on the MAX, MCAS(maneuvering characteristic augmentation system), may have malfunctioned and precipitated the severe pitch oscillations soon after takeoff that crews were unable to counteract before the aircraft nosed over and flew into the earths surface at a high speed.

Despite the common type rating for all the 737 variants, the MAX required substantial redesign due to placing the much larger diameter fuel efficient engines under the wing. The MCAS system was part of this redesign and its development is under scrutiny now along with the FAA/manufacturer reltionship and safety certification process.

Most disturbing was that Boeing did not even tell its customers or update its flight manuals to include info on the new system and how it worked. Pilots I've spoken to received a one hour online training module which was all that was required to fly the MAX at their airline. MCAS was not even a part of that training.
So it looks like the DOT/DOJ is looking for scalps at the FAA and Boeing.

A devastating account of the failures involved was published in The Seattle Times yesterday and can be found here.

David Begley said...


Blogger Bay Area Guy said...
I'm hoping Cory Booker wins the Dem nomination and taps Andrew Yang as his running mate.

Check out my dialogue with Booker as publisher on Power Line.

D. said...

How do you draw your mice/rats? By hand or computer or combo?

narciso said...

Here's a twist:

https://gizmodo.com/mercury-not-venus-is-the-closest-planet-to-earth-1833290616

cf said...

Remember the furor when they wanted to build a mosque in the shadow of 9-11 twin towers? I don't know whatever happened to that, it seemed HUGE then just sort of disappeared... anyway, i have been thinking about that again because I dreamed up a good use for the area they were arguing about, a Plaza dedicated to killing/blowing yourself up for a cause.

what do you think about this? visualize a smooth brick/granite expanse, elegantly simple, with a dedication spot where whatever manifesto or declaration you would have wanted to kill others for, or die for yourself, whatever that is, you film it, declare it in that spot, and somehow it is transmitted and shared as part of the promise of the park, and somehow, some people take the time to watch your testimony and dedication and honor your sacrifice to give your life for it.

in other words, in place of taking down 50 or a thousand humans, you just simply kill yourself, and we honor you with a listen up.

not an ignoble way to go. the bad part would be the union cleaner-uppers of the park itself. tough job.

JackWayne said...

It puzzles me who Trump listens to that he continues to hire swamp creatures.

JackWayne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
narciso said...

A Mueller protege who was involved in the anthrax attack travisham.

Big Mike said...

"Booker-Yang!" sounds like something Harvey Weinstain would exclaim while chasing an actress around in his bathrobe.

@Bay Area Guy, if Cory Booker is a fan of “Hawaii Five-O” then he will choose someone named Danno as his running mate.

walter said...

cf,
Marketing will be challenging.
Perhaps "Benevolent Martyrdom Zone"
A BMZ
For a few $$ extra, Martyr gets VR goggles displaying infidels in all directions.

narciso said...

A protege of Mueller and later clapper:
https://m.thetimes-tribune.com/news/midvalley-resident-rises-in-the-ranks-of-fbi-1.1711108

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

Pet mice can chirp and exercise.

Lewis Wetzel said...

An early chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, has died by his own hand at age 58.
Suicide is, of course, always a tragedy.
Krueger was a really bad economist. If he had been a physicist, he would have been the type of physicist who endorsed perpetual motion machines, which could be proved to be practical by using a new mathematics that he, himself, had invented, and that no one else could understand. Krugman still cited the paper he wrote with David Card (http://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/njmin-aer.pdf), which reaches the unlikely conclusion that raising the minimum wage does not decrease employment in a minimum wage industry, or cause consumers to pay higher prices. The money to pay the extra wages appears like magic, and then disappears before its source can be identified.

WK said...

"Trading Places," is also a fun conversation starter!

I recall that is the movie Dan Akroyd appeared in black face makeup. Let the conversation get started.

Lucien said...

@Readering: I just said "suppose". It was Hypothetical, just Hypothetical!

mockturtle said...

Wait a minute---hasn't Althouse asserted on more than one occasion that boring is good?

eddie willers said...

she's got a heart of gold AND pretty decent hooters.

Magnificent hooters!

I bought a top-of-the-line 4 head VCR just so I would get a perfect pause.

J. Farmer said...

"We have to recognize the threat of white nationalism. We’ve got to call it out. As President of the United States, my Justice Department would go after white nationalists with full prosecution. #WarrenTownHall"
-Tweet from Senator Warren

Can Harvard Law Professor Warren explain how the Justice Department will "go after white nationalists?" I'm pretty sure you can't prosecute someone for having a political philosophy you disagree with.

walter said...

(postingat 11:52)Not seeing much freewheeling in the late PM here:

"You might wonder what will happen to the cafés. What I can do, with the limited options Blogger gives me, is turn moderation off at the end of the day when I put up the café, and then you can write and interact spontaneously. That will also end the moderation for the other posts of that day, but I'll simply go through those posts the next morning and use deletion to get the effect I'd worked on for the day."

Gregg said...

You might want boring, if there's a tragedy or a death. --Events that are so shocking, that there are no words, or an just an endless stream of "How Sad". I remember a lot of that during 9/11. It's too bad you don't, or won't, allow yourself the flexibility to widen the parameters during times of sadness, or somber moods.

walter said...

Farmer,
DOJ has been proving proving for some time they have their own rules.
Or in AOC parlance, "..the boss"

narciso said...

No that was beeks as the gorilla,

narciso said...

Same way they went after nazis, it's a typical tac of totalitarians

Kevin said...

I'm hoping Cory Booker wins the Dem nomination and taps Andrew Yang as his running mate.

Given the rise of women and gay people in politics, it would seem the idea of “tapping” someone to become your partner is going to become problematic.

Kevin said...

"if you're abusive or terribly boring, you won't see it at all"

Althouse is for boring, but not terribly boring.

The challenge is to bullseye the Althouse womp rat from our T-16.

They're not much bigger than two meters.

Mr. Groovington said...

Blogger Nancy said...
I love the new comment policy! Eliminating all the did too, did not backs and forths.

I’ll miss Drago relentlessly hammering Inga and LLR though. He’s uniquely good at it, skilled enough to be free of malice, and makes me laugh everyday.

David Begley said...

Horrible flooding throughout Nebraska. Worst ever.

Dodge Street is the main east-west street in Omaha. It is completely destroyed at the Elkhorn River.

Howard said...

I heard through the tea leaves that millennials are going to vote Biden. I don't get it, but it must be a hipster old school fetish.

Howard said...

Drove across the Florida panhandle. Parts where Michael hit looks like a tropical war zone impacted by arclight and agent orange

Drago said...

sodal ye: "I’ll miss Drago relentlessly hammering Inga and LLR though. He’s uniquely good at it, skilled enough to be free of malice, and makes me laugh everyday."

I feel as though my spirit just floated in from above giving me a birds eye view of my own funeral and a military piper playing "Amazing Grace".

Drago said...

"Can Harvard Law Professor Warren explain how the Justice Department will "go after white nationalists?"

Easy.

Step 1: download the background data on registered republicans.

Step 2: solicit voter "analysis" and input on each republican from "unbiased" sources like FusionGPS, SPLC, the DNC, and LLR/lefty publications like The Bulwark.

Step 3: methodically indict republicans in 97% democrat controlled areas

Step 4: Declare the United States a "Democratic People's Republic"

....you know the rest.....

Jersey Fled said...

When are Blacks, Hispanics, Jews,and LGBTQWYZ's going to realize that they are now at the bottom of the liberal left totem in favor of Muslims?

On another note, I was stuck watching MSNBC for almost an hour yesterday while I waited for my daughter's car to be serviced. They are totally in the bag for Beto (which they pronounced in what I guess was a sort of Hispanic way). No mention of his kid killer stories or hacker days. They twisted themselves up like pretzels trying to turn each of his shortcomings into strengths. EXAMPLE: it's true that he knows pretty much nothing on the issues, but he has shown OVER THE LAST 4 DAYS that he listens and is a quick learner. Apparently it only takes 4 days of listening to become qualified to be President.

I picked up my daughter's car and left with one thought:

How can any serious person watch this stuff?

Tommy Duncan said...

"Can Harvard Law Professor Warren explain how the Justice Department will "go after white nationalists?"

If you are white and stand during the national anthem you are a white nationalist.

Bruce Hayden said...

“On another note, I was stuck watching MSNBC for almost an hour yesterday while I waited for my daughter's car to be serviced. They are totally in the bag for Beto (which they pronounced in what I guess was a sort of Hispanic way).”

Going to be interesting then. My impression is that CNN was backing Kammie.

Henry said...

J. Farmer said...
Can Harvard Law Professor Warren explain how the Justice Department will "go after white nationalists?"

For a real answer, the FBI has a mandate to investigate domestic terrorist groups. Such groups can be prosecuted for whatever crimes they are found to commit.

A President Warren could either ask for more money to expand such investigations or instruct the Attorney General to target more resources to prosecuting whatever crimes are found.

That's the boring answer. It might even be the terribly boring answer.

Henry said...

Bruce Hayden said...

Going to be interesting then. My impression is that CNN was backing Kammie.

Have we arrived at the dystopian future in which each network runs its own candidate? That's more interesting I guess than all of them backing one.

tim in vermont said...

If you are white, it’s “nationalism," otherwise it’s “identity politics.”

But sure, feel free to go after as many actual “white nationalists,” defined as people who are willing to use force to create some kind of all white society for themselves as you can round up. Dylan Roof was distraught that he couldn’t find any like minded comrades. The problem is that “white nationalism” is a broad brush that the left applies to anybody who has a policy disagreement with the left.

Paco Wové said...

"When are Blacks, Hispanics, Jews,and LGBTQWYZ's going to realize that they are now at the bottom of the liberal left totem in favor of Muslims?"

Come now, don't oversimplify. The Totem Pole of Oppression has many niches in it, and many levels to be squabbled over. Just because Person A's POCemon intersectional point total doesn't get them a squat on the very top level doesn't mean zhe doesn't have a shot at some prime locations.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Comments will rise to the level of Jaime Escalante's expectations.

tim in vermont said...

O'Rourke v Harris

The gigolo v the courtesan. America waits with bated breath.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"How can any serious person watch this stuff?"

This is a good reason to ditch media and woke entertainment, and instead read an old book, take a hike, fix the garden up, or create something yourself.

Hollywood has created lots of great stuff over the years, so watch that and forgo the pedo produced America hating newcomers.

tim in vermont said...

We[Cornell] need the strength of a diverse community in order to pursue the English department’s larger mission: to direct the force of language toward large and small acts of learning, alliance, imagination and justice.”. via Instapundit

I remember when their primary mission was to teach you how to think and how to write about what you think. Then it became to teach you what to think, now it’s to teach you how to be a good soldier in the movement.

Sara D said...

Big Mike
I love your pet mice and rats, so cute and clever.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Wanna get depressed about the future? Read this.

Stress Mess: 3 In 5 Millennials Say Life More Stressful Now Than Ever Before

What stresses out Howard and his fellow Millennials?

"... although losing one’s wallet or credit card ranked as the top source of stress for respondents, 1 in 5 say they’d be even more apoplectic if their smartphone screen broke. For more than 2 in 5 millennials (41%), a damaged phone screen is worse than seeing their “check engine” light flash on in the car."

Yep. and these people vote.

Curious George said...

How can there be a duplicate comment in the ""New Zealand Is Loath to Use Suspect’s Name to Avoid Amplifying His Cause" if you're moderating? Just wondering...

Bob Boyd said...

How Althouse and Meade Teach Commenters To Control Their Anger

Henry said...

For more than 2 in 5 millennials (41%), a damaged phone screen is worse than seeing their “check engine” light flash on in the car.

That's just common sense. A broken phone screen might mean hundreds of dollars and a lot of inconvenience. A check engine light just means you need an oil change. Or you have some completely negligible problem.

Thanks to nanosensers, check engine doesn't mean what it used to.

We had one car that would fire the check engine light if we didn't screw back the gas cap two clicks. My car-dealer neighbor was always good to check the computer code and clear the problem.

J. Farmer said...

@Henry:

For a real answer, the FBI has a mandate to investigate domestic terrorist groups. Such groups can be prosecuted for whatever crimes they are found to commit.

Obviously any group "can be prosecuted for whatever crimes they are found to commit." The point, of course, is that white nationalism is not a crime. Conflating white nationalism with domestic terror is part of Warren's whole problem. She wants to imagine that white nationalists are all violent revolutionaries bent on overthrowing the government and rounding up nonwhites. It's a complete farce. The amount of white nationalists who advocate violent overthrow are an infinitesimal fringe who have practically zero organizational support. The classic "lone wolf."

Warren would probably never dream of attributing the action of a small group of violent jihadists to all Muslims, but she seems quite willing to do that if anyone commits violence in the name of "white nationalism." And the reason for that is because for Warren, Muslims are good guys and white nationalists are bad guys. It really is as simple as that.

Big Mike said...

I heard through the tea leaves that millennials are going to vote Biden. I don't get it, but it must be a hipster old school fetish.

@Howard, I don’t get it either, but maybe Millennial women think it would be fun to be groped in public, on TV.

Ann Althouse said...

"How do you draw your mice/rats? By hand or computer or combo?"

I do it on the iPad in an app called SketchBook. No stylus, just one finger. The trick is not trying very hard (if at all).