Althouse: At the Wednesday Night Café...

June 5, 2019

At the Wednesday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

85 comments:

Fen said...: (is the water still cold? no one wants to the first to jump in); 6/5/19, 7:23 PM
narciso said...: Carrying over from the other thread:
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/285830/spies-are-the-new-journalists?fbclid=IwAR14HN_euLy5VKGct2PJCQgU1hLhgovWh2FMAKMnQVPW8psalGElZDXDM3c; 6/5/19, 7:31 PM
Howard said...: it's deep, too; 6/5/19, 7:31 PM
Jaq said...: poor man’s ads.; 6/5/19, 7:36 PM
daskol said...: So then Kashoggi was a journalist.; 6/5/19, 7:37 PM
Jaq said...: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/597kpd/new-report-suggests-high-likelihood-of-human-civilization-coming-to-an-end-in-2050

The end is near! We are not a cult! Repeat! We are not a cult!; 6/5/19, 7:41 PM
Pianoman said...: I'm agreeing with Althouse -- the news sure is boring these days. There's no Collusion to report, Impeachment is going nowhere, and the Orange Man Bad movement is increasingly looking psychotic.

Why, it's almost as if the country has accepted the results of the 2016 election!; 6/5/19, 7:41 PM
narciso said...: So was Somerset maugham ian Fleming and David cornwell (well more writers than journalists) also Graham greene; 6/5/19, 7:42 PM
stevew said...: John Dean? Nadler is bringing that John Dean in to testify?

Biden continues to differentiate himself from the other Democrat candidates by disagreeing with them on positions and policy. That's just plain entertaining, regardless of what he 'believes'.; 6/5/19, 7:48 PM
Narr said...: Eric Ambler, little remembered today, wrote some classic noir espionage tales.

Alan Furst has a fine little line of WWII-era Europe spy novels.

Narr
My end is a lot nearer than 2050, I'm pretty sure, so I'll skip the bad news Nobody bears.; 6/5/19, 7:50 PM
narciso said...: I'm sorry to say I haven't really read ambler.; 6/5/19, 7:57 PM
narciso said...: He could bring in Stephen Collins who played him in the miniseries of blind ambition.; 6/5/19, 7:58 PM
Hubert the Infant said...: Is anybody following the unpersoning of Linda Fairstein? What is wrong with this country? A film comes out that selectively presents some facts and tens of thousands of people suddenly decide that she is the worst person ever and that Amazon should no longer sell her novels. Vassar students demand that she be removed from the Vassar Board and, puff, she's gone. For what?; 6/5/19, 8:07 PM
narciso said...: Shes now an unperson, as zampolit ava duvernay has dictated; 6/5/19, 8:11 PM
rcocean said...: Has Althouse ever thought about starting her own podcast with guest? She could find some other chick and talk about Moby and Portmann or whatever.

Could be interesting, if she found the right partner and did it once and a while.; 6/5/19, 8:14 PM
Jaq said...: In case you were too much of a denier to read the Vice story, here is the point of it:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43pek3/scientists-warn-the-un-of-capitalisms-imminent-demise

“Capitalism, in that situation, is not like ours now,” said Järvensivu. “Economic activity is driven by meaning—maintaining equal possibilities for the good life while lowering emissions dramatically—rather than profit, and the meaning is politically, collectively constructed.

Does this sound like Mein Kampf to you? It sounds like Mein Kampf to me.; 6/5/19, 8:18 PM
rcocean said...: The big thing on the Right has been the Sohrab Ahmari vs. David French battle. Basically, Ahmari called French out for being what he is, namely a classical liberal loser who'e leading Conservatives down the road to defeat.

French and his supporters replied with the usual, anyone who criticizes a Never-Trumper from the Right, is a racist/sexist/bigot/homophobe and did you know David French is a WAR HERO?

Dreher as usual, is in the middle, swinging back and forth like a weather vane, while plugging his book. Naturally. Even the NYT, and Ross Dounut have weighed in.; 6/5/19, 8:19 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: is this for real??
(if so-- we got robbed!!!)

School Gives Autistic Child ‘Most Annoying Male’ Award

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/school-gives-autistic-child-most-annoying-male-award/; 6/5/19, 8:29 PM
narciso said...: Guess whose considering cosponsering a carbon tax with Chris coons?; 6/5/19, 8:32 PM
narciso said...: Not mark grant, he actually knows aimething:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/05/senate-intelligence-committee-british-security-consultant-1353675?fbclid=IwAR1UcpsmV6mjA6JV1woTSw19qbAgKZkUls9tIcH4lYVzIw_B_AJbFBm3qIs; 6/5/19, 8:40 PM
William said...: I think the Central Park Five may very well be innocent of the rape, but they were probably guilty of being part of that gang of kids who were attacking random strangers at about the same time and at about the same place where that woman got raped. Bad luck for them, but the prime mover of the drama was not racism but their desire to celebrate spring by assaulting random strangers. To make Fairstein the villain of the piece is extremely unfair, but that's the way things fall out. Treyvon Martin and Michael Brown are martyrs and not a bad word can be said against them. The Covington kids are monsters and every celebrity in Hollywood falls over themselves in a rush to denounce them.; 6/5/19, 8:51 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Canadian team is running circles around the Oakland team in the NBA Finals. Trump needs to declare a Tariff on Canadian three pointers.; 6/5/19, 9:00 PM
narciso said...: Yes thankfully lisa bloom couldn't get the Sanford story off the ground.; 6/5/19, 9:02 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "Is This For Real?"
NYC leader complains city has too few statues of women.The proposed ‘fix?
drag queens.
New York’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, who will be remembered by future generations of New Yorkers for her inability to account for $850 million.
.
A city with a shortage of statues recognizing women will celebrate the lives of two who were equipped with male plumbing.; 6/5/19, 9:07 PM
narciso said...: No we're way past the zero barrier,; 6/5/19, 9:09 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: As of last night, I have an old movie that I (currently) hate the most:

Here Comes the Groom

I like everyone in it and am happy to see them in other movies, but this script... yow!; 6/5/19, 9:12 PM
wildswan said...: The Althouse post on travel, the same one Powerline covered last night, is covered over at Instapundit today.

In re:
I remember seeing the Elgin marbles and the Pieta over in Europe and I don't think a picture can really convey them. Sometimes only travel gets you to another place.; 6/5/19, 9:13 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: ...and finally:

Boston Group Confirms Approval of Straight Pride Parade

The parade will be held at the end of August.
what--mostly drunk Southies and some heckling SJDubz?; 6/5/19, 9:21 PM
narciso said...: It's rather striking that one has to affirm the obvious; 6/5/19, 9:23 PM
wildswan said...: I watched the AG Barr interview and was very struck by his regard for the law and his agile mind and his clarity. But this man was AG once before without me noticing him at all. I think the situation has gotten so bad that a lawyer with civilizational virtues instead of twistiness is unusual and interesting. Also he explained the investigations - I only need to follow Durham.; 6/5/19, 9:29 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: The Warriors without Klay or KD are not an impressive bunch.; 6/5/19, 9:34 PM
wildswan said...: I had the same feeling watching Queen Elizabeth and Trump toasting each other at the State banquet as I had listening to AG Barr. It was beautiful, it was stately, it remembered history. What a contrast to the stupid useless brawling led by the Congressional left as they call for the equivalent of World War II on behalf of climate. California's high speed rail project shows how the Greenies would carry out a big engineering and technological project equivalent to D- Day.; 6/5/19, 9:36 PM
stephen cooper said...: nobody affirms the obvious

when I was an econ undergrad a lifetime ago we had a bulletin board in the basement of the "SOCIAL SCIENCES" hall

back at dear old Springfield State

One day on the bulletin board somebody pinned a piece of paper with three words on it

God loves you

Day after day I watched to see if someone would put something up on the bulletin board, agreeing or disagreeing, down in that sad little basement with sad fluorescent lights, only the janitor who buffed the linoleum floors once a week really had any connection to that little basement corridor, long ago at Springfield State

day after day I went out of my way to see if anyone had replied to the little three words on the little piece of yellow lined paper (blue lines, not like a legal pad, more like a simple notepad you might buy at Hallmark Stationery Store, yellow paper, blue lines)

nobody every answered in the three months before the end of term

years later one of the grads of dear old Springfield won an award for some brave or heroic action and they asked him, at the award ceremony, did you ever think you would do something like that???????

I still remember his eyes, he had rushed into a burning building, and his eyebrows were slightly singed, and his eyes looked like - to me, anyway, who see weird connections often, all too often - like the eyes of those sea turtles who were alive for the fall of Constantinople and for the brave deeds on the field of Waterloo, and who have grandchildren who are a mere decade or so less old than them, and that means they have grandchildren who are hundreds of years old ---- well that was what I saw in his eyes ----

and I remembered that before he dropped out of college and joined the police academy he and me had sat next to each other in Econ 101 back in the "SOCIAL SCIENCES" hall at dear old Springfield State University .....

he laughed at me once when I said I had only read the Bible straight through twice, he was on his fifth time around

Good times, good times; 6/5/19, 9:39 PM
stephen cooper said...: AG Barr indeed knows what he is talking about,; 6/5/19, 9:40 PM
Francisco D said...: Biden continues to differentiate himself from the other Democrat candidates by disagreeing with them on positions and policy. That's just plain entertaining, regardless of what he 'believes'.

I do not know how to emphasize this point enough.

It is not Biden who will be elected. It is the Democrat party. He is only the face.; 6/5/19, 9:40 PM
stephen cooper said...: and now I am going straight through the Bible again

and I am happy to affirm the obvious

God loves you; 6/5/19, 9:45 PM
traditionalguy said...: Journalists are writers of fiction making up a story to mislead or distract a reader with a false belief..The spy agencies do the exact same thing .; 6/5/19, 9:46 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: more like a simple notepad you might buy at Hallmark Stationery Store

ah, yes-- stationary stores-- soon to be a thing of the past.

But...
it is funny to see a "WE'RE MOVING" sign on a stationary store; 6/5/19, 9:47 PM
iowan2 said...: I watched the AG Barr interview and was very struck by his regard for the law and his agile mind and his clarity.

We have seen him several times now. He is good, because he has no agenda, other than cleaning up the agencies he loves. It gives him a freedom, few in DC posses.; 6/5/19, 9:49 PM
walter said...: Headline from NY mag: "In Terrifying Interview, William Barr Goes Full MAGA"; 6/5/19, 10:08 PM
gadfly said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/5/19, 10:20 PM
gadfly said...: Lizzie Warren dared to step foot in GOP Town, Fort Wayne,Indiana which used to be conservative until they all jumped on the Trump-boat. So MSNBC took no chance with a small audience permitted . The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported:

All the free tickets for the event were claimed within 15 minutes after online registration began last week, said Misti Meehan, chairwoman of the Allen County Democratic Party. The Bergstaff Place website says it has a capacity for 300 people, but Meehan said she had heard that 150 tickets were distributed.

She said the local party was not provided tickets and had no input in their distribution.

Lizzie almost cried describing how she raised two kids while working full time but she had all the answers on the big picture. Opioid crisis? No problems - $100 billion will fix it and she has that amount covered! No mention of infanticide in her support of abortion which got her applause in a town where even Democrats oppose abortion. All of the applauses appeared to be unanimous, which is shame on NBC!; 6/5/19, 10:23 PM
walter said...: She's a fighter! (Especially after she has herself..a beer.); 6/5/19, 10:35 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: from Gab
Soon anyone in the world will be able to spin up their own Gab server and no one will be able to stop it.
Ever.
July 4th. Gab changes the game once again.

Gab's attorneys have submitted a complaint with the Department of Justice in hopes of sparking a serious investigation into Big Tech's business practices to determine if, and how, they are behaving in a deliberately anti-competitive manner against alt-tech businesses.; 6/5/19, 10:36 PM
walter said...: (aka firewater); 6/5/19, 10:36 PM
narciso said...: She would drive me to drink, and only victory gun, would be available.; 6/5/19, 10:40 PM
Admin said...: This is superb! I like it.
very nice article and very helpful
Thank you for sharing good and important information.
Popular Female Pron star; 6/5/19, 10:46 PM
Lawrence Person said...: I tried to grapple with Modi's India. Not sure I succeeded.; 6/5/19, 10:52 PM
walter said...: Hey Admin,
Got any prawn?; 6/5/19, 10:56 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: @narciso
she wants to take away your gins :-); 6/5/19, 11:17 PM
narciso said...: Yes that was a typo, that concealed a 1984 4lreference.; 6/5/19, 11:21 PM
Kathryn51 said...: AG Barr is my hero. He believes in a nation of laws, not men. Hard to believe that Trump appointed him.; 6/5/19, 11:35 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: hip flask for conceal carry ;-); 6/5/19, 11:37 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/5/19, 11:45 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: @walter
into a little Dendrobranchiata, eh?
NTTAWWT
sorry-- but remember the Clam Plate Orgy ?; 6/5/19, 11:55 PM
walter said...: Barr makes Schitt flop his head left and right through the night.; 6/5/19, 11:59 PM
walter said...: Not into orgies.
But I do appreciate clams one at a time.; 6/6/19, 12:03 AM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: The Brits of afraid of American chlorinated chicken.

While we Americans have never heard of it.

What the heck?; 6/6/19, 12:05 AM
BJM said...: Anyone else notice that Paul McCartney is beginning to look like an old woman?; 6/6/19, 12:50 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: mifsud's dear friend gianni pitella is papaD's wife's uncle; 6/6/19, 1:27 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "Love is kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you"; 6/6/19, 1:30 AM
Jaq said...: Is anybody here shocked that gadfly watches MSNBC, just like his hero Chuck! What’s next, are you going to be treating us to excerpts from the Daily Kos?; 6/6/19, 4:09 AM
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Visit: https://www.cryptophonesupport.com/exchange/gemini/; 6/6/19, 4:25 AM
Jaq said...: So let me get this straight. Biden’s son Hunter takes 1.2 billion from the ChiComs for his fund. I have no idea what he personally skims from that fund, along with highly coveted access to a ChiCom “free trade zone” a week after flying there on AF2 with his dad Joe, and now Joe is out there defending the Chinese

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/06/joe_biden_is_too_stupid_to_win_the_nomination_1.html; 6/6/19, 4:30 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “So let me get this straight. Biden’s son Hunter takes 1.2 billion from the ChiComs for his fund. I have no idea what he personally skims from that fund, along with highly coveted access to a ChiCom “free trade zone” a week after flying there on AF2 with his dad Joe, and now Joe is out there defending the Chinese”

Hence, probably, part of the incentive for the Russian collusion hoax. China, not Russia, is probably our biggest geopolitical opponent. They have been buying influence in DC at last since they helped the Clintons get re-elected in 1996. Russia is a diversion from all of the influence that the Chines have bought, esp with the Democrats.; 6/6/19, 4:45 AM
Jaq said...: If you preemptively accuse your opponent of whatever it is you are doing, when they point out that it is you doing it, they automatically sound hollow. It’s brilliant, really.; 6/6/19, 5:00 AM
Jaq said...: Ritmo can recite chapter and verse the CIA crimes against democracy in South America, for example, but if you suggest that the CIA may have interfered in a US election in a bid to choose their own boss? You are a nutcake!; 6/6/19, 5:02 AM
Fen said...: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/597kpd/new-report-suggests-high-likelihood-of-human-civilization-coming-to-an-end-in-2050

"The end is near! We are not a cult! Repeat! We are not a cult!"

a new approach to climate and security risk assessment is required using scenario analysis.

Funny article. It justifies using fiction to promote the fiction of Climatology. And you'll never guess what humanity will need to survive past 2050.

"I'll take Global Socialism for $200, Fen"

Oh, you seen this one? Or maybe the original? Yes, this is a reboot. Starring Micheal Mann!

If I chose Climatology as my religion, Moar Socialism would be the last thing I would use to save the human race. That would be akin to using a blowtorch to burn off fat.; 6/6/19, 5:55 AM
Fen said...: Ritmo can recite chapter and verse

I really believe that in a few years we are going to discover a propaganda farm, thousands of former India IT help desk guys working in Soros Boiler Room #3 or somesuch. And we will recognize some screen names assigned to Althouse to spread his talking points.

What are you making, Ritmo? $3 an hour? Inga? Did you know they are paying you 50% less?; 6/6/19, 6:00 AM
stevew said...: Emma Boettcher is a very good Jeopardy player and champion, but I miss James.; 6/6/19, 6:04 AM
Narayanan said...: *a new approach to climate and security risk assessment is required using scenario analysis.*

Makes Ayn Rand quite perspicacious - did that for individual freedom and technology basis for civilization.; 6/6/19, 6:06 AM
Tank said...: This is the only place on the web where I get ads with scantily clad women selling something.

Not complaining, just sayin.; 6/6/19, 6:26 AM
Tank said...: Linda Fairstein. I had quite a few interesting conversations with her many years ago on a mystery listserve (when she was just starting out in the writing business). She seemed like a decent sort and an aggressive, but fair, prosecutor of sex crimes (she was head of the sex crimes unit in NYC). I had a criticism of some of her novels, which she answered good naturedly showing a good level of self awareness and maturity. One of the themes in her books (and I am guessing also in her career as a prosecutor re: sex crimes) was the need to weed out the many false claims to get to the real ones. She is truly a victim now. I feel bad for her.; 6/6/19, 6:30 AM
Jaq said...: It’s more “international fascism” than socialism.; 6/6/19, 6:50 AM
Kassaar said...: Some facts about the terrible teen-euthanising Sodom that is the Netherlands:

The number of abortions per capita in America is nearly twice as high as in the Netherlands.

Then number of gun-related deaths per capita in America is about 21 times as high as in the Netherlands.

Kassaar; 6/6/19, 6:53 AM
Jaq said...: It’s almost like there is a hidden agenda behind going after climate change hammer and sickle, err, I mean hammer and tongs. My favorite part is when they explain that it’s scientists who say it, so there’s no denying it!

Socialists will put on whatever outfit they think will get people to listen to them. Pope wears a funny hat and people listen to him? We need a socialist pope in a funny hat! Somebody say you can’t argue with science? Well then we need socialist scientists! College professors teach our youth? Well then college professors should all be socialist!

It doesn’t hurt their cause that we have raised a whole generation of kids who can't even define fascism.; 6/6/19, 6:58 AM
Nichevo said...: Kassaar said...
Some facts about the terrible teen-euthanising Sodom that is the Netherlands

That's OK Dutch, you'll always be ahead of us in number of SS divisions formed and Jews sent to the gas chambers.; 6/6/19, 7:26 AM
Paco Wové said...: Scott Alexander has two very, very, long blog posts reviewing/excerpting The Secret of Our Success, an interesting-sounding book whose off-putting and
ridiculously long subtitle is "How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter" but really ought to be something like "How Humans and Cultures Co-evolve", as it's really about the importance of cultural transmission of knowledge to human evolutionary success, e.g., "Tomasello et al tested human toddlers vs. apes on a series of traditional IQ type questions. The match-up was surprisingly fair; in areas like memory, logic, and spatial reasoning, the three species did about the same. But in ability to learn from another person, humans wiped the floor with the other two ape species..."; 6/6/19, 7:35 AM
Jaq said...: It’s funny the the Netherlands has a lower rate of death for “causes amenable to healthcare” unless you include a disease like cancer, which, last I checked, at least in the US, was “amenable to healthcare” which is why the death rate in the US to cancer + gun deaths, which are highly concentrated in certain urban areas, BTW, is still lower than the Dutch death rate due to cancer alone.; 6/6/19, 8:12 AM
Jaq said...: One of the funniest Fox Butterfield type comments I read was in an article that noted that IQs were dropping in advanced countries, except for the US, but then they allowed that the US wasn’t really an "advanced country" on account of our retrograde attitude towards immigration. I wish I could find the link.; 6/6/19, 8:15 AM
Marc in Eugene said...: An older fellow on the bus yesterday afternoon was trying to use the voice assistant on his mobile to find out when the Raptors and Golden State game started. It wasn't working, ahem, so I looked on mine and told him. He then began a long explanation why he wanted the Raptors to win. Never did figure out what game those people play at, although I looked when I got home.; 6/6/19, 10:11 AM
Narr said...: AG Barr tempts me to believe there are some actual serious patriots in DC; we'll see how he deals with the Blob . . . Caltiki the Immortal Monster.

Emma B the new Jeopardy champ is a librarian, IIUC. A credit to our profession.

Narr
You go, girl!; 6/6/19, 10:37 AM
stevew said...: Emma B makes some amusing, to me at least, faces in response to some of Trebek's time filler banter.; 6/6/19, 11:06 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I remember seeing the Elgin marbles and the Pieta over in Europe and I don't think a picture can really convey them. Sometimes only travel gets you to another place."

Anybody else remember seeing the Pieta at the New York World's Fair in 1964. You couldn't really see it. There was some weird theater and it was there in the spotlight as you moved by on a conveyer belt. I've seen the Pieta in Rome too. It's behind glass and you can't see all the angles. You can sort of see it.

I think virtual reality could produce a better visual experience.

But if you get excited knowing you are in the same place, like being in the same room with a celebrity, you're getting something VR can't give you. But that's something that takes place in your mind and other things can take place in your mind. The question is what is the best MENTAL experience. What can your mind do? My mind doesn't get super-excited being in a room with a celebrity, and, in fact, I find it a little annoying and frustrating. It's frustrating because the person is there, but the encounter is both real and unreal. You won't really get to know that celebrity and the frisson of nearness only works if you've put in the time getting to know the person in some distant setting.

For example, on 2 of occasions, I sat next to a recording artist I loved -- had the next table in a restaurant. But it only meant something because of all the many hours I spent far away from them but in an intimate relationship to the recorded music. It was exciting but at the same time meaningless. I couldn't do anything with them, and they had no reason to interact with me. And knowing that, I didn't even speak to them, just acted as if I didn't notice them.; 6/6/19, 12:21 PM
Narr said...: Prof, I'm pretty sure the musicians you mention appreciated the privacy. Not meaningless, just an opportunity to be human in an unusual way.

Narr
Been in some rooms with some celebrities, through no fault of my own; 6/6/19, 2:56 PM