Althouse: The Halloween sunrise

October 31, 2021

The Halloween sunrise — 7:30 and 7:34.

28 comments:

Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Excerpt taken from a C.S. Lewis essay, written three years after the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “On Living In An Atomic Age”:

"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors – an aesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things – praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

Via Darkhorse Podcast. LINK; 10/31/21, 8:15 PM
Maynard said...: I was also listening to the Dark Horse podcast. Heather referred to Richard Feynman's statement that "Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts".

It probably refers more to the enlightened woke ignorance and cowardice of our "educated" classes. They have no clue about science. They represent what Thomas Kuhn described as people who act repetitively on old information until one enlightened soul challenges the accepted paradigm.

If Albert Einstein had just trusted Isaac Newton (one of the foremost scientists for nearly two centuries) we would never know about the theory of relativity. Well, he was a privileged White Man.

Does anyone think that Anthony Fauci can discuss this philosophy of science issue in a cogent manner?; 10/31/21, 9:28 PM
Original Mike said...: OK, as a Packers fan Aaron Rodgers is kinda on my shit list, but you gotta like this

It's the dog that makes it…; 10/31/21, 9:35 PM
FullMoon said...: Bottom of the fifth, crowd chanting "Let's go Brandon".

Oh, the humanity!; 10/31/21, 9:42 PM
DLH said...: Really wanted the Braves to win tonight to help make up for the Falcons choking it up in the super bowl up 28 to 3. Nope, up 4 to 0 in first inning at home and let it slip away. Not from Atlanta but rooting for them until Orioles actually get good.; 10/31/21, 11:27 PM
Gospace said...: I mentioned in another thread that the nomenklatura has been massively successful in getting MSM and social media to march in lockstep and censor all discussion of covid treatments other than the vaccine, which will be the Savior of Mankind!

Hence, to get any news on covid other than propaganda on how the unvaxxed are spreading covid and developing the variants- the latter being a LIE, you end up at sketchy sites that have numbers. And the numbers tend to be real, even though the site itself may engage in conspiracy theory stuff. Knowing how competent the feds are, it's tough to believe most conspiracy theories. Though we did have one at the highest levels of the intelligence and law enforcement agencies during the Trunp administration dedicated to bringing down Trump. That's pretty much indispytable by now.

Anyway, a website with numbers. And a mention of the Lancet study which turned out to be manufactured horse manure.:
https://www.theqtree.com/2021/10/31/lancetgate-effect-2-0-indonesia/; 11/1/21, 1:43 AM
gadfly said...: "Remember, Remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot"

Can we next expect a 5th of January rhyme similar to the above that is used for Guy Fawkes Day in the UK which commemorates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot - when 14 individuals planned to blow up the House of Lords during the opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605?

"Nary, Nary Another 5th of January, No More Coups in America"; 11/1/21, 2:29 AM
Big Mike said...: Over at hotair.com Jazz Shaw writes that there seems to be a concerted, coordinated effort to paint Alec Baldwin as a victim. No conscientious gun owner accepts this. As the person holding the gun, why did he not check the cylinder to confirm that it was empty? As executive producer, why did he hire an inexperienced armorer? Why did he not hold regular safety meetings on the set? Why did he allow any live ammo anywhere within miles of the set? A cross draw starts with the gun pointed 90 degrees to your left and then you sweep (point your gun at) everything between there and your eventual point of aim. Both as actor and as executive producer, why did he not make certain no one was standing within the arc his gun travels? Yes, it was an accident, but accidents need to be analyzed to determine what went wrong so it doesn’t happen a second time elsewhere.; 11/1/21, 6:18 AM
Lewis said...: The Age Of Darkness.

The chatter on the wind is the irritation
Of the street: drunks or illiterate poor
Claiming back bitter heritage of dark
Or barbaric recompense of pillage.
The habited Romans on their destined sword
Of solitary circlings; burnt books,
Artefacts in whose flames is seen the death
Of some peculiar, personal march
To some incongruous goal. Not sacrificed
But burnt with the words and flaming tongue
Taking all in a lying confession
Of confounded biographies.
The time heralded on an ox skin drum
And thus brought to a passive, anonymous march,
A prayer of strangers.; 11/1/21, 6:31 AM
Lewis said...: Odd Numbers.

Odd numbers on a scrap of paper
Found in my library Blake, seeming so familiar:
Did whoever wrote that read this or underline
And spoil, gather like a hoarder scattered words
That confirmed his or her own boredom,
Were these accessed digits loves, vague catches
Of possible friends, the desperate last
Samaritan to a falling despair
Or the casual overflow of the overly social:
What did Blake say except how we are born
Bludgeoned by our imaginings, sweating
An infernal magic, ignored and burdened
With needed, wrong acquaintance: dictums
Of law and friendship, a private room,
The fantastic visions of candlelight,
Silence of before the telephone?

Is he or she a friend, this Blake ‘scholar’,
This desecrator, this egotist,
This humanity? Probably not.; 11/1/21, 6:33 AM
rehajm said...: ...to help make up for the Falcons choking it up in the super bowl up 28 to 3.

They didn't choke, they were an inferior team that sold its soul to lead 28 to 3, then the devil came to collect...; 11/1/21, 7:29 AM
Scot said...: In the second image, I see a fading Jack O'Lantern.; 11/1/21, 7:45 AM
tim maguire said...: The audio of the Southwest Pilot is circulating on Twitter. It does not capture him saying "Let's go Brandon." I don't know if he's admitted it or not, but so far all we have is the unsupported claim of an obviously mentally unbalanced (her response was to try to break into the cockpit!) AP journalist.

Turns out, though, that the real story is much much worse. Dave Burge has the goods here.; 11/1/21, 7:46 AM
wendybar said...: And the Washington Post is telling us to lower our expectation, after hating on people who tried to Make America Great Again. THAT is the difference between America hating Progressives and Americans who LOVE America....in a nutshell. https://moonbattery.com/lowering-expectations-in-usa-and-north-korea/#disqus_thread; 11/1/21, 9:20 AM
Lewis said...: Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Sitting there in your armour plated chair
Metal guru, is it true?
Metal guru, is it true?
All alone without a telephone
Metal guru could it be
You're gonna bring my baby to me
She'll be wild you know
A rock 'n' roll child
Metal guru has it been
Just like a silver-studded sabre-tooth dream
I'll be clean you know
Pollution machine
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru could it be
You're gonna bring my baby to me
She'll be wild you know
A rock 'n' roll child
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
All alone without a telephone
Metal guru could it be
You're gonna bring my baby to me
She'll be wild you know
A rock'n'roll child
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?
Metal guru, is it you?; 11/1/21, 1:45 PM
TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...: "Can we next expect a 5th of January rhyme similar to the above that is used for Guy Fawkes Day in the UK"

Probably not, since there was no insurrection, just a run of the mill riot enabled by the incompetence of the head of the Capitol Police.

But Lefties need their fantasies as they refuse to live in the real world.; 11/1/21, 3:12 PM
Lewis said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzXuetfebYQ; 11/2/21, 3:15 AM
Lewis said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCisln-xLLo; 11/2/21, 3:34 AM
Lewis said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3AovUZgvo; 11/2/21, 12:22 PM
Lewis said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfPlKNNS_p0&list=RDGMEMQ1dJ7wXfLlqCjwV0xfSNbA; 11/2/21, 12:27 PM
Lewis said...: 'Laskie' means love in Czech.; 11/2/21, 12:28 PM
Lewis said...: 'atd' is Czech for etc.; 11/2/21, 12:32 PM
Lewis said...: Laska, the feminine, is Chezch for love.; 11/2/21, 12:33 PM
Lewis said...: Me, with my caddy of tea, watching tv, what does it mean? Stinking like an old guy, I am an old guy, feeling sorry about what?; 11/2/21, 12:36 PM
Lewis said...: XII

The hooves are running backwards
Over a broken head and “that’s history.” .-
We have grown smaller and, thus, our guilt grows great: .
Magnificent, this pygmy size,
This laughing below our sleeves,
This to large coat turned up at the cuffs. .

So, there we were, laughing on the ramparts,
Broken, of course, a castle whose name,
Even, is unrecallable (could we pronounce it?)
Spouting a name that we’d also forgotten:
Is that possible? Come (but, please, don’t)
Meet my contemporaries: the list of casualties
Is endless, the reason (we are to small) unknown.
That’s us, liars, and not the guts to say
The size of this life no longer suits.
Faded the cotton, the colour, the moment.
Don’t stop to see, my dead ones. I’m small, too.; 11/2/21, 5:09 PM
Lewis said...: XIII

But we still live: this dead breath, this whisper
Of Godlessness, this violence to our name,
This dishonour, the cynical wanting
Of a nothing that will, O I promise, come.
O yes, you dare to live? You live,
You don’t live, you desecrate my dead.; 11/2/21, 5:27 PM
Lewis said...: I don't care if you don't publish my rubbish - it's only to you I write, only to you.; 11/2/21, 5:29 PM
Lewis said...: XVI

Want, then, the smile, thinking beyond,
Merely, the possibility: guide
Yourself towards the quite legendary path
That, ‘as yet’, does not exist:
The mantrap, the green, the profuse flowers,
The red, the blue, the joke
And, yes, a parrot, the parrot
Speaking those words
You thought would come from God.; 11/3/21, 2:53 AM