Althouse: At the Milkweed Café...

June 27, 2022

At the Milkweed Café...

... you can talk about anything you want.

41 comments:

Howard said...: It's Ice Cream season in Center Mass.; 6/27/22, 6:22 PM
madAsHell said...: Another sign of inflation.......all my usual ATM cash sources only hand out $20's, and $100's.

Even the cashier at the local Safeway had trouble making a $20 into two $10's. Coins are in the same category. Anachronisms from an evolving system.; 6/27/22, 6:38 PM
madAsHell said...: The Seattle Pride Parade is focused on the recent Roe v. Wade ruling. The Pride Parade is spreading the concern that same sex marriage is next.

I see that Iggy Azalea is headlining the Pride Parade concert party. Wasn't there a better paying gig at the Casino on the Rez?; 6/27/22, 6:57 PM
Lucien said...: In Dobbs, the challenged Mississippi law barred most abortions after 15 weeks — which is the standard proposed by VA Governor Youngkin. Per the CDC’s 2019 statistics, this would allow over 95% of abortions. I claim that the majority of women who had abortions at 16 or 17 weeks would have responded to a 15 week limit, so only about one in forty abortions would have been illegal.
On the one hand, assuming a 15 week regime in conservative states, would it be worth it for abortion advocates to fight for different standards in such states, or just raise funds for women to travel to more abortion friendly states? On the other hand, for abortion opponents who worked for decades to reverse Roe/Casey, what would be the point if 97.5% of abortions remain legal — why wouldn’t they push for more restrictive regimes?; 6/27/22, 7:01 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I got notification to check this r/TwoXChromosomes post...

With the overturning of Roe, everyone should know about jury nullification
/r/all

A jury can refuse to find a person guilty through jury nullification, even if that person is technically guilty of the charge against them. If you find yourself on a jury with charges that you feel are unjust, you can use this.

The court will not tell you about it and try to persuade you away from using it if you mention it. The lawyers are not allowed to tell you about it. If you mention it during jury selection, you would likely be released.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

EDIT: I am not a lawyer. I offer no legal advice. This link that was posted below has good info on it: https://fija.org/

Jury nullification as protest? Is that kosher? Sounds like sabotage. I don't know.; 6/27/22, 7:02 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Am I getting gaslit by the algorithms? or is Justice Thomas really catching hell from prominent entertainment blacks. If Abortion is a racial issue, Thomas should be lauded as a hero savior. I really don't understand it.; 6/27/22, 7:15 PM
Clyde said...: One thing I like about where I work is that we have a great variety of birds and other wildlife showing up on occasion. Our USPS processing facility is in an industrial park in what used to be a swamp and still has a lot of wetlands remaining, although not nearly as much as when it opened thirty years ago. We had a black bear outside the fence a couple of weekends ago, apparently attracted by people putting out food for feral cats. I've recently seen black-bellied whistling ducks, which I had never seen before until a few weeks ago. Today, while taking my lunchtime walk, I saw a pileated woodpecker. Other recent sightings have included glossy ibises, as well as the run-of-the-mill little blue herons, great blue herons, white ibises, various egrets, etc. They provide great opportunities for photography. Once a few months back, I was leaving work and spotted a small alligator crossing the road. Another day, I had a deer come walking out of the woods right in front of me, just a couple of hundred feet from the main road. He stopped in the island in the middle of the road, looked me in the eye, then bounded across the road in front of me. Nature puts on a good show if you are paying attention.; 6/27/22, 7:31 PM
Jaq said...: So Joe Biden is recorded on a message to his son saying “I think you’re clear,” re a New York Times story about the arrest for corruption of a Chinese national and Hunter business partner. Next we pretend it didn’t happen.; 6/27/22, 7:58 PM
gilbar said...: i'm trying to get through episode Episode 150: “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles..
Which is like, 16 hours long; am i'm really becoming convinced, that Most Rock music is shite

Have any of you made it through that episode?
I've made it as far as John Lennon saying that they were bigger than Jesus
(which apparently was taken COMPLETELY out of context.. What John MEANT was: They were Bigger than Jesus); 6/27/22, 8:05 PM
Bender said...: You understand Lem.

You dare to leave the plantation, they will go after you.

White man Alito wrote the opinion, but they are going after Thomas and Barrett. Because the Plantation Party will not tolerate even one Black man or one woman standing up for Blacks' and women's true interests.; 6/27/22, 8:05 PM
Mason G said...: "would it be worth it for abortion advocates to fight for different standards in such states, or just raise funds for women to travel to more abortion friendly states?"

These are progressives you're talking about. They won't be satisfied until everybody everywhere does things exactly the same way (and maybe, not even then). All things must be either mandated or prohibited.; 6/27/22, 8:21 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Old post: "The Supreme Court on Friday reinstated the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of helping carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The vote was 6 to 3...." The NYT reports.

This was days before the leak. Interesting to re-read something in light of new information we had no clue about, at that time.

I'm looking for a joke/comment I made, shortly after the SCOTUS leak, in light of something VP Kamala reportedly said today.

I joked that Biden should make federal lands available to abortion providers, to help mitigate the abortion providers upcoming shortage. I was riffing off the Biden worsen oil/gas crisis, by shutting down gas lines and refusing new drilling permits on federal lands.

If it wasn't written down, nobody would believe it. I'm not saying the VP office is scouring the internet looking for ideas... or are they?

Alas, I can't find my comment.; 6/27/22, 8:33 PM
n.n said...: same sex marriage is next

Civil unions for consenting adult couples and couplets and others? Political congruence ("=") is a social construct of leverage and exclusion. Thomas criticized the process, not the outcome of trans/homosexual unions, inter-diversity unions, etc.; 6/27/22, 8:34 PM
gspencer said...: It hasn't been a happy time for the NYT. A bomb on last Thursday, Bruen, followed on Friday by a MOAB, Dobbs, with a follow-up bomb on Monday, Kennedy.

I'm hopeful that within two years Obergefell will suffer the same fate. And it should since homo-marriage has NEVER been found in the American tradition and was NEVER mentioned in the Constitution.; 6/27/22, 8:38 PM
rhhardin said...: There are a lot of experts teaching about Wittgenstein on youtube, and none of them seem to understand what Wittgenstein is up to. He's diagnosing a very particular mistake that's tempting to philosophers, and in fact traps them. It's not something of general interest. Which means teaching it to students is idle, you have to test them on something else.

The best statement, which nobody seems to find important. -- First he sets you up with common sense.

52. If I am inclined to suppose that a mouse has come into being by spontaneous generation out of grey rags and dust, I shall do well to examine those rags very closely to see how a mouse may have hidden in them, how it may have got there and so on. But if I am convinced that a mouse cannot come into being from these things, then this investigation will perhaps be superfluous.

-- Then he says that common sense is wrong, in philosophy

But first we must learn to understand what it is that opposes such an examination of details in philosophy.

-- The mouse would be meaning, and grey rags and dust are the tiny details of each situation. Philosophers abstract from details in step one.; 6/27/22, 8:38 PM
farmgirl said...: I got to “save” a really cool moth yesterday from the barn. My daughter took pics and told me it was a Polyphemus moth. I haven’t ever seen one before- he was pretty big and had small see-through holes on each wing. Beautiful eye-like markings on the bottom wings.

I read they only live 4days as an adult.

My youngest daughter videotaped a moose. Haven’t seen one of those in a while. His antlers were in velvet.; 6/27/22, 8:43 PM
gilbar said...: Serious Question
Where are the riots and "mostly peaceful" demonstrations?

After The Supreme Court took away the right to murder your children..
(which The Overwhelming Majority of Americans support: Any time, Any Place, Any Where)..
Shouldn't there be massive riots? By which, i DON'T mean; just another weekend in Portland.; 6/27/22, 8:51 PM
Narr said...: Almost finished with Paul Lockhart's "Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare." It's a very clear and readable synthesis of the latest academic research on military and naval technology in the West (mostly) since the introduction of gunpowder. It confirms many of my preju -- it largely supports my own conclusions on subjects I've studied, and clarifies and explains a lot in some areas that are murky and/or entirely neglected by most readers and historians alike.

It's not a technical treatise, but a broad survey of the way the technology drove and was driven by other forces--political, social, economic, cultural--to produce the weaponized planet we inhabit now.

The milhist and negineering-technology lovers here will find it enlightening, and even surprising at times. Anyone with a general interest in modern history should give it a try.

Have just started reading Martyn Rady's "The Habsburgs." Also an academic's synthesis of the latest understanding, but so far so readable. Well-blurbed, including by Sebag-Montefiore, who writes so well about Stalin and the Romanovs. (Mitteleuropaphilia will help, otherwise stay away.); 6/27/22, 9:31 PM
Narr said...: I have a serious question too.

Where is the Peace Movement? Sorry, The Peace Movement (tm). I'm old enough to remember when it was a thing, and all the kids marched and protested against greedy capitalist and imperialist wars for the benefit of the corporations.

Now, it's all cool.; 6/27/22, 9:39 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm going to translate this popular r/AskReddit 15k up-vote post as a sign the Supreme's abortion decision is positively percolating to the populous is a mostly positive way.

Question: "If having sex on a plane is called joining the mile high club, what would be the correct term for people that have sex in a porta-pottie at a festival or concert?

Top voted answer: The Pile High Club (there was a reason behind the p alliteration)

Don't be surprised if casual sex falls out of favor, slightly at first.; 6/27/22, 9:43 PM
WK said...: Company I work for announced today that health coverage will now include $10000 for travel expenses if a holistic health service you require is not offered with 75 miles of your home location. Specific examples were not given.; 6/27/22, 10:08 PM
iowan2 said...: Jury nullification as protest? Is that kosher? Sounds like sabotage. I don't know.

Juries can do what ever they want. They judge the facts, and the law. They can find either wanting.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the repeal of prohibition was partly driven by juries refusing to convict bootleggers and such.; 6/27/22, 10:15 PM
heyboom said...: gilbar said...

Serious Question
Where are the riots and "mostly peaceful" demonstrations?

Turns out Jane's Revenge is a paper tiger.; 6/27/22, 10:20 PM
Mark said...: "I'm hopeful that within two years Obergefell will suffer the same fate. And it should since homo-marriage has NEVER been found in the American tradition and was NEVER mentioned in the Constitution."

Nor is interracial marriage, if that is your standard. Interstate highways and the internet are not in there either.

Perhaps your talking point is short sighted. ...; 6/27/22, 10:54 PM
gadfly said...: tim in vermont said...
So Joe Biden is recorded on a message to his son saying “I think you’re clear,” re a New York Times story about the arrest for corruption of a Chinese national and Hunter business partner. Next we pretend it didn’t happen.

So a mysterious cellphone appears with a message from a voice, supposedly Joe Biden (although voice imitation is easy to do electronically) speaking to his "Pal" about an unknown NY Times article speculating that Pal is clear. Unfortunately, the message is not clear as to what "clear" means.

The Hunter and the Chicoms story is being investigated by none other than lying Rudy, so we will soon have a typical Giuliani answer. But we have to wait while he recovers from the pain caused by a pat on the back. BTW, the quality of the Rudy video is better than the voice recording from the phone.; 6/27/22, 11:08 PM
Pianoman said...: @Gilbar said: "Where are the riots and "mostly peaceful" demonstrations?"

That's actually been a pleasant surprise. I expected to see cars on fire, as the Left set their own communities ablaze. Instead, we're treated to morbidly obese women threatening to withhold sex.

"Your Terms Are Acceptable"; 6/28/22, 2:10 AM
gadfly said...: In tomorrow's special hearing of the Jan 6 Committee, we get Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows all day, all of the time. She agreed to testify in person after shooing her Trump-associated attorney out the door.

Hutchinson had previously testified that certain guilty Republic congressmen had pleaded in vain to TFG for pardons in the lead-up to January 6., including Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona, "Gym" Jordan of Ohio, and Louie Gohmert of Texas.

Hutchinson said that on January 6, Trump had suggested to Meadows that he approved of the “hang Mike Pence” chants from rioters and complained about his then-vice president being hustled to safety.; 6/28/22, 3:48 AM
Humperdink said...: Elizabeth Warren (D-Aborteveryhumanbeing) is reportedly presenting a bill in the senate to build abortion teepees at all national park entrances. In the spirit of Affirmative Action, Native Americans, Blacks , the poor will be given preferential treatment.

In other news, 46 illegal migrants were found dead in a trailer in San Antonio attempting to respond to the democrats invitation to join the party.

Can we finally label Commie-Pinko dems the party of death?; 6/28/22, 5:29 AM
Clyde said...: 46 illegal immigrants found dead in sweltering abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio. Biden and his regime have more blood on their hands.; 6/28/22, 5:45 AM
Jaq said...: "But if I am convinced that a mouse cannot come into being from these things, then this investigation will perhaps be superfluous."

Are you commenting on the FBI's refusal to investigate election irregularities because they believed them to be "conspiracy theories" without even looking at them?; 6/28/22, 6:03 AM
Jaq said...: It's kind of funny watching Bloomberg discuss how Europe is coming around to Trump's views and the Brit tweaking the American lady on it. Her reply boils down to "Trump was uncouth."

Not just with oil, but with fertilizer, the greens handed over immense power to Putin, preventing financing of fertilizer production in developing countries for "climate reasons," thus handing Putin the lion's share of that critical market, then sanctioning those same fertilizers, choking off developing countries from that critical commodity, with a real possibility of starvation in more places than it is happening currently. Lots of countries could product fertilizer, and I suppose it will boil down to a long term sanction of Russia regardless of the outcome of the war, to make room in the markets, and for the West to stare down its own climate nazis.; 6/28/22, 6:11 AM
Jaq said...: "Trump had suggested "

LOL, Quote or it didn't happen.; 6/28/22, 6:13 AM
Humperdink said...: In the spirit of bipartisanship (sarc), Trump allies and exculpatory evidence were all elbowed off the January 6 hearing agenda by house speaker Nancy Pelosi (aka Lavrentiy Beria).; 6/28/22, 6:36 AM
lonejustice said...: "Juries can do what ever they want. They judge the facts, and the law."

This is not correct. Juries determine what the facts are, based on all of the evidence.

But it is the Judge who determines what the law is. The Judge instructs the jury on what the law is in the particular case. This is done through jury instructions.; 6/28/22, 6:59 AM
jim5301 said...: Tim - This "smoking gun" voice mail from Joe to Hunter. Why do you suppose it is just coming to light now? The Daily Mail says that it was on Hunter's computer, which I believe the right-wing media has had for two years or so. Took them that long to find it?; 6/28/22, 7:12 AM
Jaq said...: It was only recently decrypted and there are gigabytes of stuff on there. Let me guess, you don't want to look into it, even if it is in Biden's voice and the laptop has been confirmed as authentic because reasons.; 6/28/22, 8:01 AM
Jaq said...: Are you saying that if it is authentic, it points to deep involvement in corruption by Joe Biden, and hints at a coverup by the New York Times, who kept Hunter's name out of the story? That's an interesting marker, or are you saying that even if true, there is an innocent explanation for "I think you're clear" and that Joe didn't outright lie when he said he never discussed Hunter's business dealings with him?

If you guys had this much on Trump, he would be behind bars right this minute.; 6/28/22, 8:05 AM
Christopher B said...: Mark said...
Nor is interracial marriage, if that is your standard. Interstate highways and the internet are not in there either.

You can always tell a liberal because they have no f'ing idea what's actually in the Constitutional text. The Postal Clause in Article I, Section 8 gave Congress the power "To establish Post Offices and post Roads" and “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper” for executing this task.

Interracial marriage was secured by a combination of the 14th Amendment Privileges and Immunities clause, along with the Full Faith and Credit clause.

If you ground decisions in the actual text of the Constitution and not emanations from some judge's penumbra then you get decisions that last.; 6/28/22, 8:50 AM
jim5301 said...: Tim - I am saying exactly what I said. That it seems odd that we are only learning about this now. I though the right-wing media had teams of dozens working 24/7 on this. As for the recording, it sounds like Joe Biden but I assume you would agree that things like that can be faked pretty easily in 2022.I watched a show on Apple last night where Bill Clinton appeared in a fictional debate that never happened. Sounded just like him. Where is the voice analysis? Where is your skepticism?

As for the relevance, I am still waiting to see a document - sort of like an indictment - that clearly lays out the evidence (not just conclusory stuff) that Joe Biden committed a crime. (An explanation why the Trump DOJ never did anything would be nice as well.) Can you point me to such a document?

I recall you made a big deal about thousands of mail-in-ballots in Wisconsin never being counted. Still stand by that assertion, Tim? What's your source for that one?; 6/28/22, 9:04 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Have any of you made it through that episode?"

I'm 2/3 of the way through. About 2 and a half hours in.; 6/28/22, 10:06 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Re taking John's Jesus remark out of context:

"Here’s the story as it’s generally told. John Lennon gave an interview to his friend, Maureen Cleave of the Evening Standard, during which he made some comments about how it was depressing that Christianity was losing relevance in the eyes of the public, and that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus, speaking casually because he was talking to a friend. That story was run in the Evening Standard more-or-less unnoticed, but then an American teen magazine picked up on the line about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, reprinted chunks of the interview out of context and without the Beatles’ knowledge or permission, as a way to stir up controversy, and there was an outcry, with people burning Beatles records and death threats from the Ku Klux Klan.

"That’s… not exactly what happened....

"Art Unger [the editor and publisher of Datebook magazine] was rather upset at this, as he argued that Lennon’s remarks hadn’t been taken out of context at all, and he said so at the press conference — as far as he was concerned, you couldn’t get less out of context than reprinting the entire article in full (apart from cutting five sentences of introductory material at the beginning, which had just been there to establish for an adult audience that the Beatles were indeed worth paying attention to. According to Unger, he had something of a row with Epstein later and Epstein tried a carrot and stick approach, threatening to get Unger’s press access to the tour revoked to avoid making it look like everything had been a publicity stunt, but Lennon apparently stuck up for Unger, who he regarded as a friend. We can’t know for sure what actually happened, as all three participants are now sadly dead, but Unger did end up going on the tour."; 6/28/22, 10:19 AM