Sunrise, 6:55.

Deer at sunrise.

As seen from the path:

Zoomed in:

I'm surprised that I saw the one deer, not that the second deer was invisible to me until I saw the second photograph. I still can't see the second deer in the first photograph.

"On the dubious assumption that the Mandate does pass constitutional muster—which we need not decide today—it is nonetheless fatally flawed on its own terms."

"Indeed, the Mandate’s strained prescriptions combine to make it the rare government pronouncement that is both overinclusive (applying to employers and employees in virtually all industries and workplaces in America, with little attempt to account for the obvious differences between the risks facing, say, a security guard on a lonely night shift, and a meatpacker working shoulder to shoulder in a cramped warehouse) and underinclusive (purporting to save employees with 99 or more coworkers from a 'grave danger' in the workplace, while making no attempt to shield employees with 98 or fewer coworkers from the very same threat). The Mandate’s stated impetus—a purported ‘emergency’ that the entire globe has now endured for nearly two years,' and which OSHA itself spent nearly two months responding to—is unavailing as well. And its promulgation grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority."

From the 5th Circuit opinion, which came out yesterday, extending the stay of OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard "pending adequate judicial review" of the motion for a permanent injunction. 

The news of "moral panic."

1. "The conservative moral panic over a new California bill on children's toys" (SF Gate): The purported "moral panic" is criticism of a bill that requires toy stores to have a "gender neutral" section. Who's closer to a condition that can be called "moral panic" — the people who push through legislation like this or the people who don't appreciate the regulation? 

2. "The BBC and The Times are accused of stoking a 'moral panic' against the trans community" (Insider). A trans person asserts "I now feel like I'm a disease, a problem, something that needs to be gotten rid of, because every story that features in the British press about trans people is negative." There was a BBC article recently, "We're being pressured into sex by some trans women" about lesbians objecting to being called transphobic because they only want to have sex with people who are biologically female. (Isn't this Insider article itself raising a moral panic — about attacks on transgender people?)

3. "Steven Pinker: Danger of moral panic over 'fake news'" (Global Herald). 

4. "A Frenzy of Book Banning" by Michelle Goldberg (NYT). "[T]he paranoid belief that liberalism is a front for pedophile cabals is a staple of the QAnon conspiracy theory. This spreading moral panic demonstrates, yet again, why the left needs the First Amendment, even if the veneration of free speech has fallen out fashion among some progressives." (But isn't there also a moral panic about QAnon?)

5. "Election guru Rachel Bitecofer: Democrats face '10-alarm fire' after Virginia debacle Democrats could still win midterms and stop Trump's coup, says election forecaster — if they actually had a plan" (Salon). Republicans are using "the bogeyman of 'critical race theory' to mobilize white voters anxious about demographic change and overly eager to protect their children (or other people's) from the truths of American history" and Democrats lack "anything close to an adequate defense against these racist moral-panic attacks." (Isn't this idea of "Trump's coup" also a moral panic?)

6. "‘Traditional Values’ Unite Both Sides in a New Ideological Cold War/Republicans and global authoritarians around the world from different political, cultural and social contexts use alarmingly similar tactics" (Moscow Times). "Far-right demagogues from Moscow to Texas increasingly incite moral panic to stir up tensions and deflect from domestic troubles.... [Putin] did not address public health measures and instead chose to rail against 'cancel culture' and gender-segregated bathrooms in the West."

7. "How Did Paul Gosar Become Such a Deranged Meme Lord?/'You are a dentist, for God’s sake. You don’t need to be tweeting these "Attack on Titan" memes'" (Daily Beast)."You’re seeing these weird shades of conspiracy theories—there’s a softer, leftier tinge to all of these. I’m seeing people with, like, anime avatars using astrology to argue [Travis Scott's Astroworld concert] was a Satanic ritual... There is sort of a soft spiritualism, I think, among certain Gen Z and millennial cohorts… I think that these audiences are a little bit more receptive to moral panics than older folks might realize."

8."How France's ‘great replacement’ theory conquered the global far right" (France24). 'The people who watch that interview and who may fall for this moral panic, this idea that they’re going to be replaced ethnographically... don’t want to be called racist and will say they’re defending civilisation."

"The form-fitting dresses and retro color palette that Sinema favors are a way of broadcasting her bona fides as a middle-class politician and thus someone in step with middle-class values."

"One might laugh at how literal this sounds as political stagecraft, but consider that almost all people in this country think of themselves as middle class, regardless of how much (or little) money they have. It is our cultural default, and we see it as normative. We use 'middle-class' interchangeably with other powerful nationalist signifiers like 'citizen,' 'voter' and 'American.' And, though my progressive comrades may balk at this comparison, if you compare Sinema to some of Congress’s best-known female politicians, her style is easily the most accessible to her constituents. I know enough about fashion, and how much it costs, to know that few American women can afford to dress like, for instance, the preternaturally turned-out Nancy Pelosi. In fact, part of what makes Sinema’s style performance so uncomfortable for many of us is how middle-class it is: She doesn’t seem to be trying to do better. But that does not mean her style story lacks aspiration.... [Her] presentation reads like 'someone who’s got a catalog budget but is trying to imagine what that high-end editorial looks like, someone who aspires to be cool and edgy.' One dimension of class in Sinema’s sartorial performance is that it is basic but aspirational, not in power, but in coolness."

Another article about Kyrsten Sinema's clothing in the NYT. This one is "How Kyrsten Sinema Uses Clothing to Signal Her Social Class" by Tressie McMillan Cottom, who is "an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, the author of 'Thick: And Other Essays' and a 2020 MacArthur fellow."

"I wish students had the choice of either writing essays or speaking them."

"We would train them in the ability to speak carefully and coherently with the same goal of making a point that we require in writing.... It is unclear to me that there is a reason to classify oral suasion as something lesser than the written version, as long as students are instructed that they are to maintain a basic, tempered poise, without relying on volume or colorful rhetoric to stand in for logic. Some will object that students will need to be able to craft arguments in writing in their future endeavors. But to channel the modern kind of skeptical response: Will they, though? How elaborate do memos get? And especially, are enough students really likely to need writing that it must be drilled into all of them?... To be sure, only formal writing can harbor 'Beloved' or 'Ulysses,' extended scientific proofs or detailed historical documentation. However, when it comes to individuals expressing their intelligence for assignments or teaching, I cannot see that writing is the only legitimate and effective vehicle."

Writes John McWhorter, in "If You Have Something to Say, Then Say It" (NYT).

He specifies that he's not talking about "the mano a mano of debating or the thrilling but colloquial speechmaking of preaching." He's interested in what he calls "formal oratory."

Sunrise, before the first snow of the season.

"Today, I want to talk about a revolutionary approach to how to connect our world — without being super-weird."

"Sucking in the stomach and keeping your abdominal muscles tense as you go about your day might seem innocuous, but... [it] can have physical and mental consequences over time."

"Beyond potentially affecting the pelvic floor muscles, which are involved in posture, urination, bowel movements and sex, sucking in your gut all the time 'could alter the mechanics of your abdomen; it could alter its ability to respond to demands in the environment.... It could change your breath patterns.'... Habitually contracting your oblique abdominal muscles can exert force down on the pelvic floor muscles and potentially cause the pelvic floor to become overwhelmed, which could have consequences such as incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.... 'When you activate those upper abdominal muscles, you’re creating an increase in intra-abdominal pressure at baseline.... Many people’s fixation with having a flat stomach, or at least the appearance of one, has largely been fueled by a well-intentioned idea about health and fitness — having a strong core — that has been taken to the extreme.... While you should engage those muscles if you’re lifting a barbell, you shouldn’t be tensing them at full strength when you’re standing in line at the grocery store.... Consistently sucking in your stomach could alter the appearance of your abdomen, including a protrusion of the lower abdomen and a flaring of the rib cage. To begin retraining your muscles, experts recommend consciously trying to relax and let your stomach out...."

From "Stop sucking in your stomach all the time — it could be bad for your health" (WaPo).

Who knew this was a problem?! I suspect it's symbolic of a whole set of problems — shallow overachievement leaving you in worse condition than if you would just relax and take it easy. 

Live-streaming the Rittenhouse trial.

"UW-Madison told its employees on Thursday that they must be vaccinated by early 2022 to comply with a vaccine mandate for federal contractors."

"The university said the order applies to all workers, including student employees, those working remotely from home and part-time workers. About 95% of employees are already fully vaccinated.... Roughly 1,800 UW-Madison employees have not yet provided proof of vaccination.... The University of Wisconsin System last month said it would comply with President Joe Biden’s executive order to avoid jeopardizing millions of dollars in federal contracts."

The Wisconsin State Journal reports.

"How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?"

An interesting question, attributed by many people — including the President of the United States — to Satchel Paige. I'm encountering it this morning because Instapundit linked to a Pajamas Media item called "Joe Biden Refers to Satchel Paige as 'The Great Negro.'" Yeah, Biden ought to speak more fluently, but he was obviously trying to say "the great Negro Leagues pitcher" and got tripped up, perhaps because he knows you're not supposed to say "negro" without "leagues" immediately after it. 

Quick! Say "Leagues" or there's big trouble! Could everybody just calm down?

Anyway, Biden was just trying to get to the quote, "How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?" I hadn't seen the thought put like that, which seems a bit like a Zen koan. I like it! I certainly like it much better than the very trite "You're only as old as you feel" or this meme I saw on Facebook recently: "The sad part about getting older is that no one can see you're still young on the inside."

What does "feeling old" consist of? Each of us has our own internal experience, which includes a lot of imagining how other people feel, and if you are old but think you "feel young," aren't you just saying you don't feel the way you — with your anti-oldness prejudice — have ascribed to various old people who are not you? But how do you know how they feel? It's a big bundle of bias. 

Anyway, I like the format of the observation in "How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?" But did Satchel Paige originate it? I was pleased to see that Quote Investigator has looked into this already. It found the quote in a 1927 sermon that was discussed in a New York newspaper. Satchel Paige supposedly said it on his 47th birthday, which was in 1953.

"It was a Razzie-worthy performance in my view, but I’m not the target audience for this sick show."

Writes Ja'han Jones, in "Kyle Rittenhouse’s white crocodile tears hold value in America/The man charged with homicide in the deaths of two anti-police brutality protesters put on quite the show for a nearly all-white jury this week" by  (MSNBC).

The Rittenhouse murder trial is being prosecuted in front of a nearly all-white jury, before a white judge who uses conservative lingo to describe protesters, in a country where white vigilantism is often excused, if not worshipped. In that context, Rittenhouse’s tears, real or not, have tremendous value. There’s a type of person who is vulnerable to emotional appeals from violent white men, and Rittenhouse’s attorneys only need one of 12 jurors to fit the profile to win this case.... 

From the outset, the Rittenhouse murder trial has been theater, with a cast of characters who are seemingly meant to vindicate conservatives’ violent hero worship. Rittenhouse’s waterworks were an essential part of the act, painting him as a reluctant killer instead of a boastful one. His acquittal would set a dangerous precedent, but it could be the finale we’re headed toward. 

Prepare yourself for much more of that. The media are not going to help preserve the peace if Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted (or the judge grants the motion for a mistrial with prejudice).

I watched in real time as Rittenhouse broke down and cried, and I said:

At the Rainy Day Café...

 ... there's no photograph — I didn't go out — but you can talk about whatever you want.

"One would think... that Democrats... would be more than happy to defend the idea that racism exists at every level of American schooling and tout the work of educators to address inequality."

"Instead, many have embarked on a great campaign of denial. This is particularly strange, because significant, equity-based changes in schools across the country should be seen as progressive victories. The problem seems to be that some small portion of what’s produced in the name of equity in schools is pretty embarrassing. That stuff, which mostly can be found in diversity trainings, then gets blasted out to the world as proof that the race hucksters are taking over the schools.... If you’re getting mad at an equity or antiracism idea gone wrong, make sure it’s either an actual policy or part of a curriculum or a training program. This means not getting worked up over singular examples in which a teacher says something in a classroom and then suddenly every 'woke' teacher in America has to answer for them. Try to disregard ephemera like quotes from random parents and, especially, students. Do critically engage with school board members, especially in big cities, and, of course, politicians. As much as possible, try to talk in concrete terms. This goes for both sides. Moral panics feed off ambiguity and confusion...."

From "Can We Talk About Critical Race Theory?" by Jay Caspian Kang (NYT).

"We are heating Europe, but they still threaten us with closing the border. But what if we cut off [gas] for the Poles and, for example, for the Germans? What will happen then?"

"We should stop at nothing when defending our sovereignty and our independence.... I would recommend that the Polish leadership, the Lithuanians and other brainless people think before speaking."

Said President Lukashenko of Belarus, quoted in "Huge far-right protest in Warsaw as Poland-Belarus border crisis intensifies" (London Times).