"Frankly it lies beyond science to prove the matter one way or the other. Science will not collapse..."

"... if some practitioners are convinced that occasionally there has been creative input in the long chain of being."

Said Owen Gingerich, quoted in "Owen Gingerich, Astronomer Who Saw God in the Cosmos, Dies at 93/He wrote and lectured widely, often on the theme that religion and science were not incompatible. He also chased down 600 copies of Copernicus’s landmark book" (NYT).

"Imagine you're a G.O.P. operative or campaign manager. What’s your elevator pitch for a Trump candidacy?"

The NYT asks a panel of political writers (along with other questions), in "He Has Nothing Else': Our Writers on Trump and the 2024 Election." From the answers:

David Brooks He makes the right enemies. He brought us peace and a good economy. 

Frank Bruni It’s an age of rage, and no candidate will tap into that as shamelessly and with as little regard for the consequences as the madman of Mar-a-Lago.... 

Not the "Pride Month" kind of pride.

 I'm just noticing that the previous 2 posts have the "pride" tag.

"As a successful white woman who served for many years as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York..."

"... I feel it is incumbent upon me and other white women in my generation to reaffirm the policies that helped us secure our positions in political institutions, academia, business, medicine and law. If the Supreme Court overturns or neuters this well-settled law, every one of us who proudly bore the title 'the first woman' must work to ensure underrepresented communities maintain access to elite educational institutions.... White women must leverage the privilege and positions they have achieved and stand alongside communities of color."

Writes Shira A. Scheindlin in "If the Supreme Court Abolishes Affirmative Action, Here’s What Women Need to Do" (NYT).

She's asking for oddly little. She speaks of those who were called "the first woman" in some area and then only the ones who "proudly bore the title." I don't think I was ever the first woman anything, and if I were, I wouldn't have regarded it as my "title" and vaunted it in any way. I don't get this "proud bearing" of a "title." I would have wanted to believe I was the best candidate, not someone chosen ahead of anyone else so that the employer could express pride in its accomplishment, finding one of those who'd do well enough in the position. 

And then even within that category of proud bearers of the "first woman" title, Scheindlin is only asking that they ensure "access" for "underrepresented communities." Access? What does that mean other than to have an open system of application and selection? That's exactly what we'll be left with if and when the Court bans affirmative action.

Finally, white women are called on to "stand alongside communities of color." What is that? What good does it do? 

"The four children found alive after surviving for 40 days in a Colombian jungle were told by their mother to leave the site of a plane crash and seek help..."

"... their father said. According to the oldest child, their mother lived for about four days after surviving the impact of the crash that left the group stranded in the wilderness.... Fidencio Valencia, an uncle, told reporters... that the siblings initially sustained themselves on cassava flour known as fariña, which was being transported aboard the aircraft.... 'When the plane crashed, they took out a fariña, and with that, they survived.... After the fariña ran out, they began to eat seeds.'... [R]escuer Henry Guerrero said the children also found one of 100 emergency supply kits scattered by the military — as well as wild fruits and plants in the jungle."

From "Mother told kids to leave Colombia plane crash site for help, family says" (WaPo).

Here's a tweet from Colombia’s military showing a drawing from the 2 oldest children. We're told: "This drawing represents the hope of an entire country":

"My parent friends routinely post proud images of their newborns in Ramones onesies or their sixth-graders dressed up like Margot Tenenbaum from 'The Royal Tenenbaums.'"

"I like all the pics genuinely, but I think to myself, I know what you’re doing. And then I think and Godspeed,' because the odds are just as likely that if you try too hard to tip the scales of your kid’s coolness, it will backfire. You’ll be the liberal hippie parents on 'Family Ties' and your kid will resemble Alex P. Keaton. It is utterly normal to want your kid to like what you like, just as it is normal to instill them with your values, sense of community, ethics, or flair for vintage Swatch watches. There are jokes about this in the culture, such as the still-shared Onion headline, 'Cool Dad Raising Daughter on Media That Will Put Her Entirely Out of Touch With Her Generation.'"

Writes Tracey Moore in "Parents, you can’t make your kid cool. Maybe stop trying?" (WaPo).

I think the important point here is not what "cool" is or whether it matters or how to get there. It's not about coolness at all but vanity. Don't use your children for your purposes — to boost your pride, to make you feel right about everything. You can expose them to plenty of things that you think are good, but if they're only adopting your ideas and your tastes, something's missing. And it isn't coolness. It's independence of mind.

"Now, the fact that a judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned doesn’t mean that the judge is partial."

"The public may simply not trust the impartiality of the judge. Because public trust in the work of the court is a value as important as the work itself, the rule says that the judge should not sit when we can’t fairly ask the public to trust what the judge does. That rule is especially important in this case. One thing the prosecution can do is move to recuse Judge Cannon on the ground that, in light of her experience in the search-warrant case last year, her impartiality might reasonably be questioned. And who would make that judgment if the government does push for this recusal? The judge herself gets to make that decision in our system. If she denies the recusal, the government could go to the Eleventh Circuit and ask it to order her to recuse herself... a process called mandamus.... Mandamus efforts are rarely successful...."

Says lawprof Stephen Gillers, interviewed in "Will the Judge in Trump’s Case Recuse Herself—or Be Forced To?/Federal law requires a judge to step away from a case in which her impartiality 'might reasonably be questioned'" (The New Yorker).

The judge — Aileen M. Cannon, assigned the case through the routine and random selection process — is a Trump appointee.

If the random selection had been a Biden appointee, would that judge also have to recuse herself/himself? If Cannon were to recuse herself, and she is replaced by a Biden appointee — or an appointee of any Democratic President — wouldn't Trump's demand for recusal be at least as strong as the prosecution's demand that Cannon recuse herself? We'd be talking about fairness to the accused. 

"The public may simply not trust the impartiality of the judge" — the public doesn't trust the impartiality of anything here. That's the problem with the pursuit of political goals through the criminal process... or the appearance that's what you're doing. The argument for recusal in this case is an argument about the appearance of partiality, but the appearance of partiality is baked into this case. Can anyone suggest how to unbake it?

At the Bird's Next Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

(Meade took that photo this afternoon. No sunrise photo today: It was raining.)

"Republican primary voters say they're far more concerned that Donald Trump's indictment is politically motivated than his alleged conduct being a national security risk..."

"... and there's no evidence it's hurt his status as the clear front-runner for the 2024 nomination, at least not yet. He remains well ahead of rivals in both consideration and vote choice. In fact, most Republican primary voters would not generally consider him keeping the alleged documents with nuclear systems or military plans to be a national security risk, in and of itself. Most explicitly ruled out the charges announced in the indictment changing their views about Mr. Trump. Rather than being disqualifying in their eyes, even if he's ultimately convicted of a crime in the matter, they overwhelmingly feel he should still be able to serve as president again."

NBC reports.

AND: Here's an ABC poll:

"Scientists in Wuhan working alongside the Chinese military were combining the world’s most deadly coronaviruses to create a new mutant virus..."

"... just as the pandemic began. Investigators who scrutinised top-secret intercepted communications and scientific research believe Chinese scientists were running a covert project of dangerous experiments, which caused a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and started the Covid-19 outbreak. The US investigators say one of the reasons there is no published information on the work is because it was done in collaboration with researchers from the Chinese military, which was funding it and which, they say, was pursuing bioweapons...."

The London Times reports.

The (dubious) outdoor-bathtub trend.

I'm trying to read "Ready for a Nice, Soothing Bath? Just Head to the Backyard. Cheaper than pools and more private than hot tubs, the bathtub is leaving the bathroom and has designs on your garden, or even your treehouse" (NYT).

We're told that "wellness" is a big "concern of homeowners" and that includes "intentional outdoor features, like bathtubs." These are not "hot tubs," which, we're told, are "social features" — associated with multiple users and drinking. These are for "one person just being with nature, being with themselves, having that detox from devices and daily life."

Cheryl Hines, the wife of RFK Jr., "has done hundreds of interviews throughout her career, and as a seasoned improv actress, is known to be quick on her feet."

"She cut her teeth in the Groundlings, a Los Angeles-based improv troupe; 'Curb' is outlined but unscripted. In some ways, answering questions from a stranger is just another form of: 'Yes, and.' With improv, 'it’s challenging because you don’t know what’s coming next. You don’t know what the audience is going to shout out,' she said. '"Where are these two people?" "They’re scooping poop in the lion’s den at the zoo!" Lights go down. Lights go up. You have to commit 100 percent... or it’s not funny or interesting.' But here’s a scenario... You are beloved by fans and peers, and have managed to steer clear of controversy your entire career, but fall in love with a man who touches it off regularly with his often outlandish claims — a man who was kicked off Instagram along with his anti-vaccine nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, for spreading misinformation during the pandemic.... Who just this week suggested 'S.S.R.I.s and benzos and other drugs' might be responsible for America’s school-shooting problem...."

From "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wants to Be President. Cheryl Hines Is Along for the Ride. The 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' actress is beloved in Hollywood. In supporting her husband’s campaign, is she normalizing his often dangerous ideas?" (NYT).

Is it really that different from what any other political spouse must do? Seems to me, she's better prepared than most and less likely to try to use drugs as the solution.

There's too much confusion...

It's not just that they've re-purposed the rainbow flag into the symbol for the US war machine: they've also managed to make the Ukraine Flag the central symbol of the Western liberal-left, so you have 21-year-old trans people making CIA arming of Azov their core identity.🌈🏳️‍⚧️💣 pic.twitter.com/SlYMf7mPgu

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 11, 2023

ALSO:

"It’s the leaning tower of San Francisco. The Bay Area’s Millennium Tower has only continued to tilt further..."

"... and sink deeper west in spite of architects’ best efforts to steady the ritzy building. The multimillion-dollar-per-unit tower is now leaning more than 29 inches at the corner of Fremont and Mission streets — a slant over half an inch deeper than previously revealed.... The half-inch tilt was reportedly gained while engineers dug beneath the sinking condominium earlier this year to support the weight of the tower — which was built atop a former landfill — along its two sides...."

The NY Post reports.

"I grew up in South Korea, where there are two words that can roughly translate as 'laziness': geeureum and gwichaneum."

"Geeureum’s connotations are more or less identical to the English—the word bears the same condescension. But gwichaneum lacks the negative valence. There’s even a kind of jest to it. To feel gwichan... is to not be bothered to do something, not like it, or find it to be too much effort. The key to understanding the term, however, is how it fits into Korean grammar: You can’t say 'Bob is a gwichan person'; you can only say something like 'Doing laundry is a gwichan endeavor for Bob.' The term describes tasks, not people. It places the defect within the act. Errands that are gwichan induce laziness in you.... Gwichan nails what’s wrong with the litany of errands that plague our everyday existence: Many of them don’t merit our devotion.... Gwichanism (a popular neologism in Korea) is not an apologia for anti-productivity or anti-work, and the gwichanist will still fulfill their vital life obligations. You see, gwichanists aren’t unproductive; they’re perhaps meta-productive, interrogating the merit of every undertaking.... [E]mbracing gwichanism allows me to assert the primacy of my preferences, however esoteric...."

Writes Sheon Han in "The Case for Selective Slackerism/How a Korean term helps me reconcile my moments of discipline and sloth" (The Atlantic).

In this view, as I understand it, it's not that you avoid all chores. It's that you differentiate among chores and you view the chores as the source of the laziness. It's interesting to think of the activity itself as producing the feeling and to relieve yourself of a moral burden in feeling lazy.

Is English lacking the words for this distinction between 2 types of laziness? I can see that I have a tag for "laziness" and a separate — and important! — tag for "idleness." There are also many English words in the general area: "apathy," "inertia," "lethargy," "sluggishness," "sloth," "lassitude," "loafing" (I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease...)....

But perhaps none of these words expresses the difference between the general resistance to work and the resistance only to a particular type of work. And yet, let me suggest "irksome." We speak of the "irksome task." That does seem to blame the task itself and not our own laziness. It makes sense, in English, to say I am not a lazy person, but that is an irksome task.

Driving through fire.