October 9, 2021
Quasi-troll.
Overheard at Meadhouse:
"There are some people who are quasi-trolls."
"Everyone is a quasi-troll — including you."
"When we were living in our house, if the kids got upset with one another, they’d just storm off into their separate rooms and not speak."
"Now they’ll gather themselves together, rationally discuss their issues and make peace, because they know they can’t get away from one another on the camper."
We're told that's something "Dub said with a laugh" in "What is ‘roam schooling’? ‘Skoolie’ families teach their kids on the road" (NY Post).
Dub is the father in a family with a father, mother, and 3 kids — who home school and do "van life" in their RV.
The TikTok hashtag for this is "#skooliekids" — so you can watch some videos and test your credulity. I'll put a few that I've selected below the fold....
UPDATE: The embedded video was hinky, so I took it out. Just go to the TikTok link and scroll around to see what's there.
"When my husband listened to tapes of the interviews, he seemed almost shell-shocked at how much Trump hopped around from one topic to the next."
"While I like to think I’m an excellent listener, I’m not a fan of the interview style that requires badgering a source for a preferred outcome. As in the other interviews I had with him, I was just as curious about what he wanted to focus on as what I needed to find out from him.
At one point, he noticed a large bandage on my forearm, which covered a burn I received while cooking dinner for my children. 'Did you have a tattoo put on?' he asked, in the midst of listing off detailed election irregularities in Pennsylvania and Michigan. 'Mollie’s going into the tattoo stuff? Whoa, that’s a big step.'"
From "I Interviewed Trump For 5 Hours. Here’s What He Told Me About ‘Stupid F—er’ McConnell, McCarthy’s Bromance With Luntz, And The Fake News That Bothered Him The Most" by Mollie Hemingway (adapted from her book "Rigged: How The Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections").
From "I Interviewed Trump For 5 Hours. Here’s What He Told Me About ‘Stupid F—er’ McConnell, McCarthy’s Bromance With Luntz, And The Fake News That Bothered Him The Most" by Mollie Hemingway (adapted from her book "Rigged: How The Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections").
She's saying she accepted that he jumped around and did not try to foist her orderly approach on him, but I think that fails to credit him with deploying a technique. It's easy to assume he's got an attention deficit and insufficient appreciation for other people's preference for order, but I would presume that he is shifting around as a way to gain an advantage over his interlocutor. It's something lawyers do in cross-examination to trip up a witness.
Hemingway's husband was "almost shell-shocked"? Maybe that was the idea. It would be hard — if he were lying or distorting or had a hidden agenda — to get the better of Trump. And notice how Trump did not merely hop around, he moved from professional to personal. It's disarming — no pun intended! — to suddenly be talking about Mollie's arm. He sees the bandage — there's a whole story under that bandage, and why merely talk about it, make up a story about it — is that a tattoo?
That opens up so much potential. He can learn a lot about her by how she reacts to that. Hemingway doesn't tell us what she said, but she could have overdone denial — of course she's not that kind of person — or she could have playfully thought up an answer that could amuse him — Oh, yes, it's a tattoo of you!
"The film, sponsored by the [Chinese] government, depicts an against-all-odds American defeat in a battle known in the United States as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir."
"Mr. Luo’s crime was to question the legal justification of China’s intervention when North Korea’s troops were on the verge of defeat after invading the South.
'Half a century later, few Chinese people have reflected on the justifiability of the war,' he wrote on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, before referring specifically to a doomed Chinese military unit featured in the film 'that did not doubt the "wise decision" of the top.'"
Statement from the People’s Liberation Army: "Some individuals still try to completely deny the War of Resistance against the United States and Aid Korea, question the justice of sending troops, and try to erase the great victory. No matter how they distort, obliterate, falsify, tease and denigrate the facts, history is written in the hearts of the people.'"
Meanwhile in Norway: "Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitri Muratov are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize" (NYT): "Seeking to bolster press freedoms as journalists find themselves under increasing pressure from authoritarian governments and other hostile forces, the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Peace Prize to two journalists... Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia, were recognized for 'their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.'
'They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions'....'The fight against the media is not a fight against the media,' Mr. Muratov said in a radio interview on Friday. 'It is a fight against the people.'"
"Instead of trying to carpet the world, put on slippers."
Said a commenter, at WaPo, on an "Ask Amy" column about a letter from a woman who wanted another woman's husband to stop talking so much and so obnoxiously on Facebook.
The larger issue is the way people expect the wife to control her husband and think it's a wife's job to be an intermediary on their behalf. It's always the woman's job to tend to social harmony. A secondary issue is that people who are unhappy with interactions occurring on Facebook don't seem to realize you can just click a button — "snooze" or "unfollow" — and you don't have to see that person anymore.
But the line "Instead of trying to carpet the world, put on slippers" was so good, I figured it's unlikely to be original with that commenter. Google gives over 9 million hits, rephrases it — "It's easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world" — and attributes it to...
Al Franken!
I see there's a discussion of the Al Franken adage at a subreddit devoted to... Jordan Peterson.
The Redditor also quotes what purports to be the writing of some unknown person in the year 1100... though it sounds like something somebody wrote yesterday... and therefore I'm not going to quote it here. It's not good enough. It's like something somebody I'd like to snooze would put on Facebook.Also at that link is a quote that's quite similar to the wisdom attributed to Franken: "To walk the Earth without cutting your feet, it is easier to cover your soles in leather than to cover the world."
Is that authentic ancient wisdom or recent old-time-i-ness? It gets over 30 million hits on Google, but that just means it's been repeated more often. And the Franken quote is better, because you can visualize carpeting the world, not that you could actually do it. It's a good, vivid image and the point is made, but it's awkward to picture covering the world in leather. On the other hand, you can go walking out in the world in leather shoes, but if you're only wearing slippers, you kind of need to stay home.
I say kind of, because there are a few people who've gone out and about in slippers, notably Vincent Gigante. And I once saw a lady try a case in federal court in slippers. Pro se.
"I’ve always said that if you want to win an election, you have to win it on election night, okay?"
"But look, I don’t pretend to know the intricacies of how every state counted mail-in ballots and how they were certified. I don’t. But I do know that when you’re running for president, you have to have these legal challenges ready to go. Much as Bush did in 2000.
The Trump folks wanted to exhaust every means. But at some point I think Joe Biden’s president."
Said Laura Ingraham, answering the question "Who do you think won the 2020 election?," in an interview in The Washington Post.
Said Laura Ingraham, answering the question "Who do you think won the 2020 election?," in an interview in The Washington Post.
That was very well put. I don't watch her show — I don't watch any of the TV news analysis shows — but I can see why she belongs on TV. It's hard to nail down such an amorphous position in short punchy sentences.
From the comments over there: "Pathetic puff piece … the only honest thing she said is that half the country hates her guts. She’s a parasite." And: "Stop giving this lying garden utensil print. She is just another lickspittle for an ignorant, incompetent liar. She has no shame. Hope she and her kids don't get covid from some mask hole."
People have gotten so ugly. I've gotten so I just stand back, observe, and wonder. I do need to give that second commenter credit for the "don't." How did that get in there? A ray of hope.
"The Justice Department said Friday that it would not seek federal criminal civil rights charges against police officer Rusten Sheskey of Kenosha, Wis...."
"... in the shooting of a Black man last summer that reignited social-justice protests.... 'After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors determined that insufficient evidence exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the KPD officer willfully violated the federal criminal civil rights statutes,' the department said in the statement...."
This is not surprising, because there was evidence that the man, Jacob Blake, had a knife, tasering hadn't stopped him, he was getting into a car that had children inside, and (based on the call to the police and prior incidents) it was a domestic abuse case.
October 8, 2021
Has Kurt Vonnegut's rule against using semicolons turned into a pro-semicolon rule?
Here's a passage from Kurt Vonnegut's "A Man Without a Country"
Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.That came to my attention this morning because it was the answer to an old Wall Street Journal acrostic I just did. I had the book in my Kindle, so I looked it up. It ends a half-page bit at "location 222" that appears under the heading "Here is a lesson in creative writing."
There's more to that quote. This is the lead-in:
If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.
But the first thing under that heading is:
First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.
It's considered bad form these days to be averse to sexuality that's not manifested as clearly masculine or clearly feminine. And "transvestite" and "hermaphrodite" are disfavored and inappropriately pejorative. Nowadays, it's unseemly to pressure anyone to get into one camp or the other. You can be "nonbinary." That's not "nothing." So the Vonnegut rule against semicolons is nullified. Don't disrespect the semicolon because it's neither a period nor a comma. Celebrate the semicolon!
"Democrats are winning more college-educated white voters and fewer non-college white voters, as pollster shorthand puts it, and Donald Trump supercharged this trend...."
"[T]he sorting that educational polarization is picking up... puts Democrats at a particular disadvantage in the Senate, as college-educated voters cluster in and around cities while non-college voters are heavily rural.... This is why Shor believes Trump was good for the Republican Party, despite its losing the popular vote in 2016, the House in 2018 and the Senate and the presidency in 2020. ... Shor has built an increasingly influential theory of what the Democrats must do to avoid congressional calamity.... To avoid it... they need to internalize that they are not like and do not understand the voters they need to win over.... Democrats should do a lot of polling to figure out which of their views are popular and which are not popular, and then they should talk about the popular stuff and shut up about the unpopular stuff.... [O]ne difference between 2016 and 2012 is that Romney was complicit in making economics the center of the campaign. Like Obama, he preferred to argue over tax policy and spending cuts and was plainly uncomfortable talking about immigration or race. He ran, self-consciously, as a former management consultant who would govern on behalf of America’s makers rather than its takers. Trump descended a golden escalator to call Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. What was Clinton supposed to do?"
From "David Shor Is Telling Democrats What They Don’t Want to Hear" by Ezra Klein (NYT).
From "David Shor Is Telling Democrats What They Don’t Want to Hear" by Ezra Klein (NYT).
"Understand is so plainly odd that even people who don't think about word histories notice it. In form it is a compound of under + stand (v.)..."
"... and it has been so since Old English. Likewise the sense has not shifted since King Alfred's day: 'to comprehend, grasp the idea of, receive from a word or words or from a sign the idea it is intended to convey; to view in a certain way.'
But what does 'standing beneath' have to do with any of that?... One guess about the compound is that the notion is less 'standing under' and more 'standing in the midst of' (truth, facts, meaning, etc.). .. [T]he enemy-word of understanding, superstition: Latin superstitio 'dread of the supernatural, religious belief based on fear or ignorance and considered incompatible with truth or reason.' It is literally 'a standing over," from superstare 'stand on or over.'"
From "Superstitious Understanding" (Etymonline).
From "Superstitious Understanding" (Etymonline).
Standing over expressed dominance, but superstition seems more like something outside of you is looming over you and intimidating you, so it's hard to... understand... how the concrete idea of standing figures into this meaning. Literally, standing under something — unless it's a structure like a bridge — is hard even to picture.
"Thousands of people are expected to pack the stands at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday. Organizers expect this to be Trump's largest crowd in Iowa yet."
That links to a new poll showing that Trump is more popular in Iowa than he's ever been:
The poll shows a majority of Republicans in Iowa, 91%, view Trump favorably. That’s compared to just 7% who view him unfavorably, and 2% who are not sure. Independents in Iowa are split on Trump, with 48% viewing him favorably, 49% unfavorably and 3% unsure. Democrats in Iowa are united in their view of Trump, with 99% viewing him unfavorably, and just 1% viewing him favorably.
You might think it's ludicrous that there's still anyone who's unsure whether they view Trump favorably or unfavorably, but it makes sense to me. They have mixed feelings! It's a love/hate relationship. And I think if Americans were perfectly honest, we'd all confess to having a love/hate relationship with the guy.
By the way, only 31% of Iowans approve of the job Joe Biden is doing. None of these numbers tells us what people would do if confronted with another election with Biden and Trump going head to head. That's your choice again. How do you like it? Make that a poll question. I bet over 90% would say they don't like it. Give me a better choice!
Anyway, back to that first link. I see that people started lining up on Thursday for that Saturday rally:
Richard Snowden came from Delaware. He is part of a group called the "Front Row Joes." They're the people who consistently wait at his rally sites days in advance. "It's a great way that we can give back to Mr. Trump, show him support, and give him back certain love, because he has, sadly, had so much hate directed towards him," Snowden said.
They think Trump needs love, and they travel across the country and wait in line for days to bestow this gift of love upon him. If the haters would back off, would the love cool? People are so mean to Trump that it does make some people think you need to go out of your way to counterbalance that hate — including going out of your way from Delaware to Iowa.
"Poland’s top court ruled Thursday that its national laws can trump those of the European Union...."
"The Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw ruled that parts of E.U. law were not compatible with the country’s constitution.
They include an article that says that laws from Brussels have primacy over conflicting national legislation and another relating to the binding nature of decisions of the European Court of Justice.
Those principles are essential to how the union functions legally.... 'It’s at the core of the union,' said Didier Reynders, the European Union’s justice commissioner.... Poland’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, described the decision Thursday as 'historic,' saying it set the 'constitutional limits' of E.U. 'interference' in Polish cases.... The move puts the country on the path to 'Polexit' said Jeroen Lenaers, justice spokesman for the largest political bloc in the European Parliament.... 'Enough is enough. The Polish government has lost its credibility.'"
"On Sunday, Sepúlveda, who considers herself a devout Catholic, plans to become the first person in Colombia without a terminal prognosis to die by legally authorized euthanasia."
"Colombia’s constitutional court ruled in July that the right to euthanasia.... applies... to those with 'intense physical or mental suffering from bodily injury or serious and incurable disease.'... An estimated 73 percent of the population is Catholic.... Eduardo DÃaz Amado, director of the Bioethics Institute at Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá, traces the development to the country’s long civil war and the violence wrought by drug lord Pablo Escobar. In 1991, in response to the country’s instability, Colombia rewrote its constitution. Unlike its 'paternalistic' predecessor, DÃaz said, the new constitution expanded individual rights, emphasized 'the respect of human dignity' and underscored the separation of church and state.... In 2014, the court ordered the government to issue guidelines so that hospitals, insurers and health professionals would know how to proceed with euthanasia requests.
The movement for euthanasia rights has drawn unexpected allies: Catholic priests. Alberto Múnera, a theology professor and Jesuit priest at the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá, lectures his students on the 'exceptions' to the 'absolute value of human life' in church teaching. When Catholics follow their own consciences, even when that means choosing to end their own lives, he argues, they will 'behave well' in the eyes of God...."
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