The death of thinking?

The Philadelphia Commie Pigs Democratic Socialists schedule a boycott of Jewish businesses on the day before the anniversary of Kristallnacht,  and are shocked that many in the city accused them of anti-semitism.  Yes, commies, that's exactly how it works, and thankfully, thinking Philadelphians made it a banner day for those restaurants by engaging in what I hope was a delicious and satisfying (and probably kosher) counter-protest.

I guess if the DSA were able to think, they might contemplate their preferred political systems in light of the over 100 million people who died before their time because of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Putin, Pol Pot, and other Communist luminaries, and in light of the hundreds of millions more people whose freedoms were stolen by Communism.  

If any DSA activists are reading this out there; we did the experiment in the 20th century, and no, we don't believe you that it would be any better if we tried it again with different leadership.  As the adage goes, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

On the death penalty

Apparently Governor Gavin "French Laundry" Newsom, in one of his last pronouncements as governor, has commuted all of the death penalty convictions in the state to life in prison,  and predictably, his note justifying his action is, shall we say, a wee bit scanty on the specifics.  There are reasons to oppose the death penalty--it isn't terribly good at reducing crime, it's awfully permanent if you get it wrong, and it's horribly expensive--but Newsom really doesn't address that.

What is striking, however, is that there are important protections that are being lost for the convicted.  I've got a friend who is now a public defender in Alabama, and he's working to do capital defense because you can bill as many hours as the defense needs, among other reasons.  Yes, it's pretty sad that capital defense is such a good business there, but what's notable for the California cases is that capital cases do indeed have some things to protect the defendant that don't exist for other cases--mandatory appeals and reviews, higher limits on legal hours, and the like.

So what Newsom is doing here, more or less, is to ironically reduce the protections for these inmates while infuriating the families and friends of the victims of these 500+ murderers.  It's no surprise that he did this right after the mid-term elections to avoid serious blowback against his party.

My take here is that most of the objections to capital punishment are in fact objections to lazy prosecution--crimes brought to indictment and trial without adequate investigation and release of exculpatory evidence, which forces defendants to either do their own investigation (poor defendants cannot do this reasonably, they can't afford a legal "dream team" like OJ Simpson hired) or face a Hobson's choice of accepting a conviction they may not deserve, or becoming bankrupt themselves.

The solution, or at least a very real improvement, is to audit prosecution records and see if adequate investigation and release of possibly exculpatory evidence is done.  If not, we have problems for all crimes, not just the ones for which we would execute a person.

An encouraging sign

Two of the biggest spending "schools" in NIL for NCAA football, Michigan and Ohio State, are 4-5 (since they really lost to Western Michigan) and 6-3.  So it does appear that you can't completely buy championships.  

One interesting thing that may be going on is that teams are not investing in player development as much--Michigan backup QB Bryce Underwood did not have a dedicated QB coach last season, and even this season, some experts are noting that (like many other physically gifted QBs before him) he wasn't working well in the pocket, but was trying to run out of trouble.  It appears that getting the basics done is even more important than having the wife of Larry Ellison fund their team, and as I've mentioned before, it seems more and more that the old agreement--"we'll develop you as a player and a person if you play for us"--has been dropped.  

Cry me a river

Former MIT professor and researcher David Sabatini has won a $6 million lawsuit against his former lover,  Kristin Knouse, and her lawyer's argument against the size of the judgment is that it will discourage women from reporting sexual misconduct.

Well, yes, it will discourage people from falsely reporting sexual misconduct, which is what Ms. Knouse did, and instead of whining that she gets to compensate her victim for the harm she did to his career, maybe she should thank her lucky stars that she's not doing time in the gray bar hotel for perjury.

I don't think Sabatini gets off the hook here completely; he does appear to have treated his workplace as a way to meet women, which does violate their rules (they were under his authority, and yes, they were plural).  But there is a difference between violating policy and committing sexual harassment, and the trial made that very clear.

Thoughts on the election

If you want to turn out the vote by evangelicals in Texas, it's best not to make a known adulterer your candidate.  Honestly, the world had known about Paxton's adultery since 2018, and he's got none of the charisma of Trump.  The GOP needs to get serious about vetting candidates, because they should know from experience that they don't get a "pass" the way Democrats do.

If you want to keep Reagan conservatives voting, it's best to help victims of Russian aggression defend themselves against war crimes.  There are times when I've felt Trump would have, if confronted with the Nazi Blitz, turned off the radars and grounded the Spitfires after cutting off oil exports.

Don't accuse your opponent of lying about sexual assault, especially when the courts have not acquitted the accused.

If you want to keep Reagan conservatives on your side, try to avoid buddying up to Communist dictators.

Sometimes, people in politics need to remember what Reagan noted after a debacle for the GOP in 1974; that the voters need to know not just what you're against, but what you're for.  And the GOP didn't do that well at all this election cycle.

An interesting reality

The University of Michigan student caught assaulting multiple conservative activists, when told to go to a mental hospital, screamed back that she had already been at one, and when people found her online social media, she'd actually posted a picture of her meds, among other things that, writing as a parent, would be "something I'd ask her about if I were her dad"--a lot of tattoos (including one of Peter Criss of KISS, apparently), exhibitionism, and the like.

And so, along with psychiatrist Miriam Grossman, have to ask whether the college experience is actually generating a lot of mental illness--or whether rampant promiscuity among the young does so.  Not that Ms. Togochog doesn't need to spend a little bit of time in the gray bar hotel, and not that we don't need to make sure that those who physically attack their opponents in debate get punished.  

However, it also strikes me that the "temperature" of debate on campus, and perhaps in society as a whole, derives quite a bit from our cultural habits and their consequences for mental health.  

In which time I dream...

....that in response to the re-admission of Russia into international hockey competitions, the U.S., Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Czechia, and other world hockey powers would make a clear statement; you can have Russia, or you can have us, but not both--and then see how quickly the world hockey authorities cave in.

Sorry, but when Russia is launching missiles and drones at apartment buildings, schools, and the like, they should have no place in civilized life--and that includes at the G20 Summit in Atlanta, and that includes Turtle Bay. 

Another thought; greet the Russian first line with a first line of NHL enforcers.  Yes, you'd be ejected from the tournament, but....

Chutzpah defined

Hilliary Clinton now regrets not "going after" Jim Comey because she feels that his investigation broke precedent by revealing her illegal unsecured server at a time when she was standing for election.   Funny, my take on the whole deal is that Comey broke precedent by not prosecuting someone who had clearly mishandled classified information.

To draw a picture, I had the privilege of working at TRW-Space Park (now part of Northrup Grumman) in 1994 and 1995, not that long after the company had been embarrassed by the real-life espionage portrayed in The Falcon and the Snowman.  Suffice it to say that even 17 years after Christopher Boyce was convicted of espionage, the company was very sensitive to the possibility that it would happen again, and when I hired in, they made it very clear that if they saw any sign of mishandling of classified information--even being found in the locked areas where the classified work was done--it would be a race between HR and the FBI to see who could take action first.  When I would go out to lunch with coworkers, someone would always make a point of putting his badge where it could not be seen, because it was well known that KGB agents could and would try to work with TRW employees to get information.

So my response to Hilliary is "yes, Comey violated precedent by not getting a warrant for your server, and by not indicting you."   And it's a shame that we do have a pattern whereby prominent politicians who mishandle classified information get a "pass" from prosecutors that ordinary people who work with it do not.

A very interesting podcast....

.....about the death of reading, and its consequences for modern life, can be found here.  And yes, count me somewhat amused to be linking a podcast about the difficulties inherent with the lack of reading.  You should laugh at me, too.

But seriously, just as cultural commentators have been noting ever since the television was introduced, there are some very serious issues with "on demand entertainment", centered around the reality that the comprehension of complicated issues really requires more attention span than the classic "seven minutes between commercials", or today "two minutes per TikTok.".  Give it a listen, or a read when the transcript comes out.

An interesting bit about Ezekiel

In reading Ezekiel 1-4, I wondered what the actual Hebrew phrase for "Son of Man" is, and it's actually "ben-Adam", which could also reasonably interpreted as "Son of Adam"; in other words, bearing the name of a very specific man, and indicating a specificity and meaning that I'd argue the usual English translation does not have, along the lines of Peter and Edmund being addressed as "Sons of Adam" in Narnia.  It is not just genetics, but an affirmation of heritage and position before God. 

Thoughts on Shane Gillis' monologue

Well, first of all, in a tradition with SNL that's two decades old now or so, it wasn't funny, or particularly new.  As the Babylon Bee jokes, pastors from the 1990s are berating Gillis because he's recycling their old sermon material.

For my part, I'm not quite sure what a prostitute typically looks like, so I don't have the basis for comparison that Gillis apparently does.  ☺  I'd guess real prostitutes wear more outlandish outfits, heels, and in general look a lot less healthy than a typical spandex queen in the gym, though.

But seriously, while I can understand that showing more skin might be cooler--though full length tights and such would reduce that advantage, I'd think--I also am not a huge fan of feeling barbell knurling on bare shoulders (or letting the barbell slip because of my sweat not being absorbed by a cotton t-shirt), or feeling cold, clammy, sweaty vinyl on my skin.  

So overall, short shorts & jogbra is not for performance, but for show, and I suffer from the "disability" that the only person who really needs to see the precise contours of my body doesn't need to go to the gym to see that.  But for those who want to make a good impression in the gym, the main thought I have is that as a rule, beauty is the whole silhouette, not just the eye drawn to certain areas.  So in that light, the jogbra/booty shorts combo may work against a lady.

Well said

Greg Crosby notes how he tends to love the things of the past as he goes through his life, and I am tempted to agree.   Not that there aren't good things now--a computer like I'm using right now to type this note did not exist until I was in my thirties, for example--but as I shop for things I'd like to have, I am becoming more and more aware that many of the things I'd like are fading out of existence.  Things like manual transmissions, Katahdin Iron Works hoodies, leather shoes, CD level sound quality (sorry, MP3 loses something when you're listening to classical music), rye flour (except at the "hippie" food stores), and a bunch of other things.  

OK, yes, life changes.  You can't find buggy whips, corsets, or bloomers in most stores anymore, either, and some things are for the better.  But even so, I think something has been lost.

MAID and transition procedures

It strikes me that one thing that MAID/assisted suicide and transition medicine have in common is that too many practitioners do not seem to adequately understand that these things are permanent.  You can't revive someone you've killed, body parts you've removed do not grow back or reattach, and even puberty blockers and hormone therapies permanently change development.  It reminds me, really, of an adult version of the warnings in elementary school that certain behaviors would go on one's "permanent record."  

Wisdom, or foolishness, in the law?

 With regards to the furor over an incident at Cornell where a young coed had "relations" with seven young men while all were highly intoxicated, this Powerline blurb notes that under New York law, voluntary intoxication does not render someone unable to grant consent.

Now this sounds appalling, well...at least to those of us who have never gotten intoxicated to "get up the nerve" to sleep with someone, and...maybe it is indeed the case that a certain portion of sexual assault allegations are indeed....simply people getting intoxicated to get the nerve to do something they otherwise would not have done.  The apparent discrepancy between rape rates in anonymous surveys and as reported to police might flow in part from this, and this would also explain the fact that about two thirds of sexual assaults noted on those anonymous surveys involve intoxicated people.

Now what is the proper approach in the law?  I'm not sure. Do I want justice for people who are truly victimized while they are intoxicated?  Absolutely.  Do I know that if a person was drunk at the time, he's going to have suspect memory, and isn't going to be a very good witness?  Absolutely.  

So I wonder if New York's approach is the right one because it tells all participants that things can really go wrong.  Want to have sex with a stranger while drunk?  Not only are you risking STDs and unwanted attachments, but if the other person persuades the police that your apparent assent was not real, you get to watch your money disappear by the billable hour.

It's not a perfect system--no system where you're depending on the memories of people who were intoxicated can be anywhere close--but perhaps it has something to say for it.

In related news, the newspaper of record has come up with a foolproof way to avoid being arrested for rape at a ketamine-fueled orgy: don't go to ketamine-fueled orgies.  Sounds like someone needs a Nobel Prize for that one.

Interesting news out of Denver

Apparently three former Denver Broncos quarterbacks are thriving at other professional football teams.  Now of course, the days when pro football players almost always stayed with one team, or maybe two, through their whole careers are long gone, but what strikes me is that this happened with a very interesting VP of football operations there; John Elway.  

Elway is of course retired, and to be fair, one of those QBs is now in the CFL, but it strikes me that people in the Broncos office might do well to understand the dynamics between Elway and these men, and see what they can learn for the future.  There are other former football greats--Mike Singletary comes to mind--who also failed as coaches, and as long as football teams hire former players as coaches, they might do well to understand what kind of things make them fail.