Althouse

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• "My God, he’s like a polar bear out there on an ice floe."
• Sunrise 3 ways.
• "Every so often, a TikTok comes along that physically debilitates me. Sometimes it’s... an overwhelming, full-body gut punch..."
• "The group, whose total membership is unknown but believed to be in the thousands, has never articulated a specific ideology or dogma...."
• Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
• "This is Guy Talk: an elevated version of the bro-ing down heard on countless podcasts aimed at men."
• Robot umpires are "designed to increase action on the basepaths, create more balls in play, improve the pace and length of games, and reduce player injuries."
• Charlie Hebdo appropriates the death of George Floyd to mock Meghan Markle and the Queen.
• At the Sunrise Café...

"My God, he’s like a polar bear out there on an ice floe." Posted: 14 Mar 2021 11:03 AM PDT Said Meade, after I read this Politico headline out loud: "Trump was supposed to be a political Godzilla in exile. Instead, he's adrift."

Sunrise 3 ways. Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:23 AM PDT Video:    Panorama:    Still:

"Every so often, a TikTok comes along that physically debilitates me. Sometimes it’s... an overwhelming, full-body gut punch..." Posted: 14 Mar 2021 10:25 AM PDT "...one that's triggered by a deep sense of emotional recognition. It could be embarrassment, fear, or stress. Or it could be positive: excitement, pride, joy..." Writes Emilia Petracha in "What Will You Wear on the First Day of the Rest of Your Life?" (New York Magazine). Here's the TikTok she's talking about: @jayden_the_weeb1 ♬ original sound - Jayden_the_weeb1 "My heart breaks for Jayden that he hasn't been able to be in school this whole time, presumably because of the pandemic.... [I]n a way, we're all relearning what it's like to exist in the world again. I'm even asking myself similar existential questions: Who do I want to be?... How do I make myself look hot so that boys will like me?? Every time the seasons change, I feel an acute need for a makeover.... [P]eople on Instagram [are] concerned with looking good for social reentry: high heels, corsets, miniskirts, and 'slutty going-out tops' — an aesthetic one person described as 'vaxx summer hookerwear,' which I support.... They're not concerned with what's trendy or tasteful. Instead, they want to wear what's most colorful and fun and expressive of their personality.... Lately, I've been trying to introduce some sunnier colors into my wardrobe, namely lavender. I couldn't explain why, but then this week, while Googling grieving rituals in different societies, I learned that historically it's been a color that people wear when they're emerging from a period of solemnity." ADDED: No one's had any feedback in so long. Maybe there will be all sorts of amazing variety as everyone makes their big comeback. This kid is getting it right as he sees it. Everyone has his own vision. Will there be a great blossoming of individuality, or will people quickly move to pleasing each other with fabulous new enthusiasm?

"The group, whose total membership is unknown but believed to be in the thousands, has never articulated a specific ideology or dogma...." Posted: 14 Mar 2021 08:57 AM PDT From "Police Shrugged Off the Proud Boys, Until They Attacked the Capitol/Two Proud Boys accused of leading a mob to Congress followed a bloody path to get there. Law enforcement did little to stop them" (NYT). [F]ederal law enforcement officials said, no evidence emerged that the Proud Boys had plotted murders, kidnappings, gun crimes or — apart from Jan. 6 — insurrection. Yet the Proud Boys' belligerence fit the definition of terrorism, other officials said: unlawful violence and intimidation for political aims. Members raised money to travel across state lines to dozens of rallies with the intent of street fighting.... "If the Proud Boys was not a white male chauvinist club but a Black male chauvinist club, I think that, sadly, we would have seen a different policing posture," said [Elizabeth] Neumann, the former Homeland Security official.... Critics argued that... arrests were rare because police generally favored the Proud Boys over their left-leaning opponents....

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Posted: 14 Mar 2021 08:06 AM PDT Our scale, after it tells you your weight, tells you the weight of the person who last stepped on the scale. Who thought this would be a good idea?? — Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) March 14, 2021

"This is Guy Talk: an elevated version of the bro-ing down heard on countless podcasts aimed at men." Posted: 14 Mar 2021 07:47 AM PDT "At times it feels like Renegades is a primer on nontoxic masculinity. Obama and Springsteen are emotionally intelligent and self-aware; they poke fun at themselves, in a way that comes naturally to wildly successful people.... [T]hey lay claim, again and again, to a progressive patriotism... [W]e get a lot of solemn talk in which hard truths are articulated amid a blizzard of mixed metaphors. In a conversation about the rise of white nationalism under Trump, Springsteen proclaims that racist pathologies are 'not meandering veins in our extremities, but … continue to be running through the heart of the country—that's a call to arms and lets us know, obviously, how much work we have left to do.'... The remedial nature of these history lessons, and the portentous way they are presented by Renegades' producers—soundtracked by plaintive guitar noodling that suggests pearls of wisdom are being dispensed—is bizarre and undermining: It makes Obama and Springsteen sound more out-to-lunch than they can possibly be. Clichés pile up. Lest listeners get too bummed.... an old warhorse is dragged out. 'The arc of the moral universe bends towards justice,' Obama assures us...." Writes Jody Rosen in "Obama and Springsteen's Podcast Isn't What It Pretends to Be/The show promises difficult conversations about race, but it avoids the actual difficulties" (Slate).  Rosen likens the Obama/Springsteen podcast to this excellent parody of podcasts: Podcasts saying literally nothing for 20 minutes. pic.twitter.com/nmfka1Gjsp — Jonathan Ogden (@jogdenUK) January 5, 2021

Robot umpires are "designed to increase action on the basepaths, create more balls in play, improve the pace and length of games, and reduce player injuries." Posted: 14 Mar 2021 07:15 AM PDT According to Major League Baseball, quoted in "Minor League Baseball To Experiment With Robotic Umpires" (NPR).  "The game on the field is constantly evolving, and MLB must be thoughtful and intentional about progressing toward the very best version of baseball – a version that is true to its essence and has enough consistent action and athleticism on display to entertain fans of all ages," Theo Epstein, consultant to MLB, said.... "These rules experiments will provide valuable insight into various ways to create a playing environment that encourages the most entertaining version of the game".... Do you want robot umpires?  The main loss is that the role of the catcher is changed. He can't be a trickster, "framing" the pitch to create the impression that the ball is more nearly or more squarely in the strike zone.  Is that something that made watching the game more fun? It made it more human. If the whole game were played by robots, it would not even be worth watching. Or do you think it would, because there could be much more action? And you'd have no injuries at all... or is that part of what we like about action, the risk of real pain and damage?

Charlie Hebdo appropriates the death of George Floyd to mock Meghan Markle and the Queen. Posted: 14 Mar 2021 02:42 PM PDT Via The Sun: 1. The headline translates to "Why Meghan left Buckingham...." and the speech bubble says "because I couldn't breathe anymore."  2. Now, for the first time, I'm thinking about whether the Queen shaves her legs. 3. Is the image outrageous? But Charlie Hebdo wants to be outrageous... so it is immune to any criticism people might choose to lob. Still, the question remains: How outrageous is it and what are the elements of outrageousness? 4. The most outrageous part — if I consult my own sensitivity — is the appropriation of the pain surrounding George Floyd for a comical presentation. The second most outrageous part is connecting Markle to Floyd because she is black.  5. Those outrageous things are not, however, purely gratuitous, so it's not just a case of laughing at George Floyd and finding it worth pointing out that Markle, too, is black. What's not gratuitous is the radical contrast between what happened to Floyd — suffering and death on the street, under the knee of a cop — and what happened to Markle — palace life insufficiently pleasant. 6. It's important that Charlie Hebdo avoided using stereotypical features in drawing Markle, but unfortunate that the drawing doesn't look much like her. I'm interested in the window pane image on Markle's cheek. I believe this is the classic cartoon way to signify shininess. I guess Markle indulges in the makeup convention of dabbing shiny highlighter on the cheekbones. It would be a real stretch to connect that to the racial slur "shine." The slur has to do with the occupation of shining shoes — though Markle's face is right next to the Queen's shiny shoe — and not to some notion about how black people look.  7. It's important to be able to make fun of public figures. Markle is actively using accusations of racism to fend off criticism. This might work, for her and for many others, if the fear of these accusations is too intense. In that light, Charlie Hebdo is doing us a service, taking the heat, and — if you think about it the right way — contributing to racial progress.

At the Sunrise Café... Posted: 13 Mar 2021 04:56 PM PST   ... you can talk about anything you like.

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