Sunday, April 11, 2021

Althouse

Althouse

"If a government agent has knowledge that a minor under its care or supervision has exhibited symptoms of gender dysphoria, gender nonconformity, or otherwise demonstrates a desire to be treated in a manner incongruent with the minor’s sex..."

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 01:15 PM PDT

"... the government agent or entity with knowledge of that circumstance shall immediately notify, in writing, each of the minor's parents, guardians, or custodians. The notice shall describe all of the relevant circumstances with reasonable specificity."

That's a proposed law in North Carolina (S.B. 514). It's quoted and mocked in "I am trying to report gender infractions in my kindergarten but don't know what counts!" by Alexandra Petri (in WaPo).

What does it mean for a school kid to "desire to be treated in a manner incongruent with the minor's sex." The school shouldn't be treating their children differently based on their sex in the first place. The child's desire should be meaningless. There should be only one kind of treatment. Unless you're talking about the bathrooms....

Petri writes: 

Who is the person in this state who understands gender well enough to feel that this was something worth enshrining in law and not just arbitrary and hurtful and a sledgehammer looking for a nail?... 

***

There is no comments section anymore, but you can email me here. Unless you say otherwise, I will presume you'd enjoy an update to this post with a quote from your email.

Snippets of comments — received via email — that can be found on recent posts.

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 08:02 AM PDT

There is no comments section anymore, but you can email me here. That (or something like that) has appeared at the end of most posts for the past week. If you're just reading the posts and not looking back to see the things that have come in via email, you're missing some good stuff, so I'll just highlight some lines from the email and give you links in case you want to click back and read:

1. "Every male on the floor below turned to her, looking like they were hoping she was calling to them."

 2. "Things that were on the fringes start to overtake the daily pattern of life. And soon they are no longer a talking point, or cute, or 'quirky.'"

3. "20 year old students were for the most part immature children in 2015 and fledgling adults in 1980."

4. "A scientist does selective breeding to make a smarter sheepdog and is able to breed one (Sirius) with Human-level intelligence."

5. "It's a guy thing. When a woman asks a question we think we have to come up with an answer."

6. "And she pointed out a key, monumental truth of our faith." 

7. "This video confirms that the decision was correct. I hate to think of my daughter being in that poor boy's situation."

8. "That document says that there is no need to get parental consent because they are not teaching human sexuality, but instead teaching about discrimination. Let that sink in."

9. "[A]nother coworker who is one of the most outgoing people I've met and who can't stay focused at the office, who constantly has her ears up for any stray conversation to join, seems to be thriving at home."

10. "The consiglieres of two warring dynasties unite and plot together after years of conflict to hold on to their waning power as they age and die."

11. "You are correct to not open comments on this one. It would be a bloodbath. No one likes a bloodbath in the morning."

Where's Kamala?!

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 06:53 AM PDT

This is a big front page article in the NYT: "Young Migrants Crowd Shelters, Posing Test for Biden/The administration is under intensifying pressure to expand its capacity to care for as many as 35,000 unaccompanied minors, part of a wave of people crossing the border." 

For Biden? I thought he palmed this off on Kamala Harris. The first thing I did when I saw the headline was search the page for "Harris." Then: "Kamala." Then: "Vice." Nothing!

But I agree. It's Biden's responsibility, whether he performs the theater of delegation or not. And yet, I don't appreciate shielding Harris. Or making her invisible. It's either diminishing her or protecting her, and I don't accept that. 

Okay. Now I'll read. Excerpt:

The desperate plea landed this week in the email inboxes of employees in government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and NASA: Will you consider taking a four-month paid leave from your job to help care for migrant children in government-run shelters packed with new arrivals at the border?...

Wow!

The pressure is producing tension inside the White House. President Biden expressed frustration with Xavier Becerra, his new secretary of health and human services, in a White House meeting on March 30, for what the president views as bureaucratic holdups in increasing capacity, according to two administration officials familiar with the exchange. Susan Rice, the director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Amy Pope, the president's senior adviser for migration issues, have been aggressively pressing officials from the health department and other immigration agencies for explanations about the failure to quickly move more than 4,000 migrant youths out of jail-like detention facilities run by Border Patrol, according to several people familiar with the meetings....

 Was Harris there? 

"[A]ggressively pressing... for explanations about the failure" sounds quite lame. The "aggressively" seems truly pathetic. Have Rice and Pope been speaking sternly or what? They really really want to know: Why all this failure? Are they asking: Where's Kamala?

"Despite inheriting a broken immigration system decimated by four years of neglect and poor policy decisions, the Biden administration continues to remain focused on expanding capacity and bed space," said Vedant R. Patel, a White House spokesman...

Expanding bed space and desperately calling out for employees in disparate places like NASA to walk off their career path and into the work of babysitting.

Aides to [former President Donald] Trump said career officials warned the incoming Biden team of the likely surge of arrivals in the spring, but said the new administration did not move quickly to begin reactivating emergency facilities for added space. Biden administration officials reject that criticism, saying they were not given enough information during the transition and they notified Congress of the need to begin adding emergency capacity in early February....

***

There is no comments section anymore, but you can email me here. Unless you say otherwise, I will presume you'd enjoy an update to this post with a quote from your email. 

ADDED: The photographs at the NYT are excellent and heart-rending, but it was jarring (and funny) to see Brad Pitt lounging comfortably amidst the unnamed sufferers (captured by me (click to enlarge and clarify)):

Robert Moses is trending on Twitter.

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 04:58 AM PDT

I'll just give you one tweet to explain why:

Pick up "a" book means pick up the book — "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert A. Caro. 

There's also this: "Robert Moses and His Racist Parkway, Explained/The story: Robert Moses ordered engineers to build the Southern State Parkway's bridges extra-low, to prevent poor people in buses from using the highway. The truth? It's a little more complex" (Bloomberg, 2017). 

(To comment, email me here.)

"I'm trying to make it into something playful — It shocked me at first," said Jordan Peterson, about seeing himself adapted into a super villain, Red Skull.

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 05:30 AM PDT

 

"I've been called a Nazi before. It's not pleasant.  This is one step beyond that. Nazi, apparently, isn't enough. I have to be a magical super-Nazi." 

The video is from April 8th. Here are tweets from April 6th, showing the way the Ta-Nehisi Coates comic book satirizes Peterson:

In the video, Peterson brings up his illness and says it's taken away his sense of humor. He expresses admiration for the way his daughter is having fun with the whole thing. Here she is:

So much about "merch" in that video! But it's good in showing the "memes" Peterson's supporters have made out the merging of Peterson and Red Skull. I don't follow the superhero movies at all. (I've never seen even one Marvel movie.) But it is funny to have a semi-scary villain character saying things like "Clean your room." 

And yet, Peterson and his supporters may make the mistake of watering him down. Coates may have laid a very clever trap. Portraying Peterson as a demonically evil character causes the supporters to portray Peterson as anodyne — a mutterer of motherly platitudes. Peterson is thus tricked into giving up all that makes him powerful. 

If that trick works, I declare Ta-Nehisi Coates an intellectual superhero. 

(To comment, you have to email me — here.)

ADDED: I would buy the comic book in question and read it, but the articles about this controversy don't seem to identify the particular issue of the series. I went to Amazon and did a search, but it was very confusing, because if you put the results in order of publication dates, the top is full of yet-to-be-released issues. You can "pre-order" things that won't be out until January 2022. I lost patience. And I put "pre-order" in quotes because if you "pre-order," you are still ordering. It just won't be delivered for a while. 

Indelible George Carlin rant:

"I think this is a good dialogue...."

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 05:11 AM PDT

 

Oh, wouldn't you just love to pile into an unmoderated comments section right now? I've abolished the comments section, because the tragedy of the commons was just too damned heart-rending. But I could turn it on for an individual post, just to see what happens. That's an option I've considered and that a few people have mentioned in email. (You can email me here.) 

Why not turn it on for this post? Actually, I considered it, because I think there's a lot in the video to talk about, and I'm not personally in the mood to comment about it, other than to have selected that one quote for the post title. And isn't it interesting that the quote expresses appreciation for "good dialogue"?

But if the comments were open, the beginning of the comments section would be filled with comments from people who hadn't watched the video. And there'd be comments saying things that have already been said about "Saturday Night Live" — that's it's never been funny or hasn't been funny since [whenever]. How long would it take before somebody would say something trenchant about the actual substance of the video?

"I think this is a good dialogue...." is a funny line because the referenced dialogue is not good. And yet we cling to the notion that dialogue is good. I love dialogue. 

Here ends my monologue.

FROM THE EMAIL: Temujin writes: 

I've wondered if you've considered randomly opening up comments at some point for posts only you want to hear comments on. There were one or two in the past couple of days I would have loved to have commented on. But not on this one. You are correct to not open comments on this one. It would be a bloodbath. No one likes a bloodbath in the morning.

Yeah, bloodbath is more of an evening luxury. 

"There may be a new genre: liberals expressing 'buyers remorse' over the culture they have created."

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 05:54 AM PDT

"Here's a talk between Bill Kristol and James Carville on the 2020 election and what came after. You'd think the two would be ecstatic, exultant. Trump is gone. The Dems are spraying money on citizens like cheap perfume on a whore. White men make up 14% of the class at the many Ivy League colleges. Good times. But these two are somber.. Bill Kristol keeps begging Carville to tell him where the Democrats are going and Carville seems to think the Democrats have a flimsy, rickety coalition that will fall apart if the Dems keep saying 'people of color' and 'Latinix' and keep canceling people of whom the Amherst College English department disapproves. Carville seems to regard Biden as the man standing between the Dems and the deluge. Perhaps 'buyers remorse' isn't quite the term I'm looking for - maybe 'Belshazzar's Feast.'"

Writes Wild Swan in the email. I tried watching the video.... 

 

... but the video and audio on Carville's side is horrible. Unwatchable. Is he filming from a laptop on his lap? What a ridiculous place for a laptop! I don't know why the audio is also herky-jerky, and bad audio with his idiosyncratic manner of speaking is unintelligible. And that's quite aside from whether he's making good points (and good sense).

But — lo and behold — there's a transcript! I can skim, and I can cut and paste:

KRISTOL: You mentioned defund the police, you mentioned identity politics, cancel culture, whatever you want to call these things, but how worried are you about that complex of issues? Some the attacks may be unfair, some may be fair, but the Democrats, parts of the Democratic party coalition, giving enough oxygen to that stuff that allows Republicans to just scream and yell about it for two years or four years and really have an effect. You think it did have an effect 2020, certainly down ballot, right? The police stuff? 
CARVILLE: It did. It did. It is the thing that I'm most worried about. And because, first of all, who they are. I don't know of anybody, and I talked to, I live in New Orleans, okay? It's no secret. I don't know of a single person that thinks of themselves as a "person of color." I really don't. I had Ruben Gallego, who's a Democratic congressman from Arizona, and we did much better in Arizona than we did in Texas or Florida, and he said, "I've never heard anybody use the word LatinX." And that's just not the way people talk. It's not what they — It's just not the way. When people hear that — And it's a little different because when you're in the middle of it, you hear it so much it doesn't stand out. When you're out in the rest of the country — It was like the janitor at Smith College. That story. I give Tom [?] the credit for running the story, but there is a feeling — And I got to tell you, I'm a supportive, ardent Democrat, passion and everything, but the English faculty at Amherst has too much power in this party. They really do. And they come up with all of these different things and when people see that, they don't like it because it's not what their life is. I think Biden does a — Congratulations, he stays out of that.

"Belshazzar's Feast" is a fantastic Rembrandt painting, showing the Old Testament story about "the handwriting on the wall":

Wikipedia explains:

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar looted the Temple in Jerusalem and has stolen the sacred artefacts such as golden cups. His son Belshazzar used these cups for a great feast where the hand of God appeared and wrote the inscription on the wall prophesying the downfall of Belshazzar's reign. The text on the wall says "mene, mene, tekel, upharsin." Biblical scholars interpret this to mean "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians."

FROM THE EMAIL: mezzrow writes: 

The memes gush from this like a fountain. 

1. The consiglieres of two warring dynasties unite and plot together after years of conflict to hold on to their waning power as they age and die. 

2. Have any members of the English faculty at Amherst failed to be informed of this exchange? If any are persons of color does this exchange become racist in fact, regardless of intent? Will this result in the cancellation of Kristol, Carville, or any persons adjacent to them? (stay tuned, this is what I'm watching.) 

3. The sheer boomerness of the technical incompetence of Carville is a delight to those youngsters who would dismiss him. They forget that he would happily watch their bones bleach in the sun before he would give them one ounce of his consideration. Treat it like Chin Gigante's bathrobe and beware, youngsters. 

4. The biblical reference is timely on this Sabbath morning – I have long suspected that the winners of the last election are staring at the mess of pottage they currently hold in a suspension of disbelief. If they get to write the history of this, we'll have one future. If they fail, we'll have a different future. I say WE as if I'll be here to see it, but life is filled with possibilities. We're just passengers now, more than ever.

Great comment. I added the link.

6:27 a.m.

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 04:49 AM PDT

IMG_3576

"Like everyone else, introverts are excited about seeing family and close friends in person, dining in restaurants, traveling and all the other pleasures of a good life."

Posted: 11 Apr 2021 05:47 AM PDT

"But most are not interested in facing the forced small talk, the big parties, the noisy open offices and all the demands of extroverts who think more is more and introverts should try harder.... Many people believe introverts are cold, shy or socially anxious — but those stereotypes are misleading. They love people, but in small doses.... There's some brain science to explain the behavior: Extroverts are less sensitive to dopamine, the 'feel-good' chemical that affects the brain's pleasure center, and require more stimulation to be happy and energized. For introverts, a little dopamine goes a long way, and too much of anything can be exhausting. When restrictions were imposed last year, 'I had extrovert friends who were just losing their minds'.... But introverts were finally getting the uninterrupted time they craved.... Many professionals are questioning the value of returning to the 9-to-5 office — introverts because they prefer to work alone, extroverts because their lives would be simpler. Is getting dressed, enduring a commute and sitting at a desk really necessary?... Now introverts have colleagues — including plenty of extroverts — advocating to work from home part or full time. What happens next might depend on who's in power. Extroverted bosses like the hustle and bustle of a traditional office. Introverted bosses may be more open to a hybrid workplace...."

From "Meet the introverts who are dreading a return to normal" (WaPo). 

Here's a perfect little TikTok I happened upon yesterday. It expresses some of what you see in that article:

@mallorydlc

has wfh changed you? #wfh #homeoffice #thoughts

♬ Sweden - FamilyJules

FROM THE EMAIL: kylos writes: 

Regarding the typical division of people into introverts and extroverts, I find it to be overly simplified.

When it comes to the office in particular, I don't think preference for being in the office divides neatly according to "vertedness".

I am by no means extroverted, enjoying quiet environments. Perhaps some would call me an introvert, but I usually perceive self-described introverts as somewhat misanthropic, so I don't tend to like that label. I do enjoy being around people but can quickly tire of too much activity.

Anyway, all that to say I hate remote work. It definitely has pluses: no commute (but see below), I can work on my porch or with the windows open, I'm able to take care of personal things as needed, my wife and daughter are nearby, etc.

But I deeply miss personally interacting with coworkers. Zoom is not a suitable replacement for face to face conversation or simply bumping into someone in the hall. I am much more distracted and far less productive at home. I don't get my personal time during my commute to listen to podcasts or be with my thoughts. My personal routines have suffered. By being unable to separate work and home, neither aspect of my life gets the focus it needs.

Several other coworkers who I would probably describe as introverted also have high dissatisfaction with remote work.

On the flip side, another coworker who is one of the most outgoing people I've met and who can't stay focused at the office, who constantly has her ears up for any stray conversation to join seems to be thriving at home. Perhaps she'd prefer to be in the office, but her focus is much improved, she takes a lot of initiative in solving problems and seems to be much more productive overall. I can't speak for her happiness, but she seems to do very well in the current environment.

So while I don't particularly like the categories of introverted and extroverted, I definitely also don't see them as neatly aligning with favoring remote work or the office.

Yes, and by the way, I don't think there is enough evidence in the TikTok video to conclude that the woman is an introvert. She speaks of aesthetic things and wanting her life to feel more unified, but we can't really tell how she relates to other people. 

You're second-to-last paragraph is a good idea for an mainstream media article. I've seen a lot about how introverts are benefiting from the lockdown, and it's presumed that it's harder for extroverts.

ALSO: Julie writes: 

I really loved the TikTok video of the woman who "can't go back" to a traditional office environment, particularly when she describes working from home with "I don't have to split myself, or my day, in half". 

I, and the folks that work with me, completely agree, which is why we've decided to stay fully remote. The pros certainly outweigh the cons for my team. Plus it's nice not to have to pay office space rent.

Though in watching the TikTok video I realize how much I miss the unexpected delights of experiencing someone else's work space. In watching mallorydlc's TikTok I've just experienced a little pang of sadness from missing other people's coffee mugs! In thinking back over the last 10 years and multiple workplaces, I think I can still describe many of my colleagues' water bottles or coffee mugs. And now these things that were virtual appendages to people only make rare appearances on video calls. They are no longer a part of my understanding of workmates. Is it an odd thing to miss? I don't know.

I also miss the hallway friendships developed with folks in other businesses in the same building. I'll never know if candy bar guy ended up marrying that one woman who used to visit him for lunch sometimes, or if large button-downed shirt guy achieved his target weight, or if sales guy still sings loudly out of his office for his own personal classic rock Friday . You don't know what you have until you lose it.

It's probably a good sign that you see and value the good in both situations. 

AND: Tim emails: 

I'm a classic introvert. One thing this discussion suffers from is lack of a clear definition of what an introvert/extrovert is. The definition I've found most useful is, the introvert recharges their emotional energy by being alone, the extrovert by being with other people. The introvert can fully enjoy social situations, but they need periodic alone-time. The extrovert can enjoy solitude, but they need periodic socializing.

Kylos may not like the term "introvert," but she fits my definition perfectly.

(I don't know whether kylos is male or female.)

She's just like me, and I can't wait go go back to the office for all the same reasons. Plus one more—these introvert/extrovert articles seem to assume introverts should love working from home for the endless alone-time, but (apart from the fact that introverts don't crave endless alone time) if you don't live alone, the opposite is true. I'm never alone because everybody's always home. I go a little nuts sometimes without that desperately needed "me time."

Meanwhile, my classic extrovert wife loves working from home and will resist going back for all the reasons cited in that tiktok by the person we're supposed to assume is an introvert.

ALSO: Wendy emails: 

I am amused by your introvert post, I am an introvert and have been saying since April of last year that quarantine is not an introvert's dream. Specifically not my dream it is actually a nightmare, my space where I recharge was no longer available. It could have been fantastic for me and I am sure it was fantastic for some introverts, just not all introverts.

In total, I have nine posts on my blog titled 'Introvert' and back in February, I wrote a bit about why I was looking to get back to normal. Since posting that, my kids have been in school 5 days a week, and my husband is still in the basement. I can live with that because I alluded to in my blog he doesn't have the same drain on me as my kids. I love them all but I do need a break, and he is pretty self sufficient, I don't need to keep him on track with his work, he can get his own food etc. I don't need to listen in to see if I need to intervene in a childhood argument.

Despite our society trying to put everyone on in our own box and at the same time encouraging us to yell how unique we are it is still so obvious that really we want people to remember we are the same. Did some extroverts adapt and like quarantine sure, same can be said for introverts, but introverts are not a block much like no demographic is a block. If this happened while my kids were teenagers or out of the house I think it would have been easier for me because their demands while different would have been easier to deal with.
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