Althouse

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• "Where have all our heavyweight snobs gone?"
• "It may be true that the Biden administration concluded we are defenseless to cyber terrorism despite years of ransomware attacks and hundreds of billions of dollars in cyber security programs."
• Overcast sunrise with bikes and geese.
• "By intent or blunder, the left and right are colluding to undermine the noble, elusive goal of giving American children the ability to think and argue and act together as citizens."
• "In some U.S. counties, nearly all people over 65 are vaccinated."

"Where have all our heavyweight snobs gone?" Posted: 16 May 2021 09:32 AM PDT Asks Camilla Long in the London Times.  I'm not sure I can survive on Keir Starmer secretly blanching at the thought of "thick" Angela Rayner's vulgar wardrobe, a collection of vegan-friendly "stomper" boots and leopard-print that she wore on campaigns. Why didn't he just tell her her clothes looked as though they'd been rescued from a flash fire in a Sicilian brothel, before giving the seditious moaner the boot? I don't know who these people are, but I like the general idea of harsher, meaner insults aimed at powerful individuals. I looked up Angela Rayner and I'm more confused and amused, because she is — according to Wikipedia — "Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work... and Shadow First Secretary of State, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Part."  Back to Long: Is there anything more snobby than two Labour MPs demanding a northern seat be served by a "working-class" candidate who is also preferably a key worker from the local area, as they did last week? What else do they want? For the candidate to be gay, female, a retired miner, a ferret-loving "local hero" and salt-of-the-earth sharpshooter who won't tell Starmer he's a prat, a gender-fluid teen mum? Long links to this Times article from a few days ago: "Are you posh? I might be, according to this list/A new survey reveals age-old clichés about how the other half supposedly lives." There are 40 items on the list, including calling your parents "Mummy and Daddy" (when you are an adult), calling dinner "supper," calling everyone "darling," calling champagne "champers," having shelves full of books, saying "napkin" instead of "serviette," and laughing very loudly.  We Americans are in no danger of calling a napkin a "serviette," so if we cared about seeming "posh" — we don't — we could get a head start on that laughing very loudly. Darling.

"It may be true that the Biden administration concluded we are defenseless to cyber terrorism despite years of ransomware attacks and hundreds of billions of dollars in cyber security programs." Posted: 16 May 2021 06:49 AM PDT "If that is the case, the public should be informed. The failure of Congress and our government to defend against such terror attacks is a national security failure of breathtaking proportions. The Colonial Pipeline attack was the cyber equivalent of Pearl Harbor. In both cases, we were caught unprepared and unable to deal with a threat we knew was coming. Yet, President Roosevelt did not issue a 'no comment' on the critical facts after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. Back then, we believed FDR when he stated in his first inauguration that 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' What the Biden administration seems to fear most is public recognition that it is afraid — afraid of the vulnerability of our infrastructure, afraid that the public will learn what cyber terrorists already know." Writes Jonathan Turley in "Why the White House won't define pipeline attack as terrorism" (The Hill). One way to fight — fake fight — terrorism is to withhold the label "terrorism" from the things you can't (or won't) fight. But it might be that the administration is doing what it can to fight what it realizes is terrorism, and what it's saying to us is simply propaganda. There's nothing we can do to help, and our fear of these attacks only makes matters worse. In that light, "no comment" is the mildest possible propaganda. There's nothing even to be deluded by.  Why does Turley bring up the ancient propaganda "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?! Calling something that we can't fight "terrorism" would be an effort to increase fear. It's simply wrong to say the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and it always was. If quelling fear is the only problem, then "no comment" is an admirable response.

Overcast sunrise with bikes and geese. Posted: 16 May 2021 06:29 AM PDT   Time: 5:42 a.am.  Did I bike there? No. And bikes are forbidden there. I ran — getting back to my sunrise run (after several days of babying myself after a wisdom tooth extraction).  Even in Madison, rules are transgressed. Not by me, though. I'm a rule follower, one of the class of persons who are restrained by rules that are not actively enforced and that those who only follow enforced rules do not follow. I regard that as a fundamental unfairness.  And yet, I can see that willingness of some people to break rules is part of a dynamic that works against excessive restraint. A rule that everyone follows, though there is no enforcement, is probably an excellent rule.

"By intent or blunder, the left and right are colluding to undermine the noble, elusive goal of giving American children the ability to think and argue and act together as citizens." Posted: 16 May 2021 06:17 AM PDT Concludes George Packer in "Can Civics Save America?/Teaching civics could restore health to American democracy, or inflame our mutual antagonisms" (The Atlantic).  Civics is at the heart of the struggle to define the meaning of the American idea. Think of the battle lines as 1619 versus 1776—The New York Times Magazine's project to reframe American history around slavery and its legacy, and the Trump administration's counterstrike in the form of a thin report on patriotic education.... [O]n April 19 the Department of Education published a proposed rule [citing] "the New York Times' landmark '1619 Project,'" as evidence of a growing acknowledgment of the importance of teaching "both the consequences of slavery, and the significant contributions of Black Americans to our society." The same discussion praises schools for "working to incorporate anti-racist practices into teaching and learning," citing the historian and Atlantic contributing writer Ibram X. Kendi. The rule states that grant applicants must "take into account systemic marginalization, biases, inequities, and discriminatory policy and practice in American history," "support the creation of learning environments that validate and reflect the diversity, identity, and experiences of all students," and "contribute to inclusive, supportive, and identity-safe learning environments."... Inclusion" is an uncontestable value, but "validation" and "identity safety" are not the proper goals of education—in certain contexts they might even be in opposition to it.... You don't have to be Stanley Kurtz of National Review to see progressive orthodoxy in the new rule.

"In some U.S. counties, nearly all people over 65 are vaccinated." Posted: 16 May 2021 05:18 AM PDT  The NYT reports. Two of the most populous 90-percent-plus counties are Jo Daviess County, Ill., across the Mississippi River from Dubuque, Iowa, and Dane County, Wis., which includes Madison, the state capital. Yay, Madison! In Dane County, Joe Parisi, the county executive, said this week that a number of efforts contributed to his county's success.... Officials strove to maximize access to the vaccine. They set up a mass vaccination site in December at the Alliant Energy Center, an arena and exhibition complex in Madison, and have distributed vaccines at health centers, pharmacies and mobile vaccination clinics.... Mr. Parisi said that the county worked with local hospital systems, health care providers, senior care centers and nursing homes to locate homebound people and help them get shots. They did not encounter much hesitancy. "People wanted the vaccine," Mr. Parisi said, "that certainly wasn't the problem with that age group." Even so, he said, fostering trust and answering people's questions are very important, especially now that the most eager recipients are already done.... What's special about Dane County? I think it's the high level of education. Well-educated people get the vaccine. People around here who are older are educated. So keep educating the young.

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