Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Althouse

Althouse

Wildflowers.

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 05:50 PM PDT

IMG_5499

"The control he had over someone as powerful as me — he loved the control to hurt his own daughter 100,000%. He loved it...."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 05:39 PM PDT

"I worked seven days a week, no days off, which in California, the only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking. Making anyone work against their will, taking all their possessions away — credit card, cash, phone passport — and placing them in a home where they work with the people who live with them. They all lived in the house with me, the nurses, the 24-7 security. There was one chef that came there and cooked for me daily during the weekdays. They watched me change every day — morning, noon and night. I had no privacy, I get eight gallons of blood a week... ... I've lied and told the whole world 'I'm okay. And I'm happy.' It's a lie. ...I've been in denial. I've been in shock. I am traumatized. You know, fake it till you make it. But now I'm telling you the truth. Okay? I'm not happy. I can't sleep. I'm so angry. It's insane. And I'm depressed. I cry every day...."

From "Read Britney Spears' Full Statement Against Conservatorship: 'I Am Traumatized'" (Variety).

"I deserve changes. I was told I have to sit down and be evaluated. Again. If I want to end the conservatorship, ma'am, I didn't know I could [contest] the conservatorship.... But honestly, but I don't think I owe anyone to be evaluated. I've done more than enough. I don't feel like I should even be in room with anyone to offend me by trying to question my capacity of intelligence, whether I need to be in this stupid conservatorship or not. I've done more than enough. I don't owe these people anything — me, the one that has roofed and fed tons of people on tour on the road. It's embarrassing and demoralizing.... I don't feel like I can live a full life I don't own. I don't owe them to go see a man I don't know and share him my problems. I don't even believe in therapy. I always think you take it to God. I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated....  I deserve to have a life. I've worked my whole life. I deserve to have a two to three year break and just, you know, do what I want to do. But I do feel like there is a crunch here. And I feel open and I'm okay to talk to you today about it. But I wish I could stay with you on the phone forever, because when I get off the phone with you, all of a sudden all I hear all these knows — no, no, no. And then all of a sudden I get I feel ganged up on and I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone. And I'm tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things, and more so. And that's all I wanted to say to you. Thank you so much for letting me speak to you today."

I feel sorry for her and for the people who are trying to help her, if indeed they are decent, honest people. It's hard to judge the accusations because it seems that she has distorted thinking.

"Antivirus software tycoon John McAfee apparently hanged himself in a Spanish jail cell on Wednesday — just hours after a court ruled he would be extradited to face federal charges in the US."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 02:05 PM PDT

"If Black lives really matter, it can't only be against police abuse - it has to be against the violence that's ripping apart our communities."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 01:48 PM PDT

Said Eric Adams, quoted in "Defying 'defund police' calls, Democrat Adams leads NYC mayor's race" (Reuters). 

His success could offer clues about where Democratic voters stand on policing issues ahead of next year's congressional midterm elections. With Republicans preparing to blame Democrats and the "defund" movement for a spike in homicides across U.S. cities, the Democratic Party could be forced to navigate progressive calls to reduce police budgets with combating rising crime.

"Mommy!! I won!!! Mommy, I'm the mayor of Buffalo!!! Well, not until January, but yeah. Like, yes. Yes, mom."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 12:46 PM PDT

 

"India B. Walton, the community activist barely known to many Buffalo voters just months ago, shocked four-term incumbent Byron W. Brown in Tuesday's Democratic primary for mayor in what may rank as the most historic upset in the city's political history.... Her victory followed a left-leaning campaign that built surprising strength in finances and organization in its closing days. While Brown, 62, aired soft TV ads that seemed to reflect strength and confidence, Walton jabbed the mayor as out of touch with average voters, under investigation by a federal grand jury, and a pawn of 'billionaire' donors unwilling to relinquish his 16-year grip on City Hall" — The Buffalo News reports.

I'm no fan of left-wing mayoring, but that video makes me cry!

The NYT article points out that Walton will be "the first socialist mayor of a major American city since 1960, when Frank P. Zeidler stepped down as Milwaukee's mayor."

"Supreme Court Rules Against... a unique state regulation allowing labor representatives to meet with farm workers at their workplaces for up to three hours a day for as many as 120 days a year."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 12:26 PM PDT

"Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said that 'the access regulation grants labor organizations a right to invade the growers' property.' That meant, he wrote, that it was a taking of private property without just compensation. The decision did away with a major achievement of the farmworkers' movement led by Cesar Chavez in the 1970s, which had argued that allowing organizers to enter workplaces was the only practical way to give farmworkers, who can be nomadic and poorly educated, a realistic chance to consider joining a union.... Supreme Court precedents draw a distinction between two kinds of government takings of private property — those that physically claim a property interest and those that impose a regulatory burden. The first kind — 'per se' takings — requires compensation even if the property interest in question is minor. But regulations amount to takings only where the economic effect is significant. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the access regulation was a per se taking...."

Writes Adam Liptak in the NYT.

Here's the opinion, Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. It's a 6-3 decision, with the Justices dividing in the way you'd guess.

"Young people need to have the ability to express themselves without worrying about being punished when they get to school."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 12:09 PM PDT

"I never could have imagined that one simple snap would turn into a Supreme Court case, but I'm proud that my family and I advocated for the rights of millions of public school students."

Said Brandi Levy (now an 18-year-old college student), quoted in "Supreme Court sides with high school cheerleader in free-speech dispute over profane Snapchat rant" (WaPo).

The decision is 8-1, with only Justice Thomas dissenting, and Justice Breyer writing the opinion about Levy's barbaric yawp: "Fuck school, fuck softball, fuck cheer, fuck everything."

From the WaPo article (by Robert Barnes):

In 1969, the Supreme Court famously held in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District that students and teachers do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." But it also held that schools have broader authority over students than the state generally does when restricting speech, and that authorities can discipline students for on-campus speech that causes or is likely to cause "material and substantial" disruption of school functions....

In the half-century since, the Supreme Court's decisions have been few and lean toward school administrators. The justices have upheld school disciplinary action regarding lewd speech by students at school events, a student newspaper that operated at the direction of school officials and a nonsensical sign with a seemingly pro-marijuana message — "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" — held by a student at a school activity.

Breyer said a school's ability to discipline students does not disappear just because the speech is off-campus. "Serious or severe bullying or harassment targeting particular individuals; threats aimed at teachers or other students; the failure to follow rules concerning lessons, the writing of papers, the use of computers, or participation in other online school activities; and breaches of school security devices, including material maintained within school computers" are all areas where a school's "regulatory interests remain significant," Breyer wrote.

But he said courts considering such cases in the future should remember they rarely stand in place of parents regarding off-campus speech; and that monitoring student speech 24 hours a day would give students little room for expression....

Here's the opinion. In the second-to-last paragraph, Breyer, addressing the vulgarity of "fuck," quotes from the Court's most famous "fuck" case, Cohen v. California ("Fuck the Draft"):

We cannot lose sight of the fact that, in what otherwise might seem a trifling and annoying instance of individual distasteful abuse of a privilege, these fundamental societal values are truly implicated.

"He was so afraid of girls that he made a secret study of them, and the more he studied them, the more he feared them."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 10:46 AM PDT

So reads an intertitle 1 minute and 19 seconds into the 1924 Harold Lloyd movie "Girl Shy" (which I watched because my son John identified it as his favorite movie of that year). 

The character is what these days we might call an "incel." He's also, essentially, a pornographer, to the extent such a person could appear in a mainstream movie in 1924. He is writing "The Secret of Making Love" by thinking up a stereotypical female and dictating the right approach for the male to gain the quickest possible sexual access...

 

The access is indicated by his putting a check by her name in his little book. If you watch that clip, you'll see his visualization of the seduction of, first, the "vampire" (i.e., the vamp) and, second, the flapper. In case you'd like to know this pathetic little man's imagined mode of conquest, the vampire is seduced by ignoring her (negging?), and the flapper responds to his acting like a "caveman" (domestic violence?). 

Of course, this is played (successfully!) as comedy, and of course, our little man — Harold Meadows — finds a real woman to love. Here, he tries to tell her about his book, gets carried away in rhapsodizing about the new direction of his next chapter, and is thwarted by a turtle who slowly drags him into the muck where he becomes embarrassingly gooey and sticky. He's sitting on the turtle, which I have to say represents his genitalia:

So you want to celebrate Juneteenth? What foods do you serve?

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 05:28 AM PDT

An IKEA store in Georgia sent out this email, the NY Post reports: 

"To honor the perseverance of Black Americans and acknowledge the progress yet to be made, we observe Juneteenth on Saturday, June 19, 2021. Look out for a special menu on Saturday which will include: fried chicken, watermelon, mac n cheese, potato salad, collard greens, candied yams."

That, we're told, was "intensely problematic." But what foods would be right? Or is the whole idea of a food-based celebration problematic? Is it enough just to exclude the watermelon? Or is it also the fried chicken? Or is it everything?

We pretty much all know — don't we? — that Juneteenth isn't going to be like St. Patrick's Day. We like to say: "Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day." There's exaggerated Irishness everywhere, and everyone is encouraged to eat the most stereotypically Irish foods and to drink Irish drinks to stereotypically Irish excess. Maybe that needs to be problematized. 

But whatever... obviously Juneteenth isn't going to work like St. Patrick's Day. I hesitate even to type the phrase "Everyone is black on Juneteenth." It's so wrong.

Still: We've got a new holiday. There needs to be a way to celebrate it, unless it's going to be a extension of Black History Month — a somber observance. To celebrate, we'll need foods. But if the attitude is worrying about giving offense, how will it be a celebration? It really is intensely problematic.

"Four Saudis who took part in the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi are reported to have received paramilitary training in the US."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 04:46 AM PDT

"The training was provided by the security company Tier 1 Group, which is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, under a contract approved by the State Department, according to The New York Times. Louis Bremer, a Cerberus senior executive, said that the training was 'protective in nature' and took place in 2017, a year before the murder of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudi government. It is said to have included 'safe marksmanship' and 'countering an attack' as well as surveillance work and close-quarters fighting."

The London Times reports.

"Nassib could be recruited to star in ads for outspoken brands such as Nike or Gillette, which have previously produced commercials that address racial justice and harmful masculine stereotypes...."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 04:34 AM PDT

I'm reading "Brands could flock to Nassib after historic coming out announcement" (Reuters). 

So... some companies are going to want to use Nassib, but — according to some marketing expert — they need to be concerned about looking like that's what they're doing. He says: "Rainbow-washing is real."

Rainbow-washing. I'd never noticed that term before, but Googling it, I see it's all over the place. I'll just choose one article: "Rainbow-washing is all the rage among the big corporations this month" (Mic):

Scrolling through your social media feeds, you're likely spotting more and more rainbow avatars as everyone celebrates Pride Month. Some change their avatars to signal they are part of the LGBTQ+ community, others to show their love and support. And then others — read: massive corporations that often have a history of discriminatory policies or affiliations with anti-LGBTQ+ politicians — try to use the rainbow flag as a Band-Aid to cover up all their insidious behavior during the rest of the year. There's a word for this: rainbow-washing.

So, originally the term referred to the rainbow visuals. It's a variation on the familiar term "white-washing," which, of course, isn't about white people but has to do with covering something with a layer of white paint. It's superficial and doesn't deal with deeper problems.  

The marketing expert in the Nassib article is using the term to go beyond rainbows to similarly superficial things.

"Peter now needs constant supervision and does not appear to remember his second wedding."

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 05:30 AM PDT

"Soon Lisa will probably have to place him in a care home, but for now they can still live together. 'My mantra has always been to have no regrets,' said Lisa, who worked in radio advertising. The couple met in 2001 after both went through divorces while neighbours in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They have five children between them. When Lisa joined her husband to exchange vows for the second time, his delight was clear for all to see. 'It was just magical — straight out of a fairytale,' she said. She said the second wedding created indelible memories. As they danced while guests looked on, Lisa said her husband whispered a few words in her ear. 'Thank you for staying,' he said."

From "Husband with Alzheimer's forgot he was married, so he did it again in Holyoke, Massachusetts" (London Times).  

Here's my earlier post about this couple, with video of the "wedding." I had to put "wedding" in quotes, because if it were a real wedding, it would be wrong, for at least 2 reasons. First, you can't marry when you are already married, which they were. Second, he lacks the cognitive power to agree to marriage. What's beautiful about this story is that the couple is already married, the woman is devoted to whatever she can still find in him, and the man is still alive enough to keep reaching out to her. 

The man has early-onset Alzheimer's and is only 58 years old.

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