Althouse

---

• Sunrise — 6:47.
• "The Blue States are the problem."
• Who needs rational argument when you've got hashtags?
• Tulsi goes big.
• What is the meaning of "meaning"?
• "In the new book version, Nikole Hannah-Jones... cautions that the [1619] project is 'not the only origin story of this country — there must be many.'"
• "If tomorrow, a person wears a pair of surgical gloves and feels the entire body of a woman, he won't be punished for sexual assault as per this judgment."
• Did Joe Biden get angry over the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse? And did he refuse to take back his baseless assertion that Kyle Rittenhouse is a "white supremacist"?
• Eerie early-morning happenings.
• Sunrise — 7:00.

Sunrise — 6:47. Posted: 20 Nov 2021 03:46 PM PST   Write about anything you want in the comments. And please think of supporting this blog by doing your shopping through the Althouse portal to Amazon, which is always right there in the sidebar. Thanks!

"The Blue States are the problem." Posted: 20 Nov 2021 09:17 AM PST   Meade sent me that after seeing the link at Maggie's Farm.   If you see The New York Times as a Democratic Party mouthpiece, that video — "Liberal Hypocrisy is Fueling American Inequality. Here's How" — might leaven your criticism.

Who needs rational argument when you've got hashtags? Posted: 20 Nov 2021 06:56 AM PST Systemic oppression is evil and destroys the world #Rittenhouse — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) November 20, 2021 I mean, I could just as well tweet: Brainlessness is ruining everything #LadyGaga  Or: Logic leaps R Us #hashtags

Tulsi goes big. Posted: 20 Nov 2021 07:02 AM PST   "The jury got it right—finding Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges. The fact that charges were brought before any serious investigation is evidence that the government was motivated by politics, which itself should be considered criminal." ADDED: Gabbard has quite a different view of the Ahmaud Arbery case:   AND: "Stop Racializing Everything":

What is the meaning of "meaning"? Posted: 20 Nov 2021 06:24 AM PST I don't think these answers match up with the question asked: "What Makes Life Meaningful? Views From 17 Advanced Economies/Family is preeminent for most publics but work, material well-being and health also play a key role." "Most publics" — who talks like that? Why would health be the meaning of life? I guess the question is interpreted to mean what is needed to have a meaningful life and health is a prerequisite to finding meaning, since illness is so distracting. Read the article at the link, which goes to Pew Research Center. I'll just copy this handy (and puzzling) chart:

"In the new book version, Nikole Hannah-Jones... cautions that the [1619] project is 'not the only origin story of this country — there must be many.'" Posted: 20 Nov 2021 04:05 AM PST "Then, in the opening chapter, Hannah-Jones repeats the text of her original magazine essay and refers to Black Americans as the country's 'true "founding fathers,"' as deserving of that designation 'as those men cast in alabaster in the nation's capital.' Some 400-plus pages later, in a concluding chapter, she writes that the origin story in the 1619 Project is 'truer' than the one we've known. What might an assiduous reader conclude from all this? That 1619 is a thought experiment, or a metaphor, or the nation's true origin, but definitely not its founding, yet possibly its inception, or just one origin story among many — but still the truer one? For all the controversy the project has elicited, this muddle over the starting point is an argument that the 1619 Project is also having with itself. These distinctions matter because, with this subject, framing is everything. History, Hannah-Jones writes in the new book, is not just about learning what happened. 'It is also, just as important, how we think about what happened.'... Reframing America's start from July 1776 to August 1619 — from the 'wrong' date to the 'truer' story — and placing those landmarks in conversation with each other is what forces you to stop and think, to peer within competing frames...." Writes Carlos Lozada in "The 1619 Project started as history. Now it's also a political program. From magazine to book, the authors are rethinking their message" (WaP). Remember, when you ask who are "The Founders," ask who are The Framers?

"If tomorrow, a person wears a pair of surgical gloves and feels the entire body of a woman, he won't be punished for sexual assault as per this judgment." Posted: 20 Nov 2021 03:31 AM PST Said Attorney General of India KK Venugopal, arguing against a court order that limited the crime of sexual assault to situations where there is "skin-to-skin contact," quoted in "No skin-to-skin contact: 'Outrageous' India sexual assault order struck down" (BBC).

Did Joe Biden get angry over the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse? And did he refuse to take back his baseless assertion that Kyle Rittenhouse is a "white supremacist"? Posted: 20 Nov 2021 02:53 AM PST I'm seeing headlines to that effect — for example, "Kyle Rittenhouse: Biden angry after teen cleared of shootings" (BBC). Biden spent part of yesterday morning under sedation, getting a colonoscopy, but he was back in the world of the conscious by the time the verdict came out, able to hear the news and fly into a seething rage or whatever happened that got reported as anger. First, let's look at the video. Video was important in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, and it's important now as we judge the emotional state of our President: He's asked for a reaction to the verdict, which he says he just heard, and his first words were exactly what a calm, rational person would say if he didn't watch the trial: "I didn't watch the trial." The reporter loads in a challenge: "Do you stand by your past comment" accusing Kyle Rittenhouse of "white supremacy"? Biden is cautious: "Well, look, I stand by what the jury concluded. The jury system works, and we have to abide by it." That is absolutely not anger. He's not losing his cool in the slightest, and he simply ignores the problem of his ignorant remark about white supremacy. And that's the end of it. Immediately, there's another question on another topic (his health).  Second, there's a "Statement by President Biden" at the White House website. Here's the whole thing, and I've put the anger material in boldface: While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken. I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. I know that we're not going to heal our country's wounds overnight, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to do everything in my power to ensure that every American is treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law. I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy. The White House and Federal authorities have been in contact with Governor Evers's office to prepare for any outcome in this case, and I have spoken with the Governor this afternoon and offered support and any assistance needed to ensure public safety. I don't know who wrote that, and I very much doubt that Biden had much involvement, but the tone is about calmness. Anger is only there to be acknowledged. It's a first step toward gaining composure: I know you're angry but....   Yes, the statement includes Biden in the feeling of anger — "myself included" — but that doesn't make me feel as though Biden is actually angry. The verdict didn't make me angry. I watched the trial from the point where Rittenhouse took the stand, and it seems obvious to me that, given the burden of proof, acquittal was the right result. I'm sure Biden knows that too, and so there's nothing about the verdict that should make any knowledgable person angry.  I am angry about some things other than the verdict. I'm angry that Governor Evers didn't take steps to end the violence before it devolved into the chaos that Rittenhouse entered. I'm angry that the media did such a terrible job of reporting on the Jacob Blake incident that inflamed people and led to the violence. And I'm angry at Joe Biden for contributing to the inflammation back when he called Rittenhouse a white supremacist. Some anger is justified, and I don't know exactly what the White House statement is designating as the cause of Biden's anger. Frankly, I think it's nothing but rhetoric, intended to pull in angry citizens and make them want to go along with Biden's appeal to keep the peace. If I were one of those angry citizens — if I believed that the entire Kenosha story reeked of systemic racism — I would not for one second believe that Biden authentically shares my anger.

Eerie early-morning happenings. Posted: 20 Nov 2021 02:14 AM PST I got up just before 3 a.m. and, brushing my teeth, I dipped back into my new audiobook, "Our Country Friends: A Novel," by Gary Shteyngart. He messed up the bed's careful sheets as if two lovers had just enjoyed a tussle on it. He spotted two carved wooden statues of pineapples on the modernist desk... and knocked over one of them, adding some asymmetry to the deathly hospital order around him. What would his mother say from her immovable Gangnam cocoon, her throat tingling with hot barley tea? Advice she would never follow herself. Be strong for your friends.  A woman—Masha, it would have to be—was screaming... Her what cocoon? Cheongsam? That's a tight-fitting dress, perhaps cocoon-like, but it's a Chinese dress, and the character was born in Korea. Settling in at my desktop, I open up the Kindle version of the book and do a word search on "screaming" to find the page and see "Gangnam cocoon." It's a place name — the mother's not trapped within her clothing, but her district of Seoul. The word is familiar to me because of that song, "Gangnam Style." Idly, I scan book titles in my Kindle app and notice "Pain: When Will It End?" What's that? Something I added to the Kindle at Meade's request? I open it up. Oh! It's a fantastic book of cartoons. I don't recognize the artist's name — Tim Kreider — but I must have put this in the Kindle. (Yeah, I see now, that I blogged about the purchase back in 2019.) I become completely absorbed in the brilliance of "Pain: When Will It End?" and I arrive at this cartoon: We're so self-absorbed. I get it. But I wondered, what would happen on earth if the moon were to disappear? I click out of Kindle and over to Safari and google: 5 suggested completions and 4 of them are about the loss of the moon?! How can that happen? I was in Kindle, and I hadn't typed "moon." I hadn't even encountered "moon" in searchable text, only seen it handwritten in a drawing.  But maybe the disappearance of the moon is the number one thing people are wondering about when they muse about what might happen on earth. Perhaps there's some movie or TV show where the moon is suddenly gone for some reason and all sorts of disasters ensued.  But what disasters? Something about the tides? The oceans go wild? Is there some weird psychic damage that would occur if we could no longer gaze upon that big white circle in the sky?

Sunrise — 7:00. Posted: 19 Nov 2021 05:00 PM PST Write about whatever you want in the comments. And please think of supporting this blog by doing your shopping through the Althouse portal to Amazon, which is always right there in the sidebar. Thanks!

You are subscribed to email updates from Althouse. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States