Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Althouse

Althouse

"Asked which party they would back if the election were today, 37% of Hispanic voters said they would support the Republican congressional candidate and 37% said they would favor the Democrat..."

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 07:04 AM PST

"... with 22% undecided. Hispanic voters were also evenly divided when asked about a hypothetical rematch in 2024 of the last presidential contenders, with 44% saying they would back President Biden and 43% supporting former President Donald Trump. In 2020, Mr. Biden won 63% support among Hispanic voters, nearly 30 points more than Mr. Trump.... [T]he poll showed that economic issues were the main concern among Hispanic voters, drawing Hispanic men, in particular, toward the GOP.... A majority of Hispanic men said they would like to return to the policies that Mr. Trump pursued as president, while a majority of Hispanic women said they would rather stick with Mr. Biden's policies.... In the Journal survey, Hispanic voters had a negative outlook on the economy, with 25% saying it was headed in the right direction and 63% saying it was headed in the wrong direction. That 38-point gap compared with a 31-point gap among all voters.... The results showed Hispanic voters differing little from the overall electorate in their political preferences...."

"10-month review of Wisconsin’s 2020 elections conducted by a conservative Milwaukee law firm... found no evidence of the kind of fraud being alleged by allies of former President Donald Trump..."

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 04:48 AM PST

"... who falsely contend last year's presidential election was 'stolen.' At the same time, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty found 'it is almost certain' that 'the number of votes that did not comply with existing legal requirements exceeded Joe Biden's margin of victory.' With the country's two major political parties sharply at odds over whether the 2020 presidential election was legitimate, the review, released Tuesday, walks a fine line in asserting there were serious problems with the way elections were run in Wisconsin in 2020, but that it's very unlikely those problems denied a Trump a second term.... 'I don't think that you instill confidence in a process by kind of blindly assuming there's nothing to see here,' [WILL president and general counsel Rick Esenberg said]. The report also says questioning an election's legitimacy is not a one-party affair, pointing specifically to questions raised by some on the left about the legitimacy of George W. Bush's election in 2000 and Trump's in 2016, as well as voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams' refusal to accept her loss in the 2018 Georgia's governor's race."


Here's the full report at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty website.

"On Monday, a partially eaten full turkey at one abandoned site had two hypodermic needles sticking from it and needles were easy to spot elsewhere."

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 04:41 AM PST

"'It's a public health concern... We don't want needles being covered up by the snow. We are trying to get ahead of the weather.'"

"Sins of the flesh are not the most serious" — pride and hatred are "the most serious."

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 04:13 AM PST

Said Pope Francis, quoted in "Don't sweat about sins of flesh, says Pope Francis" (London Times).
The question came up [after]... the resignation of Michel Aupetit, the Archbishop of Paris, who offered to step down after the French magazine Le Point claimed that he had a consensual, intimate relationship with a woman, which emerged when he sent an incriminating email to his secretary by mistake....

Aupetit denies the accusation, but the Pope said: "It was a failing on his part, a failing against the sixth commandment, but not a total one" — not "total" because there were only — according to the accusation — "small caresses and massages." 

The Archbishop was, of course, not married, so was it really correct to cite the Sixth Commandment, "You shall not commit adultery"? The London Times raises this question, but doesn't talk about whether the secretary was married. You're participating in adultery if the other person is married to someone else, unless you're trying to weaseling out of coverage — looking for loopholes — which has got to be some kind of sin in itself. 

But I'll leave it to the Pope to define sins for Catholics. Maybe to break the priestly vow of celibacy falls within the sin of adultery. 

"We’re an employer too, the state of Michigan is... I know if that [vaccine] mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees."

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 04:29 AM PST

"That's why I haven't proposed a mandate at the state level. Some states have. We have not, we're waiting to see what happens in court." 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said on Monday, quoted in "Dems begin souring on vaccine mandates" (Politico). 

As for Biden, unnamed Democrats have "concerns... that they're ending up with the worst of all worlds: a blunt policy that won't go into effect but that will saddle them politically." As one "strategist" put it: "it's just another thing added to the pile of shit that he's already been dealing with." We're told: "Aides are convinced that the mandates are necessary to finally tamp down the pandemic, which they believe is Biden's political end-all, be-all." 

Supposedly, Biden "wanted to steer clear of the politicization that has hampered much of the Covid-19 response, viewing mandates as a concept that could easily spark blowback." He's the President. Why didn't he get what he wanted? Others prevailed, somehow, and he's stuck with the political problem. 

That looks as though the real political problem is that he's not running things, but I can see that the official answer to that is Biden initially believed nearly everyone would voluntarily get the vaccination, but he changed his mind when that didn't happen. A strategist tells us that the 2016 election showed that "[v]oters wanted leadership and a plan, and President Biden delivered." I interpret that to mean Biden's people are making choices that give the impression that he's delivering leadership.

The article ends with this quote from NY Mayor Bill De Blasio*: "They can't backpedal now — nor should they. That would be insane. It would fuck every local elected official who has tried to follow their lead and cause mass confusion." 

____________________

* CORRECTION: In the comments, mezzrow says "My read says the fuckery comment is from a Dem strategist rather than DeBlasio, AA." Oh, damn, mezzrow is right. I don't like getting anything wrong, but quite aside from that, I hate that it wasn't Bill De Blasio. The quote is so much more exciting when it's by Bill De Blasio. Oh, maybe it was him. He is "another Democratic strategist" — to use Politico's term — and the quote comes right after he was named. I'm not excusing my misreading, just grasping at the lost reality I once enjoyed, the one where the mayor of New York City is growling don't fuck me.

"Like most kids, Henry spent the 2020-2021 school year learning from home...."

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 02:26 AM PST

"Meanwhile, for more than ten years, we've had an 'owl box' in the tree above our driveway.... When our latest nesting pair showed up in late winter, Henry thought it would be a good idea to show the class through a 'broadcast.' So he got dressed up, we set up an iPhone on a tripod in the dining room, and the Weekly Owl Report was born! Sitting still and reading from cue cards was a big deal for Henry because he likes to move around a lot and sometimes has a hard time staying focused...." 


"This first video was just for kicks as a way to show the [5th grade] class what was going on in the owl box. Not only did [the teacher] make The Weekly Owl Report a highlight every Friday, but he also worked it into the weeks' lessons. The class read stories about owls, hosted bird experts, and had discussions about nature. [The school district science coordinator] was flexible and responsive, including The Weekly Owl Report in every [Columbia School District] Science Show. Both focused on promoting backyard ecology observation and getting kids outside. At home, the school encouraged students to get out in their yards and neighborhoods." 

I learned about this from Henry's father and checked to make sure Henry would enjoy a link on the Althouse blog. It's so encouraging to see kids finding ways to study science outdoors and to turn the unfortunate exclusion from the school building into something so positive. I love the way one boy's project energized the rest of the students. Congratulations to Henry!

Watch all of Season 1 here. I'm embedding Episode 3:

7:12 a.m. — the temperature was 10° — I bundled up well and got this photo of a bit of light in the heavy clouds.

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 01:53 AM PST

IMG_8516D

"The priciest Advent calendar on the market is probably the new $150,000 Tiffany version, a four-foot-tall cabinet with a reproduction of the Jean-Michel Basquiat painting... on the front and 24 gifts inside."

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 02:33 PM PST

" So why has the Chanel version gotten people so het up?... ... Chanel does lay out all the contents of the calendar on its website, so it's not a secret what anybody is getting for their money. It's not apparent that their offering is any more flimflam than that of other brands. But because it was new, and because it cost so much [$825], and because it was Chanel, with all the mythology built into the name, the stakes and expectations may have been higher. And the sense of betrayal when those expectations were not met, greater — and, it would seem, the desire to publicly pile on in response, irresistible. Those who profit from perception can also lose because of it. What Ms. Harmon opened up wasn't just a new mini perfume. It was a new reality, now completely out of the box."

Here's Elise Harmon's viral TikTok video, showing her unboxing the Chanel Advent calendar. Here's Chanel's presentation, revealing what you get for the money (click to enlarge):

Note that it starts with Day 5 (like the #5 perfume) instead of Day 1.

Here's some detail on that Tiffany package.

I can't see getting outraged at this. I think it's funny — brilliant packaging and mind control. Isn't this about men who have enough money to want to save time and impress some woman who they know loves a particular brand? Who can feel the slightest bit sorry for them? 

"I had told myself that I’d never try heroin because it sounded too perfect. It’s like 'warm, buttery love,' a friend told me."

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:08 AM PST

"When I did yield to temptation... [i]t was relief from my dread and anxiety, and a soothing sense that I was safe, nurtured and unconditionally loved.... Opioids mimic the neurotransmitters that are responsible for making social connection comforting — tying parent to child, lover to beloved. The brain also makes its own 'endogenous' opioids.... Today... what is now known as the 'brain opioid theory of social attachment' is widely accepted.... [O]pioid systems have evolved in part to fuel the good feelings people get from spending time with friends and family, he explained. There are many factors that contribute to addiction, and isolation is often one of them.... A 2021 study found that over 60 percent of young American adults report that they are either frequently lonely or lonely nearly all the time.... Understanding the social nature of opioids and addiction should help policymakers better care for those who suffer from it.... Some need new friends...." 


What's with the "tough times" in the headline? Isn't the author's point that human beings need relationships with other people? How did love get translated to money so blithely?

I had to go back to the article to try to find things I elided that could support the economic theory of drug addiction. Here's the best sentence for that: "Conversely, neighborhoods riven by poverty tend to have less social connectedness — and more overdoses." 

"A 73-year-old volunteer died on Saturday after she was repeatedly rammed by a sheep while working at a Massachusetts farm that uses animals in mental health therapy...."

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 04:54 AM PST


She was "rammed by a sheep," and we're informed that male sheep are "known as rams."

The farm — Cultivate Care Farms — has a website that "states that it is committed to improving the lives of children through 'farm-based therapy,' describing itself as a pioneer in the model, which it hopes to establish as a form of mental health treatment comparable to other models like cognitive behavioral therapy."

People do want to do volunteer work, and working with therapy animals must seem, to some people, to be the ideal form of charity. But farm animals are what they are, and they may be quite unfamiliar to the kindly people who volunteer. Obviously, the animals themselves have no idea that they are intended to do charitable work.

"Mr. Trump’s economic populism (at least in rhetoric) blasted through the libertarianism that has tended to dominate the G.O.P., a libertarianism that has made the party’s alliance with pro-lifers..."

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 04:13 AM PST

"... one of strange bedfellows indeed. If the G.O.P. wants to be of any relevance in a post-Roe world — after all, with Roe gone, those single-issue voters will be free to look elsewhere — it will have to offer the country the matrix of ethnic diversity and economic solidarity that Mr. Trump stumbled upon, but without the divisiveness of the man himself.... A post-Roe America will need to move beyond its wrongheaded obsession with autonomy.... We humans are not best understood as rights-bearing bundles of desires who progress through life by the sheer force of our autonomous wills. We are beings who are deeply dependent on one another...  A world without Roe is a world lived in the reality of this existential interdependence, since none are more dependent than unborn children on their mothers. And as this dependence rightly calls forth maternal duties of care, so too does the mother's greater vulnerability in pregnancy, childbearing and, should she opt for it, child-rearing place demands on the child's father and society at large. The reknitting of these interweaving obligations — these solidarities — is the next political and cultural frontier.... The Democrats were once a closer fit for the solidaristic vision, which is why before Roe, pro-lifers once happily made their home in the Democratic Party.... The abortion regime has been deeply complicit in preserving a modern economy built not around the needs of families but on the back of the unencumbered worker who is beholden to no one but her boss....  After all, easy access to abortion (not to mention egg freezing and other technopharmacological interventions) helps businesses ensure that women are readily available to meet the all-encompassing needs of the globalized marketplace, thereby delaying real accommodations for time-consuming (and sometimes unexpected) parenting, especially for those women at the lowest socioeconomic levels in our society."

Writes Erika Bachiochi in a NYT op-ed with a title that obscures most of what's interesting about it — "I Couldn't Vote for Trump, but I'm Grateful for His Supreme Court Picks." 

I was impressed by the quality of this writing, so here's a link to her book, "The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision (Catholic Ideas for a Secular World)."

ADDED: I was impressed by the quality of the writing, but the 2 top-rated comments call it "word salad." Bachiochi took some surprising turns, and you had to follow along and think. Accept the challenge. But if you read to see what you already know, I guess you think What the hell is this mess?! The food metaphor — salad — is apt. These readers are babies, reacting with disgust to the unfamiliar. Here's a clue: Vegetables are good for you! 

Congress drops the proposed requirement that women register for the draft.

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 03:34 AM PST

 Politico reports.

One of the people with knowledge of the move said the provision was stripped as a trade-off so Republicans would accept reforms to the military justice system....

Calls to expand the draft beyond men have grown recently, particularly after the Pentagon opened all combat roles to women in 2015....

This article isn't very informative.  I suspect that requiring women to register for the draft isn't popular, but only certain Republicans want to speak against it publicly. On an abstract level, it's about treating men and women equally, and only social conservatives want to say anything other than that. 

No one is actually drafted these days. Registering for the draft is symbolism, so why not have the symbolism of everyone registering? But why have registration at all? The government knows where to find us if it ever gets in the mood to use us against our will.

Personal note: My mother was one of the first women to join the Women's Army Corp (which began in 1941). That was a choice. My father was drafted.

"The value of a woman’s Indiana home more than doubled between appraisals last year after she stripped it of all evidence that it was owned by a Black person and a White family friend stood in as the homeowner."

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 03:12 AM PST

"Earlier this year, a Black family in Ohio removed family photos, artwork and their 6-year-old daughter's superhero pictures, replacing them with belongings their White neighbors offered up. The appraised value of their house went from $465,000 to about $560,000."


The main couple discussed in the story had put $400,000 into improving a northern California house that they bought in 2016 for $550,000 and say they were shocked when it was appraised at $995,000. So they "whitewashed" their house by taking down their family photos and their "African-themed" artwork. They got a white friend to put up photos of her family — who I presume were all white people (WaPo fails to say!). When the house was appraised at $1.48 million, by a different appraiser, they sued the first appraiser. 

This article is disturbing, but it feels radically incomplete. One commenter writes:
I had my home appraised (2018) and, in addition to he countless pictures, the appraisal form specifically lists 3 comparable homes within walking distance and then adds or deducts from those sale prices because of differences (sq. ft., bedrooms, baths, etc.) to reach my appraisal. His reasoning was captured o[n] the form.

The low-ball appraisal, at least in NYS, would have had a corresponding work-up. Ditto the second. This requires the two appraisers to put their thought processes down in black and white. How do they differ?

If there is no written basis presenting market facts, then we just have opinions.

Another commenter says:

Appraisers use special software, but it's only as good as the data they put into it. If they consistently grade the level of finish a little bit lower for the Black-owned homes, the software spits out a big difference in final price. The comps they choose also play a big part. I've seen comps that were a stretch, to put it mildly, even when there were other nearby homes that were better matches. Lemme put it this way: appraisers have a lot of techniques to push an appraisal in the direction they want.

WaPo seems to be mainly reporting allegations in a lawsuit. 
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