Althouse |
- "With Musk on the board, the employees said his views on moderation could weaken years-long efforts to make Twitter a place of healthy discourse, and might allow trolling and mob attacks to flourish...."
- "According to Der Spiegel, a man believed to be a Russian soldier said in a radio message: 'You question soldiers first, then you shoot them.'"
- "I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isn’t she doing something about it? Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it? And the mayor of D.C. also."
- "If SCOTUS rules on regulation without a hearing or argument, the administration should simply ignore it and state that, in the absence of a normal process judicial review, it sees the court’s judgments as advisory but not binding."
- "You dishonor him by calling him 'liberal media critic.' He did not discriminate in his keen criticism of lazy journalism. Your choice of words to describe him is exactly the kind of thing he decried."
- "In fact, Joshua Tree has been drawing artists, musicians, architectural experimentalists, self-identified 'weirdos' and others seeking inspiration and self-actualization for decades. But..."
- David Mamet talks to Joe Rogan about why we need the Bible.
- "A court in Turkey transferred the trial in the murder of the Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia on Thursday..."
- "This was not a church service. It was worship for a new kind of congregation: a right-wing political movement powered by divine purpose..."
- "I finally understood the most important thing: You need to love yourself and live for yourself. Finally I will live the way I want."
- Do not approach the fox! I see "The tale of a wild fox on Capitol Hill had captivated those who live and work there."
- At the Sunrise Café...
- "The OW Hook (in Oh Why) is the central part of the song and reflects the song’s slow, brooding and questioning mood. ... [T]he OI Phrase (in Shape of You) plays a very different role..."
- If Ivanka wasn't garrulous, why bring up the concept of garrulousness?
- "Newcomer Laura Simkin, who distinguished herself from her opponent as a supporter of police in schools, will join the Madison School Board after winning the district’s only contested race in Tuesday’s election."
- Louis CK won a Grammy, undoubtedly because his comedy album was clearly the best comedy album, and mainstream media responds by reading Twitter for us.
- "The Covid pandemic caused many Americans to reconsider whether they really wanted or needed to keep working."
- Sean Penn — who's making a documentary about Ukraine — goes on Sean Hannity's show and right off tells him "I don't trust you."
- "In four days of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the phrase 'child porn' (or 'pornography' or 'pornographer') was mentioned 165 times."
- Who am I? Why am I here?
- "[Trump] seemed particularly ebullient before watching the film, saying he was looking forward to its screening more than 'Citizen Kane,' 'Titanic' and 'Gone with the Wind.'"
- "How was a middle-aged non-student allowed to live in a college dorm?"
- "Russia wants to turn Ukrainians into silent slaves..... They steal everything from food to gold earrings they just rip out with blood."
- At the Early Spring Café...
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 09:10 AM PDT "When asked for comment, a Twitter spokesperson repeated a statement from Tuesday that the board 'plays an important advisory and feedback role across the entirety of our service,' but daily operations and decisions are made by Twitter's management and employees. 'Twitter is committed to impartiality in the development and enforcement of its policies and rules,' the spokesperson said. Some employees that Reuters spoke to were not so sure about the company's commitment to this. 'I find it hard to believe (the board) doesn't have influence,' said one employee. 'If that's the case, why would Elon want a board seat?'... 'If Donald Trump was actually rich, he would have liked to have done the same thing but he couldn't afford it. So Elon is doing what Trump would have liked to have done,' said Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid. 'I wouldn't be surprised' if Twitter restores Trump's account now that Elon owns nearly 10% of the company,' he said." — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2022 |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 09:18 AM PDT "Another described shooting a civilian off his bicycle, echoing a photograph of a dead man next to a bicycle that drew international condemnation.... Sources in Germany said the 'material suggests that the troops spoke of the atrocities as though they were simply discussing their everyday lives.' Officials reportedly said that this 'indicates that the murder of civilians has become a standard element of Russian military activity, potentially even part of a broader strategy.'" From "Russians intercepted 'casually discussing' killing of civilians/Evidence of atrocity mounts as West pushes UN to punish Putin" (London Times). UPDATE: "The U.N. General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council amid mounting concerns that Moscow's troops are committing grave war crimes in Ukraine. The vote came as global outrage over the killings of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha intensified" — WaPo reports. |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:45 AM PDT "The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge. I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, 'It's got to be taken care of,' and I assumed they were taking care of it." Said Donald Trump, about the January 6th riot, quoted in "Trump deflects blame for Jan. 6 silence, says he wanted to march to Capitol/The former president struck a defiant posture and repeated false claims in an interview with The Washington Post" (WaPo).
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Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:28 AM PDT "The court famously has no enforcement authority. It's authority is based in acceptance of the court's legitimacy. But it can't do whatever the hell it wants however it wants and expect deference. [E]xecutive ought to brush off the court's junta-like attempts to rule by edict." Wrote Will Wilkinson, quoted in "Reporters call for White House to 'simply ignore' Supreme Court decisions/SCOTUS ruled 5-4 on Wednesday to reinstate Trump-era rule" (Fox News). The typical Constitutional Law casebook addresses this topic within the first 25 pages. I bantered about this subject with law students for decades. We always considered the apocryphal Andrew Jackson line — "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" — and why didn't Richard Nixon react to the Watergate tapes case by destroying the tapes? So what's the answer, Professor Althouse? Oh, that's not how we do it. |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:04 AM PDT Writes one commenter on the Washington Post article "Liberal media critic Eric Boehlert dies in bicycle collision." It's strange to put "Liberal" in the headline like that. For one thing, it's ambiguous. It could mean that he was liberal — which is correct — but it could also mean that he was a critic of liberal media. But also, it's odd to put someone's political persuasion in the headline, especially when the newsworthy event is so vaguely and confusingly described. Did 2 bicycles collide? No. We learn in the third paragraph that Boehlert was riding a bike, and he was hit by a train. Condolences to his family. |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 04:50 AM PDT "... part of what was different... was the way that many transplants were funding their dreams — by putting glamping setups or cabins on home-sharing websites.... Around that time, something else was changing that would set the stage for the rental gold rush: an appetite for an emerging aesthetic that some called 'high desert boho' or 'the Joshua Tree Look' on Instagram.... By 2018, there were so many renovated Joshua Tree rentals with the same metal cowboy tubs and wicker swings that an Instagram account emerged to mock them. Photos of these carefully curated spaces drew a new type of visitor, encouraging still more short-term rentals...." There's a link on "Instagram account" in "an Instagram account emerged to mock them," but it does not go to a mocking Instagram account. It goes to a place where you can book stays at Joshua Tree places. I'm not sure what to make of the NYT article. It's awfully snooty! It seems to be trying to enlist the reader — presumably sensitive to environmental concerns — into serving the interests of the very rich. Is it really so bad to have rental cabins in the area near Joshua Tree National Park? Are we stepping on the privilege of our betters if we think it would be nice to stay somewhere like this or this for a few days? |
David Mamet talks to Joe Rogan about why we need the Bible. Posted: 07 Apr 2022 04:25 AM PDT
"To go back to the Enlightenment... If the human being is the measure of all things, what does that mean? Our reason. And our reason is completely flawed. All of us do things every day which are unreasonable, sinful, wrong, and absurd. Right? And the reasonable person says, wait a second, why'd I do that? What do I have to refer to in my confusion and my self-loathing? Well, the Bible was a pretty good bet.... Let's talk about human nature: You really aren't that smart. You really aren't in charge of the world. You really aren't. Although you think you are. You think that 'cause you're human. But God's in charge of the world, and there's a certain way things are, and if you'd like to get out of your wretched self-consciousness and self-delusion, you'd better get your ass into church." |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 03:51 AM PDT "... a move almost certain to end the last case that held out hope of serving some measure of justice for a heinous crime that drew global outrage. The Turkish decision was a blow to human rights advocates who had hoped the trial in Turkey would at least make public more evidence of who was involved and how Mr. Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a Saudi hit squad in 2018 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to get paperwork he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. 'Let's not entrust the lamb to the wolf,' Ali Ceylan, a lawyer for Ms. Cengiz, told the court on Thursday before the decision was announced. 'Let's protect the dignity and honor of the Turkish nation....'" |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 03:37 AM PDT "... whose adherents find spiritual sustenance in political action. The Christian right has been intertwined with American conservatism for decades, culminating in the Trump era. And elements of Christian culture have long been present at political rallies. But worship, a sacred act showing devotion to God expressed through movement, song or prayer, was largely reserved for church. Now, many believers are importing their worship of God, with all its intensity, emotion and ambitions, to their political life.... 'What is refreshing for me is, this isn't at all related to church, but we are talking about God,' said Patty Castillo Porter, who attended the Phoenix event... [One woman, Tami Jackson, said] 'This is a Jesus movement.... I believe God removed Donald for a time, so the church would wake up and have confidence in itself again to take our country back.'" From "The Growing Religious Fervor in the American Right: 'This Is a Jesus Movement'/Rituals of Christian worship have become embedded in conservative rallies, as praise music and prayer blend with political anger over vaccines and the 2020 election" by Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham (NYT). Is this something new or is this how Americans generally behave? I tend to think the latter, but rather than musing on that topic, I just want to publish this quickly because I can see that I've got tags that will pull up whatever I've blogged about this sort of thing over the years. |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 03:26 AM PDT Said Iryna Filkina, 52, who had reached out to a makeup artist named Anastasiia Subacheva to ask about makeup classes. Filkina was, according to Subacheva, hoping to get more Instagram followers, and talking "about what she would wear and how she would do her makeup" for "an upcoming concert by the Ukrainian pop diva Olya Polyakova." The quotes are from the NYT article: "A makeup artist recognized this Bucha victim's picture by her manicure." At the link, you will see the photograph of the dead woman's hand. I will give you this, from Olya Polyakova: |
Posted: 07 Apr 2022 03:12 AM PDT Oh, humans of Washington — you who think you know what's good for us people who live outside your charmed circle — what do you know of how the world works? Did you think you were lucky that a cute fox was happy to walk up to you? Did you experience it as a testament to your charisma? Here's an article from April 5th, before the fox tested positive: "'Have You Seen the Capitol Fox?'Animal control officers descended on Capitol Hill after reports of lawmakers, staff members and reporters being attacked by a wild fox believed to have been nesting on the Capitol grounds" (NYT). "Fox News. Red. 'Aggressive.' Roaming the Capitol," read the Twitter bio of a user calling itself Capitol Fox....Of course, the fox is now dead. Or a fox is now dead. They have to kill it to test it for rabies.
One response to that last tweet is: "I'm gonna be so mad if she doesn't actually have rabies." Yeah, it's terrible to kill an animal just to find out whether it has rabies. And here's a tweet from a Politico reporter (whose focus is health and medicine):
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Posted: 06 Apr 2022 05:49 PM PDT |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 09:58 AM PDT "... something catchy to fill the bar before each repeated phrase 'I'm in love with your body'. The use of the first four notes of the rising minor pentatonic scale for the melody is so short, simple, commonplace and obvious in the context of the rest of the song that it is not credible that Mr Sheeran sought out inspiration from other songs to come up with it. As to the combination of elements upon which the defendants rely, even if Mr Sheeran had gone looking for inspiration, then Oh Why is far from an obvious source, given the stark contrast between the dark mood created by the OW Hook in Oh Why and the upbeat, dance feel that Mr Sheeran was looking to create with Shape." Wrote the judge, quoted in "Ed Sheeran wins Shape of You copyright court case" (London Times). Sheeran is also quoted in the article. He wants people to know how much it hurts to be sued for copyright infringement, to be portrayed as a "magpie." He's hoping that because he took on the burden of fighting the lawsuit rather than just settling, there will be fewer claims like this in the future. Here, I put the 2 songs together in a playlist so you can compare. Sheeran admits he understands why the writers of "Oh Why" thought he'd ripped them off, but he had not, he says, heard the song before he'd come up with the idea used in "Shape of You." |
If Ivanka wasn't garrulous, why bring up the concept of garrulousness? Posted: 06 Apr 2022 07:25 AM PDT I'm reading "Ivanka Trump Testifies to House Panel Investigating Jan. 6 Attack" in The New York Times. Key sentence: It was not immediately clear how revelatory her testimony was for the committee, but those familiar with the interview said Ms. Trump did not seek to invoke any privilege — such as executive privilege or the Fifth Amendment, as other witnesses have done — and broadly, if not garrulously, answered the panel's questions. And what's with "not immediately clear how revelatory"? It sounds like she testified simply and straightforwardly, but there was nothing interesting. Why act like later something might be revealed? It's such lame titillation. What was unclear? What is the function of "if not garrulously"? It strikes me as vaguely sexist, as though you would expect her to chatter inanely. |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 07:08 AM PDT |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 06:33 AM PDT I'm just reading NPR and the NYT: NPR: "Louis C.K. cancels his cancellation, wins a Grammy and triggers a backlash." This just quotes some tweets, e.g., "The Grammys are a great reminder that 'cancel culture' doesn't exist and no white dude has ever been successfully cancelled for anything terrible that they do." NYT: "Louis C.K.'s Grammy, After 'Global Amounts of Trouble,' Draws Backlash/Some comedians are questioning how the Recording Academy saw fit to bestow an award to someone who had admitted to sexual misconduct." We're told "his name trended on Twitter" and given examples, e.g.: "Every woman who has been harassed and abused in the comedy business, I hear you and see you and I am so, so angry," the podcast host Jesse Thorn, who interviews comedians, wrote, followed by several expletives. |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 06:10 AM PDT "Fear of infection or lack of child care kept some workers home, where they discovered that the financial rewards of their jobs weren't enough to compensate for the costs of commuting and the unpleasantness of their work environment. Older workers, forced into unemployment, decided that they might as well take early retirement. And so on." That's the myth of "the great resignation," recounted by Paul Krugman in "What Ever Happened to the Great Resignation?" (NYT). Krugman shows that the great resignation did not happen and observes that's a reason for 1. higher interest rates and 2. more immigration. |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 04:05 AM PDT |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 05:41 AM PDT "There were also, according to transcripts, 142 uses of 'sex' ('sexual abuse,' 'sexual assault,' 'sexual intercourse,' 'sex crimes'), 15 of 'pedophile,' 13 of 'predators,' 18 of 'prepubescent' and nine of general pornography.... The Republican fixation on pornography continued during Monday's round of statements by senators before the committee advanced Jackson's nomination to the Senate floor. A preliminary transcript showed 41 mentions of 'porn' or 'pornography' and 32 mentions of 'sex offenders,' 'sexual assault' and the like.... Republicans on the committee congratulated themselves for avoiding 'personal slanders' of the sort they said Democrats inflicted on Brett M. Kavanaugh after women accused the Donald Trump nominee of sexual misconduct. Yet, they opposed Jackson with the most grievous of personal slanders... Graham: 'Every judge who does what you're doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited.' Cruz: 'I also see a record of … advocacy as it concerns sexual predators.' Blackburn: 'What's your hidden agenda? Is it to let … child predators back to the streets?' And, of course, there was Hawley, who previewed the hearings by saying Jackson's record 'endangers our children.'" From "Senate Republicans' unhealthy fixation on child porn, by the numbers" by Dana Milbank (WaPo). What goes around, comes around. Oh, but it came back around in a different form! An unhealthy and fixated form.... It's different but is it worse? What was used against KBJ was her judicial work, which is on the record. There's a foundation of undisputed truth used to make inferences and arguments about how she might perform in the future as a Supreme Court Justice. What was used against Kavanaugh was about personal behavior, in the past, presented through a witness who may or may not have given us the truth.Yet Milbank says that what KBJ is accused of is "the most grievous of personal slanders." She's only accused of being lenient toward those convicted of possessing child pornography. That isn't even a crime! Some of us even think it is admirable — to be merciful toward someone, perhaps a very young person, who has only rashly downloaded some photographs from the internet. It is obviously a more grievous personal slander to accuse someone of sexual assault! I'm jaded, but it's still hard to watch — well, read (I can't watch anymore) — the irrational, overheated partisanship around Supreme Court appointments. |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 06:37 AM PDT
ADDED: It makes one long wistfully for the days when a President looked foolish because he couldn't find an open door: |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 02:58 AM PDT "'Would you like some Trump wine?' a Mar-a-Lago employee cooed to every guest as they entered the patio. Guests walked past Trump's private quarters as they moved from one small, crystal-chandelier-packed ballroom for dinner through an outdoor concourse, past Trump's private residence, to another crystal-chandelier-packed, larger ballroom for the movie screening.... Trump spoke both at the dinner and before the premiere — repeatedly telling the crowd that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he was president, that there would be fewer civilian deaths, and that inflation and gas prices would be lower if the election was not 'rigged.' 'It just would have never happened,' he said, after describing grim civilian deaths in Ukraine that he had seen on television and saying the 'rigged' election fueled it.... Trump repeatedly signaled to the crowd he might run for president again, and they whooped and hollered. 'We'll make America great again, again,'" From "2020 election claims dominate lively night for Trump, allies at Mar-a-Lago" (WaPo). Below is the trailer for the movie (and I think you can watch the whole thing here). |
"How was a middle-aged non-student allowed to live in a college dorm?" Posted: 06 Apr 2022 01:48 PM PDT That's the highest-rated comment on "Sarah Lawrence sex-cult trial shows devastated young lives/Lawrence Ray is accused of manipulating and abusing his daughter's college friends and others he brought into his circle" (WaPo). It's such a crazy story. You wonder how could this happen. But I think everyone who attempts to read about it will stop at that threshold question. The article says:
"There, he encountered Talia's roommates and...." Wait. They encountered him too, and what did they say? Not: "Talia, your dad cannot live in our suite"? Another commenter over there says:
UPDATE: Ray was convicted on all counts. |
Posted: 06 Apr 2022 02:13 AM PDT "We are dealing with a state that turns the right of veto in the UN Security Council into a right to kill. Which undermines the whole architecture of global security. Which allows evil to go unpunished and spread the world. Destroying everything that can work for peace and security. If this continues, the finale will be that each state will rely only on the power of arms to ensure its security, not on international law, not on international institutions. Then, the UN can simply be dissolved. Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you ready for the dissolving of the UN? Do you think that the time of international law has passed? If your answer is no, you need to act now, act immediately... If you do not know how to adopt this decision, you can do two things. Remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war from blocking decisions about its own aggression, its own war. And then do everything that can establish peace. Or show how you can reformat and really work for peace. Or if your current format is unalterable and there is simply no way out, then the only option would be to dissolve yourself altogether." From the official translation of Zelensky's speech yesterday to the UN Security Council. ADDED: Here's the WaPo article on the subject, including the response from Russian U.N. ambassador:
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Posted: 05 Apr 2022 04:47 PM PDT |
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