Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Althouse

Althouse

This too is a leak, and, again, it’s from Politico.

Posted: 11 May 2022 07:18 AM PDT

"An author’s online essay on why she used plagiarized material in a novel pulled earlier this year has itself been removed after editors found she had again lifted material."

Posted: 11 May 2022 06:44 AM PDT

The Guardian reports on Jumi Bello's essay, "I Plagiarized Parts of My Debut Novel."

In her essay, Bello writes about her determination to finish her novel, about a young Black woman who becomes pregnant. She remembers wanting to add "literary descriptions" of pregnancy, which she had not experienced, and seeking outside material. 

"I tell myself I'm just borrowing and changing the language. I tell myself I will rewrite these parts later during the editorial phase. I will make this story mine again," she wrote. "I would have told myself anything at that point. I would go to sleep at 8am because of keyed-up nerves and wake up at midnight. I stay up all night, writing through the days. I just want to get through it, to a place where I can sleep again. Looking back on this moment, I ignored my instincts. I ignored the voice inside that said quietly, this is wrong wrong wrong."

Plagiarizing your writing about plagiarism — very meta.

"Superglue"? Really? I'd use Elmer's Glue.

Posted: 11 May 2022 06:35 AM PDT

I'm seeing this in The Washington Post: "Incensed by the 'senseless upcharge' at Starbucks for nondairy milk, 'Succession' and 'Babe' actor James Cromwell and other members of PETA, where he serves as an honorary director, staged a protest Tuesday at a Midtown Manhattan location of the coffee chain.... As he reads his statement, the masked baristas behind him generally appear to continue working as if there isn't a 6-foot-7 Oscar-nominated actor attached to the counter — and later they continue to as he leads the other protesters in chanting, 'Save the planet, save the cows. Stop this vegan upcharge now.' Eventually, the police arrive and tell customers the Starbucks is closed — though they can still pick up any outstanding orders. Cromwell and the other glued protester detach their hands from the counter and leave." 

I assume the vegan milks are more expensive than cow's milk, but Starbucks could average it out and adjust all the prices and thereby avoid giving people a money reason to choose cow's milk.

But I want to question whether it was "superglue."

When they were ready to give up, the protesters just "detached" their hands. "Super Glue" is a specific brand, and you're not going to want that on your skin. I don't know what they used, but if they'd asked me, I'd have recommended Elmer's Glue. 2 reasons. First, it's consistent with honoring bovines:

 

That's the present-day Elmer. Admittedly, earlier Elmers would fit the PETA cause better. Here's the Elmer I remember best (which lasted from 1962-1976). He's slightly smiling but seems rather stern and skeptical:

  

But it's the oldest Elmer — from 1951 to 1962 — who really looks pissed off (and would best serve the PETA cause):

  

The second reason I'd recommend Elmer's Glue for your skin is that I have fond memories of deliberately spreading a thin layer of it onto my skin, letting it dry, then peeling it off. This was a popular kid activity in the 1960s. The peeling was fun, because it looked as though you were peeling off skin, and the peeled off dried glue showed the fine details of the skin it had been attached to, and this was fascinating to behold, back in the days when we had so little to gaze upon. 

"If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl?..."

Posted: 11 May 2022 06:18 AM PDT

"It does look intentional. It's like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn't vote for him and opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it." 

Said J.D. Vance, quoted in "J.D. Vance's claim that Biden is targeting 'MAGA voters' with fentanyl," a WaPo Fact Checker piece by Glenn Kessler.

I know this is a "4 Pinocchios" review, but I haven't read it yet. I just want to make some observations of my own before seeing how Kessler frames this.

1. Vance did not say what the headline attributes to him. The Yale Law School graduate has careful weasel words: "If you wanted.. how better ... ? ... It does look intentional. It's like Joe Biden wants to punish... and opening up the floodgates... is one way." He's speculating. What Biden is doing makes it look as though he has the intent to do what is the predictable effect of his actions. 

2. Vance's reason is the same kind of reasoning that Critical Race Theory analysts and radical feminists use to find systemic racism and sexism. You hypothesize that those in power achieve nefarious goals by adopting policies that are superficially neutral but have a disparate impact that is intentional. That's something else you learn at Yale Law School.

3. If that kind of reasoning is used against conservatives, conservatives ought to dish it back. It's interesting. Thought provoking. Why unilaterally disarm? If the left does it, why not the right? And I would like people to be more sober and rational. But the call for Vance to set aside his fiery rhetoric is what I call "civility bullshit." 

So... I give at least 3 Pinocchios to the headline writer, and now I'll read Kessler.

Kessler looks at whether more fetanyl is coming into the country under Biden. More is getting seized, but that doesn't tell us how much is getting through. He also looks at the number of deaths, which have gone up under Biden but also went up under Trump — and the rate of increase was higher under Trump than under Biden (63% compared to 8.5%). Moreover, fetanyl deaths among black men have spiked more than among white men.

So Kessler didn't get into the problem of attributing intent based on outward facts. He stuck to saying that Vance got the outward facts wrong.

It's bad enough to suggest that the president is deliberately trying to kill off Trump voters with illicit drugs. But it's especially appalling to make such hyperbolic claims based on zero facts.

Vance needs to defend himself, but I checked Twitter and I don't see anything yet. Kessler's piece went up at 3:00 a.m. EDT. That's 5 hours with no push back. Is J.D. a late riser?  I presume his answer will hinge on "opening up the floodgates to the border."

"Across the country, many mothers say they are rationing food for their babies as they search for more formula."

Posted: 11 May 2022 02:57 AM PDT

"Some are driving several hours, only to find more empty shelves. Online, private sellers are gouging prices, marketing cans for double or triple their normal price, and many large retailers are sold out altogether. Since the shutdown of Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis facility, other manufacturers have struggled to quickly increase production because their operations are geared toward a steady level of consumer demand, according to Rudi Leuschner, an associate professor of supply-chain management at Rutgers Business School. 'Some industries are very good at ramping up and ramping down,' Dr. Leuschner said. 'You flip a switch and they can produce 10 times as much. Baby formula is not that type of a product.' On top of the broader supply-chain issues that have emerged during the coronavirus pandemic, such as labor shortages and difficulty securing raw materials, the problem may be compounded by panic-buying, Dr. Leuschner said. Abbott Nutrition said it was doing everything it could, including increasing production at its other U.S. plants and shipping products from its facility in Ireland.... Some parents are researching homemade infant formula recipes on the internet, although health experts have warned that such formulas can lack vital nutrients or present other dangers."

From "A Baby Formula Shortage Leaves Desperate Parents Searching for Food/Some parents are driving hours at a time in search of supplies. Others are watering down formula or rationing it, hoping for an end to the shortage" (NYT).

Is President Biden doing anything to help? I searched the page for "Biden" and all I came up with was:

Republicans have seized on the widening anxiety among parents to blame President Biden, arguing that the administration has not done enough to ramp up production. On Tuesday, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture, asserting that federal officials have been too slow to respond.

Is that the President's argument, that Republicans are politicizing something that he's helpless about? I suspect that if Trump were President, the NYT would craft its language to blame Trump. 

I'd like to hear more about the homemade formula recipes? I looked and saw things that I know my own mother followed in the 1950s, with the key ingredient of canned evaporated milk. The NYT article conveys a warning that "such formulas can lack vital nutrients or present other dangers." Can? What nutrients can be missing? What dangers are there? How about printing the best recipe for homemade formula? 

Breastfeeding is discussed in the article, but the NYT puts a social-justice spin on it:

The shortage has been a challenge for families across the country, but it is especially palpable at grocery stores and food banks in San Antonio, a Latino-majority city in South Texas where many mothers lack health insurance and work at low-wage jobs that give them little opportunity to breastfeed.

You'd think that would activate Biden and the Democrats! 

At the Sunrise Café...

Posted: 10 May 2022 06:04 PM PDT

IMG_0328 

... you can write about whatever you want.
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