On being a snob and a joyously condescending person

Via Aretae, we find this:

This is how I feel about the American public, and specifically the American voter. I don't want to see them because doing so will serve no purpose other than to make me nervous. I don't want to see their Confederate flag bumper stickers, Palin 2012 t-shirts, Left Behind books, and Insane Clown Posse tattoos. I don't want to hear them regurgitating Glenn Beck monologues, talking about what Jesus told them the other day, or punctuating their speech with "done gonna" and "nuh-uhh." In short, I do not enjoy seeing the level of ignorance that we all understand is pervasive in our society.

Aretae takes him to the woodshed for as satisfying a thrashing as I've seen in a while, but GinAndTacos went and tramped on one of my pet peeves, so I'm fixin' to done gonna reply here.

You see, I used to be an asshat just like GinAndTacos. I was the product of a very intellectual, BoBo upbringing. I knew the right wine to serve, and how to serve it. Watched PBS, and got my thinking points straight from the Washington Post. I knew that I was better than most everybody else, because I was smart. I'd always been told so, and it was true.

In short, I was an idiot, living in a comfortable and well-heeled bubble world, ignorant of everything outside it. Except for Europe and elite opinion from there - well traveled, I put an excess of credence on what they thought of us, on the right side of the Pond. I would have heartily agreed with GinAndTacos:

As much as the good liberal inside all of us wants to sing a Fanfare for the Common Man while lecturing ourselves on the nobility and wisdom of the salt-of-the-earth types who populate this country, seeing them usually just makes me sad. If that means I am a terrible person, I am a terrible person. Toothless hillbillies in pro wrestling t-shirts. A pack of juggalo teenagers. Morbidly obese women in halter tops and jorts. Eighteen year old girls and their three children. Sullen, sunburned yokels slapping their children as other sullen, sunburned yokels look on, understanding the impulse and approving of the act. Baggy-panted black kids getting in fistfights. Twitchy, meth-addled white kids picking at their scabs. Mustachioed policemen harassing the former and ignoring the latter.

Forgive me, I was a jerk. I hadn't (yet) realized what Your Volgi teaches:

Plus, the kids who come in are often times high on themselves and their SAT scores and have increasingly not been exposed to alternative moral systems, like traditional religion, in which they'd hear, "Yeah, you're smart, but so what? Are you good?"

Then I got a job in Atlanta.

We were living in London (London!!!1!). We knew nothing about Atlanta, or the South, other than what we'd seen on PBS or read in The Post, or overheard at the cocktail party. Oh my God, people said, you're moving where?

Of course, Atlanta is a fine place, and filled with fine people, and Lord willing and the creek don't rise we'll skedaddle back there presently. It is delightfully free from Harvard Men who think that they should be able to run your life, by virtue of birth, or class, or degree. But that's not my point.

Aretae is surprisingly gentile in the ass whooping he unleashes, which strangely makes it even more of a thrashing:

I decided consciously that the connectors between me and people were bigger than the separators. And I started acting it. I've lived in small, rich, liberal towns in California. I've lived in Houston, and Austin and Chicago. I've lived in Moscow, Russia, and in Brussels, Belgium. I've lived in poor suburbs, and poor neighborhoods, and I've lived in rich-ish neighborhoods. And when I was traveling for work, I've lived in 100% black neighborhoods, 90% hispanic neighborhoods, and SWPL neighborhoods. And I've had friendly neighbors everywhere.

Amen, brother. And so in the interest of the Fellowship of Humanity, let me extend the hand of friendship to GinAndTaco. It's unlikely that you're as big a jerk as I was. Take a look around, and listen to people who are not like you. It's intellectually stimulating, it puts you out of your comfort zone - which is really the only place that we grow. If you agree that the first principle of a true intellectual is to challenge your own beliefs, this is the fastest way to that growth.

And listen to some Country Music, for crying out loud. There's more to it than you may think, which is just another way of saying the same thing.

Join us, as I propose a toast:

To my youth. God save me from a relapse.

You're welcome.

I did not see that coming

I feel a great disturbance in the Force ...


Yeah, OK then.

Antique Carbon Footprint

I feel like I'm getting my True Blue Sam on, but this is so packed with Steampunk retro awesome that it's in danger of collapsing into a Black Hole of Steampunk retro awesome:



I love the guy on the PA system. I have to respect the British version of Redneck, filled with obscure Anorak historical trivia. My version of redneck is getting lost in the ZOMG-that's-so-cool!

Oh yeah, they also have these decidedly non-Steampunk newfangled contraptions:


Via Theo Spark.

Quote of the Day: Fall of Rome Detroit edition

This is a long post, but man, it's packed full of smart. Like this:

Well, as a student of history: when a country's fourth-largest city becomes a ruin, it is not an effect without a cause. People argue all the time about the fall of the Roman Empire. But nobody argues that it was an effect without a cause - a random event, a black swan, not correlated to any other event.

The fall of Detroit is an objective observation. Most people (even on Fox News) do not really connect it with the history of the 20th century, the FDR administration, the tradition of progressive government, the Great Society, John Lindsay, etc, etc. In fact, they try not think about it at all. Why would they? Their history is made of cardboard.

Cow-eyed intellectual observers staring dimwittedly at the destruction of one of the Glories of the Republic. The cause? Whatever.

If you were as cynical as I, you might think that they don't look too closely because they fear that their pet policy prescriptions are in fact the cause of the destruction.

Man, you are such a cynic.

This is simply an outstanding post. Go RTWT. I don't agree with a lot of it, but it sure made me think. It'll make you think, too. This in particular is simply outstanding:

There are three basic attitudes toward government in America today. There are people who believe government is there to serve them; there are people who believe government is there to serve others; there are people who believe government is there to subsidize them. In our medieval metaphor, these correspond to peasants, gentlemen, and varlets respectively. The last is the caste Marx called the "lumpenproletariat" - and he was no fan of this group, or of political movements that exploited it. Respectable people say "underclass."

When gentlemen look at progressivism, they see a movement whose purpose is to help the underclass, those whose plight is no fault of their own. When peasants look at progressivism, they see a movement whose purpose is to employ gentlemen in the business of public policy, by using the peasants' money to buy votes from varlets. Who, in the peasants' perception, abuse the patience and generosity of both peasants and gentlemen in almost every imaginable way, and are constantly caressed by every imaginable authority for doing so.

(via)

The oldest veterans and the hottest summers

Some things surprise us, because we think about the wrong things most of the time. Records are like this - we tend to remember the longest, highest, fastest, oldest in absolute value. We tend not to see the averages.

I stumbled across the List of Last Surviving War Veterans, tracking various wars back to the wars of Henry VIII (!). What jumps out is just how old some of these veterans were even back in the days when most people died young (compared to today):

• Jones Morgan, veteran of the Spanish-American War, died in 1993 at the age of 111.
• Albert Woolson, veteran of the War Between the States, died in 1956 at the age of 111.
• Col. R.E.B. Crompton, veteran of the Crimean War, died in 1940 at the age of 95.
• Owen Thomas Edgar, veteran of the Mexican War, died in 1929 at the age of 98.
• Hiram Cronk, veteran of the War of 1812, died in 1905 at the age of 105.
• Jean Adrin, veteran of Napoleon's wars, died in 1902 at the age of 105.
• Lemuel Cook, veteran of the Revolutionary War, died in 1866 at the age of 107.
• William Hiseland, veteran of the English Civil War, died in 1732 at the age of 112. He married his fourth wife when he was 100, and outlived her.
  

I was struck by just how old these men were, surviving to ages that would be considered very elderly even today. For example, here are the last three surviving World War I veterans:

• Claude Stanley Choules (Britain/Australia), born 1901 (age 109)
• Florence Green (Britain), born 1901
• Frank Buckles (USA), born 1901
  

The surprise, of course, is that the record for absolute longest age is not increasing much at all. But this fact hides the (more important) fact that the average age is increasing, and has increased dramatically over the last four centuries. But what we immediately notice, and what sticks in our minds - and therefore what we see in the newspaper - is the less important number.

This cuts both ways, in a very interesting manner. We've been hearing for a decade that ZOMG the planet is warming and it's the hottest evah and we're all going to die!!!1!!one!!

But is it? Sure, you hear about record high temperatures reported in the newspaper, always attached to a ZOMG Thermageddon story line. But do these records tell us that? How could we tell?

We have thermometer readings of some quality going back perhaps 120 to 140 years. During that time, we can go back and look at how many records were set each year in particular geographies. For example, Colorado:

Since CO2 has already increased by 110 ppm, any effects of increasing atmospheric carbon should be noticeable by now. Here’s a chart of the highest temperature recorded in the state of Colorado for each year since 1888.

The average hasn't changed really at all since the 1880s. Now if the planet were seriously warming, wouldn't you expect to see the number of weather stations reporting record highs to be increasing? That's some righteous Global Warming right there, that increases average temperatures but not record temperatures. Makes you wonder if the average is increasing, if the record isn't - after all, average age is increasing because of the advance of science and the increasing wealth (comparing to historic times) of even the poor today. This is clearly very different from the proposed Anthropogenic Global Warming hypothesis.

So numbers are interesting things. They tell you things that you know, and they tell you things that you don't know. Most importantly, they tell you that some things that you "know" are wrong.

Last night's Top Shot

The best man lost. Adam is - in my opinion - a singularly unpleasant character, and it was sad to see Caleb get eliminated by him.

Adam is (in no particular order), (a) no team player (plotting against his team mates while the team competition is still ongoing, (b) a snake (trying to deflect criticism of (a) by focusing on Caleb as the "rat", and (c) a drama queen. Man up, Adam. And grow up.

Congratulations to Caleb for participating, and for some mighty fancy shootin'.

Tough Love

Unusual therapy, to be sure ...



Unusual, hilarious therapy ...

The coming Goblin apocalypse

Great. Now that my Zombie Apocalypse plan is done, I need to start in on a new one, for when a rift opens in the space-time continuum:

So, what if a mystical veil appears (or re-appears…) – a gate between our world, and other places where there are dragons, goblins, dwarves, and whatnot. And what if they all have magical weaponry and armor. And they invade in force – huge numbers, hundreds of divisions? What then?

...

So, a fully geared up goblin warrior is armored over most of his body, but certainly the head and torso. Regular small-arms fire is functionally useless – only a shot to the face or multiple wounds to the extremities will stop him. At range, he’s got a bow and a quiver of arrows. These are at least as accurate as the English longbow, but with a tendency to result in head shots. And, once they get close, they’ve got super-sharp can openers that will cut right through any body armor. They’ve got no artillery to speak of. They depend on mass assaults in the medieval style to close and gut their opponents who are typically other goblins, armed similarly.

Interesting analysis. And I can't argue with this:

Personally, if I was going up against a troll, I’d rather have a Barrett .50 than a rusty longsword.

And he has a follow-up post musing on the effectiveness of the M1 Abrams vs. fire breathing dragons. And he offers up as enticing an invitation as I've ever heard:

Look at this as if you were a cthulhoid malevolent intelligence planning the invasion of Earth – what creatures of legend, or what types of magic, would be required to even the odds?

Why you shouldn't "friend" your parents on Facebook

From Oh Crap, My Parents Joined Facebook.

The Great Geek Manual

I just know that some of you will dig this site. Geek history and humor, for example:

At this point, I have to don my security geek hat and say that stack overflows are bad security juju, especially in library functions (like math routines).

If you're looking for computer security timelines, this is pretty good (my favorite from Back In The Day were all those servers "Hacked by Claire Danes"). For example, on this day in 1997 both espn.com and nba.com were shut down after customer credit card data was released.

I should also point out that the Jargon File is pure distilled Geek. Enjoy.

Rhymes with "lance a boil"

I say it was a cheap shot, but it really isn't.

Miranda Lambert - Gunpowder and Lead

She has graced the cover of Garden and Gun magazine. She has a Concealed Carry handgun permit. And she has the prodigious talent to distill into a song the reason for the Second Amendment.

This week's Saturday Redneck is a repeat, from the very beginning of this blog, before I had developed the experience to do the song justice. But ASM826 posted one of her amazing songs this week, which reminded me of just how lucky we are to have Miranda Lambert writing country music.

Lambert's big break was on the first season of Nashville Star, country music's answer to American Idol. She came in third, but only because the show didn't highlight writing talent. Two years after the show, her album Kerosene went platinum. Two years after that, Gunpowder and Lead was a top ten hit and was nominated for CMA single of the year.

A song that works on all levels has to combine several things in a delicate balance. The tune has to be musically interesting, the lyrics have to paint a mental picture, and the subject matter needs to be something that captures the imagination. It's been said that each country music song is about you, or about someone that you know. Sadly, this astonishing song likely lives up to that.



This video was made as a class project. It's amazingly good for a fan video. Watch it all the way to the end for the full effect.

Gunpowder and Lead (Songwriters: Miranda Lambert, Heather Little):

County road 233, under my feet
Nothin' on this white rock but little ol' me
I've got two miles till, he makes bail
And if I'm right we're headed straight for hell

I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight, well now he's got one
And he ain't seen me crazy yet
He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man?
I'm gonna show him what little girls are made of
Gunpowder and lead

Well it's half past ten, another six pack in
And I can feel the rumble like a cold black wind
He pulls in the drive, gravel flies
He don't know what's waitin' here this time

Hey I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight well now he's got one
And he ain't seen me crazy yet
He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man?
I'm gonna show him what little girls are made of
Gunpowder and lead

His fist is big but my gun's bigger
He'll find out when I pull the trigger

I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun
Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight well now he's got one
And he ain't seen me crazy yet
He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man?
I'm gonna show him what little girls are made of
Gunpowder and,
Gunpowder and lead

Gunpowder and lead, yeah

Lambert says that the inspiration for this song came when she was growing up. Her parents took in abused women and their children, and Lambert shared her bedroom with a mother and her daughter.

"The song is actually about waiting for a husband to get out of jail so she can shoot him," Miranda told Dial-Global. "But it came from a real place in my life. When I was 14 years old, my parents took in abused women and children. I had to share my room with a mom and daughter. And my brother had to share with two brothers, and their mom lived downstairs, and it was a three-bedroom house. It really has a meaning to me."

Real meaning? Boy, howdy.

All in all, a much better post about this fabulous song than the first one. But I still have to agree on one thing from that post:

And for those of you not from the South, yes, "bail" and "hell" do in fact rhyme. Why did you ask?

We shall watch young Miss Lambert's career with great interest.

Meet your Government

The important thing to know is that they're not elected:

The first thing to realize about government service is that even in the most momentous election, a tiny fraction of government workers actually change jobs. A few hundred politicians and their staff and perhaps the heads of most of the agencies would lose their job after a significant electoral shift. At most, a few hundred people lose their job out of a total staff out of 1.8 million. In no other bureaucracy would anyone consider the removal of 0.01% of the bureaucracy a major change.

The second thing to realize is that during the vast majority of times, no one cares about what a particular government agency is doing. Right now, people are focused on healthcare and finance, but the interest will die down soon enough.

The third thing to realize is that the heads of agencies are – more often than not – good at politics, not running a bureaucracy.

...

The take-away here should be that in the vast majority of cases, elections do not change who runs agencies. If they do, they do so only nominally, as the permanent employees tell the temporary employee what to think.

This is perhaps the most depressing thing I've read in ages. The only approach then is to cut the number of workers at each agency in half. Baring that, make it a firing offense for any regulation that receives 100 citizen complaints. Either way will bring the permanent government to a halt; the first option will do so at half the cost.

Bah. Vote 'em all out, folks, and then do it again. Keep doing it until we get them so scared of us that they'll start reigning in the Beast.

Final Update on Roy Rogers' auction

I've been posting a bit on this, but Melissa McCracken gave me an update on other items that sold, most for more than expected, but some for less. With her permission, I'm posting her email on the subject:

I've attached a post auction report/press release that talks about the big sellers - Gilmore rig $103,500; Nudies' rig $97,750; and Clark Gable's Winchester $71,300. It also covers art, parties, etc., but thought I'd send it along anyway. The official "Prices Realized" is now up on our website.

The Lincoln, my favorite, sold for only $19,550, which is about what it's worth if it belonged to just anybody. Brian believes, and it appears to be true, that items that were accompanied by photos of Roy with said item, sold far better than items that did not have that personal connection. Believe it or not, we never could find a picture of Roy in the Lincoln. If we had, it probably would have brought far more money.

If you look at lot 184 in the catalog (Roy Rogers Corral sign) there is a black and white photo of Roy and his 2 boys in Roy's workshop with the sign hanging behind them. We estimated the sign at $500-800. It brought $13,800. Lot 336, a Winchester mdl 1400, estimated at $600-1200 brought $5,175, presumably because of the accompanying photo.

That's the auction business for ya! You think you'll get 60 grand for a fabulous Lincoln and instead you get 14 grand for a plastic sign. There's just no telling.

So each of his pairs of six shooters went for around a hundred grand. His rag top Lincoln, not so much. Auctions are funny things.

Easy to comprehend, hard to understand

ASM826 over at Random Acts of Patriotism has really been on a roll of late. That's not surprising; I think that he - with Brigid - is one of the deepest thinkers and best writers around. He muses about the song he posted, thinking about what it is to be an adult:

The video in my previous post is, to me at least, about looking back at innocence. Who we were as children, the things we were taught, the time before. It is a bittersweet thing to look back because innocence is not a defense against the world.

In the process of becoming an adult, innocence is lost. More accurately, it is shed. In it's place, if we are to be healthy adults, is honor, truth, chivalry, compassion, courage, hope, and love.

The idea of growing up, of shedding that innocence, is such an easy concept to grasp. Indeed, everyone does. But an awful lot of folks never really understand it, down in their gut. Gerhard van der Leun writes about some people who haven't shed that innocence, or more accurately have replaced with a different one:

Back in 2006 National Geographic and other media echo chambers thought enough of this "discovery" to headline it, Jesus May Have Walked on Ice, Not Water, Scientists Say . I'm not nearly so objective. After I read the story, I thought it could more reasonably be headlined, Scientist Confirms Popular Theory That Most Scientists Are Atheistic Asses with Too Much Time and Money on their Hands, Sensible People Say

...

There are fundamentalist Christians who hold that everything in the Bible is as the Bible says it is. And there are fundamentalist Scientists, like Nof, who hold that nothing in the Bible is as it says it is.

My very small puppy in this fight says that there is a lot in Science that lets all of us live longer and better lives while there is a lot in Christianity that lets us live deeper and more meaningful lives.

I don't look to Christianity to bring me the weather reports for tomorrow. At the same time I don't look to Science to ever, in its widest dreams, reveal the core of the miracle and mystery of being a conscious entity who has been granted the gift of being able, in my better moments, to witness -- even for an inch of time -- the wonder of Creation.

Packed with equal measures of snark and wisdom about the human experience, right there. Go listen to ASM826's song, and read his post, and then Gerhard's. I'd just add this:

Some things seem so easy to comprehend, but so hard to understand. Lord, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. A lot of people learn this, but don't get it, even though truth is all around them.

I'm reminded of that passage from the (possibly heretical) Gospel of Thomas. The Disciples ask Jesus when the Kingdom of the Father will come. He replies The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the Earth and men do not see it.

Like Grace, we're surrounded by wisdom, of the knowledge of what it is to truly be human. Men do not see it.

See it.

Free swag

In tidying up around Chez Borepatch, I find that I have not one, but two Mason's Levels. That's an excess of level-y goodness, even for me. Anyone planning on going to the New England blogshoot who'd like one (no extra charge; it's all part of the service), send me an email to let me know.

Won't take nothin' but a memory

ASM826 is country music blogging, and has a doozy. If that's your bag, baby, you'll want to stop by, and listen, and remember.


That's the house where I grew up in the early 1960s. The bedroom I shared with Older Brother is the top windows - I still remember being mad when Mom sent me to take a nap one day; the grave of our puppy is off to the left, behind the garage. #2 Son took the photo. This house is where this photo was taken:


The past is a land far, far away. But the right song - by an exceptionally talented young lady - transports us there in our mind. It's worth the trip.

UPDATE 8 July 2010 17:32: Here's what the house looked like in 1964.


That was a land far, far away. But this journey was worth it.

1:20 scale model of Pocket Battleship Graf Spee

This guy has put a lot of work into his creation:


It's 30 feet long, and so it's longer than I'd want to trailer, but is powered by an outboard (cunningly hidden under the stern turret).

The real ship - not to mention her captain, Langsdorff - was pretty interesting. Limited by treaty restrictions on tonnage, the ship used two innovations to save weight. First, the hull plates were arc welded together, rather than the usual overlapping-and-riveted plate arrangement. This saved a lot of weight, although I'd think somewhat at the cost of armor strength. Second, instead of the typical nautical steam power plant, it used diesel engines. By eliminating boilers and the attendant water, condensers, and piping, they saved another huge amount of weight.

But this second came at the cost of introducing a terrible single point of failure. Most diesel fuel is pretty dirty, and requires "scrubbing" before being fed to the engines (modern long range diesel powered pleasure trawlers like Nordhavn will usually come fitted with fuel "polishers" to do this). The Graf Spee used a boiler to produce steam to clean diesel fuel from the main bunkers which was then stored in a "Day Tank", but there was only one of these systems.

Murphy's Law was in play back in 1939, and a shell from the H.M.S. Exeter blew the fuel polishing system to Kingdom Come. With only 18 hours of clean fuel, the Spee made a run for the neutral port of Montevideo, where she was scuttled within the week.

Captain Langsdorff is also pretty interesting. Not only did he go out of his way to (successfully) avoid killing any crew from the eight merchant ships he destroyed, he treated the captured crew with respect, and earned the friendship of several of the captured captains. He was the only officer at the funeral for the Graf Spee's dead that used the Navy salute (rather than the Nazi salute). And when he shot himself, he wrapped himself in the battle flag of his old ship. Quite a man.

Exercise FAIL

For the last month I've been exercising (I can't really say "working out" - just push-ups, sit-ups, and the like). For all of this week, I haven't been doing them. Over the weekend, my muscles were hurting, so I took a couple days off.

The problem is that I haven't got back into it. Yes, I know that I should.

Sigh. It was a lot easier ten years ago. So for those of you who do regular exercise, have you ever fallen off the wagon? How did you climb back on?

Rejected Nintendo Wii games

Via #2 Son, for your funny viewing pleasure.

iAds - one more reason to avoid all things Apple

Hey fanboys, Apple knows that you like Fart Apps, and plans to sell the info:

Apple is using the immense amount of data that it has collected from its 150 million iTunes accounts to help its iAd advertisers target their pitches to users of iOS 4 devices.

...

Apple won't be sharing your individual, personal data, according to Bloomberg. Instead, Apple will make available "buckets" of applications to advertisers, with those selections based on users' purchase histories. We can imagine, for example, that purchasers of multiple fart apps — 701 and counting — might be offered tickets to Jackass 3-D when it's released this October, while those inducements might be withheld from iTunes accounts whose music purchases are heavily weighted with offerings from Deutsche Grammophon.

Of course they won't be sharing your personal information. Because that would be too valuable. Oh, wait ...

Droid, and MP3s, and Amazon's DRM-free store. Or buy used CDs for $4 and rip it yourself. Unless you don't care that all the App developers know you like Fart jokes. Well, not you, but you know what I mean. Privacy FAIL.

The Roman Legion as a buzz saw

Warning: this is pure history, with no tie into why we should vote all the incumbents out of office.* If this isn't your bag, baby, you should maybe skip this post.

This is pretty cool:



But it doesn't really say anything at all about why Rome conquered the Known World with such a pitiful sword. The Gauls sneered at the puny gladius, until they saw it in action. Tools and tactics are inseparable; just like in the debate about .30-06 vs. .223, you can't understand the tools without understanding how they were used.

The gladius made no sense without the scutum (shield), which wrapped around the legionnaire like a portable castle. It was curved, so it was hard to hit him from the side. Covering him from thigh to chin, it gave him essentially a secure base of operations to rest behind while his opponent - less armored and with a tiny shield (if any) flailed at him, wearing himself out.

Once his opponent was exhausted from his exertions, the legionnaire would step forward and dart his gladius into his opponent's vitals. While it had an edge, the gladius was primarily a thrusting weapon, like the matador's acero. Designed for the coup de grace against an exhausted opponent, the weapon speaks to stamina, not brute force.**

But even if you can wear down two or three (or four) opponents this way, won't you yourself end up exhausted? And isn't that when you don't hold your shield so high, or strike so quickly? So how did the Legions handle the exhaustion in their own ranks?

The problem describing this is that most descriptions provide Tactical (or Grand Tactical) views of the organization, like this:
That's fine as far as it goes, but what happens in that first line? How does each cohort of Hastii cycle the front ranks to the back, as the men wear out? Because that was the key to the Legion's success.

It seems that, as with all successful Roman innovations, it was all about organization. Each legionnaire took up about three feet, with three feet of open space between him and his compatriots on each side. A cohort would go into battle with several (e.g. 5 or 6) ranks of troops. As the melee continued, it wasn't typically a continuous clash of men, but rather like the tide rolling in and out. The opponents (or the Romans) would charge, a brutal fight would occur for a few minutes, and then each side would step back for a bit. Then it would start again.

What the Romans figured out how to do - repeatedly - was to take the time during these lulls to cycle the front rank to the back, through the gaps in the cohort's files. What this meant was that the opponents men would face a fresh set of opponents, each with their darting gladii from behind their scutii protection. And so the Legion would gradually wear down their opponents. Each opposing warrior might over-match the legionnaire, but none could match the stamina of the entire unit.

We forget that the fasces (from which we get the term fascism) was a Roman concept. Each twig is weak, but a bundle of twigs is unbreakable.

Now add the three lines of cohorts (the hastii, princepes, and triarii of the typical tactical picture), where each line can also relieve the exhausted lines in front of them, and you have a system that will wear down your opponents. Like a buzz saw, it will bleed them to death. The Romans took discipline, and training, and often unimaginative tactical commanders, and drove their enemies before them. Unlike the legionnaires, the Legion never got exhausted.

What's that you ask? Why yes - I am a nerd ...

* Well, you should, you know. Incumbentae delenda est, and all that.

** As is our struggle against our incumbents - this is a battle of stamina, across many different elections, before we so terrify them about being voted out that we break them to our will.

Which handgun for Mom?

Seems there was some excitement in one of the neighborhood houses near Mom and Dad. "Excitement" meaning three or four cruisers and other assorted Po-Po. They're in a nice neighborhood in Albuquerque, but Albuquerque isn't all that far from the border, and the drug smuggler routes have got to go pretty close by.

I did my typical flippant "You should get a gun", and Mom surprised me. She said "I wouldn't want a rifle, and wouldn't care except when your dad wasn't here, but a handgun might be good to have."

Well knock me over with a feather - we didn't have guns growing up. So to my exceptionally knowledgeable (not to mention exceptionally good looking) readers, what's the right handgun for Mom? I doubt she'll get it, but I sort of think something like this:


Of course, she's a classy lady, so I might go for some pearl grips (or - be still my heart! - Mammoth ivory).

So what's your recommendation? Remember, I'm an Old Fart, and she's my mom, so nothing in Smith & Wesson .500 Mag (or even .357). And classy.

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead

If you like Opera and hate Twitter (and really hate people who tweet about opera) then this is required reading.

Look, dude, the plot of the opera, and the fact that it includes singing, are pretty well established. They do not require on-the-scene reporting. If, in the third act, Brünnhilde and Wotan ended up talking it out and going to a father-daughter picnic instead of the whole “imprisoned in a ring of flame” denouement, that would’ve been tweetworthy. A summary of the same storyline the opera’s had for the past 140 years of performances? A link to the libretto really would have done the job.

Via Gettoputer's ex-girlfriend, Megan McArdle. Although it's the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.

Government interference in markets leads to market disruption

This will come as a shock, no doubt. The Fed.Gov has controlled most of the world's helium supply for the best part of a century. For the last 15 years, it's been getting out of the market. The result? People say that the price of Helium is artificially low and that we'll run out:

To ensure a stable supply, the US government gradually built a pipeline system that paralleled the one for natural gas and brought helium to a salt dome for storage. The site, called the Bush Dome for reasons that have nothing to do with the politician, has a liquefaction facility on site and a huge fraction of the world's total supply of helium.

That's where things stood in the mid-1990s, when Congress decided that the US government needed to get out of the business of managing helium. Ostensibly, this would allow market forces to set a price proportionate to its remaining supply, something Richardson indicated he supported.

But Congress dictated that the supply had to be wound down within about 20 years, even though the Bush Dome had enough helium to supply the entire globe for most of a decade, even if all other sources were cut off.

The result has been low prices for the gas even though, at 2008 rates of consumption, we had only a 25-year supply.

Sheesh. The Fed.Gov can't even exit a market cleanly. But I'm sure that it will be totally different with Health Care.

It's said that a committee couldn't bring tomorrow in on time, and that two committees wired in series produce infinite impedance. Maybe we can harness some of that Congressional hot air to replace all the helium that's floating away ...

"The Internet's completely over"

So says has-been rocker Prince:

"The internets completely over. I dont see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They wont pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they cant get it."

He further popped: "The internets like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that cant be good for you."

Well all right then. Can't have your head getting all filled with numbers. That can't be good for you.

Dang

But it does look like Atlanta's fixin' to get some Boston weather tomorrow.

A Progressive Fourth of July

For Progressives still appalled at the excess patriotism on display on the Fourth of July, there's hope.

Prior to July 4, 1776, not a single person in the world starved, got sick, worked hard for a living, or experienced any pain and anxiety. No one had ever been oppressed or unfairly exploited because the oppressive and unfair American system had not yet been created.

Your Progressive Education is all laid out at The People's Cube.

Quote of the Day

On the Second Amendment, and why liberals should support it:

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "I just don't like guns."

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "No one needs that much ammunition."

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "That's not what the Founders meant."

This is an appeal to every liberal who supports the ACLU.

This is an appeal to every liberal who has complained about the Bush Administration's trading of our civil liberties for the illusion of greater security. (I believe I’ve seen a T-shirt or two about Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts on that.)

This is an appeal to every liberal who believes in fighting against the abuses of government, against the infringement of our civil liberties, and for the greater expansion of our rights.

This is an appeal to every liberal who never wants to lose another election to Republicans because they have successfully persuaded the voters that Democrats will not protect their Second Amendment rights.

This is an appeal to liberals, not merely to tolerate the Second Amendment, but to embrace it. To love it and defend it and guard it as carefully as you do all the others.

Because we are liberals. And fighting for our rights -- for all of our rights, for all people -- is what we do.

Because we are revolutionaries.

This is an echo from an older era, from a time when I was not ashamed to call myself a liberal. Back when we trusted the People.

This is at Daily Kos. Most of the posts I tag Intellectual Left are sneering at its hypocrisy. Not this. RTWT.

Making the leftie Sausage

Sonic Charmer shows how it's done every day:

If you read Taleb’s book on the Black Swans or whatever it was called, or if (like me) you refused to read it but are pretty sure you know what its basic thesis was, then you know that banks all have to compute something called VaR (Value at Risk). This is a number that supposed to represent something like: “you’re 99% sure this is the most you could lose in the next however-many days”...

And the one thing I can say with confidence about this number is that it is wrong.

Always wrong, every day. The one constant about this calculation – remember, a calculation that a global team of six-figure quants is charged with producing – is that if you dig into the calculations behind the number, truly dug deeply enough, you can always unfailingly find something wrong with it. It may not always be hugely wrong or materially wrong, or there will be various wrongs that kinda cancel each other out, but there will be something undeniably wrong. Whether it’s the inputs or the assumptions or the historical time-series or the way things are simulated or the way asset types are bucketed. Even if you correct some issue that you find today, another one will creep into the calculation tomorrow. And you won’t find all issues.

The point of this preface is that large calculations are hard and in particular large calculations are wrong.

Similarities to Climate Change computer models are entirely coincidental intentional, as he points out later in the post.

It won’t have escaped your notice that these and more large calculations are all related to political questions to which the political left regularly claims to know The Answers. This is because the left is in thrall to the cult of Smart People. That is, the left is constitutionally unable to imagine a question which cannot be answered by getting together a sufficient number of Smart People and having them work on it. Just have Smart People do the calculation, tell us their answer, and that’s what we should do. And Smart People, at least some of them, do claim to know the answers to the above: the earth will definitely get warmer; we can’t win a war in Iraq or Afghanistan; Social Security is fine; we can lower health care costs using smart medicine; stimulus will increase the number of jobs. And when things go wrong or answers seem to fail – as in the financial crisis, or the oil leak – the left’s answer is always and inevitably: We needed more regulation and intervention. Not enough Smart People were in charge, not enough Smart ideas acted upon. This is why, for example, the fact that the “stimulus” didn’t create jobs will not ever cause them to disbelieve in “stimulus”. It will only strengthen their conviction that more “stimulus” was needed.

The corollary, of course, is that the "Smart" people who make these computer models have a lot to lose. If, say, a climate model egregiously oversimplifies complex but important inputs and therefore gets lousy output, the "Smart" climate model developer would be shown to be not so smart. You might think that the climate modelers might refuse to release their source code, to keep people from seeing just how "smart" the modelers really are.

So why are lefties convinced that they're smarter than you and me? Because they hide their work, so that you can't show them that they're not so smart. Pretty "smart", right there.

This is the smartest thing I've read is quite some time.

The Zen of Apple Marketing

The Fake Steve Jobs explains why it doesn't matter that the iPhone 4's antenna doesn't work:

So take that, blog commenters. You can debate and argue 24-7 on this external antenna and the Anandtech investigation and how many dBs of attenuation you can get when you wrap an iPhone 4 in latex and shove it halfway up your butts. Have fun! Go wild! Knock yourselves out. But by Tuesday, when all the regular folks come back from the long weekend of cookouts and hanging out on the beach, this non-issue will have been eliminated by our non-repair, just wait and see.

Meanwhile, peace out and namaste. I honor the place where our bullshit and your need to believe in us become one.

This is very good, and very cynical, and very spot on.

I think I got something in my eye ...

This 4th of July, remember the sacrifice of our troops, and especially the sacrifice of their families. Traction Control does.

Roy's six shooters

Went for $100,000 at auction. Wow.

Thank you, America

Via Reason Hit-and-Run, who sum this country up:

And is America the kind of country that can attract a recent Italian immigrant who not only becomes a member of the border-patrolling Minutemen movement, but also pens patriotic songs that out-Bon Jovi's Bon Jovi? Do you even have to ask?

They have a bunch more songs there.

What did the Founding Fathers think of the Tea Party movement?

Let's look at what they told us:

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

...

To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

...

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. [Arizona immigration enforcement]

...

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

...

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; [Be more like Europe; rely on International Law, rather than American Constitutional Law]

...

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any [crimes] which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: [New Black Panther Party voter intimidation]

...

For imposing taxes on us without our consent: [Health care mandate, Cap-and-Trade, ...]
...

We, therefore, the [people] of the United States of America, ... assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of [this land], solemnly publish and declare, that [we] are, and of right ought to be free and independent [people]

History tells you a lot about today, if you'll listen.


Listen.

"General Lee, I have no Division."

Robert E. Lee is without doubt one of the greatest generals these shores have ever seen - arguably the greatest of all. And so I've always been mystified why he ordered General George Pickett to lead 12,500 of the South's finest troops across nearly a mile of open ground against fortified Union lines, that July 3 afternoon so long ago.

The lesson of Fredricksburg from the previous year should have told him what to expect. General Longstreet had learned that lesson, and tried unsuccessfully to persuade his commander to call off the assault. Overcome with emotion - a premonition of slaughter, really - he couldn't even speak the final order to advance, but merely nodded assent to Pickett's request to charge. When the stragglers returned to their lines, General Lee (worried that the Yankees might charge to follow up their success) asked Pickett to rally his Division. Pickett replied, General Lee, I have no Division.

The War Between The States ("Civil War" to Yankees) was a brutal affair, where the weaponry had advanced faster than the tactics. It remains to this day the bloodiest conflict in the nation's history, with more casualties than any other war we've fought. When you consider how much the population has grown since the mid-nineteenth century, it was even worse.

The psychological scars of that war were to linger for a generation or more. The sense of loss - needless loss - is perhaps summed up by Pickett's Charge. William Faulkner captured this sense in Intruder In The Dust:

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances ...

Pickett never forgave Lee. Asked many years later why the charge failed, he replied that he thought that the Yankees had something to do with the outcome. He might have said that Lee had, too.

Apple Design FAIL

Apple's iPhone 4 seems to have some serious problems with its antenna, to the point where it drops calls if you put your hand on the wrong part of the phone. Steve Jobs got a lot of attention when he said users were holding the phone wrong.

This is marketing fail dialed up to 11. Just how bad is it? Nokia has a blog post showing all the ways you can hold your Nokia phone:

We’ve found any of the four grips mentioned above to be both comfortable and as you can see, offer no signal degradation whatsoever. This isn’t a feature you’ll only find on high-end Nokia devices either. It’s something that’s been a part of pretty much every Nokia device ever made (perhaps with the exception of that teardrop 3G one, which was a bit ridiculous).

The key function on any Nokia device is its ability to make phone calls.

"You're holding it wrong?" How about you're marketing it wrong?

Eric Raymond looks at this from a more systemic angle, but drips the same contempt for Apple's ham-fisted efforts - and the predictable "it's insanely great!" response from the fanboys:

It never looked very likely that the iPhone line would recover the unit share advantage against Android that it lost earlier this year. Now Apple has taken a serious hit to their brand image and they’ll be lucky not to watch their share drop like a rock. And there’s no one else Apple can blame; they launched the iPhone 4 with serious user-visible software errors and (on the evidence of those job postings) knowing the antenna design was defective. Apple owns every failure.

In the future, the Apple fanboys trumpeting the “superior user experience” among my commenters will be pointed to this post and mocked without mercy. Your god has failed you, even in the terms it set itself as the criteria of excellence. The iPhone 4 now stands for lies and incompetence.

If Nokia wanted to really stick the knife in, they'd turn their blog post into a Flash podcast. You'd be able to view it on your Nokia phone, but not your iPhone. Nice user experience.

Matt Kennon - The Call

Sometimes it's the path not taken that's the important one.

There's nothing wrong with thinking, but sometimes there's no substitute for living - for experiences and wisdom won at great cost. The kind of wisdom that you'd rather not have, but wouldn't ever think of giving back.

Fortunately, there's a Country song for that, and Matt Kennon has given us one heck of an example. It's been said that the bane of Country music is that "sentimental" gets cranked up to "maudlin". Too much isn't "just enough", it's often too much. Unless the songwriter and performer rise above.

Kennon chose a topic popular in Nashville, the story of Redemption, of choosing the Right road when given the choice. Most of these efforts are horrible, maudlin failures. The difference here - when everything points towards (and even screams) "maudlin" - is that Kennon has walked the path himself. He has that uncomfortable wisdom, hard won, that a wise man wouldn't return:

Matt's birth mother, who already had another son, made a decision to have an abortion, but she arrived at her doctor's office 2 weeks too late and was told she had to carry the child (Matt) to full term. Matt's adoptive mother had the same doctor, and she was able to take him and give him a loving, stable home.

How does that effect a man who writes a song about teenage pregnancy? You'd expect depth, that takes a song amp'ed up to "maudlin" and turns it up to listen-to-this. You'd be right.



The Call (Songwriters: Matt Kennon, Jeremy Campbell, Noah Gordon)

Today was gonna be the day
He´d already wrote the note
And parked that Chevrolet
At the end of that dead end road
Had his finger on the trigger; just about to end everything
He was taking one last long breathe; when he heard his cell phone ring

And his best friends say man where you been?
We´re headed down to the lake this weekend
You better not miss it ´cause buddy I swear
It won´t be the same If you aint there
And i told that girl that you like so much
You were coming along and her eyes lit up
I better let you go man i really hope i didnt catch you in the middle of anything
He said you kinda did but i don´t mind at all
I´m glad you called

In another town down the road
In the backseat of a car
Two 18 year olds had let a kiss go to far
He said how are we gonna have this child
When were both headed off to school?
He convinced her late one night there´s only one thing to do
She was scared to death in that waiting room
When the nurse asked how far along are you
She said 5 weeks and just about then her phone lit up
And his call came in
Saying baby i was wrong about everything
I´ve already bought you a diamond ring we´ re gonna start a life
Would you be my wife
Boy or girl; pink or blue; yeah either way
All she could say as she felt those tear drops falls was
I´m so glad you called

If someone you know is weighing on your mind
And needs a friend on the end of that other line
Don´t hesitate what you say may seem so small
But who knows
They might be glad you called

So make the call

Yeah make that call

Am I my Brother's Keeper? Well, no. But each of us can make a difference, if we dare.

The Phoenix

Everyone knows the tale of the Phoenix, the mythical bird who regenerates from its own flaming ashes. Nice trick, that.

The idea of re- incarnation is one that seems basic in the human psyche - it appears in virtually all societies. The thought is that we see it in action, symbolically, in people who suffer - and overcome - great adversity.

Dr. Sherwin Nuland is one of those people. A surgeon, he is perhaps uniquely positioned to describe this rebirth via electroshock therapy not just as a man of science, but as a patient. It's an amazing story, that highlights that the Mind is truly an unknowable land.

It's not an easy talk to listen to, because you realize that the Phoenix cannot regenerate without first burning to ash.



UPDATE 3 July 2010 13:24: More on electroshock therapy here.

McDonald v. Chicago Falling Domino

It's a'falling. Zercool finds an outbreak of sanity in Wisconsin:

OFFICE OF GERALD R. FOX
JACKSON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release June 29, 2010
DISTRICT ATTORNEY GERALD FOX’S STATEMENT ON THE
U. S. SUPREME COURT’S DECISION IN MCDONALD v. CITY OF CHICAGO

...

This Supreme Court ruling is binding on all states and local governments, and immediately renders some of Wisconsin’s current laws unconstitutional. Therefore, in keeping with my oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, I hereby declare that this office will no longer accept law enforcement referrals for violations of the following statutes:
Section 167.31, prohibiting uncased or loaded firearms in vehicles;
Section 941.23, prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons, including firearms;
Section 941.235, prohibiting the possession of firearms in public buildings;
Section 941.237, prohibiting the possession of firearms in establishments where alcohol may be sold or served; and,
Section 941.24, prohibiting the possession of knives that open with a button, or by gravity, or thrust, or movement.

All of these statutes constitute unjustifiable infringements on the fundamental right of every law-abiding American to arm themselves for self-defense and the defense of their loved ones, co-workers, homes and communities.

District Attorney Fox goes into some detail as to how these rights have been infringed in Wisconsin in the past. RTWT.

Wisconsin has not been particularly gun friendly, so it's good to see that a D.A. there says that the laws are unconstitutional and he won't enforce them. Well done, sir. And as a tribute to your courageous decision, here's a musical tribute.

Don't want to discuss it
I think it's time for a change

UPDATE 2 July 2010 19:29: Eugene Volokh thinks this may be overreaching by the D.A.

Global Warming: It's a floor wax, and a desert topping!

Global warming will cause both droughts and floods!



Of course, it's all entirely unsupported. Doesn't stop it from being big headlines, though.

Compare and Contrast

... media coverage of the Al "Sex Poodle" Gore accusations, and media coverage of the Duke University Lacross team "rape" accusations.

J'accuse.

And Tom Maguire offers his own j'accuse to the Lefties:

Fortunately, the accused is a lefty icon (tarnished a bit by the separation, of course), so we don't need to listen to endless feminist chanting that accusers don't lie, or lib diatribes about the importance of speaking truth to power.

Ouch. That'll leave a mark, if they're not complete hypocrites.

For extra credit, compare and contrast media coverage of the feminist defenders of Al Gore (or Bill Clinton) with coverage of Larry Craig. Extra extra credit for a a definition of it's-not-the-act-it's-the-hypocrisy analysis.

Interlude and question

I don't like Breaking Benjamin, but this song always brings me up short. I think it's because it speaks so strongly to what a man - one who steps up to his responsibilities - expects himself to do.

We're never sad
'Cause we are not allowed to be

One of the great musical challenges - and what separates the great from the mediocre D.J.s - is song pairing. If you were to pair this with another song, to highlight what an honorable man measures himself against, what would it be? Why? Not what men do, but the standard they hold themselves to.

UPDATE 1 July 2010 21:14: Here's my paring, from Lowen and Navarro's Walking On A Wire:

A man knows that one day
There's always the end to the highway
He knows what's before him
He won't run away
Because "away" is never far enough
And freedom's just a bluff
Still from somewhere deep inside
Comes the peace you'd only dreamed of

To Linda: I hope Dave comes to this realization.

Rousseau in action: the real reason behind gun control legislation

It's been really busy, and I missed posting about Rousseau's birthday on Monday. Rousseau was basically the father of the philosophical strain that led to Fascism, Socialism, and Communism. It's not far from the truth to say that more lives have been sacrificed on the altar of Rousseaupian Romanticism than for any other cause. Perhaps he wasn't an evil man - although he seems to have been entirely unpleasant - but his philosophy has been lethal since the Terror of the French Revolution. It's only picked up steam in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It is - perhaps unsurprisingly - wildly popular at Universities across the globe.

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Man, said Rousseau, is corrupted by society, turned into a fallen creature - but is perfectible by education. In a sense, Rousseau took Plato's dictum that only Philosophers should rule and amplified it. If the right education were provided, he claimed, man and society would be perfected. Thus the popularity of Rousseaupian theory and it's bastard children in the Academy, who see in themselves the soul of the Philosopher-King.

Bob S updates us on his lovely bride's status, and tosses out this lightning bolt:

That is the point so many antis forget — it is the fundamental nature or character of the person that matters – not the tool.
Who I am didn’t change.
It didn’t change when I was in the hospital visiting my Beloved Bride. It didn’t change when I stopped and got gas. It didn’t change when I was walking into the 10 story parking garage at nearly 10 o’clock at night.
I obeyed the law because it was the right thing to do.
Do you think the criminals do the same thing?

And this, it seems to me, strikes to the very heart of why we keep seeing increasingly idiotic gun control proposals being proposed (e.g. Chicago's proposal that you should only be allowed to own one gun. Srlsy.).

Disciples of Rousseau (or its derivatives, meaning all progressives) are overly invested in human perfectibility. But humans keep acting imperfectly - for example, shooting each other on the streets of Chicago. It's a logical contradiction.

Rather than jettison the philosophy that's causing their mental circuits to overload, they shift the focus: if man is perfectible, and acts imperfectly, something must have made him act that way. Sumdood shot Someotherdood? The gun made him do it.

Canalized by a philosophy that so flatters their ego ("You're a Philosopher-King!"), they have to reject Bob's entirely sensible analysis:

... it is the fundamental nature or character of the person that matters – not the tool.

To accept that is to accept that the right education can't build the New Jerusalem, and (worse) their services as Philosopher-Kings won't be needed. Can't have that.

And so we see a never-ending set of increasingly idiotic gun control proposals (no bayonet lugs, because of the plague of drive-by bayonettings in Chicago). We're fighting against their self-image.

But don't forget that these people are Ever So Smart, and much smarter than you or me. Even if they don't know their Rousseau:

Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Freeze in the dark with Green Power!

Do it for Mother Gaia.

But when the inhabitants of the remote Scottish island of Eigg put their faith in the wind and rain to provide all their electricity they did not reckon for one thing – mild weather.

Now the 95 residents are being asked not to use kettles, toasters or other kitchen appliances after uncharacteristically mild weather caused a critical shortage of power.

...

Weeks of what passes for heatwave conditions in the Inner Hebrides have caused water levels on the island’s three main burns to drop uncharacteristically low, cutting off the island’s hydroelectricity supply.

The normally powerful Atlantic gusts in the tiny island south of Skye have also reduced to a pleasant breeze leaving the island’s wind turbines idle for hours on end.

As a result, the community owned power company has placed the island on “red alert” and issued notices effectively rationing electricity.

It has had to revert to using old-fashioned diesel power to run a backup generator to keep the lights on.

Welcome to the world of "sustainable" power: intermittent, unreliable electricity at double the cost of fossil fuels, which require dirty, inefficient, polluting backups.

Other than that, it's awesome.

Hat tip: The Daily Bayonet, which you should read for it's outstanding daily snark.

Monkey Brains and Bacon: it's what's for dinner

Because monkey brains - eeeewwww! But add bacon - mmmm, bacon!

Aretae brings the perceptive, along with the smart:

Claim: Most "beliefs" are mostly about fitting in, monkeybrains, taboo, status/envy, hatred of the "other" group (Atheists, Communists, Environmentalists, Republicans), and related factors that have NOTHING to do with the truth of the position. Until you believe a position that (if you shared it) would destroy your social status among most observers, you are locked into the inability to think critically about crazy stupid stuff that is dogma (blank-slate). However, once you accept one batshit crazy position (agorism, polyamory, unschooling, formalism, transhumanism, communism, ...), a whole pile of options for analysis open up, and you are now able to think about stuff that was locked away in the status drawer.

Am I the only one who would pay cash money to sit in on an around-beers-discussion between him and Tam? Clearly, I like to hang with 5 sigma outliers ...

And I'm guessing that monkey brains and bacon would totally kick ass on m'pone worms. Those I ate for national honor, and only because I hadn't figured out (yet) that it was batshit crazy ...

But "monkey brains" is the meme du jour. Go forth, and meme.