Garden with red house, 1882 by Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

Garden with red house, 1882 by Edvard Munch (1863-1944)　

Click to enlarge.

Words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details

From Politics and the English Language by George Orwell.  

A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. 

The Ice Storm by Timothy Sandefur

The Ice Storm 

by Timothy Sandefur

Somehow the ice made details clearer, 

carved earth precise; all things nearer 

exactness; it made fecund trees chaste; 

finished, displayed to be appraised. 

A sculpted eagle's wings it glazed 

eternally still, and sharp as blades. 

An ideal now certain; limned at last; 

a paradise pinned under glass. 

History

Map shows when European women gained the right to vote in a manner equal to men. This map doesn’t do Portugal or Switzerland proud… pic.twitter.com/eO2KNCt4go

— Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) June 5, 2023

 

An Insight

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. - Ronald Reagan

— Cerebral Wisdom (@CerebralWisdom) May 28, 2023

 

I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them

From Obituary - Richard Neustadt.  The subheading is Richard Neustadt, adviser to presidents, died on October 31st, aged 84.  The Economist Nov 13th 2003.

The year was 1952, with Dwight Eisenhower about to trounce Adlai Stevenson, and Harry Truman, the Oval Office incumbent, was in bitter mood. “He'll sit here,” he said, drumming his fingers on the desk, “and he'll say, ‘Do this!' ‘Do that!' And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won't be a bit like the army.”

Had he himself done any better? Alas, no. “I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them...That's all the powers of the president amount to.”

The odds would seem to be astronomically low. But they are not zero.

A suitable reminder that many things are highly improbable while still having a non-zero probability of them happening.  

From Obama Family Chef Dies While Paddleboarding on Martha’s Vineyard by Remy Tumin.  The subheading is Tafari Campbell was a sous chef at the White House during the Obama administration and stayed on with the family when they moved to private life.

A personal chef to the Obama family died over the weekend after he was seen struggling in the water while paddleboarding near the former first family’s home on Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts State Police said on Monday.

That is a sad tragedy.  But about  3,500 people dry from all causes of drowning in a year (mostly pools and bathtubs) and 110 people die from drowning at a beach or lake each year.  

Tragic, but that's not the odd part.  The odd part is from Tafari Campbell's Death Has Eerie Parallels With Clinton Chef Walter Scheib by James Bickerton.  

Campbell's death has parallels with that of Walter Scheib, an executive chef at the White House for 11 years under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Scheib drowned in June 2015 while hiking in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Taos, in New Mexico.

[snip]

Scheib, aged 61, was reported missing on June 16, 2015 by his girlfriend after setting off on what authorities believe was a fishing trip three days earlier.

His body was found "submerged in a mountain drainage flowing with surface runoff" about 25 yards from the Yerba Canyon trail. It was hidden from view by "dense vegetation and a steep, rocky decline."

Thunderstorms hit the area as Scheib made his way down the Lobo Peak mountain. Incident commander Richard Goldstein said that water had been "running very fast" due to the weather.

What are the odds that two White House chefs should drown outside?  The odds would seem to be astronomically low.  But they are not zero.  

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog

"President Biden’s nearly two-year-old German shepherd Commander bit seven people in a four-month period after former first dog Major was ousted from the White House over similar aggressive behavior..." by Ann Althouse.  

Everyone seems to be having fun with the fact that the President (or his staff) felt compelled to humanize him by getting a dog for his time in the White House but has clearly either not chosen well or not trained well.  The dogs who were supposed to humanize him, didn't like people, repeatedly biting them.  Both dogs have been sent away for aggressive behavior.  People are drawing parallels between the dogs and the President.

I laughed at the heading somewhere to the effect

"Don't believe it!  Commander has been framed.  He found the cocaine."

Althouse notes:

Harry Truman famously said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Joe Biden got 2 dogs in Washington and both were enemies.

 

Althouse's commenters have a field day:

Randomizer said...

How does a White House dog work?

Having a second aggressive dog that bit seven people in four months is extraordinary. Normally, that dog would have been put down five victims ago. Nobody expects the president to choose, walk, feed or train a dog. Is Biden's friend CornPop in charge of the White House dog?

Breezy said...

Yet another example of our two-tiered justice system….sigh.

Rocco said...

So there is at least one Commander in Washington with some bite.

gilbar said...

if One dog is a biter.. It COULD BE the dog..

if EVERY dog you have is a biter.. it is YOUR FAULT

Aggie said...

Just checking, Joe hasn't been hauling the dogs into the shower, has he? Do these dogs keep a diary?

Bob Boyd said...

Once they develop a taste for the Secret Service, they'll never to go back to kibble.

walter said...

Cocaine Dog.

Lem the misspeller said...

What happens to dogs when they do cocaine?

rcocean said...

There are no bad dogs only bad owners. At least "Commander" didn't get mysteriously "Hit by a car" or get left behind like Socks the Cat.

Cappy said...

It's the climate change!

Cognitive pollution in equal balance with esthetic pollution, together garnished with ignorance

I occasionally dwell on an increasing sense of a loss of competence in society, in our government, competence from our institutions, mainline religious institutions, even competence in corporations.  

You look at the Budweiser fiasco and just shake your head.  Who was manning the deck?  Who was steering the ship?  How could this consumer product corporation choose to simultaneously insult its massive existing customer base while wooing a near non-existent customer segment?  That was incompetence on a titanic scale.  

Of course the CDC/FDA/NIH response to Covid-19 was incompetence on a titanic scale as well, with nearly every discretionary decision being wrong for the context or the goals.

Defunding the police and decarceration have been an example of titanic incompetence.

The list goes on and on.  Government, companies, institutions, religious institutions, education, health.  Everywhere we look we can see more technology, more money being invested and yet often less and less adequate service.  Less capability to deliver the promised outcomes.  

I think about it a lot and noodle on the definitions, the categories, the data, the causal system relationships, and try and figure things out.  

Then along comes such a crisply stunning example of near pure incompetence.  

The dancing TikTok nurses are back except this time it’s for “climate change”

Do these people not realize they’re singlehandedly ruining the reputation of the medical industry?

Humiliating

pic.twitter.com/ApI6LG3TRG

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) July 24, 2023

I am guessing that these might not be real healthcare personnel but given the similarities of real healthcare personnel pushing bad policies during Covid-19, who knows.  Maybe these are healthcare people.

What struck me though, was . . . the manifest and comprehensive incompetence.  Sure, this is performance politics for a particular advocacy of policy.  Agree or disagree with the message, at least deliver it well.

Instead, we have a bunch of people who seem reasonably unfit, physically inert, who can't dance, who cannot carry a tune, who cannot sing together, who can't convey passion for their message, who can't even articulate the words of their song.  A production which has no showroom appeal.  Which then lumberingly tries to mimic a national disaster with the singing nurses ministering last rites like the Angel of Death.  Then there's the stupidity of coopting the military Taps over civilian pretend death, tarnishing the production and disrespecting the service and sacrifices of the military.  

The piece-de-resistance?  The bare smattering of applause from the on-lookers, apparently mostly just the production personnel.  

This is so cringe-making it makes you squirm.  And it is thorough incompetence.  A high school glee club could have put on a more artful, tuneful, better choreographed production given even just a couple of days to prepare.  The high school theater club could have easily crafted a more dramatic arc.  The high school video club could have recorded and spliced together a far more engaging and esthetic production given a couple of days.

This was just a lumpen, untalented, amateurish melange of incapacity mixed with incompetence.  A slapdash stab at getting attention with no commitment to message or to audience.  Cognitive pollution in equal balance with esthetic pollution, together garnished with ignorance.

I see wonderful things

The disco clam's mantle lip edge has a reflective surface that forms a tiny mirror, about a millimetre wide. As it extends its lip twice a second,this mini mirror captures and reflects surrounding light, creating a disco ball-like effect.pic.twitter.com/kT6B9HhLTZ

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) June 5, 2023