Sunday: Hili dialogue

August 7, 2022 • 6:30 am

Greetings on the formal beginning of the week, but its psychological end: Sunday, August 7, 2022: National Raspberries and Cream Day (I prefer strawberries with my cream).

It’s also Beach Party Day, American Family Day, International Forgiveness Day, Professional Speakers Day, and National National Purple Heart Day, an award to members of the military that was established by George Washington. Wikipedia notes this:

The Purple Heart differs from most other decorations in that an individual is not “recommended” for the decoration; rather he or she is entitled to it upon meeting specific criteria. A Purple Heart is awarded for the first wound suffered under conditions indicated above, but for each subsequent award an oak leaf cluster or 5/16 inch star is worn in lieu of another medal. Not more than one award will be made for more than one wound or injury received at the same instant.

Here’s the medal, and below that the number of Purple Hearts awarded during America’s post WW-I conflicts:

  • World War I: 320,518
  • World War II: 1,076,245
  • Korean War: 118,650
  • Vietnam War: 351,794
  • Persian Gulf War: 607
  • Afghanistan War: 12,534 (as of 18 November 2018)
  • Iraq War: 35,411 (as of 18 November 2018)
  • Operation Inherent Resolve: 76 (as of 4 May 2020)

I’m starting a new format with “stuff that happened on this day”, eliminating explications of the events, which you can find from the Wikipedia links included. It simply takes too much time to do this, and I suspect it’s not read that much. I’d rather concentrate on the daily Nooz.

Stuff that happened on August 7 includes:

She was beheaded.

I couldn’t resist putting in the video of Bonds’s record-breaking homer. He went on to hit six more, holding the record of 762.

Da Nooz:

*First, Judith Durham, beloved lead singer of The Seekers, died in Melbourne at age 79 from bronchiectasis, a chronic lung disease.

Journalist Lillian Roxon summed up the band in 1969 saying “If there hadn’t been The Seekers some shrewd manager would have invented them. One cuddly girl-next-door type and three sober cats who looked like bank tellers.”

Their achievements were remarkable – playing with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in London and being welcomed home with a show at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl in 1967 watched by a record-breaking 200,000 fans. They were the first Australian band to sell over a million records.

“When I began I don’t think it was even called a music industry,” Durham said in 2019. “It was just you sang and played a few songs.”

However four years after the Seekers’ breakthrough, Durham told her bandmates she was leaving for a solo career.

That fierce determination to do things her own way – as politely as possible – was a Judith Durham trademark.

She called The Seekers her brothers and knew how lucky she was they protected her and was proud they remained friends – working together on the anthemic 1997 hit I Am Australian.

RIP Judith.  Here’s my favorite Seekers song:

*Harvard was sued over discriminatory admissions, with the plaintiffs claiming that the admissions committee was biased against Asians. Although the evidence was pretty clear that this was the case, Harvard still won. And it won on appeal, too. Now the case (combined with a similar case from the University of North Carolina) is before the Supreme Court, which could use it to outlaw affirmative action entirely.  (And it will). A piece by The editor if the WaPo’s editorial page, Ruth Marcus, worries about this in an op-ed called “In the Harvard admissions case, will justices cherry-pick their history?”

The outcome in two cases before the court, challenging admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, appears even more assured than was the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The conservative justices, who have long bristled at anything that smacks of a racial preference, seem poised to overturn decades of precedent letting colleges and universities consider racial diversity as a factor when admitting students.

But a spate of briefs defending Harvard and UNC offer compelling arguments that should give the conservative majority pause. In their recent rulings expanding gun rights and eliminating constitutional protection for abortion, the justices emphasized the importance of history — looking to the laws and practices in place at the time the relevant constitutional provision was enacted to determine its original meaning.

“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe. “Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition” can it be justified under the Second Amendment, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in striking down a New York state law limiting concealed carry permits.

If the conservative majority meant what it said in those cases, the newly filed briefs suggest, they will vote to uphold the programs now in place, not strike them down.

. . . So, what does history have to tell the justices? The briefs make a powerful case that the shorthand view of the 14th Amendment as strictly “colorblind” ignores the context of the time in which it was written — in the aftermath of the Civil War — and the willingness of its authors to approve “race-conscious remedies” for discrimination that are anathema to the current conservative majority.

But remember that—I’m not sure this is in the Bakke decision—affirmative action was always meant as a temporary measure; shouldn’t the justices consider that, too, what with Bakke 44 years behind us? I’m not opposed to some affirmative action, but Harvard’s actions were so blatantly discriminatory that they need some correction. Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure that the new Court will rule, contra Bakke, that race simply cannot be used as a factor in determining admissions.

*Over at the NYT, Maureen Dowd gives more than a subtle hint that Biden shouldn’t run again in a column called “Hey, Joe, Don’t give it a go.” Remembering the disaster that ensued when RBG held on beyond her time, Dowd says this:

The timing of your exit can determine your place in the history books.

This is something Joe Biden should keep in mind as he is riding the crest of success. His inner circle, irritated by stories about concerns over his age and unpopularity, will say this winning streak gives Biden the impetus to run again.

The opposite is true. It should give him the confidence to leave, secure in the knowledge that he has made his mark.

With the help of Chuck and Nancy, President Biden has had a cascade of legislative accomplishments on tech manufacturing, guns, infrastructure — and hopefully soon, climate and prescription drugs — that validate his promises when he ran. These are genuine achievements that Democrats have been chasing for decades, and they will affect generations to come. On Monday, from the balcony off the Blue Room, he crowed about the drone-killing of the evil Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s top leader, who helped plan the 9/11 massacres. On Friday, he came out again to brag about surprising job numbers.

. . . The country really needs to dodge a comeback by Trump or the rise of the odious Ron DeSantis. There is a growing sense in the Democratic Party and in America that this will require new blood. If the president made his plans clear now, it would give Democrats a chance to sort through their meh field and leave time for a fresh, inspiring candidate to emerge.

Joe, she thinks, should leave when he’s on top. As for the “new blood” in the Democrats, I still favor Mayor Pete. I think that Harris’s poor performance as VP will not give her an automatic pass to the nomination. Can Pete beat DeSantis? Or Trump? Who knows? We’ve got two years!

*My favorite part of Bari Weiss’s site is her partner Nellie Bowles’s Friday news summary, the TGIF column. Bowles announced in her latest TGIF that she’s pregnant (see pictures at the site), and so she and Bari will be parents. But she’s emitted her usual collection of snarky takes on the news. Here are two:

→ Trump is still our funniest politician: With Al Franken long-canceled, I’m sorry to say but Donald Trump is our funniest politician by far. This week, two candidates—Eric Schmitt and Eric Greitens—ran in the Republican primary for one senate seat in Missouri. They both wanted that Trump endorsement. Who would he pick? Well, Trump endorsed Eric. Yes, Eric. The former president writes: “I am therefore proud to announce that ERIC has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Both immediately claimed the endorsement. One Eric was “honored,” the other Eric was “grateful.” Both were Eric.

and this one:

→ Media accidentally confirms what border state governors have been saying: There’s an odd expectation that border states will take care of a large flow of people who are in desperate need of social services and also will not complain about this very real strain to the social safety net. If any of those migrants seek help on the east coast . . . in Brooklyn or Washington, D.C. . . . Insanity! Chaos. HAVOC. Here’s from this week:

(Try to imagine a mainstream media headline like “Migrants Wreak Havoc At Texas Border.”)

*From reader Ken:

The public library in Jamestown, Michigan, has been cancelled by local residents because its librarian refused to censor LGBTQ and other allegedly “pornographic” books.

The Guardian link adds this:

A small-town library is at risk of shutting down after residents of Jamestown, Michigan, voted to defund it rather than tolerate certain LGBTQ+-themed books.

Residents voted on Tuesday to block a renewal of funds tied to property taxes, Bridge Michigan reported.

The vote leaves the library with funds through the first quarter of next year. Once a reserve fund is used up, it would be forced to close,

. . .The controversy in Jamestown began with a complaint about a memoir by a nonbinary writer, but it soon spiraled into a campaign against Patmos Library itself. After a parent complained about Gender Queer: a Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, a graphic novel about the author’s experience coming out as nonbinary, dozens showed up at library board meetings, demanding the institution drop the book. (The book, which includes depictions of sex, was in the adult section of the library.) Complaints began to target other books with LGBTQ+ themes.

One library director resigned, telling Bridge she had been harassed and accused of indoctrinating kids; her successor, Matt Lawrence, also left the job. Though the library put Kobabe’s book behind the counter rather than on the shelves, the volumes remained available.

“We, the board, will not ban the books,” Walton told Associated Press on Thursday.

Ceiling Cat bless our librarians, usually ( though not always) the guardian of the freedom to read what you want. Are they going to take Mein Kampf off the shelves, too?

*Of all things! The Times of London reports that Aberdeen University has decided to give the Old English poem “Beowulf” a “content warning” (h/t Anthony). Why? (I had a college course reading it in the original, following a semester course in which I learned Old English).  But what Aberdeen is doing is lunacy:

Students are being warned that they will be exposed to black magic, monsters, death and blood while reading Beowulf.

The centuries-old text is among 30 to be given a content warning at the University of Aberdeen to prepare undergraduates for material that contains references to animal death, eating disorders and ableism.

The warning is included as part of the university’s module Lost Gods and Hidden Monsters of the Celtic and Germanic Middle Ages, according to The Daily Telegraph. It states: “Texts studied on this course contain representations of violence, coercion, animal cruelty or animal death, incest, suicide, explicit sexual content [and] ableism.”

The cautionary note covering Beowulf and other legends warns of “blasphemy, defecation, psychological violence, pain, alcohol abuse, symbols of evil, black magic” in the literature of the Middle Ages, as well as references to death, blood and eating disorders.

“There will also be monsters,” students are told.

Defecation? Monsters? Pain? Shoot me now!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s hunt was a failure:

Hili: I’m going home, all the mice are in hiding.
A: That’s wise, the food in your bowls is not hiding.
In Polish:
Hili: Wracam do domu, wszystkie myszy się pochowały.
Ja: To mądre, jedzenie z miseczek nie chowa się w norkach.

. . . and a photo of Szaron:

*****************

From Su (I can’t find the cartoonist):

Sound up to see and hear a baby panda meeting its mom for the first time. The YouTube notes:

The Taipei Zoo is celebrating its newest resident, a one-month old giant panda nicknamed Yuan Zai. The little cub was born to parents Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan in July and is the first panda ever born in Taiwan. There are less than 1,600 pandas left in the wild and the animals are especially hard to raise in captivity. Pandas have a very small breeding window and when cubs are born they’re highly susceptible to disease and smothering by their much larger mothers.

From Divy: Jango looking at a picture of Jango looking at a picture of Jango on my website. How long can we keep this up?

God speaks truth to his creation:

From Titania, it’s crazy but true that people have accused Anne Frank of having “white privilege” when she was killed for not being “Aryan” enough. I didn’t know, though, that Helen Keller also had “privilege”. Alas, that’s true as well.

From Barry. Thanks to these kids, that’s one lucky d*g!

From Simon: a fact guaranteed to make you the life of the party:

A cartoon from Luana related to recent kerfuffles in anthropology:

From the Auschwitz Memorial:

Tweets from Professor Cobb, still recovering from a mild case of covid.  I think at least one anchovy is missing below:

The best advice I ever got as a budding photographer was “Look through the viewfinder!”  That is, the picture will be what you see in the viewfinder, not what you take in when you look around you. This person clearly ignored that advice.

A lovely little call duck. Everyone needs a duck in their lives somehow!

 

 

36 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  2. I was very saddened by the death of Judith Durham. She was a great singer, whose voice was as good in her 70s as her 20s. I turned to her and the Seekers for solace when I was in a down mood. Their rendition of “I am Australian,” composed by Seeker Bruce Woodley is as moving to a non-Australian as one. It promotes national unity while acknowledging that the country is diverse. In my opinion, there is no American patriotic song that can match it.

  4. … Jango looking at a picture of Jango looking at a picture of Jango on my website. How long can we keep this up?

    I dunno, such mise en abyme tends to have staying power. Just ask the Dutch cocoa manufacturer Droste, since the recursive image on its containers has lent the phenomenon its alternative name: the Droste effect.

      1. Hah, with volume control at max, with my hearing and the low volume on the link, even the first recording is nigh on unintelligible.

    1. That dog looked awfully “chill”, all things considered. Also looks almost exactly like my Lucy Goosey Poochie, though Lucy has more black on her face🐾🐾

      And what about trigger warnings for those scary maps with THERE BE DRAGONS??

      1. Yes, that python had the dog by it’s neither parts: bad technique. A less ‘chilled’ dog could and would have shredded it. Hence ‘bad technique’ by the dog too.

  6. Since the nuclei of all eye movement muscles (cranial nerves III, IV and VI) are located in the high brainstem, it does not really surprise me. What surprises me they could actually catch it imaging real time. Kudos.
    Such wonderful imaging!

  7. It will be interesting to see what Harvard’s first freshman class looks like if and when SCOTUS outlaws affirmative action. At present it is 26% Asian American, 16% African American, 13% Hispanic/Latino, 2% Native American/Hawaiian and presumably otherwise white (43%), though this last category, curiously, does not appear on their website giving the stats (https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics).
    Probably it will be something like 40% Asian, 55% white, with the remaining 5% for blacks, hispanics and all others. This may well lead to a very volatile political and social situation.

    1. How so?

      Allowing for the smaller proportion of Black people in Canada’s population so let’s make them 2%, that’s about the demographics of my med school class and it doesn’t seem to have changed much in five decades, even though the alumni magazine does try to avoid showing white men in small-group photos of current students. “Asian” is a little more South and a little less East than in my class, reflecting immigration patterns. (“Hispanic” isn’t really a thing here.). Even though we are told we are an unredeemably racist society the sky hasn’t fallen. Maybe never embarking on affirmative action is easier than trying to get off the ship while it is still at sea.

  8. The mocking criticism of those who point to the Helen Keller story as another example of white privilege is, I believe, to some extent misplaced and disingenuous.
    Those who see some white privilege in the case of Helen Keller are not saying, to roughly paraphrase, “Helen Keller’s life was a delightful one of comfort, pleasure and privilege”. They are rather asking, “how many teenage black/hispanic/native American teenage girls with comparable handicaps would have experienced at that point in time the exceptional support and intense educational training that Helen Keller did? And the answer to this question, I think, is clear. None. And it is a valid point.

    1. The assertion is that White women born blind and deaf in the 1880s usually had positive outcomes?

      There is an 1890 US Census report on the “Insane, Feeble-Minded, Deaf and Dumb, and Blind in the United States”.
      https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1895/dec/volume-2.html
      It probably has information about the number of people living at that time who were born both deaf and blind, but I could not find it.
      I do see that virtually all of the people besides HK who went on to some success were those who lost their senses in childhood or later.
      I don’t think it would be easy to quantify the advantage race conveyed Keller, as success with her disabilities from birth was very unlikely.

      1. Re “The assertion is that White women born blind and deaf in the 1880s usually had positive outcomes?” Surely you know that neither I nor anyone else asserted anything remotely similar, so I must assume that you’re just being silly.
        That we are dealing wtih tiny sample sizes is clear, there you are obviously correct.

  9. > that Aberdeen University has decided to give the Old English poem “Beowulf” a “content warning”

    The only reason I could support that is because I would love to see the Bible and other religious texts come with a content warning, too. As long as we’re consistent…

    What was the title of the illustrated/comic book version of the Bible that was exactly as violent as the Bible is, that governments tried to censor it? It felt like a “Rat Fink” style comic.

    1. Yes! This works perfectly:
      “Students are being warned that they will be exposed to black magic, monsters, death and blood while reading the Bible.”
      Possible answer to your question, a book I highly recommend: The Book of Genesis, by R. Crumb https://g.co/kgs/xd3PHV

    2. Honestly, it reads to me like a ploy to get the kids interested in Beowulf. And maybe it will work.

  10. “Ceiling Cat bless our librarians, usually ( though not always) the guardian of the freedom to read what you want. Are they going to take Mein Kampf off the shelves, too?”
    Jerry, thank you for invoking the blessing of Ceiling Cat on us librarians. I can assure you that the vast majority of us are holding fast in our guardianship of the freedom to read and view whatever you want. BTW, you should know that my public library has a copy of Mein Kampf in its circulating collection.
    Concerning the prospect of more and more libraries being cancelled, I’m thinking of the observation that totalitarian regimes sooner or later destroy themselves by getting rid of their best minds. Perhaps we’re seeing the beginning of this self-destruction wherein the Red states get rid of their librarians and library board members.

    1. StephenB, I think you will be interested in this article entitled “When Illiberal Forces are on the Rise, Libraries and Librarians Become Targets” by political scientist Ruth Ben-Ghiat in which she chronicles the right-wing assault throughout the country on libraries and librarians. This is part of a concerted theocratic right-wing (fascist) attack on democracy at all levels of government from libraries, school boards, state government to national government. An ever increasing minority, white Christian nationalists are throwing everything they have against an increasing secular nation. I hope this effort is analogous to the Battle of the Bulge: a desperate invasion that met with initial success and then was crushed. Librarians are on the front lines, valiantly resisting the frontal assault.

      https://lucid.substack.com/p/librarians-under-attack-across-america

  11. Since Al Franken was mentioned, I still think he would be the perfect Democratic candidate for 2024.
    The allegations against him were not really of a serious nature, frivolous even, and the only moderately serious one appears to be highly questionable.
    If the Democrats know what’s good for them, they should beg him to stand.

    1. If the Democrats know what’s good for them, they should beg him to stand.

      But why? What makes him so special that we should beg of him anything? Is there no other comparable candidate? Even if his actions were, ‘frivolous’ (which I don’t agree with) – he displayed a jarring lack in judgement. I’m fine to move on from him, personally.

  13. and is the first panda ever born in Taiwan.

    Hang on – doesn’t China only rent it’s pandas to foreign zoos? So … at some point they’re going to demand their property (including it’s offspring) back, per contract.
    It’ll be on their diplomatic playlist, somewhere between missile tests and thermonuclear town re-planning.

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