Friday: Hili dialogue

December 8, 2023 • 2:21 am

by Matthew Cobb

PCC(E) is travelling today, so posting will be light if not non-existent.

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is concerned.

A: Weighing pros and cons…
Hili: We get the impression of a huge weight.
.
In Polish:
Ja: Zważywszy wszystko…
Hili: Mamy wrażenie ogromnego ciężaru.
As usual on such PCC(E)-less days, feel free to chat away about whatever you fancy. How about those Knicks, eh?

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

JAC: I’m up early to fly home; tomorrow’s postings will be light, but now I will add a few tweets and links. But, as Dr. Cobb said, please discuss anything you want below. As always, I’ll be sad if there are fewer than 50 comments. And don’t forget that there are only 17 days left until a non-divisive holiday: Coynezaa.

Here’s a tweet from the International Space Station BY an astronaut of Iranian Jewish descent (h/t Jon). Hanukkah began yesterday evening and continues until next Friday.

Menorah lightings have been canceled right and left around the world because (although it’s a holiday celebration for Jews), we can’t be allowed to let the Jews have their holidays. So we’ll have some here.

Here’s a big Texas menorah (Hanukkah menoras usually have nine candles) that was deleted for some reason:

Some solidarity:

This is nice, but I wonder if it violates the First Amendment’s separation clause:

The IDF is putting up a menorah near Gaza, though the tweet below says it was placed in Israel.  I hope Hamas can see it.

One in Israel, put up with the help of the cops:

Yes, there’s a war on. The holiday comes from the Maccabees, a group of Jewish warriors, and this event supposedly took place around 160 BC:

The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple following Judah Maccabee’s victory over the Seleucids. According to rabbinic tradition, the victorious Maccabees could only find a small jug of oil that had remained uncontaminated by virtue of a seal, and although it only contained enough oil to sustain the Temple menorah for one day, it miraculously lasted for eight days, by which time further oil could be procured.

A giant menorah is erected in Manhattan:

. . and Mishka, the English shorthair staffed by Anna Krylov and Jay Tanzman, was napping as the holiday started. As a Jewish cat (so I’m told), Mishka wishes all his fellow Jews a happy holiday!

A bit of news. First, three items I’ve purloined from Nellie Bowles’s weekly news summary at The Free Press, called this week, “TGIF: The academy of dunces“:

→ Saying “Kill All Jews” does not violate Harvard’s vibe policy: This week, the presidents of various prestigious American universities (Harvard, MIT, University of Pennsylvania) were grilled by congressional Republicans about what exactly is going on for Jewish students. The most astonishing moment was when Rep. Elise Stefanik asked the various presidents a simple question: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate the school’s code of conduct or policies on bullying and harassment?” For a moment, just think about college campuses today. Think about how cozy they are. How many bathrooms exist for how many genders? How many lounges for every shade of Pacific Islander? Before I tell you about what happened next in Congress, I want you to recall that when the sushi was bad at Oberlin, students said it was “disrespectful” to their culture.

Here’s Liz Magill, president of Penn: “If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment, yes.” Rep. Stefanik: “Conduct meaning actually committing the act of genocide?” I love that Penn’s president isn’t even sure if killing Jews counts as harassment. . . like, it can be. Harvard president Claudine Gay’s answer: “It can be, depending on the context.” You have to watch the video supercut, only three and a half minutes long. It’s amazing. These are schools that have breakdowns if a professor doesn’t properly conjugate the verb to fit they/them pronouns. But when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violates their codes of conduct, they’re honestly unsure. Probably not? We’d have to check the bylaws on that. These university presidents have been cloistered in these disease-ridden institutions for so long, they genuinely didn’t know that the outside world still isn’t cool with Jew-killing. Give it a few more years, guys. You’re just ahead of your time.

Nellie is beefing about what should be the proper thing to criticize in these hearings: the hypocrisy of colleges that have codes of conduct for various forms of speech, but not for speech calling for genocide of the Jews. As Bowles says below, she does adhere to freedom of speech, which does indeed allow for calling for Jewish genocide “depending on the context”. But she also argues that freedom of speech has been applied differentially with respect to Jews. The problem was not that freedom of speech allows odious sayings, for it does, but that colleges enforced freedom of speech unevenly.

Yet clearly, at many universities, the defense of free speech has been inconsistent. Some elite schools now cloaking themselves in the mantle of the First Amendment to ward off charges of coddling antisemites have, in the past, privileged community sensitivity over unbridled expression. So when university administrators say, as Gay did, “We embrace a commitment to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful,” many in the Jewish community see a galling double standard.

But as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a libertarian-leaning civil liberties group, said in a statement about the hearings, “Double standards are frustrating, but we should address them by demanding free speech be protected consistently — not by expanding the calls for censorship.” Unfortunately, that is not what’s happening.

Now, I don’t think calling for the death of any minority should be illegal; say it loud, say it proud, so I can stay very, very far away from you. But Harvard, Penn, and MIT were specifically asked if it violates their codes of conduct. That’s a much different question.

Begrudgingly, they’re now trying to do some damage control. The president of Penn released what looks like a hostage video the day after the hearing. Didn’t help: the school lost $100 million in promised funding from at least one major donor; the state’s governor called out Magill’s “failed leadership”; and Wharton Business School’s board has called for her resignation. Meantime, Harvard’s president said perhaps people have been confused by what she meant, which is simply a long-standing commitment to free speech in accordance with the Constitution. Reminder: Harvard considers “fatphobia” and “cisheterosexism” to be “violence.”

JAC: This problem would go away completely if all colleges adopted two of the University of Chicago’s foundational principles: free expression (according to the courts’ construal of the First Amendment) and institutional neutrality (the Kalven principle). Our University has suffered no damage nor lost any donors.

→ Believe none of those women: If, let’s say, you have sex on a date, and a few years later the person decides they regret the encounter and maybe you didn’t specifically ask affirmatively for consent at each base. . . you’re probably going to be a headline. You’ll certainly be out of a job. The very same people who applaud that today are really insistent that Hamas would never commit sexual violence. Not our beautiful Hamas, they say. Here is Bernie Sanders’ former press secretary Briahna Joy Gray this week: “Zionists are asking that we believe the uncorroborated eyewitness account of *men* who describe alleged rape victims in odd, fetishistic terms.” And here’s Aaron Maté at the news site The Grayzone this week: “The key word here is ‘stories.’ To date, there is no physical evidence of rape by Hamas militants, nor any purported rape victims offering direct testimony.” (There is physical evidence, but that’s not the point.) The women Hamas raped are dead or kidnapped, but they are also being suspiciously quiet about all this. What, ladies, you can’t give testimony from the grave? We know you can tweet from those tunnels, so if it’s bad, just say so.

Three senior Biden officials told a Puck journalist they believe Hamas is not releasing the remaining women because they don’t want these stories—and the physical evidence of their bodies—to come out.

→ Christmas and Hanukkah are canceled: California will no longer have a Christmas tree lighting party at the Capitol, lest it upset the pro-Hamas protesters. I’m not kidding.

“As we continue to see protests across the country impacting the safety of events of all scales, we have decided not to continue with the holiday market as planned on Tuesday, December 5. We will provide updates on our holiday plans and family-friendly festivities at a future date,” a Gavin Newsom spokesperson said. Instead, all festivities will be done virtually. What a fun Zoom night with your kids, one they’ll cherish forever! Keep away from the windows, kids!

Menorah lightings are also being canceled around North America. In Williamsburg, Virginia, organizers said that lighting a menorah would send a signal that they support “killing/bombing.” Yes, anti-Zionism is totally different from antisemitism. Two distinct movements. Which is why Jewish religious festivals have to be canceled and shamed as a statement about Israel. Oh, wait. And in Moncton, New Brunswick, a 20-year tradition ended when the city announced it would not display a menorah or the usual Christmas nativity scene. (Amid outrage, they backtracked.) Oh, the holidays in North America. The crackling of the fire, the comfort of a hot toddy, and—look out, the protesters have breached the foyer!

You can see why I love Nellie!

Some sheer madness on display at the Washington Post:

The Palestinian Authority is seeking to create a postwar governing structure in Gaza and is in talks with U.S. officials, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told Bloomberg that he hopes Hamas can help govern as a junior partner, and help create a Palestinian state that includes Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel’s goal of fully defeating Hamas is unrealistic, he said, according to Bloomberg.

Now there’s a solution! Hamas co-governing Gaza with the Palestinian Authority, a corrupt organization that siphons off money given for its people.  That will surely solve the problem of terrorism!

And at the NYT, Bret Stephens gets at the heart of the college-president testimony issue. (He’s far more sensible on the war than the arrogant and erring Thomas Friedman.)

But the deep problem with their testimonies was not fundamentally about calls for genocide or free speech. It was about double standards — itself a form of antisemitism, but one that can be harder to detect.

The double standard is this: Colleges and universities that for years have been notably censorious when it comes to free speech seem to have suddenly discovered its virtues only now, when the speech in question tends to be especially hurtful to Jews.

Stephens then gives various cases of double standards on free speech, and then arrives at a salubrious conclusion:

The word for all this is hypocrisy. Gay, Kornbluth and Magill may not be personally to blame for it, because they only recently took over the helm of their schools. But there’s an institutional hypocrisy which they at least have a duty to acknowledge.

They also must decide: If they are seriously committed to free speech — as I believe they should be — then that has to go for all controversial views, including when it comes to incendiary issues about race and gender, as well as when it comes to hiring or recruiting an ideologically diverse faculty and student body. If, on the other hand, they want to continue to forbid and punish speech they find offensive, then the rule must apply for all offensive speech, including calls to wipe out Israel or support homicidal resistance.

Michelle Goldberg’s column is similar, and also quite sensible.

Yet clearly, at many universities, the defense of free speech has been inconsistent. Some elite schools now cloaking themselves in the mantle of the First Amendment to ward off charges of coddling antisemites have, in the past, privileged community sensitivity over unbridled expression. So when university administrators say, as Gay did, “We embrace a commitment to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful,” many in the Jewish community see a galling double standard.

But as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a libertarian-leaning civil liberties group, said in a statement about the hearings, “Double standards are frustrating, but we should address them by demanding free speech be protected consistently — not by expanding the calls for censorship.” Unfortunately, that is not what’s happening.

The last sentence of the FIRE statement should be posted in the office of all college administrators.

Amen, and happy holidays:

Now, discuss stuff, please. I’ll be back in spades on Sunday, and perhaps a bit tomorrow.

43 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  2. On this day:
    1660 – A woman (either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare’s play Othello.

    1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin. [They make it up as they go along. Also on this day, in 1864, Pius IX promulgated the encyclical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas.]

    1922 – Two days after coming into existence, the Irish Free State executes four leaders of the Irish Republican Army.

    1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be “a date which will live in infamy”, after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.

    1941 – World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Shanghai International Settlement, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies.

    1943 – World War II: The German 117th Jäger Division destroys the monastery of Mega Spilaio in Greece and executes 22 monks and visitors as part of reprisals that culminated a few days later with the Massacre of Kalavryta.

    1953 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his “Atoms for Peace” speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.

    1980 – John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.

    1987 – Cold War: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the White House.

    1987 – An Israeli army tank transporter kills four Palestinian refugees and injures seven others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the Israel–Gaza Strip border, which has been cited as one of the events which sparked the First Intifada.

    1990 – The Galileo spacecraft flies past Earth for the first time.

    1991 – The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.

    1992 – The Galileo spacecraft flies past Earth for the second time.

    2004 – Columbus nightclub shooting: Nathan Gale opens fire at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, killing former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell and three others before being shot dead by a police officer.

    2010 – With the second launch of the Falcon 9 and the first launch of the Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.

    2010 – The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km (50,200 mi).

    2013 – Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first band to perform on all seven continents.

    2019 – First confirmed case of COVID-19 in China.

    Births:
    65 BC – Horace, Roman poet (d. 8 BC).

    1542 – Mary, Queen of Scots, daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise (d. 1587).

    1731 – František Xaver Dušek, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1799).

    1765 – Eli Whitney, American engineer, invented the cotton gin (d. 1825).

    1795 – Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer and mathematician (d. 1874).

    1861 – William C. Durant, American businessman, founded General Motors and Chevrolet (d. 1947).

    1865 – Jean Sibelius, Finnish violinist and composer (d. 1957).

    1886 – Diego Rivera, Mexican painter and educator (d. 1957).

    1894 – E. C. Segar, American cartoonist, created Popeye (d. 1938).

    1894 – James Thurber, American humorist and cartoonist (d. 1961).

    1911 – Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976).

    1914 – Floyd Tillman, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2003). [Helped create the Western swing and honky tonk genres.]

    1919 – Julia Bowman, American mathematician and theorist (d. 1985).

    1919 – Kateryna Yushchenko, Ukrainian computer scientist and academic (d. 2001).

    1922 – Lucian Freud, German-English painter and illustrator (d. 2011).

    1925 – Sammy Davis, Jr., American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1990).

    1930 – Maximilian Schell, Austrian-Swiss actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014).

    1936 – David Carradine, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2009).

    1939 – James Galway, Irish flute player.

    1941 – Geoff Hurst, English footballer and manager.

    1943 – Jim Morrison, American singer-songwriter and poet (d. 1971).

    1945 – John Banville, Irish novelist and screenwriter.

    1947 – Gregg Allman, American musician (d. 2017).

    1947 – Margaret Geller, American astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic.

    1950 – Dan Hartman, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1994).

    1951 – Bill Bryson, American essayist, travel and science writer.

    1951 – Richard Desmond, English publisher and businessman, founded Northern & Shell. [Dirty Des doesn’t like being called a pornographer.]

    1953 – Kim Basinger, American actress.

    1962 – Marty Friedman, American-Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and television host.

    1965 – David Harewood, English actor.

    1966 – Sinéad O’Connor, Irish singer-songwriter (d. 2023).

    1982 – Nicki Minaj, Trinidadian-American rapper and actress.

    Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent:
    1815 – Mary Bosanquet Fletcher, Methodist preacher and philanthropist (b. 1739).

    1859 – Thomas De Quincey, English journalist and author (b. 1785).

    1864 – George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (b. 1815).

    1885 – William Henry Vanderbilt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1821).

    1903 – Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (b. 1820).

    1932 – Gertrude Jekyll, British horticulturist and writer (b. 1843).

    1978 – Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1898).

    1983 – Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919).

    1991 – Buck Clayton, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1911).

    2001 – Betty Holberton, American computer scientist and programmer (b. 1917).

    2008 – Oliver Postgate, English voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1925).

    2016 – John Glenn, American astronaut and senator, first American to go into orbit (b. 1921).

    2021 – Robbie Shakespeare, Jamaican bass guitarist and record producer (b. 1953).

    Reply

    2. The only thing I will say is that I encourage people not to repeat the name of the fully-flushable a*swipe that murdered John Lennon, since fame was at least part of his motivation in killing a famous person. Let all memory of that subhuman smear of excrement be effaced from history, from all pylons, all books, all tablets.

      Reply

  3. Regarding anti-Semitism on campus, I’m sure that someone will explain that calling for violence against Jews is punching up, while using the wrong pronouns is punching down.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for a humorous example Doug. Just last night I became aware of the definition of the phrase, “punching down”. Though I have heard it several times recently, I had never seen a clean definition until I read it in Greg Lukianoff’s “Canceling of the American Mind” in his chapter on the perfect rhetorical fortress (from the left).

      Reply

  4. I love the surprise of the dreidel spinning in zero-g of Station. The astronaut who posted this is Marine Lt. Col. Jasmin Moghbeli. Before becoming a NASA astronaut, she was a test pilot graduating from MIT in aerospace engineering and the Navy’s Test Pilot School. As with so many astronauts, she is a remarkable story which can be read in a wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmin_Moghbeli

    Reply

    1. In who am I she answered “I’m a wife, a daughter, a marine and an astronaut.” Ceiling cat bless America.

      Reply

    2. I was a little surprised that astronaut Moghbeli let the video continue after the dreidel bumped into both the camera lens and the space station window, as the dreidel is shown spinning chaotically after the two soft impacts.

      Was it to illustrate how off-balance the world seems to be, especially after October 7? Most likely she continued the video just to show how a spinning object behaves in zero gravity after being perturbed. But I wonder. She does seem fascinated by the chaotic movement, as you can hear something like a softly uttered “huh” (twice) at the very end.

      Below is a link to a NASA video that is called the “first dreidel in space.” The video shows Jewish astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman spinning a dreidel during his fourth Space Shuttle flight, December 2-13, 1993 (STS 62, which was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission).

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTJM7Yb344

      (The video is also available on Wikimedia.)

      The video is odd, though, because it shows Hoffman spinning the dreidel only in the first 2 minutes and the last minute of the nearly 9-minute recording. Much of the rest of the video shows Hoffman simply floating around the cabin apparently doing nothing. Wikipedia says that he spun the dreidel for an hour, and maybe the first minute of that hour is in the last part of the video. He seems to be meditating or praying.

      Reply

      1. On his fifth Space Shuttle flight Jeffrey Hoffman brought a Torah:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTJM7Yb344

        Being an atheist and science-oriented, I’m not comfortable with this extension of religion into space, though I can understand the cultural affinities that will probably keep it happening.

        But I didn’t like the astronauts of Apollo 8 reading from the Book of Genesis, and I don’t like that Hoffman also read from it. As a text read today, it is a creation myth completely at odds with the evidence that modern scientific methods reveal.

        After 9/11, it was apparently the American physicist, philosopher, author, and religious skeptic Victor J. Stenger who coined the widely circulated meme “Science flies you to the Moon. Religion flies you into buildings.” Amen.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_J._Stenger

        Reply

        1. With regard to bringing meaningful objects into space, I got an email today from The Long Now Foundation. If you don’t know what it is, I recommend a search. (I’m a low-tier “Stainless Steel” member.)

          The foundation is now offering a pendant version of its “Rosetta Disk,” which contains a record of over 1,000 human languages, micro-etched and readable with optical magnification.

          The Long Now Foundation notes:

          • • •

          The wearable Rosetta Archive is about 2cm in disk diameter and has two sides. The face starts in eight languages visible to the naked eye, with a spiraling layout that signals toward the microscopic scale where most of the content resides.

          The reverse side of the Pendant contains over 1,000 pages of micro-etched text and illustrations, including:

          • The Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (327 languages)
          • Swadesh vocabulary lists assembled by the PanLex Project (719 languages)
          • “The Clock of the Long Now” by Stewart Brand
          • Updated diagrams for the 10,000 Year Clock

          The Rosetta Archive Pendant is both a beautiful artifact and an embodiment of the LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) archival principle. Copies of the original Rosetta Disk are stored in multiple places on Earth and off-planet, including the Moon and the comet P67. By wearing, gifting, or storing a Rosetta Archive Pendant, you’re playing a critical role in this archival strategy.

          • • •

          Although an important reason for offering the pendant is the “LOCKSS” archival principle, I imagine that the foundation is also trying to raise funds. (I won’t be buying a pendant, as the cost of one is $1,000.)

          Here is more information about the Rosetta Disk (not the pendant):

          https://rosettaproject.org/

          Reply

        2. Well, many of the people who got us to the moon and walked around on it were religious and science oriented.
          My Dad was part of their peer group, and I had the insane luck to be the little boy who went along on their hunting and fishing trips, and was able to listen to the stories they tell each other over the camp fire.

          It takes a lot more than enthusiasm for science for those guys to keep climbing into those machines when the odds of their survival are poor. Some of them secretly believe that they are essentially immortal, others have religion.

          Apollo 8 was the first mission that included the TLI burn and lunar orbit. It was attempted but failed in 6, which was unmanned. When 8 was launched, Apollo had so far achieved a 50% astronaut fatality rate.

          I am not religious, but I would never criticize people whose faith is part of what keeps them cool and steely-eyed when their aircraft is on fire and in an uncontrolled spin. To me, even more amazing is those who are lucky enough to recover and land it safely, and then get back into the cockpit the next day. I am not sure that a completely rational person could do that.

          I know this is sort of a rant, but I need to speak up for my idols.

          Reply

          1. Climbing onto a rocket and riding it into space is still pretty dangerous, but I seriously doubt religious belief is an important motivation for any astronaut to go into space — now or then — or that it’s even just an “explanation” for why an astronaut would keep their “cool” in dangerous situations. From what I’ve read, ego was the big thing pushing most of the early astronauts.

            I admire astronauts, too, but I don’t have to like or respect their religious beliefs — or anyone’s, for that matter. I was especially offended by the reading from the Book of Genesis by the taxpayer-funded Apollo 8 astronauts, when they had the whole world as a kind of captive audience.

            Regardless, I would certainly have loved to hear stories by astronauts and/or their colleagues around a campfire as a kid, like you apparently did.

            Even though I was a New York City kid in the 1960s, I did enjoy summers in New York State’s Catskill Mountains north of the city, enjoying many country campfires under the stars. That may have helped to prime my subsequent interest in space travel. Given a different family life, I might even have chosen to be an astronaut.

  5. This [the menorah display in the US Capitol] is nice, but I wonder if it violates the First Amendment’s separation clause …

    It seems to me it ought to constitute a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment clause, but that’s not the result reached in SCOTUS’s two 1980s’ decisions addressing Christmas creches and menorahs on public property — Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) and County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union (1989), although the justices’ various rationales for their opinions in those decisions are badly fractured.

    Reply

    1. At various public buildings and spaces, for different events, governments fly the flags of the countries, states or civic organizations of visiting dignitaries. Flying those flags doesn’t establish as their own any country, state or organization so recognized. It is simply a way to honor them. Honoring the sacred holidays of various members of a community by putting up a temporary crèche, Menorah, or tree can be viewed in a similar light if the government in question has rules that treat members of the community requesting similar recognition of their sacred days equally.

      Reply

      1. And that would have to include include the FFRF’s:

        “At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail.
        There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
        There is only our natural world.
        Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

        If it’s a public forum for all beliefs, nonbelief must be allowed as well. I personally think the government should adopt a holiday version of the Kalven Principle, and use only generic holiday displays (I’d include a holiday tree in that.)

        Reply

        1. A Kalven approach to all cultural displays? What might that look like in the public sphere? For adherents of fighting global climate change? Social justice? Environmental protection? Women’s rights? Ethnic rights? Where is the line between religious culture and political culture? Adherents to all these belief systems have clannish or cultish qualities and sacred tenets. The belief systems are all manifestations of cultural concerns. They are all mostly based on us versus them. I can’t find much if any daylight between any of them.

          Reply

          1. The Kalven principle, as I understand it, prohibits a university from taking an official position on any issue (except for issues that directly effect the operation of the university).

            Regarding the topics you raise, as to public universities or to private universities that have committed themselves to following the First Amendment, the speech of students, and of faculty members acting in their individual capacities, are protected by the First Amendment’s Free Speech and/or Free Exercise clauses.

    1. This deserves a note. The two men are both shattered by the implications and discuss them unflinchingly.

      I recently saw a segment of an interview by CNN of five (I think) of Derek Chauvin’s jurors, don’t remember how long after the trial this was, but long before the movie that Glenn and John discuss came out. One woman spoke at some length about how they knew, of course, going in that they had to find Mr. Chauvin guilty somehow. Trouble was they couldn’t agree that the state of Minnesota had proved its case beyond their reasonable doubt that his actions during the arrest had killed Mr. Floyd. So they ruminated a long time about how they were going to return the necessary guilty verdict. Then one juror (not the woman speaking) had an inspiration: Mr. Chauvin’s interference with the attempts by EMTs to resuscitate Mr. Floyd after he stopped resisting. With a great collective sigh of relief they agreed this was their way out and voted to convict him. By that time there was no Juror No. 8 to say, “Now just a minute…”

      I’m not criticizing the jury for thinking this way. Jurors are trusted to deliberate the evidence any way they like, consistent with the charge given them by the judge. My narrower point is just that the jurors didn’t think (beyond reasonable doubt) that Mr. Chauvin’s actions in the arrest itself caused Mr. Floyd’s death, but his actions afterward did, and this judgement was coloured by their own admitted foregone conclusion that they would not, could not, acquit. (My interpretation is that they didn’t buy the positional asphyxia theory that was central to the prosecution’s case and which led arsonists to chant, “I can’t breathe!”)

      Reply

    2. +1

      YouTube reveals a lot when it adds its “Context” that appends to certain videos, or its own “Pause” and think video – anyone seen that? This “age-restricted” is a joke – like the Red Guard attacking Old thinking / protecting new thinking.

      … there’s a concept beyond the shadow of a doubt.

      There’s an autopsy report on eXtwitter – I’m not sure if that is genuine – but this is what we have to evaluate now. Leaked documents.

      Chauvin also states in court that new information is coming. I don’t know what that was.

      Loury : “What was that for?”
      Answer: The Revolution.

      Anyway …

      Reply

  8. What about surveys designed to serve you better… I don’t like them and I’m not sure why. Usually I don’t fill them out.

    I just got one after my visit to a podiatrist yesterday about ingrown toenails, started filling it out… Despite not really liking the doctor (for vague reasons), and having to stop him from working on the wrong toe at one point, I was giving all top responses until this question: Did everyone treat you like a unique individual? (1-10 scale)

    It was too stupid and I scrapped the whole thing. I wonder what Jesus would have done.

    Reply

    2. I refuse to answer the general surveys that begin, “Is the country headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?” Who believes everything is good or everything is bad? The stupidity of this question makes me highly suspicious of such polls and the people who answer.

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  9. Re: Aaron Maté and the The Grayzone.

    Both Maté and Grayzone have a history of war crime denial, and inventing/spreading conspiracy theories to cover for those war crimes.

    Maté/Grayzone were one of the major contributors in the spread of the conspiracy theory that Assad’s (numerous) chemical weapon attacks on civilians, were “staged” by “rescue workers”, or some variation on this. It is essentially a repeat of the old InfoWars “false flag/crisis actor” nonsense.

    Their propaganda platform exists solely to push pro-Russia, pro-China, and pro-Iran narratives, and so their war crime denial is tailored to that effect.

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    2. I believe our host has stated that he prefers to post (and to have commenters post) live versions of musical performances. As you say, the sound quality is usually inferior, but it gives viewers a chance to see the performers in action.

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      1. It was a subtle attempt at humor, mostly for me. Since our host prefers live versions and our host has also said “I love the Beatles—the best rock group of all time”, i (alone) thought it amusing to post Lennon saying he preferred studio records and wasn’t into attending live shows.

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    3. I prefer live shows over studio recordings, but only if I am there. For the most part, I find recordings of live performances to be a bit pointless. The sound quality is never as good and the musicianship may not be up to scratch and, most importantly, the energy you feel being part of the audience is missing.

      That said, if you re posting music on a web site like this, it’s probably best to post a video of the band live because the alternative is just the sound track or the official video, if they made one for the track in question. And the readers also get a sense of what the band looked like.

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  11. Last week, a baby Sumatran rhinoceros was discovered in Lampung Province, Indonesia. A magnificent discovery for this critically endangered species.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuFlYth_SY

    And I enjoy this quote I recently read in Weiner’s The Beak of the Finch

    How astonishing are the freaks and fancies of nature! To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the forest of South Cayenne, with a bill a yard long, making a noise like a puppy dog, and laying eggs in hollow trees? The toucan, to be sure, might retort-to what purpose were gentlemen in Bond Street created?…There is no end to such questions. So we will not enter into the metaphysics of the toucan.
    -Sydney Smith, 1825

    I’m glad Darwin finally came along, saying: “Metaphysics must flourish” in 1938. He took metaphysics out of the spiritual realm and into the natural one. He very much wanted to enter into the metaphysics of the toucan, and I’m forever grateful that he did.

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  12. I have been reading as widely as possible about how to understand things going on Israel and Gaza right now. Nothing has been as useful as a series of interviews on The Ezra Klein Podcast. Ezra is characteristically brilliant, and he brings on brilliant commentators, including some with whom he doesn’t agree. These conversations drive home the absolutely necessity of moving beyond cheap slogans or impracticable “solutions.” Anyway, I just wanted to spread the word.

    You can get this podcast anywhere; I listen to it via Apple Podcasts. Here are the titles that I have found especially useful.

    “If Not This, What Israel Should Do?” 31 October
    “An Intense, Searching Conversation with Amjed Iraqi” 7 Nov
    “What Israelis Fear the World Does Not Understand” 10 Nov
    “The Sermons I Needed to Hear Right Now” 17 Nov
    “The Best Primer I Have Heard on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts” 21 Nov
    “This Is How Hamas Is Seeing This” 5 Dec

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  13. “As a Jewish cat (so I’m told), Mishka wishes all his fellow Jews a happy holiday!”

    Does this mean Mishka is circumcised? And is he not allowed shellfish?

    All seriousness aside, happy Hanukkah!

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  14. Late to the party, largely because of getting stuff done in advance of an afternoon of four straight hours of three back-to-back Zoom meetings that were actually quite good.

    But last night was a Zoom just for enjoyment – the White House Historical Soc on Hanukkah at the White House thru the years starting from the Truman admin, presented by the head (IIRC) of the Jewish Museum in DC, which is housed in a structure that is partly a late-1800s synagogue that has been moved twice. But before the first move and after it had ceased to be a synagogue, it served a different purpose, yet still serving things. To see what that is go here, and see the 3rd pic down. For the quick answer, note the signage on the corner. They find it quite amusing.

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  16. Of all commenters to slack, I hasten to submit.

    I like the focused Hili Dialogues in these cases – sometimes it helps to really let their clever nature sink in.

    … I guess I’ll note as well, any news on that subscribe button?

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