Monday: Hili dialogue

40 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

1. Looks like stew beef, collard greens, candied yams (sweet potatoes), mashed potatoes and gravy.

   1. Pulled pork would be more southern than beef. But then, mashed potatoes with gravy isn’t a typical pork side (and it also isn’t particularly special to the south, either), so I dunno.

      I live in the south and, in my opinion, a more classically ‘southren’ meal would be: pulled pork on a bun with a side of corn on the cob, fries and/or biscuits, and a scoop of cole slaw. Also, boiled peanuts for snacks. You can’t have enough of them.

      And YES to sweetened ice tea. There is no more refreshing drink in the world in the hot hot summertime. Words cannot express how much I love it.

2. On this day:
   1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.

   1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.

   1879 – The Battle of Rorke’s Drift, also during the Anglo-Zulu War and just some 15 km (9.3 mi) away from Isandlwana, results in a British victory.

   1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio

   1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

   1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.

   1917 – American entry into World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for “peace without victory” in Europe. [Pretty much what many want in Gaza right now…]

   1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

   1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

   1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

   1957 – The New York City “Mad Bomber”, George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

   1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.

   1963 – The Élysée Treaty of cooperation between France and West Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.

   1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space. [Those Apollo missions were carried out at an incredible pace!]

   1970 – The Boeing 747, the world’s first “jumbo jet”, enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.

   1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states. [Gone now, of course. Looks like the Dems are going to use the issue in Biden’s presidential election campaign.]

   1973 – The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo Moon landing mission.

   1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial.

   1992 – Space Shuttle program: The space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.

   1995 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid suicide bombing: In central Israel, near Netanya, two Gazans blow themselves up at a military transit point, killing 19 Israeli soldiers.

   1998 – Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

   1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.

   2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country’s first indigenous president.

   2009 – U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; congressional opposition will prevent it being implemented.

   Births:
   1552 – Walter Raleigh, English poet, soldier, courtier, and explorer (d. 1618).

   1561 – Francis Bacon, English philosopher and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (d. 1626).

   1573 – John Donne, English poet and cleric in the Church of England, wrote the Holy Sonnets (d. 1631).

   1788 – Lord Byron, English poet and playwright (d. 1824).

   1849 – August Strindberg, Swedish novelist, poet, and playwright (d. 1912).

   1858 – Beatrice Webb, English sociologist and economist (d. 1943).

   1867 – Gisela Januszewska, Jewish-Austrian physician (d. 1943).

   1875 – D. W. Griffith, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1948).

   1887 – Helen Hoyt, American poet and author (d. 1972).

   1891 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian philosopher and politician (d. 1937).

   1898 – Sergei Eisenstein, Russian director and screenwriter (d. 1948).

   1904 – George Balanchine, Georgian-American dancer, choreographer, and director, co-founded the New York City Ballet (d. 1983).

   1908 – Lev Landau, Azerbaijani-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968).

   1909 – U Thant, Burmese educator and diplomat, 3rd United Nations Secretary-General (d. 1974).

   1920 – Alf Ramsey, English footballer and coach (d. 1999). [First and only manager of an England football team to win the World Cup.]

   1931 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (d. 1964).

   1940 – John Hurt, English actor (d. 2017).

   1946 – Malcolm McLaren, English singer-songwriter and manager (d. 2010).

   1949 – Steve Perry, American singer-songwriter and producer.

   1953 – Winfried Berkemeier, German footballer and manager.

   1957 – Rita Chatterton, American professional wrestling referee.

   1957 – Francis Wheen, English journalist and author.

   1959 – Linda Blair, American actress.

   1960 – Michael Hutchence, Australian singer-songwriter (d. 1997).

   1964 – Nigel Benn, English-Australian boxer.

   1965 – Diane Lane, American actress.

   1974 – Joseph Muscat, Maltese journalist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Malta. [On 1 December 2019, under pressure from the 2019 street protests calling for his resignation in relation to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Muscat announced his resignation, and stepped down on 13 January 2020.]

   Death, only, renders hope futile. (Edgar Rice Burroughs):
   1170 – Wang Chongyang, Chinese Daoist and co-founder of the Quanzhen School (b. 1113).

   1767 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German meteorologist and geologist (b. 1719).

   1779 – Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer (b. 1733).

   1779 – Claudius Smith, American guerrilla leader (b. 1736).

   1900 – David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (b. 1831).

   1901 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (b. 1819).

   1906 – George Holyoake, English secularist, co-operator and newspaper editor (b. 1817).

   1925 – Fanny Bullock Workman, American geographer and mountain climber (b. 1859).

   1945 – Else Lasker-Schüler, German poet and playwright (b. 1869).

   1951 – Harald Bohr, Danish mathematician and footballer (b. 1887). [After receiving his doctorate in 1910, Bohr became an eminent mathematician, founding the field of almost periodic functions. His brother was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr. He was on the Denmark national football team for the 1908 Summer Olympics, where he won a silver medal.]

   1971 – Harry Frank Guggenheim, American businessman and publisher, co-founded Newsday (b. 1890)

   1973 – Lyndon B. Johnson, American lieutenant and politician, 36th President of the United States (b. 1908).

   1994 – Telly Savalas, American actor (b. 1922). [It was the anniversary of his birth just yesterday.]

   2008 – Heath Ledger, Australian actor and director (b. 1979).

   2010 – Jean Simmons, English-American actress (b. 1929).

   2018 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American sci-fi and fantasy novelist (b. 1929).

   2022 – Thích Nhất Hạnh, Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, and founder of the Plum Village Tradition (b. 1926).

   1. Woman of the Day
      [Text from the excellent The Attagirls X/Twitter account]

      Katie Mulcahey of New York City who was arrested on this day in 1908 by one of New York’s finest for striking a match against the stone wall of a building in the Bowery District and lighting her cigarette. Let me explain.

      New York City had passed the Sullivan Ordinance the day before, making it illegal for women to smoke in public. Not men, just women. It was named for New York City Alderman Timothy Sullivan, known as Little Tim, who strongly believed that any woman who smoked cigarettes in public was wholly immoral and had a loose character. In a fine example of sisterly unsolidarity, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union were among those who urged lawmakers to address the issue of all those hordes of loose women smoking in public places. Little Tim admitted he had never actually seen a woman smoking on the streets of New York but made it quite plain he would lose all respect for her if he did.

      The Ordinance was passed unanimously. However, its wording was quite elastic; restaurant, shop and hotel owners were told they had to forbid women from smoking in their establishments too. It wasn’t universally popular, especially with business owners. In fact it was ridiculed in the newspapers and many hospitality venues made it clear that women who smoked were welcome.

      None of that was known to our Katie. The day after the ordinance passed, she struck a match and lit her cigarette. A police officer arrested her, saying, “Madam, you mustn’t. What would Alderman Sullivan say?”

      Katie Mulcahey was the wrong woman to pick a fight with. Hauled before the judge, she tartly told him, “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you have. I never heard of this new law and I don’t want to hear about it. No man shall dictate to me.”

      The judge fined her $5, about £130 in today’s sterling. Katie’s reaction was exactly as you might expect. She refused to pay. She was arrested again and held overnight in the cells. Women’s groups, newspapers and indeed most of New York sided with her. Women took to the streets, held rallies and convened public discussions demanding the same rights as men, including the right to vote and the right to smoke a cigarette wherever they wanted.

      Lawyers reviewed the wording of the Sullivan Ordinance and found it toothless – there was no provision for a fine or indeed any punishment at all for public smoking – which neatly demonstrates the irresponsibility of trying to ban something without planning for the consequences. Today’s politicians might care to take note.

      Katie was released the next day without a blemish on her record. She was the first and only person to be arrested for breaking the law. Two weeks later, the mayor of New York City vetoed the ordnance and it was struck from the statute books.

      https://twitter.com/TheAttagirls/status/1749333709189161448

      1. Ironically, the law was probably good for women, just unfair 🙂

         1. Absolutely!

   2. Jez, Thanks for noting regarding 1968 “those Apollo missions were carried out at an incredible pace”. The U.S. political and engineering commitment to the Apollo Program was truly incredible. The full effort consisted of six (6) separate (sub) programs, each a huge and expensive engineering challenge itself, that needed to be executed in parallel and sequenced for the successful final landing of humans on the moon. Viz. 1. Project Mercury just to get men into Earth orbit; 2. Project Gemini to get two men in orbit and rendezvous with another vehicle in orbit; 3. Apollo itself landing men on the moon AND very importantly returning them safely to Earth; all interfaced with a string of unmanned enabling missions: 4. Project Ranger to navigate to, take photos of, and “simply” hit the moon; 5. Project Lunar Orbiter to establish a low altitude orbit of moon, understand moon’s gravitational parameters, and take high resolution photos of possible Apollo landing zones; 6. Project Surveyor to soft land, take high resolution pictures, and understand soil mechanics on moon’s surface. The pace took its toll on people too with many careers redirected, workdays extended, and generally NASA and its contractors living on a wartime-like schedule. The dry, wry humor among my NASA colleagues in the nineties regarding talk of a return to the moon was that it took us ten years in the 1960’s and it will take thirty years today…now that’s progress!

      1. It was definitely a heady time for space firsts. For the general public that was interested in space (including me), the time afterward was disappointing and frustrating. The second half of the 1970s and later saw the first citizens’ organizations spring up to lobby the government for more action — in particular to establish a permanent human presence in space with a space station. That took a while.

         Then a new crop of kids started complaining that all we were doing was going round and round in orbit without going anywhere. They didn’t understand that in order to go somewhere, people first needed long-term experience living and working in space. Being in Earth orbit remains the best place to do that.

         I hope that the International Space Station remains viable long enough to parallel the construction and habitation of new space stations (other than the current Chinese space station). It would be a shame to have a long U.S. hiatus again like that created when the Shuttle program was discontinued without first having new programs in the pipeline.

         Now, of course, NASA is hoping that commercial interests will be sufficient to support the construction of new space stations and their operations, while NASA does the more challenging job of conducting actual human exploration of the Solar System.

         1. The post-Apollo NASA funding draw-down by Congress was tough on the research, development, and operational centers that had gotten used to being the number one, two, and three priority of the Congress for a decade. Suddenly choices had to be made and labs found themselves competing with each other for funding. While I have lost track of much of the politics over the past decade, I think the recent budgets have evenly split human space/planetary exploration and robotic science exploration (astrophysics, Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics) at about $8B each per year and an additional $4B or so for Station and LEO operations. I think that the projects carried out with the $8B for science are determined every ten years by a decadel priority survey established by a working group of subject matter experts. You have correctly identified the major cultural change of having commercial sector take over launch operations with more independent responsibility than in previous eras. We shall see how that works out.

            1. Yes. I hope I live long enough to see if that does work out.

               United Launch Alliance (ULA) is the only remaining big legacy rocket company, though it is, itself, the product of a merger of previously independent rocket companies. It was banking heavily on the successful launch of its new rocket, “Vulcan,” which finally just happened.

               From what I’ve read, ULA is now positioned to sell the business. I’m wondering if it might be bought by Blue Origin (a Jeff Bezos company), since the engines of “Vulcan” were designed and built by Blue Origin … and Blue Origin hopes to be the only serious competitor to SpaceX.

               SpaceX is now by far the most successful rocket company, in terms of number of launches and mass to orbit, and — of course — in terms of reusability, which brings down the cost of launches. No other company or country comes close to SpaceX now, though there are a few new smaller companies vying for niche applications. China is ramping up its space activities, though its economy is problematic.

               If the SpaceX “Starship” rocket development is successful — and there’s good reason to think it will be — SpaceX will be dominant for a long time. But there are so many unknowns coalescing in the near future that it’s impossible to predict anything with any assurance.

               Launch stats:
               https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/05/spacex-launched-over-80-of-all-orbital-payload-mass-in-q1-2023.html

   3. I remember the first time I flew on a 747, in August 1972. I’d flown from home (New Zealand) to Los Angeles in a DC-8, with two stops needed on the way (Fiji and Honolulu); then flew to New York on a 747. It was absolutely massive! and two decks, with a curved staircase! (not that I got to go upstairs). Such was life before cheap flights.

   4. 1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.

      See – even the Pope can’t manage immigrant problems. Did they arrive in small boats, or over (or under) the Wall (which Rome still has to pay for).
      I’m sure The Donald will prioritise solving this in his third term. Probably by exporting them to … how does Gibraltar sound? Or Las Islas Malvinas?

3. Theft at an REI?! That’s like theft from a church. Who would do such a thing? I first went to a physical REI store in Berkley the week that that store opened in the 70’s to gear up for a hike in the Sierras. While I had mail ordered from the Seattle store, I had never been in a physical store like this with such great staff and stock. Blasphemy, I say. (And this from a committed atheist)

   1. REI is not actually leaving Portland, they just moved out of their downtown store and into a suburban location. Also, the “shoplifting is out of control” argument has been seen as an excuse to close low-performing stores. See:

      https://popular.info/p/the-truth-about-shoplifting-in-san?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fretail%2520theft&utm_medium=reader2

      1. The *private* emails between store managers and Portland officials call into question the assertion that crime is just an excuse to close a store.

         “The correspondence illustrates the behind-the-scenes tensions between the public and private sectors over how to address retail crime.”

         Portland officials’ “limited resources” excuse contributes to this problem. “Retailers boost the city’s economy, but limited resources hinder local leaders’ ability to satisfy the demands of each company.”

         It is not a question of limited city resources but a question of how to allocate/spend the money Portland collects from its taxpayers.

         It is also a question of the culture that Portland encourages. Here is just a sample of recent Portland news headlines:

         NYT: Oregon’s Hard-Drug Decriminalization Policy Is a Disaster
         NYT: Scenes From a City That Only Hands Out Tickets for Using Fentanyl
         Oregon Live: Portland coffee shop’s windows smashed after advertising ‘Coffee with a Cop’ event
         Oregon Live: Oregon again says students don’t need to prove mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate, citing harm to students of color
         WSJ: Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs. It Isn’t Working
         Oregon Live: REI to close only Portland store, citing break-ins, theft
         HuffPost: A Portland Burrito Cart Shutters After Being Accused of Cultural Appropriation

   2. I also enjoyed my first encounters with REI. Now I can’t afford a lot of what they stock. My perception is that they prefer an upscale clientele. (One might argue that that’s what outdoor gear is about, these days.) I wouldn’t steal, though. I still will go into an REI to look around, see what’s on sale or not easily found elsewhere.

   3. That store was near University and California, right? I see it’s on San Pablo now, but I could have sworn it was on University.

      1. I do not know. I was visiting from the East coast to hike Stanislaus National Forest around Sonora Pass with my East coast grad school office mate who was from Mountain View and thesis advisor who was at Stanford for the summer. They drove me around and I have no idea what streets we were on. Btw, for an Appalachian Trail backpacker, the Sierras opened a whole new world!

4. “But what the article neglects is that there are plenty of people on the not-extreme Left, or in the center, who oppose DEI for good reasons. It’s divisive, it discourages discussion and disagreement (the lifeblood of academics), it tries to police language and behavior, and it mistakenly imputes all differences in representation of groups to bigotry, leading it to misguided actions and accusations of racism. ”

   [ breathes fresh air ]

   To find the traps of Dialectical Political Warfare, it helps to remember :

   The issue is never the issue — the issue is only The Revolution.

   [ Ouroboros ]

   “As above, so below”
   (The principle of Hermetic alchemy)

   1. I suspect it’s a grand rightwing psy-op, intended to drive left-leaning people rightward.

      1. I think it’s just Hermetic alchemy :

         The image of the correct way the world is supposed to be is inside “man” (in archaic terms), and “the point is to change it” (Marx).

         It goes back centuries, to Hegel, some Rousseau … and then some long way to ancient Egyptian manuscripts …

         Right-wingers tend to be goddies, so the image of the world is outside of “man”.

         And yes, I gather this from James Lindsay’s expositions.

5. Regarding the theft issue…there is not much discussion about the fact that these crimes are disproportionately caused by young black men and women.

   This could be due to the effects of poverty, which also disproportionately affects black people. But I suspect that it is more complicated than that, because poverty does not always indicate a rise in crime or a propensity to break the law.

   For some reason, it has become more acceptable within certain sub-segments of the black community to steal from stores with impunity, such that this behavior is so prevalent that it is impossible to control.

   My two cents….the complete breakdown within many communities of color of stable, two parent families is a huge contributor to this. There are/were far too many children growing up in families with only one parent (usually the mother), and subsequently an environment that failed to provide adequate guidance and socialization.

   Add far left “defund the police” activism and woke anti-white politics to the mix and you’ve got a recipe for a complete breakdown of basic social norms around shoplifting and stealing…in fact these ideologies might even encourage such activities as a form of quasi-reparations.

   1. My sister lives just outside Portland OR and is in complete denial about the theft issue and won’t accept that it’s becoming such a problem.

6. Haley is now freed from distraction. Good!

7. Since I’m an ‘Aryan’ atheist who is identifying as Jewish for the duration, it might also be accurate to say:

   The More You Hate Jews, the More Jews There Are!

8. Haley has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the nomination, and I don’t see that she can do much damage to Trump.

   I didn’t think she had a realistic chance as long as Trump was there. My guess is that she has a different reason to persist.

   1. There’s a non-zero chance that Trump could implode (either physically or legally, or metaphorically) before the election, thereby leaving Haley a pathway to victory. We’ll see. My guess is that she’ll stay in through the South Carolina primary and, when she loses her own state big time, she’ll bow out.

9. I guess I live in the middle of nowhere, because retail theft is not an issue. In actuality, it’s an issue in cities with progressive, Democratic administrations that have failed to treat this as a criminal problem.

10. “Try buying shaving cream or deodorant at your local drugstore these days. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, the chances are that what you want will be locked behind glass . . .”

    Living in the middle of nowhere has its advantages.

11. I think DeSantis was wrong to drop out now. He should have stuck in through several primaries. There is still a chance that Trump will somehow be prevented from being the Republican candidate, and DeSantis would be in a better position at the Convention if he has more delegates.

12. The paralyzed cat video is amazing! (Yes. I read every part of every post and I look at most of the videos. Sometimes the X videos don’t play without opening X.)

13. Iran,” disarmament” the UN is seriously broken and a bad joke. Disassemble the UN now that would be a good idea.

    1. The DPD story is true. It is a funny for a delivery firm, but they are looking at using AI for triage 😲 No, you aren’t having a heart attack it’s a broken ankle. 🤦‍♀️

       https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68025677

14. Theft is rising to the top of the divisive debates. It’s been chosen by “progressive” news outlets. From where I sit, the radio (if it’s tuned to NPR-which it almost never is), tells me it’s a myth been created by the “right wing”. However, I witness it daily. I scan particular stores before entering because it’s not safe to be between the thieves and the exit. Walgreens, Target, Fry’s and Home Depot, are favorites. Forget about the convenience stores…I won’t even pump gas there.
    Jeff(#5) says it’s “disproportionately caused by young black men and women”. I don’t know where he lives but in Tucson it’s a very white problem… A fentanyl problem. Our stores are being shut down and boarded up at a dizzying pace.
    Tucson used to be a sleepy little town perfect for outdoors folks like me but it has attracted an unsavory element due to what was a very low cost of living. That and our overly welcoming and plentiful services for the homeless. I grieve for my city daily and am planning on leaving it.
    (Our proximity to the border and the drugs that flow across it are a given)

    1. “Jeff(#5) says it’s “disproportionately caused by young black men and women”.

       I live near NYC and work there. Here, the shoplifters are disproportionately young and black…I’ve witnessed some incredibly brazen instances myself (literally a few kids walking in with plastic garbage bags and filling them with clothes, and then walking out with no resistance from the store). I suspect the same on the other coast. However, that doesn’t mean that in other areas the demographics can’t be different.

       Either way, it’s a societal breakdown, and a strange inability (or lack of willingness) of local governments to do something about the problem. One would think that local governments would want to protect these businesses, as they provide employment for their citizens and substantial tax revenue. Hard to see how a community can survive without a healthy business climate, but perhaps these local leaders know better.

       1. I don’t wish to take up too much space on this website but, you are right. It is a societal breakdown. It began here immediately after the Black Lives Matter protests. They destroyed our downtown (I was living downtown at the time and watched them smashing storefronts, setting fires, etc) and the city’s response was to paint rainbows on the streets. Our main police station was similarly destroyed, then boarded up. It became politically incorrect to enforce the laws. I don’t know where this is going or whst I, as an individual can do to improve things.
          I’ll bet it’s worse in NYC.

15. Many–especially young folk–see them as glamorous pirates.

    None of the people I’ve known who have been kidnapped at assault rifle-point have ever considered pirates to be in the slightest bit glamorous. The Somalis certainly didn’t strike me as being glamorous when they were operating around my work site in Tanzania.

    1. Young folks don’t see beyond the”posy picture” on their hand held idiots lantern, most would die of fright if confronted with (any) reality, particularly the reality of a terrorist pirate.

       1. Has “terrorist” lost it’s political association? The West- and East- coast pirates my colleagues have been dealing with for decades now are just run-of-the-mill criminals using guns to make money. Nothing political about them at all – pure real-politik economics.

          I can’t say that I know much about the Molucca Straits gangs – their actions target the deep-sea industry, rather than the international transport that our members were typically involved in – but they’re pure-capitalist entrepreneurs too. Economists, not terrorists.

          (Of course, you could be painting business-people who conduct their business without regard for other people’s laws as “terrorists”. That is certainly a point of view that is very defensible. It’ll bring you into conflict with the “free business from regulation” crowd though.)

          I can almost see next year’s university prospectuses with the Economics Department adopting a pirate-themed deregulation stance for their publicity photos.

16. Large Babies –
    Blue Whale calf = 5000-6000 lbs.
    even an Orca calf = 265-353 lbs.

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