Wednesday: Hili dialogue

June 19, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to a Hump Day (“Húfudagur” in Icelandic), Wednesday, June 19, 2024, and it’s National Martini Day (I’ll have a dry Gibson, which is simply a martini with pickled onions instead of olives). Here’s one from Wikipedia:

SteveR-, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also  Juneteenth, National Pets in Film Day, National Eat an Oreo Day (not the Double-Stuf ones), World Albatross Day (pay homage to Wisdom, who recently found a mate at 72 years old), and World Sickle Cell Day (the first genetic disease whose molecular basis—a mutation in the β chain of hemoglobin) was established.

There’s a Google Doodle in honor of Juneteenth, and when you click on it, the screen comes alive:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 19 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Obituaries first: the great Willie Mays died yesterday at 93.  You can see a video of his career highlights here.  He was famous for making “The Catch”, an over-the-shoulder catch in the outfield that’s regarded by many as the greatest catch of all time:

*There’s some buzz among readers about a new article in the NYT by Dana Goldstein: “Public funding, private education.” It’s about the rise in voucher schools, and is connected to another article in the same issue (h/t Peggy):

An overwhelming majority of American students attend public schools. But that number is falling. In part, that’s because in more than half of states, parents can now use public money to educate their kids — at home, online, in private schools. This year, a million students used some kind of private education voucher, more than double the figure from four years earlier, according to new research from EdChoice, a group that supports private-school choice and tracks the sector.

The result is a growing movement of choose-your-own-adventure education. Parents are permitted to find any program that they think fits their beliefs and their kids’ needs. Yet it’s unclear how, or whether, accountability or standards will be enforced outside traditional schools.

What’s driving this change? The pandemic prompted many families to reconsider how their children learn. Republican lawmakers embraced private-school choice as part of a broader push for parental rights. (They also see the issue as a way to appeal to young parents — often Black and Latino — who are critical of how public schools serve their children.) And teachers are reporting intense burnout, with some leaving public schools to open small businesses that can accept these vouchers.

I wrote about these “microschools” in a story The Times published this morning. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain why parents are opting out of public schools — and what it might mean for how this country educates all of its children.

And in that article you learn that many of these microschools are religious in nature. What else did you expect?:

Anyone can open a microschool, although more than two-thirds of founders are current or formerly licensed teachers. And these schools can teach anything they like, including biblical versions of science and history. Facilities may not be inspected; staff member background checks are sometimes unnecessary.

And while many microschool founders say they cater to students with disabilities, the programs do not have to follow federal disability law, and most do not provide the therapies and counseling that are often available in public schools. Even Ms. Lopez said that she may not send Nathanael back to Kingdom Seed in the fall, because of the cost and his need for additional support for his autism.’

I don’t think public money should be used to fund private schools. Let the private schools support themselves! I don’t want my tax money used to teach kids creationism, 0r any kind of goddy stuff.

*Also according to the NYT, the pier the U.S. built to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza is on its last legs. They built it too fast, didn’t consider the ocean currents and waves, and didn’t plan well.

The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected.

In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns.

The pier was never meant to be more than a stopgap measure while the Biden administration pushed Israel to allow more food and other supplies into Gaza through land routes, a far more efficient way to deliver relief. But even the modest goals for the pier are likely to fall short, some American military officials say.

When the pier was conceived, health authorities were warning that the territory was on the precipice of famine. In recent weeks, Israel has given relief organizations greater access, but the groups say the situation remains dire.

The Biden administration initially predicted that it would be September before surging seas would make the pier inoperable. But military officials are now warning aid organizations that the project could be dismantled as early as next month, a looming deadline that officials say they hope will pressure Israel to open more ground routes.

President Biden ordered the U.S. military to begin building the pier in March, at a time when he was being sharply criticized for not doing more to rein in Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks.

In fact, Gaza never was on the brink of famine, and certainly has a surfeit of food now: more comestibles are coming into the territory now than before the war. The U.S. thought too fast and built too fast.  Yes, the humanitarian impulse was good, but has proven, for food, to be misplaced. We never needed that pier.

*One of the last Jews in Yemen has died, though, in contrast to what the French says below, it appears that there’s at least one more Jew in the country as well.

Yemenite Jews are quite interesting; here’s what Wikipedia says about them:

Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from Hebrew: יהודי תימן, romanized: Yehude Teman; Arabic: اليهود اليمنيون), are Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of the country’s Jewish population immigrated to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet. After several waves of persecution, the vast majority of Yemenite Jews now live in Israel, while smaller communities live in the United States and elsewhere.  As of 2024, Levi Marhabi is the last Jew in Yemen.

Well, now Levi appears to still be with us although Yehia ben Yossef has gone to the Great Beyond.

Yemenite Jews observe a unique religious tradition that distinguishes them from Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, and other Jewish groups. They have been described as “the most Jewish of all Jews” and “the ones who have preserved the Hebrew language the best”. Yemenite Jews are considered Mizrahi or “Eastern” Jews, though they differ from other Mizrahis, who have undergone a process of total or partial assimilation to Sephardic law and customs. While the Shami sub-group of Yemenite Jews did adopt a Sephardic-influenced rite, this was mostly due to it being forced upon them, and did not reflect a demographic or general cultural shift among the vast majority of Yemenite Jews.

Levi, sadly, is still detained by the Houthis for various crimes, and was previously imprisoned under terrible conditions. Unfortunately, Yemen really IS an apartheid state, and the Jews got the hell out of there because of persecution (read about Operation Magic Carpet above, which brought 47,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel (others came Aden, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Saudi Arabia).  Talk about apartheid states: no Jews are allowed to live in those countries, and now they’re Judenrein. Plenty of Muslim Arabs are Israeli citizens with all the rights thereof, but mushbrains talk about Israel as an apartheid state. Maybe they should keep their eyes on these other Arab countries!

*Whenever I hear someone describe their profession as “social-media influencer”, I roll my eyes. It’s a narcissistic profession in which you “influence” people by making videos about yourself and posting Instagram pictures of yourself, hoping to “influence”—people to be like you, i.e. buy products from companies that, you hope, will pay you.  Now the Wall Street Journal reveals that most of these people aren’t doing well; the article’s called “Social-media influencers aren’t getting rich—they’re bare.ly getting by.”

Earning a decent, reliable income as a social-media creator is a slog—and it’s getting harder. Platforms are doling out less money for popular posts and brands are being pickier about what they want out of sponsorship deals. The real possibility of TikTok potentially shutting down in 2025 is adding to creators’ anxiety over whether they can afford to stick with the job for the long haul.

Hundreds of millions of people around the globe regularly post videos and photos to entertain or educate social-media users. About 50 million earn money from it, according to a 2023 report from Goldman Sachs. The investment bank expects the number of creator-earners to grow at an annual rate of 10% to 20% through 2028, crowding the field even further. The Labor Department doesn’t track wages for these creators, also known as influencers.

It can take months or years to earn money as a creator, often through a combination of direct revenue from social-media platforms, sponsorship deals, merchandise sales and affiliate links. But those who stick with it eventually see some returns, surveys show. Creators say that’s because you can learn what kind of posts most resonate with an audience, which can lead to more followers and, in turn, more moneymaking opportunities.

But money doesn’t mean big bucks. Last year, 48% of creator-earners made $15,000 or less, according to NeoReach, an influencer marketing agency. Only 13% made more than $100,000.

The gap reflects multiple factors, including whether creators work full- or part-time, the kind of content they put out and when they started. People who jumped into the space during the height of Covid-19 lockdowns—and who focused on a niche such as fashion, investing or lifestyle hacks—say they benefited from the surge in social-media use during that time.

A small number of creators shot to fame, propelling the occupation to the top of career wish lists for many teens (and adults). But behind the scenes, creators say the job is grueling. They need to constantly produce compelling posts or risk losing momentum. They spend their days planning, filming and editing posts while also working to make inroads with advertisers and interacting with fans.

Granted, some of these people work hard, and some even produce useful stuff, like educational videos. But the market is limited! (Do I count as a SMI? I make -$600 per year doing this, as I have to pay for WordPress access.) But really, how long can you stick with a job like this, and competition is fierce.

*And finally, here’s how slow the news is today: I am forced to report that singer Justin Timberlake has been arrested for driving while intoxicated, just one of many Americans who will commit that crime this week.

Pop star Justin Timberlake was charged early Tuesday with driving while intoxicated in a village in New York’s Hamptons, after police said he ran a stop sign and veered out of his lane in the posh seaside summer retreat.

The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor was driving a 2025 BMW in Sag Harbor around 12:30 a.m. when an officer stopped him and determined he was intoxicated, according to a court document.

“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” the court papers said.

Timberlake, 43, was released without bond later Tuesday morning after being arraigned in Sag Harbor. He was charged with a DWI misdemeanor, and his next court date was scheduled for July 26, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office said.

Timberlake’s lawyer and representatives did not immediately return requests for comment from The Associated Press.

. . .Last year, Timberlake was in the headlines when Spears released her memoir, “The Woman in Me.” Several chapters were devoted to their relationship, including deeply personal details about a pregnancy, abortion and painful breakup. In March, he released his first new album in six years, the nostalgic “Everything I Thought It Was,” a return to his familiar future funk sound.

Timberlake has two upcoming shows in Chicago on Friday and Saturday, then is scheduled for New York’s Madison Square Garden next week on Tuesday and Wednesday.

And that’s the way it is—on June 19, 2024.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron want to come inside:

Szaron: Do they see us?
Hili: The one with the camera certainly does.
In Polish:
Szaron: Czy oni nas widzą?
Hili: Ten z aparatem na pewno.

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

From Cat Memes:

An evil lemon from Science Humor:

That must be a big car! From Strange, Stupid or Silly Signs:

 

From Masih, another Iranian woman arrested by the damn Morality Police (the harridans in black) for wearing an improper hijab. Too much hair showing!


From Luana What do you think about this bill? Can you learn about sex from pornography? Should kids have unrestricted access to porn?

From my feed; two swan rescues. I love the happy endings!

From Malcolm, a FB post showing “paw walking”:

From the Auschwitz Memorial: a monk who gave his life to save the life of another in Auschwitz. You can read about him here:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. The first one is his, and I gave him grief about it (his caption was “sorry”):

Another heartwarmer (sound up); Bruno loses his anger:

 

91 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Long-time WEIT contributor and my big brother Ken Kukec sailed off into the mystic yesterday. After a lengthy illness, he passed peacefully in his sleep. Ken had an uncanny knack for capturing the zeitgeist of the times, he was a hard determinist and a ‘science first’ guy, and I know that he truly valued the community he found here over the past decade or so. Thanks for the good vibes.

    1. I am so very sorry. Yes, Ken was my go-to guy for all matters legal (and Yiddish!) and a very trusted contributor to this site. My condolences to you little brother. He will surely continue to be missed here.

    2. That is sad news. I am sorry for your loss. Ken stood out as a knowledgeable and level-headed commenter and, from what I could tell from his comments, seemed to be an all-round great person.

    3. Oh….I am sorry to learn Counsellor Kukec’s death.
      I miss him, as you do also.

    4. I only knew Ken through his comments on this site but even that limited interaction was enough for him to earn my admiration. I miss him. The laws of physics are compelling me to locate a box of tissues….

    7. So sorry to hear that Ken died. I always looked for his comments and legal advice. He seemed to be a really interesting smart person!

    8. Oh dear! I am so sorry about this. He will be sorely missed by everyone here.

    10. My sincere condolences for the loss of your brother. I valued Ken’s insights on WEIT for many years, as I’m sure others did. This is very sad news.

      1. I have missed him very much on the comment page, and am so sad to hear this news. He was one in a million. Condolences to all the family.

    12. I am truly sad to hear that Ken has passed away. I suspected something was amiss given his long absence from WEIT.

      I very much enjoyed reading Ken’s comments and conversing with him on this site over the years. He was smart, knowledgeable, patient, gracious and a thoroughly decent human being. He was one of the regulars that contributed to WEIT being one of the only websites that I not only read regularly but also participated in the comments myself. I will miss him. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

    13. So sorry to hear that – I’d always enjoyed Ken’s take on things, and wondered where he’d been lately. Ken sounded like someone that I’d really like to know in person.

    15. I am so upset. So many times recently I’ve said to myself, “Where is KK when we need him?”

      My sincere condolences – he is and will be greatly missed here.

    17. I am so so sorry for your loss. We too lose because he had wonderful information and thoughts to share. It is truly a loss.

      Condolences.

    18. I’m so sorry to hear Ken has died. Recently I’ve become aware that I’ve not seen comments from him and thought, “I miss him.”

    21. Oh no! I was just thinking about him the other day, how he always had such thoughtful and witty comments. I’m so sorry for your loss. May his memory be a blessing.

    22. Very sad that he is gone, but very glad to hear Ken died peacefully in his sleep. He deserved a good death, as he was a good soul and very much appreciated here.

    23. I’m shocked – I was hoping he’d chime in with some Goodfellas quotes. Always loved his personality. Was wondering if he ditched the site.

      Sorry for the haste – condolences. I’m very unsettled by this terrible news.

    24. Wow, that really sucks! Ken really brought a lot to WEIT: terrific, lucid writing, great legal analysis and political insights, a terrific sense of humor, and great taste and knowledge of all-things culture; he also taught me many new words. I share your grief as I just lost my older brother 2-months ago today. It has been difficult with only great memories and time being of any recuperative value. I’m sure you have great memories of your brother, from the many stories and anecdotes he told over the years, I gleaned he had an interesting life. Ken will be sorely missed and thanks for letting us WEIT readers know of his passing.

        1. Thanks Leslie. It’s been surreal to say the least. 57 is too young. A melanoma he ignored…he thought it was a birthmark and it wasn’t in a place others could observe and say: “you should get that looked at.” Oh boy.

          1. My condolences, Mark. I lost my older brother to the very same thing last January. Your brother was 10 years younger than mine. 57 is really young. Damn death! Sibling loss is tough. Take care of yourself.

          2. Thanks for the condolences, Debi. Damn death indeed! I have a lot of relatives + parents who are deeply religious and they talk about “seeing him again, up there” and my brother wasn’t religious at all, how does that work?…I thought you needed to be a true believer to enter the pearly gates. It’s weird being an atheist amongst religionists in the midst of death and grief. So it goes…

    29. That is so sad to read. I found everything he contributed to WEIT was worth reading. His explanations of legal matters made many issues clear. Thank you letting us know. I will miss his posts.

    31. I’m sorry I was away yesterday. Very sad to hear of Ken’s death. Good wishes for his family and friends (including his admirers here).

    32. Oh, I’m so sorry to hear about Ken. My condolences to you and your family.
      I always looked forward to reading Ken’s comments, and I’ve missed him. I was hoping his absence was temporary, and that he would soon be back posting interesting and entertaining comments.

  2. Since there has been interest in how things are going with the NASA/Boeing Crewed Flight Test(so hoping I am not in serious violation of The Roolz), here is YET ANOTHER UPDATE on Boeing Crewed Flight Test status: In a Tuesday (yesterday) presser, NASA and Boeing announced that the undocking and return of the Starliner capsule with astronauts Butch and Suni, previously scheduled “no earlier than” this Friday night/Saturday morning is yet again rescheduled to now “no earlier than” next Wednesday, June 26 with a planned 0415 EDT touchdown in the New Mexico Desert (“White Sands Space Harbor” which is the clever marketing name of a large, flat desert aerospace craft test area west of Alamogordo, NM). I have noticed what seems to be the creation of a new acronym, “NET” = “no earlier than”. In any case that is the current plan, which allows priority to a delayed ISS (International Space Station) spacewalk from last week to do some routine maintenance chores outside the ISS on June 24. If that EVA (extra-vehicular activity) is delayed, then Starliner undocking will move up to become the ISS priority. I do find it odd that they are landing this flight in the middle of the night darkness, but 0415EDT is what they said which is around two in the morning in New Mexico. There is a nice, long article, which includes discussion of the helium leaks and RCS thruster testing on-orbit in Space.com at URL
    https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-earth-return-delay-june-26-thruster-issues

    1. Thank you for these. I often follow your links and then find myself going down fascinating rabbit holes.

    2. When in the Navy, I never heard “NET.” But “NLT” (“no later than”) was used constantly in “message traffic.”

  3. Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (19 Jun 1623-1662)

  4. Regarding “influencers”: yeah, I consider that label to be a red flag as well, and my compassion with anyone who struggles with that career is very limited. But: wouldn’t it be very surprising if the majority of them had an easy life? Isn’t the usual picture with any competitive “creative” endeavour where your success depends on attracting fans (musicians, actors, writers, athletes…) that there’s a power law distribution – a handful of people getting filthy rich, a smallish number earning a decent income, and a large number of people struggling to get a foot in the door?

    1. Absolutely Richard. I think it is very much a power law. Thing is it is a very glamorous idea for the kids even though for most as the article says it is a waste off time and a disappointment.
      There’s also algorithmic dynamics (and nobody outside the giants know how that works) and a large amount of randomness to consider.
      OnlyFans works the same way for (more open minded…) girls.

      I’d never want to be an influencer or youtube host. I write a column for established websites who do all the marketing, editing, intellectual property and tech stuff for me. I’d have no hope otherwise.

      D.A.
      NYC

  5. Game 1 of the 1954 World Series between Cleveland and New York was tied, 2-2, in the top of the 8th inning. The game was being played in New York at the old Polo Grounds, whose center field fence was a remarkable 454 feet from home plate. Cleveland had men on 1st and 2nd base when the batter, Vic Wentz, hit a wicked line drive to center field. Willie Mays running at top speed not only made the remarkable over-the-shoulder catch near the wall, but also made an equally remarkable throw to prevent not only any runners from scoring but also from advancing. To this day, the whole play seems to surpass believability. I was never able to attend a game in which he played — I was only able to watch him on television — but in my long life I’ve never seen a better baseball player.

    1. A Youtuber whose video comes up about Mays’s catch points out that Mays was able to throw the ball 1.3 seconds after he caught it, and deliver it accurately from a very deep centre field even though he wasn’t fully balanced on his feet — he falls after the throw — during the transfer from glove to hand and the pivoting of his body 180 degrees. So not only are the catch and the throw amazing athletic feats on their own but so is the transition from one to the other in time to hold the runners.

      The video has the click-bait subtitle, “Was it really that great?” Spoiler alert: Yes it was!

    2. Minor points: the batter was Vic Wertz, and while the runner on first was unable to advance, the runner on second was able to tag up and make it to third. No runners scored in the inning, however. The Giants went on to win in extra innings, and sweep the series.

  6. Regarding aggressive cats: however many scratches and bites you are willing to tolerate in order to calm them, be aware of cat-scratch fever, a bacterial infection spread by their claws and teeth, and caused by Bartonella henselae. You end up with a large and painful buboe full of pus among the nodes draining the scratch site. It does respond to antibiotics, but has a habit of recurring even months later if your immune status is less than perfect. Ask me how I know!

  7. “An overwhelming majority of American students attend public schools. ”

    Every public school in the United States already practice religion on children.

    The schools practice [1] Social-Emotional Learning and [2] Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy.

    [1] is a New Age theosophical religion.

    [2] is Maoist religious cult brainwashing.

    1. Sorry, you’re wrong, and you should take back the statement about “every public school practicing religion. You also have a very peculiar definition of “religion”.

      1. Alice A. Bailey
        Education In The New Age
        1954 Lucis Trust

        It describes a theosophical religious education predecessor of the ~1994 product from the Fetzer Institute and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) called Social Emotional Learning. Their literature parallels the tenets in Education in the New Age. Theosophy is “wisdom of god”, that is taken as humans with wisdom of god to make heaven on Earth using society and humans as god to achieve “at-one-ment”.

        The SEL literature takes a long time to read. It is easier to find their diagram with the five “competencies” like “self-awareness”, and other “inventory” items outlined by Gloria Ladson-Billings in her publications.

        The schools practice this. It happens in class. The exoteric meanings in the literature can have esoteric meanings in practice. There is no paper trail for that. SEL is all over their reports and programming. Perhaps only 95% of schools use SEL, but there are more than just public schools using it. The schools promote it strongly.

        Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the landmark pedagogy promoted by Henry Giroux. It is a Marxist ideological remolding (aka “hse nao”, or “wash brain” – Lifton, 1961) program that teachers colleges have used since ~1996 :

        The Critical Turn in Education – From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race

        Isaac Gottesman
        Routledge
        2016

        I haven’t made good excerpts to show it because only the Marxist stuff comes up here on WEIT – not SEL – hence all my Freire excerpts about teachers experiencing their own personal “Easter” (and others). There is tons of material on SEL on the Internet as fine-tuned to each school but this is one place to look : https://casel.org/

        These programs run in parallel with conventional education as an admixture.

        1. It looks like you are having a disagreement about what is or is not a religion 🙂 Not easy, especially when people broaden the concept of religion. In the context of the constitution and public schools I guess this is the sort of thing that a court, perhaps the SCOTUS, could decide; and even that would be subjective. If someone were to think that these are being taught unconstitutionally, then they can take the schools to court.

          Maybe someone in the US will argue that teaching modern cosmology is unconstitutional because cosmology is a religion; unless you also teach that God created the universe, in which it will become science because that is what really happened 🙂

          1. Theosophy is a religion.

            en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy

            Alice A. Bailey, John E. Fetzer, Helena Blavatsky, and Robert Muller developed and promoted their own theosophies in numerous writings or philanthropic foundations. Theosophy by its doctrines seeks to subsume all religions and synthetically unify them with science into a sublated whole. Oprah has promoted numerous theosophists including Deepak Chopra.

            “[R]eligion can be defined as a comprehensive belief system that addresses the fundamental questions of human existence, such as the meaning of life and death, man’s role in the universe, and the nature of good and evil, and that gives rise to duties of conscience. ”

            Cornell Law Review
            Volume 74
            Issue 3 March 1989
            Defining Religion in the First Amendment: A Functional Approach
            Ben Clements

            Cosmology is not a religion, it is science.

            “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”
            Neil DeGrasse Tyson
            —From Real Time with Bill Maher

            Real Time with Bill Maher
            “2011-02-04” on this video : https://youtu.be/yRxx8pen6JY

            “If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.”

            -Richard Feynman

            The Character of Physical Law
            1965

          2. Theosophy is a religion.

            Good! If it is being taught in public schools, take them to court!

            Cosmology is not a religion, it is science.

            Really! Well, I’m shocked (I’m not saying that it is a religion 🙂 )

    2. Sorry, but I really disagree with your statements about public schools. My husband taught in public school for many years. He is now retired, and while things have changed somewhat, most teachers just try to get through basics of math and reading and science, etc. while maintaining discipline in their classroom. And dealing with parents who think their little angel can do no wrong.
      If I were to read your comments to him, he would respond with a “WTF”?

      1. I retired a few years early from my job teaching HS Math partly because of parents demanding A+s in Calculus for their perfect little angels, and the principal always siding with the parents. She’d say “We believe in student excellence”…

      2. See above – I post lots of literature excerpts here on WEIT on other posts, but not so much on SEL. I’ve pointed out Alice A. Bailey’s Education in the New Age but haven’t outlined the parallels to SEL because it takes so long but I’ve been meaning to.

        “WTF” is exactly what I thought. This is the podcast for that :

        “WTF is SEL”
        New Discourses
        youtu.be/vd35sdYSVDM?si=nk3FqwBpvZezAt6i

        There is tons of material on SEL on the Internet as fine-tuned to each school but this is one place to look : https://casel.org/

    3. While it is common to see an element of either the divine or the supernatural as the essence of “religion,” the issue is far from settled. From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

      “Whether a common element can be identified that will coherently ground a substantive definition of “religion” is not a settled question.
      Despite this murkiness, all three of these versions are “substantive” definitions of religion because they determine membership in the category in terms of the presence of a belief in a distinctive kind of reality. In the twentieth century, however, one sees the emergence of an importantly different approach: a definition that drops the substantive element and instead defines the concept religion in terms of a distinctive role that a form of life can play in one’s life—that is, a “functional” definition. One sees a functional approach in Emile Durkheim (1912), who defines religion as whatever system of practices unite a number of people into a single moral community (whether or not those practices involve belief in any unusual realities). Durkheim’s definition turns on the social function of creating solidarity. One also sees a functional approach in Paul Tillich (1957), who defines religion as whatever dominant concern serves to organize a person’s values (whether or not that concern involve belief in any unusual realities). Tillich’s definition turns on the axiological function of providing orientation for a person’s life.

      Substantive and functional approaches can produce non-overlapping extensions for the concept. Famously, a functional approach can hold that even atheistic forms of capitalism, nationalism, and Marxism function as religions. The literature on these secular institutions as functionally religions is massive.”

      https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-religion/

      The arguments are more than academic. If one holds to a substantive definition, then one can also hope that advances in science and empiricism will slowly choke out the remaining bastions of the supernatural, or at least reduce them to irrelevancy. A functional orientation suggests that the human impulses that embrace the traditional religions will simply find new forms—and bring with them all the self-righteousness, intolerance of “heretics,” the compulsion to conformity, the proselytizing, the denunciation of unbelievers, and the attempts to enforce the new belief systems through the power of the State. In my view, the core problem is not that man wants to serve god(s), it is that a not-insignificant number of men want to control other men. And so it will always be.

      1. Sure – See also the Ben Clements excerpt I put above with citation in the context of First Amendment Jurisprudence.

        Let’s see if this works:

        whyevolutionistrue.com/2024/06/19/wednesday-hili-dialogue-486/#comment-2102036

  8. Surely you would agree that human brains evolved for survival and reproduction, not necessarily extended abstract fidelity to reality (Annnd the infinite regress of being part OF that real world, but anyway). Perfect is the enemy of ‘good enough’ and an organism has a power budget to contend with, and brains are enormous consumers of power (just ask any AI developer!). Anyway, I think of religion as an organized bucket to put all of human’s naturally evolved irrational (yet best fit for survival) into. Eliminate organized religion you just get disorganized religion, new age, UFO cults, drinking coolaid. You will always have young seekers looking for something to hook onto, like Hamas is popular for the lost souls at the moment, tomorrow some other pop fad.

    A good analogy is trying to get rid of feces by tearing down the sanitary department – that stuff never stops.

    1. Well, yes, you do think that, but I don’t see Scandinavians drinking Kool-Aid or buying UFOs. Has Iceland, which is almost completely atheistic, filled the god-shaped hole with cults? I don’t think so. I disagree with the contention that if religion goes away, crazy nonsense will fill the void. For some it will, of course, but I don’t believe societies as a whole need religion because if they don’t have it, woo will proliferate. The evidence from northern Europe and Scandinavia tends to support my contention.

        1. Is belief in elves a religion on the scale of Christianity in Iceland? Of course not. And what about Denmark and Sweden?

          1. 70ish% of the population is Christian.
            65% of the population believe in elves or comparable ‘little people’.

            So yes, it is on the scale of Christianity.

  9. Jerry – do you mind my asking where your measly $600 comes from if you don’t have any ads on WEIT?

    1. I think a full reading of Jerry’s sentence is that he is in the red $600/yr or -$600 (minus$600) a year because he receives no income but lays out $600 to WordPress for their technical services. At least that is how I read it….not a hyphen but a minus sign.

  10. The “Catch” was not even Mays’s best catch. I saw him at Dodger stadium leap into left-center field, hit the wall on the way up and still catch the ball after hitting the wall. There was a game in Crosley field where he raced back to centerfield and when he turned to locate the ball he saw he had no time to catch it with his glove, so he barehandedly caught the ball with his right hand below his waist, backhanded!! Unfortunately it was not televised. The “Catch” was in the World Series and so important, and televised. But Mays made ridiculous plays all the time! There was nobody like him.

  11. Mays was aMAYSing. I was so excited when he played for my beloved New York Mets in his last two years. He definitely played longer than he should have—risking injury and even embarrassment—but he was still the great Willie Mays. I can still see his explosive swing at the plate.

  12. Quite topical, this is my column on events in the M.E.

    https://democracychronicles.org/the-coming-war-in-lebanon/

    I’m not sure whether Lebanon needs invading – a sad prospect indeed – but the article addresses some history and asymmetries with the problem of bad neighbors.

    – also published in TheModerateVoice/AppleNews etc. tomorrow with a larger readership (and maybe the Jewish News if they’ll endure my insulting Islam this time…) but DemocracyChronicles have better layout and no ads.

    D.A.
    NYC
    https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/

  13. Of course, children can learn the physical movements of sex from porn. The question is, first, Do children need to learn this, is it appropriate for them developmentally? (I think not.) Second, shouldn’t there be more context around learning about sex? (I think yes.) Third, does porn portray the kind of sex that people should expect? (Again, I think it does not.) I wouldn’t set a person to learn sex from porn any more than I would suggest they learn DIY from the TV series “Home Improvement” with Tim Allen. Finally, why are people advocating the sexualization of children?

    1. That last question for me feels far more relevant.

      It’ll be tricky to properly study academically but there does seem to be a worrying correlation between ‘people that want to sexualise children’ and ‘people who are pederasts or paedophiles’.

      Or maybe it’s just confirmation bias. I still don’t trust them.

    2. The relevant question is, how this “verification” is to be accomplished. The bill seems to make no distinction between sites OFFERING porn, and sites that have ANY user- or otherwise supplied content that can be construed to be adult material. Similar legislation was attempted in Australia, but failed because there is simply no technology that can reliably confirm the age of the person in front of the screen. While I think children should not be exposed to porn, nudity as such is not a problem – as we all know, or should know, children of nudist families were seeing nudity for generations now, with no ill effects. Children are simply not interested in things that adults see as prurient. As we say in Poland, “the bull forgot how it is to be a calf.” Full disclosure: I am a card-carrying member of a nudist organization (niftynude.org)

  14. Some typically disgusting news regading religion: “Louisiana orders every classroom to display Ten Commandments” (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp66xdxj0l3o)

    “Louisiana has become the first US state to order that every public school classroom up to university level must display a poster of the Ten Commandments.

    “The Republican-backed measure signed into law by Governor Jeff Landry on Wednesday describes the commandments as ‘the foundational documents of our state and national government’.

    “The law is expected to be challenged by civil rights groups, which argue that it contravenes the separation between church and state enshrined in the first amendment to the US Constitution, the so-called Establishment Clause.”

    As usual the link between religion and idiocy is strong. Do these politicians think murder and theft rates will plummet after the 10 Commandments appear in every classroom? I’m pretty sure the poverty, corruption, and misgovernment in Louisiana will remain the same. Hiding behind religion is a nice way of doing nothing about real problems, just as morality cannot be taught by diktat.

      1. C’mon Leslie, you seriously think putting the 10 commandments in classrooms will do anything to curb poverty, corruption and misgovernment in the United States South? You’re smarter than that. It’s pure foolishness and religious wish-thinking- what they do best down there in the benighted South.

        1. I don’t have to seriously think anything. I just want to wait for the evidence. Louisiana is putting its marker down. Let it be ridiculed when it doesn’t work. If they say, “We don’t care that it didn’t work. It felt like the right thing to do,” then you can call them benighted.

          Maybe they just want to have it struck down as violating 1A and it’s all politics to give them an excuse to rail against appointed judges or whatever. That I think is actually more likely than an actual intervention made in good faith but it’s not falsifiable the way “It will work” is. (Edit: removed a confounding “not”.) So lets falsify it.

          1. “Let it be ridiculed when it doesn’t work.”

            What makes you think that it ever could work?

    2. I’m pretty sure the poverty, corruption, and misgovernment in Louisiana will remain the same.

      Have they said that this law, when implemented, will help reduce poverty, corruption, and misgovernment?

      I guess you mean that displaying the commandments is not going to help. Suppose that, in the future (we shall have to define what that means), we see less poverty, corruption, and misgovernment (assuming people agree on how ‘misgovernment’ is measured); then we would have to see if it is the commandments that did it, and not something else. The proponents of the new law might argue that it is the commandments that did it, while those opposed might argue otherwise. It’s messy, but it’s good fun for spectators! 🙂

      I don’t think the question as to whether religion can be used to discipline society is easily resolved. One can point out the violence (past and present) committed in the name of religion. But the adherents of the respective religions might say that misinterpretations led to violence, or that the religion is not practiced that way anymore, or something else. On the other hand, some might even go so far as to say that the violence committed in the name of religion is good. It’s a bit messy. Even if one points to well-functioning societies that are not religious, that might only show that religion is not necessary; and even that’s debatable because those countries might have been historically religious, and religious people could argue for historical influence on culture.

      Of course, this law might be unconstitutional; if called upon, we can let the courts decide. Presumably students are allowed to challenge the idea and even put up edicts from other gods, or even say that the moral codes of some other religion is more suited to modern living. Maybe some local religions might make it into the classroom as well.

      On the other hand, the law might just be their way of imposing Christianity because that’s what they want. But that is too simple an explanation. It could not possibly be true.

  15. My granddaughter just finished first grade at St Cecilia Catholic School in Clearwater FL. The state of Florida paid her $8000 tuition.

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