Silly Facts

When it comes to current events, it seems we live in a world drawn into three camps: "us", "them", and "not going to talk about anything other than cat videos for fear of being forced into one of the first two camps".   Facts (or at least the notion of an objective reality that may not conform to my preconceived notions/meta-narrative) and the messy nuances of life have no place in this world.

Take the ACA hubbub.  The narrative is Trump is trying to illegally kill the ACA.  Like him or not, this isn't accurate.

By way of explanation, under the ACA people whose household income falls between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level qualify for two kinds of financial assistance.

The first is a tax credit to reduce insurance premiums, authorized under ACA Section 1401. The ACA supports these premium reductions with a permanent appropriation built into the law.

The second is a reduction in cost-sharing, under ACA Section 1402.  Unlike the premium reductions, these are not funded via tax credits but by direct reimbursements to insurance companies.  Also unlike the premium reductions, Congress did not pass an approprations bill to accompany this article of the ACA.

Why?  Congress didn't want to pass a law that essentially cuts checks to Big Healthcare Companies.  So the Obama administration appropriated the funds.  This isn't legal, as appropration of funds is only allowed by the House of Representatives.

Whether one is for or against the ACA, the reality is Congress needs to act to preserve it due to the fact that they relied on the illegal appropriation of funds by the executive branch to make the ACA viable.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/HofR-challenge-to-ACA-DCt-5-12-16.pdf

Well said Mr. Rowe / Preach it Smokey

From a recent "Mike Rowe's "Off The Wall"" Facebook post:

"Last week, in your comments about the NFL, you made several references to “black people.” As a woman of color, I’ll remind you that the correct term is “African-American,” as I’m sure you know. You do good work with your foundation, but if you want to be heard by everyone, maybe you should speak more respectfully."

Carla Jamison

Hi Carla

If a black person tells me that they would like to be referred to as an “African-American,” I’m happy to address them as such. Doing otherwise would be rude. Likewise, if a white person asks me to call them “Irish-American,” or “Polish-American,” I’ll try to accommodate them as well. However - if someone attempts to enlighten me on the preferences of all black people or all white people, my antenna go up. Why? Because I'm not convinced a person’s true identity has anything to do with the color of their skin, the content of the DNA, or the country of their ancestors.

As a fan of biography, I’m curious to know more about my own history, as well as the history of others. But as a fan of The United States, I place no relevance whatsoever on the amount of German blood coursing through my veins, or the amount of African blood coursing through yours. I'm interested in what you believe, Clara, but I don't consider your ethnicity when evaluating the merits of your arguments. In other words, your heritage is interesting, but knowing where you came from has nothing to do with where you’ll wind up, or what kind of person you really are.

I could write a few thousand words on the evils of the hyphen, and its role in identity-politics. But I doubt I could say it better than Smokey Robinson did in a Def Poetry Jam seven years ago. If I were King of the World, this would be required viewing in every single high-school – starting tomorrow. The language is salty, but the sentiment is precisely what America needs to hear - no matter where you're from...

Have a great weekend.
Mike

https://youtu.be/iIkNsj6cDGc

What am I?

"Aristotle said I am a rational animal. I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer."

Brennan Manning

Terrorism?

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/451098/antifa-terrorism-designation-not-accurate

Couldn't agree more with Mr. Goldberg. A snippet that sums up his thesis:

"The groundswell behind the label “terrorist” for Antifa is a call to blur that distinction. Although treating American radicals and vigilantes the way we treat foreign members of the Islamic State or al-Qaeda might play well in certain corners of the populist Right these days, serious conservatives should be very skeptical about granting the federal government new police powers, which could be used to other ends in future administrations.

Elevating Antifa to the category of terrorist organization would fuel the worst trends in our politics. It would entice President Trump to indulge his strongman shtick, and it would give Antifa the stature it clearly craves. It would also likely accelerate vigilante violence among the white nationalists. Launching a federal crusade against domestic enemies would only fuel the fallacy that anyone Antifa attacks is a fascist. We should fight crime, whatever guise it takes, on the local level — as the founders intended."

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue

Sorry Uncle Milty

Another area where Friedman and I diverge.  I think  his major philosophical blind spot was the existence of human nature, which allowed him to be a proponent of things like this.  I'm tempted by it myself (and would cash any check they sent my way, just like I take my interest deduction), but think it would be a disaster.

https://medium.com/basic-income/why-milton-friedman-supported-a-guaranteed-income-5-reasons-da6e628f6070

Violence generally begets violence

Interesting article.  What's most disturbing is the third paragraph in the snippet below.  I would contend, dear author, that promoting arson is definitely on the "intolerance" side of the "advocacy/intolerance" divide.  Perhaps an emotional college sophomore could be forgiven for not knowing the difference, but a writer for the New York times should.

In the end, violence will be met with violence until an orderly stasis is reached, or violence will lead to order without resistance - a state we will recognize to be tyranny. 

I would encourage everyone one fomenting for violence to read their history (not burn it) to find out what those swept into power through violence do to those who swept them in. They are ALWAYS the first to go because a mindless mob, fueled only by discontent and hate, is a weapon that can be wielded by anyone seeking to oust the current regime.

Meet the New Boss. Same as The Old Boss.

From the Times:

"That can play out in every aspect of student life, as William Gu, an Asian-American who writes for The Claremont Independent, found out after some of his articles showed up on conservative news sites. He received Facebook messages accusing him of “threatening marginalized communities” and was told at a party that “people are uncomfortable with you being here, please leave.”

Mr. Gu, a sophomore, said each incoming class “is getting progressively more radical.” He recalled a panel discussion during orientation at which a student said, “We should burn down Pomona” because “elite colleges represented white supremacist patriarchy.” Mr. Gu found the idea absurd. “You are going to a $60,000-a-year school and you’re either there because your parents are wealthy or the school has given you a full ride and you are saying it’s a dangerous environment for you,” he said. “There is a strange sense of entitlement.”

It can be hard to separate intense advocacy from intolerance, particularly for students who, Dr. Plaza said, arrive “empowered to feel they should have their say.”"

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/education/edlife/protests-claremont-college-student-demands.html?mc=aud_dev&mcid=fb-nytimes&mccr=AugustMC810mcdt%3D2017-08&subid=AugustMC810&ad-keywords=AudDevGate

North Korea

North Korea may gamble incorrectly and provoke a war. Let's hope not. 

That said, the jumbled thinking (ignorance?) of the author is staggering.  Yes - let's apply the template Reagan used to defeat The Soviet Union in the 80's to fight NK/China in the teens. 

Because just like China, the Soviet Union was a major trading partner of America's. And just as with China, we had tremendous cross-national investment in each other's economies. And just like the Soviet Union, China has set up dozens of satellite nations with the express purpose of wiping out the West and completely dominating the world through the global expansion of communism.  Not...

The author's reference to Chinese "adventurism" in the body of water they border reveals the hubristic foundation of his thinking.  How would an American read an article from a Chinese author that referred to "American adventurism in the Gulf of Mexico"? How about if it was literally called " The South US Sea"?

China is indeed our #1 external existential threat, but they are - ironically - winning the same way we beat the Soviets: economically. 

Pulling back in Asia, while not relinquishing our naval, air, or space superiority, would force China to deal with the reality of their aspirations: Increased tensions with their neighbors and shouldering  the cost of mitigating those tensions in a multi-lateral fashion. 

This is not to mention saving the billions spent by Americans subsidizing South Korea and Japan's economies by serving as the guarantors of their freedom (freeing those nation's to subsidize their economies in the form of lower taxes). If one doesn't see how that affects the price of electronics from Asia, U.S. employment in the manufacturing sector, and the Federal Debt, well...

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/how-ronald-reagan-would-have-handled-north-korea-commentary.html

Please....

I know this article is supposed to make my blood boil with self righteous indignation, but...please.  Some clerk at an Indiana Walmart put a sign up in the wrong place.  It was clearly a mistake or prank, not some attempt to suggest kids initiate a massacre. 

What is concerning is the fact many folks are quick to interpret such innocuous things through a lens of offense and puff up with outrage.  The truly chilling thing is the underlying belief that they "know what was really meant" by each trigger.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/10/walmart-apologizes-for-own-school-year-like-hero-gun-display-sign.html

Joy

“The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered that a man cannot enjoy himself and continue to enjoy anything else.”

G.K. Chesterton

And Yet Someone Saw the Whole

“In the famous story of the blind men and the elephant, so often quoted in the interests of religious agnosticism, the real point of the story is constantly overlooked. The story is told from the point of view of the king and his courtiers, who are not blind but can see that the blind men are unable to grasp the full reality of the elephant and are only able to get hold of part of the truth. The story is constantly told in order to neutralize the affirmation of the great religions, to suggest that they learn humility and recognize that none of them can have more than one aspect of the truth. But, of course, the real point of the story is exactly the opposite. If the king were also blind there would be no story. The story is told by the king, and it is the immensely arrogant claim of one who sees the full truth which all the world’s religions are only groping after. It embodies the claim to know the full reality which relativizes all the claims of the religions and philosophies.”

-Lesslie Newbigin

You Know

You know my heart
Have mercy on me

You know my heart
Its need to be free

You know my heart
For You truly see

You know my heart
Its desire to be

You know my heart
Have mercy on me

Redemption

From the hands it came down 
From the side it came down 
From the feet it came down 
And ran to the ground 
Between heaven and hell 
A teardrop fell In the deep crimson dew 
The tree of life grew

And the blood gave life 
To the branches of the tree 
And the blood was the price 
That set the captives free 
And the numbers that came 
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree 
And were redeemed by the blood

From the tree streamed a light 
That started the fight 'Round the tree grew a vine 
On whose fruit I could dine 
My old friend Lucifer came 
Fought to keep me in chains 
But I saw through the tricks 
Of six-sixty-six

And the blood gave life 
To the branches of the tree 
And the blood was the price 
That set the captives free 
And the numbers that came 
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree 
And were redeemed by the blood

From his hands it came down 
From his side it came down 
From his feet it came down 
And ran to the ground 
And a small inner voice Said "You do have a choice." 
The vine engrafted me 
And I clung to the tree

-Johnny Cash

Rome and America

A loooong article, but informative wrt Rome's decline.  The author misses a clear opportunity to draw parallels between Roman "mos maiorum" and American Judeo-Christian values, but the tie seems obvious to me.

America's current crisis isn't one of politics or economics, but culture.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/like-rome-america-could-be-ripe-for-tyranny/

Poem by David Solway

A lot happens in that dark place,
the annex to the glittering edifice
where the clients sit
passing the time of day
ordering drinks and trying their luck.
The important work gets done
in that pokey, smoke-filled vault
at the back of the casino
where the real players
chomp on cigars, trade off-color jokes,
shuffle cards, raise the ante,
recount their manifold exploits
in the politics of the underworld,
listening to a blaring radio
while casting an attentive eye on the rigged slots
rolling their fruit on the TV monitors.
Of course, fortunate dupes of the turbulent underlords,
we’re not aware of what goes on
in the room at the back of our innocence,
dingy and apsidal,
home to the clergy of unshaven misfits
where the progress of the game is determined,
where the deck we’re issued is already marked
and where the music and the poetry come from.
There is no reason to complain,
no reason to cleanse the chamber
and expose the racket.
If we only continue playing,
no way we can lose.

- David Solway

Pride

Pride has good and bad connotations, but this is the best positive definition I've heard of it:

“Pride is faith in the idea that God had when God made us.”

- Karen Blixen

Reagan on Healthcare

Good article which challenges some of the mythology of both the Right and Left wrt to Reagan, and sketches out aspects of an approach to health care reform that doesn't fit neatly within the talking points of either party.

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/07/learning-from-reagan-on-healthcare

Life

The point is not that all such situations end this positively, but that we should always err on the side of life and hope.

https://aleteia.org/2017/02/19/little-boy-born-without-a-brain-can-now-speak-count-and-attend-school/

Legalization

I'm ambivalent about legalization: parents need to raise their kids to not choose drugs. But the demographic analysis of policing in the accompanying bill will lead to more crime.  It's been demonstrated that pouncing on smaller crimes like vandalism and littering discourages bigger crimes - it's called community policing.  But if you have an ethnic gang dominating a neighborhood, well...tough luck for that community. If the police are going to be hit with claims of profiling, they will just make fewer arrests of the 'wrong kind', or possibly begin arbitrarily stopping the 'right' colored people to make sure their numbers balance out. These perverse incentives will lead to upwardly mobile flight from the city center and turn Portland 2020 into NYC 1970.

http://herb.co/2017/07/11/oregon-decriminalize-drugs/

X-Rays are there even if I cant see them

The True, the Good, and the Beautiful are objective realities but my comprehension of them are subject to the limits of my senses, perception, and intellect.