Open thread 9/27/21
I saw the Pantheon only once, when I was fifteen years old. But it made a very deep impression.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I saw the Pantheon only once, when I was fifteen years old. But it made a very deep impression.
It did on me also. As someone who worked with concrete all his life I am amazed at the lack of cold joints on the interior vaulted ceiling. Architectural concrete at its finest!
I saw it on a trip to Europe the year I graduated from college. My brother and I flew in on Iceland Airlines and backpacked, using Eurail youth passes to ride wherever the whim took us. I don’t think any trip now could compare, if only because of the adventurous feel of the experience.
A woman I dated during the Pandemic lived down the street from it for a time!!
I saw it in 2007 on a family trip to Rome. I spent a lot of time prior to the trip cramming Roman history and sharing with our three kids (then 13, 11 and 8 years old). Warmed my heart when our 8-year-old son entered the Pantheon and said, “Hey! Isn’t this where that guy Raphael is buried?”
Every year on the feast of Pentecost (50 days after Easter) Roman firefighters drop cascades of red rose petals through the oculus in a ceremony that symbolizes the descent of the Holy Spirit. Sadly it has been cancelled for the past two years due to COVID. This short video shares a taste of the event, from the perspective of the firefighters who scale the building to drop the petals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlBKdizKgSY
How many of our problems are due to our intellectual classes just being jammed full of legitimately stupid people?
One of the NeverTrumpers bleated out a few tweets this weekend where he essentially argued that what the GOP needs are candidates more like George W. Bush because he was just so gosh darn politically successful in “growing” the Republican party and leading it to electoral success.
https://twitter.com/baseballcrank
He eventually, after getting some pushback I imagine, conceded that Bush’s second term was pretty much an epic disaster for Republicans, but in holding up Bush’s first term as this oasis of GOP political glory he left out the single most important thing that happened during that time.
9/11.
In this idiot’s mind, George W. Bush’s political success from 2000 to 2004 was not about the country rallying together after the worst attack since Pearl Harbor AND the years of sycophantic media coverage Bush received afterwards. No, this moron clearly thinks the public just LOVED Bush and his “compassionate conservatism” so darn much that they couldn’t wait to vote for him and anyone on his team.
Now, I can accept that reasonable people can be less negative about George W. Bush than I am but arguing that Bush and GOP political success between 2000 and 2004 is some sort of model to be followed while completely ignoring the #1 and #2 reasons for that success is not a difference of opinion.
It’s just being plain dumb.
Mike
For the Ladies:
Female Trouble
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=25195
But wait! There’s more!
https://www.takimag.com/article/everyday-lunacy/
“Of course, no society can survive very long when the ethos of its best and brightest involves tearing down the society. That is the state of the Occident. The witches have taken control, and with the help of the warlocks called male feminists, they are trying to pull the roof down on all of us by brainwashing people to act against the interests of society. The constant state of agitation we now experience is the last step before collapse.
The good news in Dutton’s theory is that modern witches are creating a new era of conflict that will reward those who carry the genes for group fitness. Most Western people want to live in normal societies because they carry the traits that are rewarded by normal societies. Necessity will warrant them expressing those genes with prejudice. Put another way, the witches are creating a demand for witch-hunting. If you find Rachel Maddow unbearable today, you will love what happens to her tomorrow.”
Maybe John Knox had a point:
https://ccel.org/ccel/knox/blast/blast.iv.html
Xylourgos (or anyone), you frequently see humor memes with a photo of a Roman road in splendid condition next to a view of a typical Philly street filled with potholes.
Have we lost some engineering knowledge regarding concrete, or were the ancient roads not stressed with obese vehicles, or what?
It’s just being plain dumb.
I don’t think Mr. McLaughlin is dumb, except in a metaphoric sense. I think he’s proud, and he’s a lawyer who knows how to argue. He was a capable defender of Mr. Bush ca. 2004 as a blogger and an antic antagonist of Donald Trump a dozen years later. Peddling hooey (and using cherry-picked termini is pretty blatant) is away of avoiding a confrontation with his own mistakes. An avid Catholic Republican I follow has been in a spitting rage at Bush (whom he defended capably 17 years ago) because the man’s revealed himself to be a con artist with no use for the constituency who put him into office. Unlike Mr. McLaughlin, he uses his forensic talents on behalf of his clients, not to deceive himself.
“I think he’s proud, and he’s a lawyer who knows how to argue.”
Yeah, but if your average doofus like me can nuke your argument because you’re pretending that 9/11 never happened…there’s something going on there.
Maybe it’s not stupidity. Maybe it’s performative. It’s ridiculous BS that makes him feel smart in the moment he writes it and it doesn’t matter how much people later point out it’s ridiculous BS. He’s just expressing it for his own satisfaction.
Mike
https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/27/liz-cheney-endorses-radical-transgender-agenda/
Liz Cheney was not a political figure during McLaughlin’s fancied halcyon years, but her father was (and both parents had been officials in the 1st Bush Administration). Her husband, Philip Perry, is a BigLaw attorney at a DC firm with a ‘government relations practice’. Only a low-single-digit share of the population in the counties around the Potomac could be called denizens of ‘official Washington’ and only about 20% of the working population are federal employees. The Cheney-Perry clan is official Washington in spades. In case you were wondering why the Republican Party can’t get squat done.
JimNorCal;
I had the good fortune to work for a German construction company after the Reunification that had major contracts for rebuilding the road network in the former DDR. There were large portions of Reichsautobahnen originally built in the 1930’s with pavements still in excellent shape. Modern design standards required upgrade of the motorways. The original concrete pavements were broken up into aggregates and reused in the concrete to construct the new Autobahnen. The new Autobahn pavements should perform well for the next 50-60 years.
We have not lost Engineering know how over the last centuries. Major improvements in concrete technology have been advanced over time. The key to building roads that last over time is attention to the foundation layers. The Romans were masters at understanding this. Inattention to the foundation layers is a major cause of the poor quality of today’s road network.
The Roman builders understood the importance of the preparation of the subsurface and the surviving road network attest to this.
Thanks Xylourgos!
Fascinating
@BarryMeislin:
I think this one cries out for your deft touch:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-male-model-is-running-for-germanys-parliament-on-the-far-right-ticket/
I wouldn’t know where to begin.
In the interests of scrupulous fairness, needs to be clear that the individual in the article is a homo convert to Reform Judaism and not the Real Genetic Deal. With Friends Like That…
Giambattista Vico must be chuckling quietly somewhere.
https://odradek.cfs.unipi.it/index.php/odradek/article/view/137
Been seeing this Lauren Witzke popping up on Gab more and more and just assumed that she was a total dumb blonde. And today this:
https://gab.com/LaurenWitzkeDE/posts/107007042381849120
“Finally: SOME Texas Republicans are harnessing their political power for their own benefit. We must forcefully Gerrymander EVERY Red State to counteract Joe Biden’s immigration invasion.
Show no mercy, you know they would do the exact same thing to us.”
Maybe she is. Maybe she isn’t. But out of the mouths of…