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Home » Open thread 7/12/22

Open thread 7/12/22

The New Neo Posted on by

Continuing our Open Thread hippopotamus theme from yesterday – why not? – we have this:

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Open thread 7/12/22 — 43 Comments

  1. On this essay by author Walter Kirn, “The Holy Anarchy of Fun” https://www.commonsense.news/p/the-holy-anarchy-of-fun

    I found these, three comments (the essay is well worth a read, also):

    Bruce Miller
    Jul 3
    I am of an age that I remember, like it was yesterday, the joyful release we felt under President Reagan after the dreadful malaise and needless sacrifices to incompetence under Carter. You had to be in lower Manhattan during the Statue of Liberty Centennial to see America at its joyful best. Truly magical. No other way to describe it. Celebrating who we are with each other.

    So maybe the real truth is “Being a woke Democrat: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Vote wisely this time. Being under the thumb of a vile, vindictive, senile imbecile is no way for a free people to live.

    Jon
    Jul 3 edited Jul 3
    I was 24 when he was elected. I came out of my undergrad thinking communism was forever, and that high inflation and gas prices were part of our new reality, as espoused by Jimmy Carter.

    While Reagan painted an entirely different picture, where communism isn’t normal, and that we should feel proud of our country resonated with me, it was totally against everything I had just been taught (at Michigan) and it wasn’t something I felt I could openly support.

    40 years later, we’re there again. We allowed our Academia/Democrats/Media to make us feel bad about our country, and treat all of our problems as a new reality. I’m hopeful that, beginning with the midterms, we’ll turn that back.

    Bruce Miller
    Jul 3
    You captured it perfectly.

    I was about a decade older. Remember when all the Democrats preached to us that we had to get used to this new normal? That we were greedy and had to learn to sacrifice and live with less. And that self-important old Democrat gas bag, Clark Clifford, called President Reagan “an amiable dunce.” Then, as now, they are lying and making excuses. All we need to restore America is to reverse everything the Democrats are doing. Want to have fun? Mock and deride Democrats for the fools they truly are.

    I was beginning to feel that same, Reagan, post-Carter malaise feeling just before the pandemic was introduced into Trump’s reign. I even made the analogy to my children, hopeful it might happen again.

  4. Need help from the science nerds.

    Silver reflects 95% of the infrared light whereas aluminum reflects only 85% of the same in comparison to gold, which reflects 99% of all the infrared light that it encounters.

    Anyone know why this is true? Spent some time googling and never found a really satisfying answer.

  5. miguel cervantes:

    On the off-chance you know something about the other Cervantes, as in Miguel de, perhaps you can recommend an English translation of Don Quixote.

    I once tried to read the Ormsby, but found it tough going. Of course, I was rather impatient when I was younger.

  7. So maybe the real truth is “Being a woke Democrat: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

    Rufus T. Firefly:

    It seems to me there is something of a straight line from Christian missionaries circa 1900 plus the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (whose concerns were not limited to alcohol prohibition) to today’s wokeists. Arguably, wokeists are worse for having dropped Christianity in favor of Marxism.
    _________________________________

    Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    –H.L. Mencken, “The Book of Prefaces” (1917)

  8. Here’s Mencken putting the boot in even harder from the same book:
    ____________________________________

    The Puritan’s utter lack of aesthetic sense, his distrust of all romantic emotion, his unmatchable intolerance of opposition, his unbreakable belief in his own bleak and narrow views, his savage cruelty of attack, his lust for relentless and barbarous persecution – these things have put an almost unbearable burden up on the exchange of ideas in the United States.

    –H.L. Mencken, “Puritanism as a Literary Force”
    ____________________________________

    Strong parallels with wokeism.

  11. I’m reminded of John Huston’s film, “The African Queen.” Katherine Hepburn plays a puritanical Christian missionary to Africa thrown together with Humphrey Bogart, a competent, commonsensical, yet somewhat lazy and alcoholic, riverboat captain.

    It’s a classic pairing of opposites. At first they clash terribly, but by the film’s end it’s clear they need each other and are stronger together.

    From a high-altitude view I’m not against wokeism’s determination to make the world a better place. I consider it a valid aspect of humanity. However, it’s clear that wokeism has gone way off-balance into a vindictive, joyless pursuit of power.

  12. this zombie cult, is evil, satanic even, puritans were more natural then this plastic world, where there is no real emotion, no venerations for the things that move, disposable people (hence abortion and what we have dubbed ‘birth control’ it’s the world that huxley foresaw a sterile world,

  13. Any of you guys ever visit Instapundit?

    Every once in a while someone theepre posts a meme of a ‘woke female’
    (I don’t know for sure because I’m not a biologist) with the comment
    “That is not funny”.

    It appears the whole point of contemporary leftism/wokery is to extinguish joy from life. If not extinguishing life itself.

  14. in that marvel limited series, moon knight, which is supposed to riff on egyptian mythology, there is a hippo god, which is taken as a hallucination of the main character,

  15. Related:
    “THE NEW PURITANS;
    “Social codes are changing, in many ways for the better. But for those whose behavior doesn’t adapt fast enough to the new norms, judgment can be swift—and merciless.”—
    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/10/new-puritans-mob-justice-canceled/619818/

    “The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun”—
    https://www.amazon.com/Rise-New-Puritans-Fighting-Progressives/dp/0063160005

    “Scarry: Here’s Why Liberals Are So Miserable”—
    https://thefederalist.com/videos/scarry-heres-why-liberals-are-so-miserable/

    “These New Puritans”
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/These_New_Puritans

  16. now margaret atwood conjured up her ‘if this goes on’ parody from perry miller, a harvard professor she audited courses from, and the taliban, now could this flabby culture really have survived the challenging winters, the non nitrogen based harvests,

  18. Every once in a while someone theepre posts a meme of a ‘woke female’
    (I don’t know for sure because I’m not a biologist) with the comment
    “That is not funny”.

    Sandra Fluke. Meme-work credited to Jon Gabriel, of Ricochet.

  19. Seems the walls are closing in on … Joe Biden:

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/07/will-dems-dump-biden-before-november.php

    https://pjmedia.com/columns/athena-thorne/2022/07/12/theres-no-way-joe-biden-survives-this-democrats-must-jettison-him-before-midterm-season-heats-up-n1612195

    Between dropping polls and dripping Hunter Biden stories Democrats could well oust Biden *before* the midterms, then deal with the Kamala Harris POTUS problem later. I find this plausible.

  20. Mike Plaiss,
    I don’t know the answer to your question, but assuming your numbers are about correct I can guess. Gold is an extremely good electrical contact surface because it doesn’t oxidize, and silver is not bad but does oxidize some. And a clean aluminum will oxidize almost immediately when exposed to air and oxygen, and that nano thick oxide surface is an electrical insulator.

    Light is an EM wave and when it strikes a metal surface will induce electrical currents that only have a nano sized depth, and these currents are key to its reflective properties. I assume those insulating oxide layers interfere with the surface currents making alum. a poorer reflector.

    Also, the electrical conductivity of silver is much higher than aluminum, though gold is only a little higher than alum. But gold is the king of low oxidation metal surfaces.

  21. I find it hard to believe the Dems will actually force Biden out before November.

  22. Will you be posting any other items today, neo, or are you off to the Bronx to get a couple of those unique breakfast tacos from your favorite bogedas?

  23. Kate:

    I get that too and until now would have agreed. However, desperate times… The Hunter Biden stories keep getting worse.
    __________________________________

    I previously predicted that party handlers would keep Biden in place until after the midterm elections, then use him as a sop for all the Democrat’s failure vibes before jettisoning him ahead of the 2024 election season. But now, I don’t think they can wait that long: Hunter’s laptop and iPhone disaster is ballooning out of control.

    Ordinarily, we on the right would disregard a story like Hunter Biden’s leaked videos and communications because it’s too perfect. It’s got everything: hookers, drugs, dysfunction, and massive Biden family corruption straight up to the top. It validates everything the right has been saying so perfectly, it simply has to be fake. But, no: it’s real.

    Besides being the juiciest trove of First Family dirt ever imagined, the scandal involves actionable evidence of crime, corruption, and compromise of the sitting President. Thus, Biden’s tenancy in the White House cannot stand, and there’s no way Democrats are going to leave him in office until Republicans gain control of the Congressional committees — impeachment and removal would be the least of their problems at that point. Their party’s reputation would be in the toilet for a generation.

    Democrats are going to have to make their move before then…

    https://pjmedia.com/columns/athena-thorne/2022/07/12/theres-no-way-joe-biden-survives-this-democrats-must-jettison-him-before-midterm-season-heats-up-n1612195
    __________________________________

    Then again, as Leonard Cohen once sang about his intimations of the future:
    __________________________________

    And there’s a mighty judgment coming, but I may be wrong
    You see, you hear these funny voices in the Tower of Song.

  24. Michael Plass, 10:41: That’s a difficult question to answer simply since it has to do with the electromagnetic field of the incident light and how it interacts with the material properties of the metal. Generally, if a metal is a good electrical conductor it will be a good light reflector. Gold is a better conductor than silver so it’s a better reflector. The details depend on the atomic properties of the metal in question and full understanding involves quantum mechanics. Sorry.

  25. “Need help from the science nerds.
    Silver reflects 95% of the infrared light whereas aluminum reflects only 85% of the same in comparison to gold, which reflects 99% of all the infrared light that it encounters. ”

    Not sure how to explain without some basic knowledge of QM. Each of those metal’s optical properties are determined by their “optical electrons” which are basically the valence electrons outside of the closed shells. The different energies of the “orbits” of these outer electrons,plus the number of those electrons determine how they interact with different wavelengths of light. To reflect incoming light the electrons absorb the energy of the incoming light and then “oscillate” between two different “orbits”. That frequency of oscillation has to be the same as the frequency of the incoming light, so the light is essentially re-emitted; ie “reflected” from our point of view.

    Hope that helps, rather than confuse.

  26. Kate, I agree.
    Joe Biden, for all his, um, special attributes, is a very VALUABLE person to have around for those who are running this bogus administration (especially since Kamala Harris is essentially a toxic entity).
    Plus, ALL of them would have to deal with THIS:
    “As Democrats And The Press Turn On Biden, Remember: They Are The Regime That Empowered Him”—
    https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/12/as-democrats-and-the-media-turn-on-biden-remember-they-are-the-corrupt-regime-that-empowered-him/

    …not that it would bother them that much, not with their total absence of any shame or conscience (though they are a bit sensitive to OPTICS…)
    I imagine that IF push ultimately does come to shove, they will have to think of more creative and seemingly convenient ways to retire him from the scene…keeping in mind that SOMEONE will have to be blamed!!
    (Gosh…who might that particular SOMEONE be…?)

    In fact, they probably already have several plans in place….

  27. Gold has significantly lower electrical conductivity compared to silver. See this.

    Actually, bare aluminum is an excellent reflector when you get out to 2 microns and longer wavelengths, in the high 90’s percentages. See this. Oxidation and protective coatings are a thing depending on spectrum.

  28. huxley,
    I read the PJM piece by Athena Thorne. I hate to be a nay sayer, but when have you seen the GOP execute opposition campaign messaging as skillfully as she hypothesizes? The problem, I am beginning to suspect, is that the GOP is usually sabotaged from within.

    The following is merely suggestive, but Paul Ryan has a new book out.

    Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission

  29. TommyJay:

    The part of the article I pay attention to is what the Democrats are worried about, what sort of strategizing is going on behind their scenes and what they may do, not whether the GOP is up to skillful campaign messaging.

    As the Powerline articles points out, the news is that the New York Times is running with this kind of story. I dare to propose that the NYT didn’t do this out of a “Hey, there’s a story here!” impulse.
    _________________________________

    Nought but two weeks ago I laid out the “three-part pincer movement” that Democrats were ramping up to force Biden out of running for re-election in 2024. It only took days for that project to accelerate into high gear.

    First the New York Times runs a brutal “news” story focusing on Biden’s age and increasingly obvious incapacities:

    “If he mounts another campaign in 2024, Mr. Biden would be asking the country to elect a leader who would be 86 at the end of his tenure, testing the outer boundaries of age and the presidency. Polls show many Americans consider Mr. Biden too old, and some Democratic strategists do not think he should run again. . .

    Mr. Biden’s public appearances have fueled that perception. His speeches can be flat and listless. He sometimes loses his train of thought, has trouble summoning names or appears momentarily confused. More than once, he has promoted Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “President Harris.” Mr. Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, stumbles over words like “kleptocracy.” He has said Iranian when he meant Ukrainian and several times called Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, “John,” confusing him with the late Republican senator of that name from Virginia.”

    This is all true, but hardly counts as news. This is a typical example of “ventriloquist journalism,” in which the news outlet most influential among Democrats has given the green light for prominent Democrats to begin putting together serious presidential campaigns for 2024, for the hour is already late as these things go, and the Democratic presidential bench looks pretty thin. Expect much more of these kind of “news” stories.

    Next, the Times ran a poll—again, a contrived “news” story—it conducted with Sienna College that finds Biden in free fall with voters, including Democratic voters, 64 percent of whom said they did not want Biden to run again in 2024. It pegged Biden’s job-approval rating at 33 percent, which is close to Nixon circa August 1974 territory, or George W. Bush in his final months in office as the economy collapsed around him.

    So having called it on the rollout of the Democrat plan to force Biden out, I’ll now move the goalposts, and suggest that this effort is gaining intensity so fast that the question now is whether Biden will be forced from office before this November’s election.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/07/will-dems-dump-biden-before-november.php

  30. Yes, that helps – a bit. I assumed the explanation would have to go down to the quantum level. My knowledge of QM is in the “good-for-a-laymen” category.

    That frequency of oscillation has to be the same as the frequency of the incoming light

    That rings true. The answer has to have something to do with both the nature of the gold atom and the nature of/frequency of infrared light. If it were simply that gold is a better reflector, then all high end telescopes would use it as a coating, but only the JWST does (which is what got me thinking about all this – just realizing now that this may have seemed pretty random).

    Anyway, if nothing else I learned in my investigation that both gold and silver have only a single electron in their valence shell.

  31. Further, I would argue that Democrats are seriously spooked by a long succession of disasters starting at least with Afghanistan, made steadily worse by Biden’s infirmities, inflation, huge Supreme Court setbacks, factional infighting and the sense that there is no one really in charge of the country or the party.

    Right now Democrats are their own worst enemies. This is when people make rash moves and mistakes, no matter how maladroit their opponents may be.

  32. “this effort is gaining intensity so fast that the question now is whether Biden will be forced from office before this November’s election.”

    Where’s the “or what?” With Nixon, it was impeachment and removal from office. Are Democrats going to go along with the GOP in doing that?

    Mike

  33. If Dems did push Biden to resign, they might kill two birds with one stone, because, as Steve Hayward points out, surely Harris presidential pardons for Joe and Hunter would be part of the deal, and that would cook her putative election campaign.

  34. huxley,
    Well argued. I think you have mostly convinced me.

    But to add to my original argument, the idea that mistakes can overwhelm an administration “no matter how maladroit their opponents may be” underestimates the impact of a lack of a real opposition. We are seeing in the Jan. 6 show trial what happens when there is no adversarial system in place.

    When the major media on the left looks like they might be ganging up on hapless Joe, that’s fairly clear evidence.

  36. TommyJay:

    You are a most gracious interlocutor!

    I can’t say I’m convinced, but I don’t rule out the possibility Joe might suddenly decide he wants to spend more time with his family…

    I understand doubt, but would anyone here, if Joe were gone in late August, be exclaiming “Inconceivable!” like Wally Shawn in “The Princess Bride”?

    –“The Princess Bride Inconceivable clips”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhXjcZdk5QQ

  37. Not inconceivable. Great movie and the great Wallace Shawn, who I will always remember as Woody Allen’s “devastating little homunculus.”

    If such a thing happens, I imagine Joe will leave with a real medical infirmity or worse.

  41. FWIW – we’re going on vacation for a couple of weeks – will not be keeping up with the news much, unless we officially start either WW3 or CW2.
    Best wishes to everyone – stay safe!

  42. Art Deco, I dropped any support for one of the R senatorial candidates here the moment I received an invitation to his fundraising event featuring Paul Ryan. He lost.

    AesopFan, safe travels!

  43. Potential major breakthrough:
    ‘Judge: States Will Get ‘Expedited Discovery’ On Biden Admin Collusion With Big Tech To Censor Conservatives;
    ‘Missouri AG Eric Schmidt: “No one has had the chance to look under the hood before – now we do.” ‘
    https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/07/judge-states-will-get-expedited-discovery-on-biden-admin-collusion-with-big-tech-to-censor-conservatives/
    Opening grafs:
    ‘There has been much public evidence that the Biden administration has pressured large social media and tech companies to censor political opponents under the guise of designating such speech “disinformation” or “misinformation.”
    ‘On May 5, 2022, the states of Missouri and Louisiana filed a Complaint alleging that such collusion violated, among other things, its citizens first amendment rights. The defendants included not only senior administration officials, but also the head of the administrations planned and then disbanded ministry of information, Nina Jankowicz…
    ‘…Today the Court granded(sic) the Motion for Expedited Discovery….’

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