I rather like what this guy does with the song:
The donation drive is over for now – and a great big “Thank you!”
Once again, I offer a huge “thank you!” to every single person who has contributed so far, and to all those who contribute at other times of year. I am so very grateful to you all, and to all the readers and commenters here.
Just a reminder for the rest of the year: if anyone wants to contribute to thenewneo, click on the Paypal button either to the right or at the bottom of the page, depending on what sort of device you use when reading the blog. If the Paypal button isn’t showing, disable your adblocker and that should make it visible. And of course there’s also the Amazon portal.
Annals of intrepid entrepreneurship and adventure vacationing: “rat tours” in NYC
Tourists are flocking to the Big Apple to check out its exploding rat population — and tour guides are tailoring excursions to introduce them to the city’s most beady-eyed natives.
Kenny Bollwerk maps out late-night rat routes near Rockefeller Center and in Flushing and Sunnyside, Queens.
Luke Miller, owner of Real New York Tours, adds a stop to Columbus Park near Chinatown for tourists with a yen for vermin. …
Such fascination may have begun seven years ago when New York City’s most famous rodent, the Pizza Rat, drew 12 million viewers to an online video of it trekking down subway stairs.
Why are there so many rats in New York? Like many other elements of life these days, it seems to be a result – a bonus, let’s say – of the pandemic lockdown rules. Thanks, health authorities! In the case of the rats, the cause seems to have been the proliferation of outdoor dining without a great deal of forethought about rat amelioration.
But even without the encouragement afforded by outdoor dining, no wonder rats were fairly ubiquitous even before the present surge:
[New York City’s] rat population is dominated by the brown rat (also known as the Norway rat). The average adult body weight is 350 grams (12 oz) in males and about 250 grams (8.8 oz) in females. The adult rat can squeeze through holes or gaps the size of a quarter (0.955 inches), jump a horizontal distance of up to 4 feet (1.2 m) (or vertically from a flat surface to 3 feet (0.91 m)), survive a fall from a height of almost 40 feet (12 m), and tread water for three days.
For much of my early lifetime, a rat civil war was going on in New York City. Who knew?:
As recently as 1944, two distinct species were prevalent: the brown rat (Norway rat) and the black rat (ship rat, roof rat). Over the next few decades, the more aggressive brown variety displaced the black rats, typically by attacking and killing them, but also by outcompeting them for food and shelter. By 2014, the city’s rat population was dominated by the brown rat.
A similar war had occurred in Europe quite some time ago:
Both rat species once coexisted with each other in human dwellings by filling different niches; black rats are arboreal, preferring dry, thatched roofs and attics, while brown rats are mainly burrowers, seeking cool ground levels and basements.
Black rats were the first to travel from Asia to Europe in significant numbers. They most likely traveled on trade ships from India to Egypt around 3000 BC…
Over a millennium after black rats, brown rats arrived in Europe. In 1727 AD, an enormous number of brown rats left eastern Asia for Europe. Although small groups of brown rats probably already lived in Europe, there had never been a mass exodus like this: Witnesses saw thousands of brown rats swim across the Volga, the largest European river, as they headed westward across Russia. Some speculate that an earthquake caused this migration, but it remains a mystery. Reaching England in the late 1720s, their arrival from the East was misattributed to passage on Norwegian ships and so they were labeled Rattus norvegicus.
Brown rats quickly spread throughout Europe, displacing the black rat, and entrenching themselves inseparably with the European lifestyle by 1800. Favorable factors helped brown rats displace black rats. The Great Fire of London in 1666 caused previously wooden buildings and thatched roofs, perfect for black rats, to be replaced by lead, tile, and brick. Burrowing brown rats could still dig into and around these new buildings, but black rats lost their upper-story lodgings. Similar housing updates were occurring throughout Europe. This, combined with brown rats’ physiological advantages over black rats, helped clinch the victory. While black rats weigh around half a pound, brown rats weigh nearly one pound, with records of 3.5 pounds. Brown rats can also survive harsh weather and eat nearly anything. While black rats are still dominant in the tropics today, brown rats are now found nearly worldwide thanks to their travels with humans.
That anecdote about the mass rat migration in 1727 seems like a tall tale, but I’ve seen several references to it and I suppose it might be true. Weird.
As noted, the Norway (brown) rat has nothing to do with Norway, although it exists there as it does everywhere on earth except Antarctica and Alberta, Canada.
Alberta, Canada? you ask. What’s so special about Alberta?
This:
Alberta, Canada, is the largest rat-free populated area in the world. Rat invasions of Alberta were stopped and rats were eliminated by very aggressive government rat control measures, starting during the 1950s.
The only species of Rattus that is capable of surviving the climate of Alberta is the brown rat, which can only survive in the prairie region of the province, and even then must overwinter in buildings. Although it is a major agricultural area, Alberta is far from any seaport and only a portion of its eastern boundary with Saskatchewan provides a favorable entry route for rats. Brown rats cannot survive in the wild boreal forest to the north, the Rocky Mountains to the west, nor can they safely cross the semiarid High Plains of Montana to the south. The first brown rat did not reach Alberta until 1950, and in 1951, the province launched a rat-control program that included shooting, poisoning, and gassing rats, and bulldozing, burning down, and blowing up rat-infested buildings. The effort was backed by legislation that required every person and every municipality to destroy and prevent the establishment of designated pests. If they failed, the provincial government could carry out the necessary measures and charge the costs to the landowner or municipality…
By 1960, the number of rat infestations in Alberta had dropped to below 200 per year. In 2002, the province finally recorded its first year with zero rat infestations, and from 2002 to 2007 there were only two infestations found. After an infestation of rats in the Medicine Hat landfill was found in 2012, the province’s rat-free status was questioned, but provincial government rat control specialists brought in excavating machinery, dug out, shot, and poisoned 147 rats in the landfill, and no live rats were found thereafter. In 2013, the number of rat infestations in Alberta dropped to zero again. Alberta defines an infestation as two or more rats found at the same location, since a single rat cannot reproduce. About a dozen single rats enter Alberta in an average year and are killed by provincial rat control specialists before they can reproduce.
Only zoos, universities, and research institutes are allowed to keep caged rats in Alberta, and possession of unlicensed rats (including pet rats) by anyone else is punishable by a penalty of up to $5,000 or up to 60 days in jail. The adjacent and similarly landlocked province of Saskatchewan initiated a rat control program in 1972, and has managed to reduce the number of rats in the province substantially, although they have not been eliminated. The Saskatchewan rat control program has considerably reduced the number of rats trying to enter Alberta.
As I said—war, in this case not a rat civil war but an interspecies conflict. In 2017, when I did much of the research for this post (large portions of which existed in draft until now, minus the introduction about New York), New Zealand was about to embark on a similar endeavor under circumstances somewhat less favorable to human victory. The plan is to eliminate rats and several other types of vermin by 2050; here’s an interesting update on how it’s going.
I cannot stand rats, not even pet rats. I’ve seen huge ones in the NY subways near the tracks, and that was long before COVID. I’ve seen them rooting around in New England near various buildings. The Eastern ones are brown rats, but in California I’ve seen the black variety. Back when I was married and we used to visit my then-husband’s parents in California and swim in their pool, he was kind enough to stay mum about the fact that once or twice he had found a drowned rat in the pool and quietly removed it before I saw it because he knew I’d probably never go in that pool again if he were to tell me about it in real time (I only learned much later; he told me after the house was sold). And when I originally did the research for this post, I had just experienced a startling late-night encounter with a rat in a house in California. I may or may not tell that tale sometime.
The nature of the left: masterminds?
Commenter “huxley” observes:
I wish to interject, as an ex-leftist, that the left is not a group of masterminds calculating their next move as in chess.
The left is a complex set of subgroups working in affinity but not top-down. They throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
In 1999 the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization were the big deal. Old leftist strategy: rich vs poor.
In 2011 Occupy Wall St. continued the rich vs. poor, but though expectations were sky-high the whole project collapsed. It didn’t capture mainstream popularity and the tent city squalor (looking forward to today) was considered a horror even by liberals.
However, what sold like wildfire was Obama’s blatant sowing of racial division. So that’s where we are today.
The left does what works, at least in terms of maintaining and extending its power.
No question that the left is not a monolithic group, much less one composed entirely of “masterminds.” But it doesn’t have to be. Like all groups, there are leaders and followers, and like many groups, the organization of the many elements on the left is loose or sometimes nonexistent or even in conflict. Remember this old clip from the brilliant Monty Python 1979 movie Life of Brian?
Lots of “splitters.”
But let’s not make the mistake of thinking there are no planners, and no very clever ones. There are many planners on the left, and there are also groups with hierarchies. Not everything they try works, but I have little doubt that they strategize and plan. Why do we know Alinsky’s name, for example? Because his most well-known work was a set of tactical rules for guiding the left to victory. And of course Obama was an Alinskyite – in fact, a trainer:
Alinsky synthesized his theory of political agitation is his famous 1971 book, “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, considered a founding text of modern community organizing and a classic of radical-leftist agitation-propaganda theory.
Obama received a comprehensive course in Saul Alinsky during his years as a community organizer in Chicago, an experience Obama recalled as “the best education he ever had.”
Years later in 2007, The New Republic’s Ryan Lizza interviewed then-senator Obama and found him still “at home talking Alinskian jargon about ‘agitation,’” and fondly recalling organizing workshops where he had learned Alinsky-esque concepts like “being predisposed to other people’s power.”
In those years, Obama was schooled by disciples of Alinsky himself, including Mike Kruglik, who remembered Obama as “the best student he ever had,” a “natural … undisputed master of agitation.” …
… He then went on to teach Alinsky concepts and methods at community organizing workshops and seminars in Southside Chicago.
Obama also served on boards in Chicago, including the Woods Fund and Joyce Foundation, which dispensed grants to groups specializing in Alinsky-style agitation.
Gramsci was another planner, and a very successful one in terms of his ideas taking hold. One familiar name is Bill Ayers, who started out as a terrorist but later marched a la Gramsci through the institution of education, with great success for the leftist cause:
In short, Ayers uses his position as a professor of education at the University of Illinois to inculcate his students with the notion that they are revolutionaries sent to the schools to brainwash students. …
[Sol] Stern’s conclusion?
If Barack Obama wins on Nov. 4, [2008] the “guy in the neighborhood” [Obama’s disingenuous description of Bill Ayers during the campaign] is not likely to get an invitation to the Lincoln bedroom. But with the Democrats controlling all three branches of government, there’s a real danger that Mr. Ayers’s social-justice movement in the schools will get even more room to maneuver and grow.
We’ve seen it come to pass.
Education is the foundation of the growth of the left’s power, and it is no accident; there was a plan. If all leftists weren’t in on the planning – and they certainly were not – that doesn’t mean there weren’t prescient and insightful planners. One who is less famous in this country and yet influential was Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Here’s a description in an admiring leftist periodical:
… Freire continues to be a lodestar for teachers working in poverty-stricken communities across the globe, and for just about anyone who’s searching for a sense of justice in an unjust world.
Every critically minded educator has at some point used Freire in their teaching — either to gain some insight into the upside-down world of the oppressed or as the inspiration that led them to view teaching as a way to overturn society’s asymmetries of power and privilege.
And all of this was happening in a way that meant that most people didn’t notice it until it had reached critical mass, which made it more difficult to guard against.
No doubt the left still has plans.
Open thread 9/5/23
Today we have the first of a series I call “sports you may never have watched before or even known existed”:
Leftist business-as-usual: crying RACIST!
DeSantis is a racist and Vivek is a white supremicist, according to the leftist MSM.
No surprise for any of this. Any Republican contender will be painted with that brush for a simple reason: the propaganda works with a lot of people who are already convinced that all people on the right are racist, no matter what their color and no matter what their history and no matter how tenuous and ridiculous the so-called evidence. It becomes a case of confirmation bias, and it’s very very powerful.
These accusations have become one of the sole tactics of the left in its political campaigns. A lot of people will put up with an awful lot – crime and mismanagement and even mental and emotional abuse of their own children – in order to not ally themselves with supposed racists. The left knows this and plays on it. They don’t have too much else to offer except a free lunch, which is of great appeal to some. But those who are relatively (or very) well off are looking to virtue-signal by making sure they never, never ever, vote for someone the MSM has labeled a racist.
And it is so extreme that it actually doesn’t matter whether the candidate is white or not. Vivek is an honorary white person – but conservative black candidates such as Larry Elder are also honorary white people, and white supremacists at that, when they dare to run for office.
“Racism” isn’t the only attack the left mounts, of course. Not caring – Bush and Katrina, for example – is another. Being just plain mean is another that’s related; remember the attacks on mild-mannered Romney for putting his dog in a crate on top of his car many years ago, or teasing someone in high school?
I accepted long ago that all Republican candidates will be demonized in this way. Some people feel that Trump is the only person strong enough to take these insults and deflect them. But what I’ve seen is that because of Trump’s abrasive and brash personality, people are very inclined to believe these things of him. He fights, but so has DeSantis over the course of some very vicious attacks even before he announced his candidacy.
Who can better deflect such things, and for which man are they more believable to a greater number of voters? I can’t say I know, because I don’t. But I know the election may hinge on such things – that is, if fraud (or lawfare against Trump) doesn’t win the day for the left anyway.
China keeps pushing
Here’s an interesting tidbit of news:
Chinese nationals have illicitly tried to access U.S. military installations and other sensitive areas some 100 times in recent years, raising the issue of espionage.
The Wall Street Journal reported this weekend that these incidents range from individuals claiming they were just following GPS to get to restaurants that are actually on bases to speeding through checkpoints to scuba divers. Since we know that the America-hating Chinese Communist Party planted half a dozen illicit police stations in the U.S. and infiltrated all major U.S. institutions and levels of government, the risk of espionage is very real.
Then of course there’s Joe and Hunter Biden, on the take for who-knows-what promises.
And on a much much smaller scale, for a month or two I’ve noticed an attack of Chinese bots. “Attack” may not be quite the right word; let’s just say an awful lot of visits for no discernible reason. I had an uptick of traffic without any obvious links to explain it, and I started to wonder. Sure enough, there was a new influx of Chinese “visitors.”
I’ve been engaged in trying to control it and have been somewhat successful. But my question is: what are they looking for? I assume it’s something business- or money-related. But the blog doesn’t have anything of that sort on it; this is a very plain Jane blog. One thing of which I’m virtually certain is that a whole bunch of actual Chinese people are not suddenly fascinated by the musings of thenewneo.
Happy Labor Day!
[NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of a previous post.]
Labor Day is the bookend standing at the opposite end of summer from its holiday beginning, Memorial Day.
July Fourth is summer’s early peak, with the promise of long light-filled days ahead. But Labor Day is summer’s last gasp, the moment I dreaded as a child because it marked the end of vacation and the start of the school year. Spiffy new clothes, a shiny bookbag, freshly sharpened pencils, and the promise of the beautiful autumn leaves’ arrival were nice. But they couldn’t make up for the fact that a new school year was beginning. Where oh where had the summer gone?
And it goes even more quickly these days.
Here’s wishing you all a Happy Labor Day, despite the difficult times. Barbecues, picnics, the beach, just hanging out in your yard, whatever you desire and whatever you decide. And for the historically-minded among you, here’s some information on the origins of the holiday.
Open thread 9/4/23
Last call for donations this cycle [scroll down for today’s new posts]
Once again, I offer a huge “thank you!” to every single person who has contributed so far, and to all those who contribute at other times of year. I am so very grateful to you all, and to all the readers and commenters here.
If anyone wants to contribute to thenewneo, just click on the Paypal button either to the right or at the bottom of the page, depending on what sort of device you use when reading the blog. If the Paypal button isn’t showing, disable your adblocker and that should make it visible.
Mickey Thomas explains how he learned to sing
On the song “Fooled Around and Fell In Love,” which I highlighted in this post, I couldn’t help but notice the strong gospel flavor of lead singer Mickey Thomas’ rendition. There’s no question that’s one of the elements that made the song so special. And he does it so effortlessly; never show-offy, unlike so many singers who put a lot of embellishment into their work. It just seems natural when he does it. He’s a white male Aretha Franklin, which may sound like a ridiculous claim, but not when you hear him.
I figured he just always could sing that way. But he swears he couldn’t. He tells the story here, and it’s a great one.
Here’s one of his live performances:
The song lyrics are a great hook, too. The repetition and emphasis on “fooled around and fell in love” highlights the surprise of it. A player, a user, discovers to his shock that there’s this one special woman who calls forth a different response from him: love. Some listeners think it means he gets his comeuppance and gets shafted by this woman, but I don’t see that at all. He looks way too happy. I think it’s the real thing.
Call me romantic.
Trump the dissident; Trump the performer
Here’s an interesting piece by someone who doesn’t appear to be a Trump supporter:
… [W]hile I don’t think Trump is a dissident now, he is once again playing the role. He has millions who see him as unjustly persecuted for his politics, and a movement based on the premise of political persecution is already in gear.
The writer sees the whole thing as performative, just a role Trump is playing, rather than the real thing. It strikes me, and not for the first time, that anti-Trump forces, whether on left or right or in the middle, see him as an actor and ignore the very very real forces arrayed against him that have in fact politically persecuted him and to which he might indeed be sincerely reacting. Russiagate and the Steele dossier are undeniable examples, given the facts.
It also strikes me that, at least for the left, perhaps they think Trump is merely acting because so many of their own positions are performative roles that they play. I also think it’s relevant that one of the big charges from Jack Smith and in the Georgia case is the idea that Trump was merely pretending to think he won the 2020 election when in fact he knew he’d lost it.
Anyone who has studied Trump should be quite aware that it is highly likely he really thinks he won that election. I also wonder, in 2016 when all those Democrats were whining that the real election winner had been Hillary, whether they actually thought that was true or whether they were just saying it for effect. My guess is the latter.
Liars and pretenders often assume that everyone else is doing the same thing and playing the same game.