Friends, your favorite gunslinger and all around rough, tough hombre, Dr. Nick, bids you greetings from Greater Tucson, Arizona, where he is currently luxuriating in thankfulness, friendship, and sunshine.
In other news, you may have heard that there's a new COVID variant that's almost certainly going to kill you. Oh well. You had a good run.
Unrelatedly, there has been a slight spike in COVID cases nationally, led by blue states.
Peronally, I think it's high time we stopped focusing on "cases" and looked more at excess deaths, which is where the rubber meets the road, after all.
You might find that this article, even though it's written by a leftist, will give you a more upbeat, optimistic perspective on the world this holiday season:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22783828/poverty-vaccines-cancer-charts-thanksgiving
Finally, this one is interesting: Alabama is fining municipalities that remove Confederate monuments, on the theory that history, whether we like it or not, is worth preserving. Bravo, Alabama! At least someone, somewhere is trying to hold back the flood tide of cancel culture...
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/alabama-confederacy-street-monument/2021/11/26/id/1046346/
Nick,
ReplyDeleteHope you had a very nice Thanksgiving, and are enjoying you stay in Tucson.
A trip to Tucson, AZ always reminds me of Paul Kersey (played by Charles Bronson) in the movie "Death Wish". But I know you are not there on business, and no one is going to give you a gun as a gift. And also in the movie, Kersey was an architect, and you are a professor. And you don't live in NYC either. But my point here is that if Hollywood ever does another remake of "Death Wish", I want you in the lead role as Dr. Nicholas Kersey. In addition, we need alternative endings to fit Left and Right ideology. Well now, I'm getting carried away, so have a real safe trip back from Tucson, and hopefully you will not freeze your gonads off when you return.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: How's the view from one of the bastions of common sense America? I read the article from"Future Perfect". A most revealing title that journal has. "Why perfection is imaginable and is therefore a justifiable goal". Of course history and psychology affirm that perfection in human affairs is impossible and that past efforts aimed at "transformation" (to perfection) have generated unprecedented human catastrophe because of their totalitarian determination to defeat human nature.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Characteristically, the article says that significant reduction of politically incorrect human harmful emissions has in many countries been accomplished without economic damage. Then , in vintage leftist form it asserts "this suggests more robust change" Why sure, after all, economic damage is congruent with climate change mitigation ( of course we dare not ackowledge it as actually our major objective in that, yes, leftist, cause". Bottom line: these people will never be content with anything short of perfection (except in themselves and their fortunes and well being, right Al Gore - you of mansion, private jets and big, big cars?)
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: As for the author's notation that fewer chickens are being caged for life, I'm with him on that. I've raised chickens free range and I KNOW they are capable of much physical enjoyment of life. I was able to collect their eggs, with no harm to them, daily.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: OK, the author says global poverty rates, including not surprisingly, infant mortality rates, are very much down over the last forty years. This is probably in large part because of Chinese recovery from Marxist madness and because of the prevented capability of commie states to offer AKs to remedy want, over, just coincidentally, the last forty years, yes?
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: OK, so "poverty" as administratively defined in the U.S.;how many bureaucrats have actually lived the "poverty" they mathematically define!?. The article implies that the solution to this perceived injustice is the institutionalization of no work federal (and no doubt state) direct payments, since this has succeeded during the Covid emergency. And after all, the administrative structure is now in place, yes?. Uh, its been tried before and even Slick Willy, in thrall to his leftist consort, had to relent. Of course such present largess, ostensibly generated by the convenient pandemic, bears NO blame for economy ravaging inflation yes? "Well, you of the prudent and productive, you of the condemned "system": you are ON YOUR OWN! " "You of the 'oppressed', why we will continue to provide you, no matter your demonstrated contempt for positive living!" . So the author of the article proposes, I think. He attempts to build a hopeful ambience into which to segue to leftist ,as always totalitarian advancing, policy!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The by definition perfectionist left can by definition never be content, since perfection has been proved, by historic leftist overeach, to be impossible. They will never relent, so we of the real world much stop them!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ray! I hope your Thanksgiving was equally blessed, if not equally warm and sunny. :)
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I've never seen "Death Wish", but I can kinda extrapolate the plot. The preferred right-wing ending: our hero blows away all malefactors. The preferred left-wing ending: our hero discovers that he is a she, and decides to volunteer at a state prison, helping (misunderstood) gender fluid felons turn over a new leaf...
Jack, as you know, the reduction of carbon emissions in the West is mostly accidental, not ideological. It was caused by our switch over to natural gas for power generation -- a transition that was made NOT to save the planet but to save money!
Excellent point: capitalism has achieved the virtual eradication of extreme poverty globally. Communism, by contrast, entrenched poverty in many places.
I agree: the "direct payments" of the COVID era aren't a recipe for universal bliss. They're a recipe for fiscal cataclysm. The sooner we change course, the better!
Nick,
DeleteYou need to see "Death Wish" with Charles Bronson. After that, Bronson did a "Death Wish" series which was generally entertaining, although not as good as the first and original "Death Wish".
And while I am at it, one of my favorite police drama movies is "Cop Land", in which even Robert De Niro is good. So watch that one, if you have not already seen it.
Dr.Waddy from Jack: If those Americans who fought with courage and devotion to defend the Southland from invading Yankee foreigners deserved punishment for standing for a cause which included(and was condemned by)but was not fully defined by,defense of the institution of slavery, ehh, they WERE punished in their lifetimes! They suffered indescribably during the war, they were beaten and their land was ravaged; that's enough, I say. To those who would yet further degrade them by dismantling the monuments erected in gratitude to them for their fortitude, by those who cherish the many redeeming features of Southern culture (including its present status as perhaps the most U.S. patriotic of all regions); to them I say, STEP THE HELL RIGHT OFF! You've prevailed, with contempt, in some settings but don't push Southerners too far. That said: I think local rule is best: if the clear majority of a locality even within a state chooses democratically to reject Confederate monuments, or ANY monuments, including currently politically correct ones,then their will should be done. I applaud Alabama's intent in defending its Confederate heritage but with that caveat and I note, the establishment of monuments to the struggle against slavery can no long be repressed; that is political reality today. Live and let live, I would hope, alongside those honoring Confederate fighting men!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Oh, Gads, our intention to save money by embracing natural gas, an obviously capitalist measure , as well as unendurable horse sense, strengthens further the thoroughly ideologically stung thereby left to strive for infinitely further repression of that reality. "Our goal is not environmental purity; it is the disingenous use of this cause to destroy democracy and capitalism to make way for the triumph of our unassailable wisdom in ALL matters! Natural gas? Yeeech! Far too practical for us.We thrive, reflexively, on that which is counterintuitive to civilization. Why, after the 20th century, don't you know that? Oh, pity you! "
ReplyDeletem
Hi Ray. I think I saw "Cop Land". Wasn't Sylvester Stallone in it? "Death Wish" is now on my list! I'm sure it would be edifying...
ReplyDeleteI quite agree, Jack, that adding new monuments is vastly preferable to canceling old ones.
Let's not forget that the worst polluters of all time were the Eastern Bloc states. Ergo, history seems to prove that capitalism yields (gradual, fitful) environmental protection, while socialism, when fully unleashed, degrades the environment and humanity equally.
Speaking of Eastern Bloc States I ran into this guy recently who had an accent which I detected as European, and so I asked him where he was from, and he said Dacia. So I said you mean Romania/Rumania and he was surprised that I even knew that, and then he went on to claim that Romania/Rumania was in Central Europe. Say what!?
DeleteI asked him how far east in Europe you had to go to become an Eastern European and he gave me a dirty look. Ha! Seems to me that many Europeans from this part of Europe have a complex. Which begs the question, since part of Turkey is in Europe, can Turks claim to be Europeans, or perhaps a little bit maybe?
Dr.Waddy from Jack: Capitalism appears in many ways to generate measured social and economic beneficial change. Marxism? Reminds me of the account of Eisenhower asking a Russian General how they dealt with minefields; "why, we just attacked across them"was the casual answer. Sic semper Marxists! The U.S. so far, has, to the intense frustration of Al Gore, exhibited financially motivated measures (natural gas, which is also the simple answer to environmental concerns which is political death to "environmentalists") which have also resulted in significant reductions in politically (yes. politically, since leftist politics have captured too many of our "scientists") condemned atmospheric elements. Just coincidence, eh Al?, eh Joe, hello, eh, Joe!!!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy and Ray from Jack, with respect to professional historians: Turkey: European at one time? Yes. The west coast of Antolia was Greek ( witness the spectacular ruins of Ephesus). But the Ottoman Turk conquest brought Asiatics to the fore. Having embraced Islam, a non European faith, they conquered Constantinople and casually converted perhaps the greatest church in Christendom to Islam. Such an affront in reverse might easi!y today be the justification for murderous explosions. And the Ottomans did consequentially establish a beach head across the Straits from which they launched a determined invasion of Europe which was blasphemically thwarted. I recall also, just by the by, a 50,000 strong (massive for the Dark Ages)horde in the mid 700s from Muslim "Spain" invading into central "France" where it was stopped at the Battle of Tours by Charlemagne's grandfather, Charles Martel. Its curious how subsequent Islamic forces used , and do use to this day, the Crusades as justification for anti Western invasion and terrorist outrage ! Were the Crusaders not justified by earlier Muslim invasion of Europe and summaryMuslim conquest of North Africa. Does not this contretempt invalidate the Ottoman onslaught (including in the Mediterranean , stopped at the Battle of Lepanto) on Europe, which historically disqualfies it as a European nation? Imagine an Ottoman Europe!
ReplyDeleteDr. Dr. Waddy and Ray from Jack: I note also murderous Islamic rage directed at Israel for its being supposed a "beach head" of the West into the Islamic Midd!e East. What about the 15th century conquest of Constantinople having provided Ottoman Islam with a beach head to Europe, ehh?! By the way, though I see no need for remorse in my remarks , I affirm my conviction that Islam is a great world religion which affords vital spiritual and everyday guidance to hundreds of millions. I admire much of Islamic determination to defend Islam but I assert, as I may in a blessedly free country, that Islam is as liable to criticism as my chosen faith, Christianity (and its Jewish origin).Historically, I suggest, we have reached a draw,the acceptance of which bids fair to generate peace.
ReplyDeleteRay, it actually doesn't surprise me that a Romanian would claim to be from "Central Europe". The Romanians are, as you know, less "Eastern" than a lot of their neighbors, based on their historic ties to Western European countries and their Romance tongue. And who would want to be lumped in with a bunch of ornery Slavs anyway? Makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteThe Turks "European"? I would say no...but they have a better claim to being European/Western than any other Muslim people. "E" for effort.
Jack brings a "long" historical perspective to this question. Good point that modern Turkey was once integral to the formation of the "West", since it was populated with ancient Greeks, who were (we're always told) more civilized than we are ourselves.
Does the Ottoman embrace of Islam negate any claim the Turks might have to being "Western"? Not necessarily, since Islam comes in many hues, but it sure seems like the Ottoman version had major elements of Orientalism, authoritarianism, and simple barbarism. I'll say this, though -- I'm no Ottoman expert, and I'm sure that, if one looks for things to like about them, it wouldn't be hard. 700+ years of history will yield plenty on both sides of the ledger.