[h/t Daniel Swenson]
When H.P. Lovecraft Joined the Beatles
[h/t Daniel Swenson]
Category: ~PlusPosts
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Drums! Drums on the Campus!
One of the fun bits of visiting +James Hill at school last weekend was seeing him perform with his taiko drum group.
Statuesque
This is a plaster statue in a humanities classroom at +James Hill's college. There's no marking on the base anywhere to identify who it is (or purports to be), and my Google-fu has failed me. Anyone out there with an historical bent have any bright ideas?
Curly hair, no beard — makes me think Roman. But that shield just isn't right.
Dior!
I'm not a huge fan of haute couture, especially having grown up on a diet of I Love Lucy reruns (their visit to Paris and commentary on the fashion industry has stuck with me). But the Dior exhibit that's currently at the Denver Art Museum was nonetheless interesting — intersecting history, art, and the conflicting drives between form and function.
I still have little patience for fashion design that doesn't let the wearer ride in a car or sit down at a party — the sort of thing that makes Princess Amidala in her full regalia look under-dressed. But I do have an appreciation for class and elegance that's also functional. And there was plenty of that to see.
Dior exhibit at the DAM, through 17 March: https://denverartmuseum.org/exhibitions/dior
Windmills
Back in the deep dark history of Stuff I Grew Up With …
Van De Kamp restaurants were pretty generic coffee shop types of places. I remember going to them (with my mom) for coffees, lunches with friends, etc., when I was a tot.
What set them off from anywhere else was that they were designed as giant windmills. Because, you know, Dutch name, windmills.
The chain was originally a bakery, and though the company finally vanished in 1990, there are still a few remnants of it. In particular, this now-Denny's restaurant in Arcadia, California, which we drove past last weekend. The colors are different from the classic VdK shops (in favor of Denny's), but the windmill was still rotating …
Let Them Eat Grade Books!
An Arkansas state legislator is fed up with schools that don't improve their reading scores.
His solution: cut lunch funding from schools that don't perform well.
Guess which party he's in.
Arkansas legislator proposes cutting lunch funding from schools that struggle to improve reading skills
One Arkansas lawmaker wants to get more students reading by putting money on the line—specifically, their lunch money.
Oregon considers its automatic voter registration a "phenomenal success"
Well, yeah, but only if you consider increased voter turn-out, and an electorate that's "less urban … less wealthy … much more diverse" to be good things. I do, but clearly there are some people who don't.
Oregon governor calls automatic voter registration a ‘phenomenal success’ – POLITICO
The Ronin Rabbit wanders to a new publisher
Usagi Yojimbo is one of the greatest comic series of all time. Though an anthropomorphic, it is steeped in Japanese shogunate culture and samurai lore. Started in 1984, it moved to Dark Horse comics in 1995, and has been there ever since …
… until today's announcement that the comic is moving over to IDW. No word on the reason for the change, but it provides an opportunity for new publishing of collected editions of the tales of Usagi, which can only be a good thing.
I've had the opportunity to meet Stan Sakai, the writer and artist on UY, and he's a wonderful guy. All the best to him with his new publisher.
A Samurai Rabbit Comic Book Adventure Finds a New Home
The long-running saga of the rabbit, Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai, is moving to IDW Publishing, which will begin a new, full-color series in June.
RIP, Peter Tork
Peter was the the "dumb blonde" of the Monkees, friendly and gentle and (presented as) kind of stupid, but still lovable. He's the one on the left in the picture below.
Tork was the oldest of the Monkees, and he's the second, after Davey Jones, to pass away.
Thanks, sir, for the many hours of musical (and TV) entertainment you offered me.
Saloon Doors
I have to confess that, for all the Westerns I've seen, the question of "How did saloons lock up for the night when they just had those swinging doors in front?" never occurred to me.
Short answer: most saloons in the Old West didn't actually have those silly little doors, and those that did just had larger doors that could be closed in front of them to lock up at night (or address the cold of winter).
And now you know.
How Did Saloons in the Old West Lock Their Doors at Night?
What stopped no-good varmints from crawling underneath the doors?
When Bea Arthur was a US Marine
Cool little article about Bea Arthur — of Maude and Golden Girls fame — and her WW2 experience in the Marines.
Also cool: The Marines were the last service to admit women to support the war effort — but, interestingly enough, the Commandant of the Marines refused to come up with a "cute" name or acronym for the female members of his service.
'Public opinion favored a catchy nickname for these new female Marines, with suggestions of names like Glamarines and Femarines. General Holcomb wasn’t having any cute names for his Marines. “They are Marines,” he told Life magazine in 1944. “They don’t have a nickname and they don’t need one. . . . They inherit the traditions of Marines. They are Marines.”'
Including Bea Arthur.
Bea Arthur, US Marine | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
Bernice Frankel’s Official Military Personnel File reveals a Golden Girl’s WWII service history.
Preserving History on the Moon
A wide-ranging and fascinating article about efforts to protect original artifacts of lunar exploration … artifacts on the Moon.
How Do You Preserve History On The Moon?
As the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing nears, some say the site of the first footprints on the moon should be protected. But historic preservation off our planet is unprecedented.
Blockchain Blues
Nothing is unhackable. But reading about how blockchain currencies are being hacked is kind of fascinating.
Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked – MIT Technology Review
More and more security holes are appearing in cryptocurrency and smart contract platforms, and some are fundamental to the way they were built.
Silencing the Inconvenient Press
Justice Clarence Thomas' musings — supported by Neil Gorsuch — that there's nothing in the Constitution about public figures having a much higher hurdle to prove libel, and therefore New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) should be reexamined, is not just about celebrities being more able to sue lascivious supermarket rags. As the article points out, libel laws were used to tie up and ward off journalists from covering the events in the Jim Crow South — precisely what this SCOTUS case was about. Holding libel trials in the Deep South for newspaper coverage of the Deep South made victory likely, and, even when not, the cost of defending such suits was prohibitive.
One could argue that, from an Originalist standpoint, the practical effects don't matter so long as the original text of the Constitution remains pure. But there's little doubt that such a change in Constitutional law would have a massively negative effect on investigative journalism of any ideology, and simply ensure that the powerful are more able to retain their power.
Vaccinations and the Social Contract
This article comes out of Canada, so most Americans will discount it reflexively. The idea of mandatory anything, especially regarding medicine, is a third rail to American culture, the antithesis to personal liberty.
But truth is truth, and science is science, and people dead of diseases don't have a lot of enthusiasm for personal liberty. The legal principle that "Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins"[1] applies here. Your refusing to be vaccinated (or to vaccinate your children) directly impacts me and my own loved ones as the herd immunity is diluted.
'Vaccination, like paying taxes, is a civic duty; it is part of the social contract. Opting out for personal beliefs should not be an option.'
Yes, the "social contract" is another of those things that Americans seem ambivalent about, when push comes to shove. Which may be fine over little things, but when it comes to epidemics, it's murderously shortsighted.
—–
[1] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/15/liberty-fist-nose/
Vox Tyrannus
Hey, Donald — you know who calls individuals or institutions "ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE"?
Tyrants.
No, really. It's classic authoritarian, autocratic rhetoric, spewed against enemies of those in power by every dictatorial power from the Nazis to the Commies, from Goebbels to Stalin to Mao to Pol Pot to Idi Amin to every dictator, noteworthy or tinpot.
It is, almost literally, an un-American thing to say.
And it's a prime example of what you'll be remembered for.
This isn't to say that you cannot criticize the NYT (et al.), or deny what they report, or even express your irk at their reporting. But using the rhetoric of dictators and tyrants — well, if you choose to assert the shoe fits …
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1098218016255414272
The Climate-Be-Damned President
Apparently even a treaty that has the support of major US businesses, GOP lawmakers, and the US Chamber of Commerce, can't get any traction in the Trump Administration because (a) it was originally proposed under his predecessor, which delenda est, and (b) it has implications in fighting climate change, which makes it utterly no-go for Donald Trump.
Also, you know, it's a treaty, which Trump is always convinced means a bad deal for the United States.
What’s Keeping Trump from Ratifying a Climate Treaty Even Republicans Support?
Republican senators and the Chamber of Commerce have urged Trump to back the Kigali Amendment on HFCs, saying it’s in the U.S.’s economic interest.
California police unions fight to protect police misconduct from becoming public
A new California law opens up police misconduct records around excessive violence and sexual misconduct to the public. But, for some mysterious reason, police unions in the state are fighting tooth and nail to keep the law from going fully into effect, or to restrict such record releases to misconduct that occurs only after the law went into effect on January 1st.
It's almost as if the police are trying to cover up wrongdoing. Which surely cannot be the case, right?
Of course, in some cases the police unions have local city support. Special bonus point to the City of Inglewood that decided in December to shred official records on over 100 officers dating back to 1991.
Law and order, indeed.
California Police Unions Fight New State Law Promising Transparency on Misconduct Records
Senate Bill 1421 requires law enforcement agencies to make public investigative records of officer-involved shootings and uses of force resulting in great bodily harm. But law enforcement unions argue that the law threatens the privacy of their members.
A good cause for an awful reason
The Trump Administration is apparently pushing on the "diplomatic" front against countries that have criminalized homosexuality, to get them to change their internal policies.
Which sounds great except:
1. The focus is on Muslim countries, as part of Trump's general demonization of Islam. Non-Muslim countries with problematic records around gay rights — like, say, Russia — are not being targeted.
2. Trump's administration is acting unilaterally, eschewing multilateral efforts against such laws. Because, of course, the US doesn't want to be seen hobnobbing with the interests of other other nations.
3. None of this seems to be affecting Trump's domestic policy, which is around marginalizing LGBTQ* rights, banning transfolk from the military, encouraging "religious freedom" exemptions to discriminate against gay people, rolling back previous administration protections, etc.
In other words, it's anti-Islamic rhetoric, hypocritically framed as civil liberty protections.
Trump administration on decriminalizing homosexuality: Do as we say, not as we do
The administration voted previously against a U.N. resolution condemning the use of the death penalty to punish homosexuality.
How Not to Build a Wall
Donald Trump not only caved on a legislative approach to getting his Big, Beautiful Wall built, he also apparently didn't spot some built-in wall breaches in the funding bill he grudgingly signed.
' But the fine print shows secondary capitulations: In addition to allocating only $1.37 billion for the wall, the bill includes limitations on where it can be built. […] The five areas the federal government isn’t allowed to build are: the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, the La Lomita Historical Park, the National Butterfly Center, and within or east of the Vista del Mar Ranch tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. All of these locations have been named in border wall–related lawsuits.'
Note that while the headline of the article claims these restrictions as a victory for Democrats, the sponsor of the amendment to include them says that Republicans signed onto these exemptions as well.
'Cuellar thinks part of the reason he was able to secure the protections was that the committee negotiating the spending bill allowed an open line of communication between Democrats and Republicans in Congress as well as with the administration. He said he even thanked Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney for listening to his concerns when he brought it up at a rare bipartisan Camp David meeting that Mulvaney held a few weekends ago with members of Congress.
“I said, 'Look, we're just trying to make people understand that in my area you just can't run over private property rights and some of those sensitive areas like the National Butterfly Center and other areas,’” Cuellar said. According to Cuellar, Mulvaney was a partner in working out language on the protections.'
Democrats secured a quiet border wall victory in the spending bill – VICE News
The spending bill’s fine print shows the president agreed to protect certain areas in Texas.
