Occam’s razor, the venerable philosophical principle that the truest explanation is likely to be the simplest, has been thrown away. We’re living in the age of Occam’s chain saw, when the preferred answer is the one that makes the loudest noise and generates the most debris.
Finished C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces. 📚 I didn’t get it last time I tried, 40-50 years ago, and didn’t finish.
I think it’s the kind of book that needs a little wisdom in the reader, and I guess I’ve gained a bit of that in my advanced years.
Signalgate is not about Signal:
Indeed, using Signal on internet-connected commercial devices doesn’t just leave communications open to anyone who can somehow exploit a hackable vulnerability in Signal, but anyone who can hack the iOS, Android, Windows, or Mac devices that might be running the Signal mobile or desktop apps.
Aziz Huq, America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State. Alongside the “normative state” that allows the economy to lurch along, Trump is building a “prerogative state” that allows him his retributions and grandstanding.
There’s a lot to think about in A Confessing Church for America’s Weimar Moment, but I couldn’t escape the dread that there really is no “American Church” to issue a Barmen Declaration to Weimar America. Some “Christian” sectarians are prominent among Weimar’s fans.
Still: much to think about.
Jack Goldsmith of Harvard Law School takes a closer look at District Court “universal injunctions” than one normally sees.
Part of the reason Trump keeps losing in court is that he replaced career attorneys at DOJ with toadies and then started writing checks that even good lawyers couldn’t cash.
I don’t know if he coined it, but Damon Linker today uses the wonderfully-apt “ransom notes” to describe the intended effect of many of the ochre emperor’s Executive Orders.
Trump Voters Love Him More Than Before. Four Conservative Columnists Pinpoint Why..
Though all four columnists are anti-Trumpers, it still gives me a glimmer of insight into what most of the time strikes me as invincible perversity. Four of my top five highlights are David Brooks.
My friend Roger Wiens relocated here from Los Alamos a few year ago. He has what you definitely could call a “niche job.”
Our main local TV station’s billionaire owner has cut most of its top talent and even delivers our weather forecast from Atlanta sometimes. Our former top weather forecaster chose to remain in the community and set up a weather Substack. It’s almost too much to read; much more thorough than any TV.
Reading this latest from Fr. Stephen Freeman (about Lewis’ The Great Divorce, a book that drew me away from Protestantism), I’m reminded of one of his arresting phrases from the longer ago: Christ did not come to make bad men good, but to make dead men live.
I don’t want to be smug, but after watching George Mason vs. VCU, I’m pretty confident that neither of them will beat the worst Big Ten team in the NCAA Tournament.
I clipped it a few days ago but only found the time today to read David Brooks, It Isn’t Just Trump. America’s Whole Reputation Is Shot. (Shared article)
The title is just about perfect. European reactions especially welcome.
Trigger warning: Kevin D. Williamson doesn’t like the current leader of Trumpistan, nor his ancestors, nor his descendants.
A retired local ink-stained wretch continues covering local news from his Substack, outperforming his former employer by many accounts. Here he reports on a grisly incident.
How do you protect against something like this? It’s maybe more random than political terrorism.
Take a deep breath: My grandson, 17 (son, grandson and great-grandson of lawyers — and one very handy boilermaker), is enrolling in a half-day carpentry “Career Academy” for his Senior year. He wants to work with his hands and isn’t doing well in most academic studies.
This is where my theorizing about the wisdom of skilled trades gets its acid-test.
ICE has never deported 1 million people in a year, let alone half that many.
Nick Miroff, ICE Isn’t Delivering the Mass Deportation Trump Wants - The Atlantic
I’ve seen this backwards use of “let alone” several times recently. I’m having flashbacks of watching “literally” morph into its opposite.
I wish I was the wit who invented the satirical Strategic Powerball Reserve as an American Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Local noon TV news assured me that I don’t need to wear special eye protection to watch next Friday’s full lunar eclipse. I think that was a surprise to the anchor who read it. Half the news items ended with an inflection that sounded as if they should append “if the price is right!”
Jake Meador, Challenges to Liberalism in the Post-Trump Era. Thought-provoking. Mere Orthodoxy is a subscription now, but maybe there’s an allowance for an occasional peek.
FWIW, in this taxonomy, I think I’m right-wing and anti-fascist, which means I’m some species of liberal. That feels right.