Well, everyone loses a little bit in a compromise...
Think of it more like building your Citizen Social Presence Score. On the plus side, we're tightening up the vote and making it more secure, on the negative side we live in a society.
Sometimes we just need the middle to step-up and broker a compromise.
Voter ID : Vaccine ID
=
Unity in ID
Of course it is preposterous to question the outcome of the election as illegitimate.
It is, however, a rather preposterous system and we should make it less so. In these fractious days, I think all legislation should be of the "I cut / You chose" methodology.
This is sort of a musical blind-spot for me. As a child of the 70s there are swaths of music that hit me like an allergic reaction... the Carpenters are one of those allergies.
That said, one of the many things I love about Christmas Music is that they are all (almost all) covers! It's 100% about mood and style... there's no originality involve... well, other than arranging the covers into the right mood and style.
And this is a great thing! We can make Christmas playlists (thanks Cloud!) for every mood and style imaginable. And for someone such as myself who makes a Christmas playlist almost every year (and labels them by mood/style and year - thanks Cloud!) I really appreciate this shared culture.
My playlists start with Advent: Benedictine Sisters of Mary and Roger Wilcock make up two excellent lists which dominate airtime between 1st and 3rd Sundays of Advent. We're sort of semi-Pelagian purists when it comes to Thanksgiving/Christmas... we insist on some Advent... right up until Gaudete Sunday, then we fall apart in our self-defined works of virtue.
After Gaudete Sunday (yesterday, by the way), we jump into the popular milieus... Country, Crooner and Jazzy ...depending on the time/mood of day: Afternoon, Cocktail hour, Supper. Mornings are still contemplative Advent Benedictines of Mary... the Semi part of the Pelagianism. These are the songs of communal friendship, wintertide musings, and the silly goings on of romance and party planning... maybe a few country singers thinking about Mary.
We don't really break out the Choral powerhouses until the last few days... the Christmas Eve anticipatory days. Kings College, Choer Rhapsodes and other choirs who have mastered mood/style/technique. These are the big hymnal songs, the lessons mixed with the carols. Arrangements that make Phil Spector weep in awe. I still spend hours looking for Choirs that have a 'take' on these Christmas covers. Kings College is the baseline... after that I'm looking for style and nuance... I abhor the dirgey style of false liturgy that some choirs produce. Ugh.
BUT NEVER ADESTE FIDELIS... this alone must be saved for Christmas Day. Even as we sneak in a few of the others on the anticipatory days to the anticipatory day.
So mood, style, technique and themes can all be grouped as we listen to the same songs that we all know. I even revisit playlists (hence the dates) to see if new entrants have arrived... Dean, Bing and the Andrews sisters joined by Michael and the Puppini Sisters... even found a new crooner this year.
Someday, maybe, I'll even make a Carpenters Christmas mix. Or, more likely, my children will make one.
I suppose I'll virtue signal that that I think the outcome is correct.
On the lesser point of Standing, I'd appreciate some constitutional lawyerly thoughts on how to read the plain text.
If it were I, I'd simply assume that this is denied owing to Article II and the selection of Electors and *therefore* Texas, et al. don't have standing to bring suit.
But, if I were writing such an opinion, I'd include the part about Article II which makes the part about Article III relevant. Because if its not simply assuming and skipping over Article II and is making an Article III claim, then I think Alito and Thomas are correct.
But, it seems to me so obviously an Article II issue that I can only wonder why only Article III is specified.
We finally saved up enough to enclose a screened porch into a sort-of she-shed for my wife... a room for her projects, computer, homeschool, etc. etc. I'm told I'm allowed to use the room conditionally. It is something we've been planning for a long time. And it was her Birthday Month (it used to be Birthday, then weekend, then octave, now Month, soon to be quarter) so we pulled the trigger. Found a young contractor just getting started (a friend of my daughter) who was reasonable and available, because... everyone in the entire world is doing home renovations.
Everything is going along swimmingly, work is great, contractor shows up every day, the usual things that pop-up are quickly resolved and the project is more-or-less on schedule. Just waiting on the ceiling insulation - that we ordered 6-8 weeks ago - no biggie, just a couple of annoying snafu's on the supplier side. Right?
Friday the supplier informed the builder that there's no R38C (for vaulted ceiling) anywhere in the US because... everyone in the entire world is doing renovations.
This is where being young/new will cost us in a delay... he didn't have the juice or experience to make sure his materials were held for him and not delivered to another project... and/or making sure the supplier gave him warning with enough advance to make alternative plans.
So now I'm researching whether we can compress R49 with a baffle or whether new materials (hey, Mineral Wool is thinner!) would pass code. Code sometimes being outcome based - does it conform to the spec? Yes? Good, pass. Versus Inspectors being process based - hey this isn't R38C... we like to see R38C here... why aren't you using R38C?
But we don't know if the inspectors will be jolly, it being the holiday season and all, or grumpy... because everyone in the entire world is doing renovations.
"Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."
No, I certainly wouldn't call any counterfactual pre-determined. But I kinda think this post combined with Veronica's hits on the uncertainty I'm pointing out. What you say seems perfectly reasonable, and yet simultaneously obscene.
But the other thing I'm noting that's interesting (at least to me) is that there are some Liberal voices that are trying to do the whole 'velocity' thing and its not at all clear to me that Liberals can alter the velocity... never mind Conservatives or Republicans.
I don't disagree... I don't think the Republican party is 'conservative' in any meaningful way.
But, what is 'conservative' is tiresome and probably past its sell date; so not really what I'm going for here.
On the one hand, I do think there's a notion (often expressed here [cough]) that 'conservative' is just slow motion change... and in practice that seems to be the case - Hey, why can't we have Friday13 level violence? Porn uploaded from *verified* users is the answer - so, maybe that's just true in that we're all really just Liberals. But on the other hand, if we had a conservative political philosophy and a conservative political party, it would be based on different principles and not simply velocity.
But the Republican Party as a conservative political movement isn't a hill I'm going to defend. Heck, I'll probably join you in storming the ramparts.
Sure, but the flip-side question is if Civil Unions had been done, would we all be conservatives defending the sanctity of Civil Unions vs. Marriage... because that was the deal?
That's why the though experiment strikes me as intuitively true but practically a non-starter cause there's no way to make anything 'stick'
And are we supposed to be sympathetic to a 2k mile booty call at company Christmas Party in a high-rise that also contains a bank vault with hundreds of millions in bearer bonds? Sometime I feel like the Christmas spirit is dead.
I think the word 'proof' actually diminishes the 'power' of the logic.
In a different age it would have been more accurately described as: The Ontological Subversion of Disbelief. Proof enables Disbelief to take purchase and snap things back; but continual contemplation of the ontological question is unending.
I don't think Aliens present an a priori problem. That is, for all we know, the aliens confirm the fall/redemption narrative that is particular to earth/humanity.
Perhaps they also interact with God and we're delving deeper into theological narratives with different types of theological histories. In fact, my default assumption would be that these advanced aliens believe 'something' and it's ahistorical/idiosyncratic to assume they believe nothing. More likely "we're doing it wrong" than some sort of Kantian disembodied rational animal.
CS Lewis explored what salvation history might look like outside the bounds of planet earth. And Tolkien in his unpublished works (some of his best writing) dives quite deeply into the way in which different sentient beings might interact with God... specifically the Ainur, Elves and Men. It's truly great stuff, if one is inclined to contemplate such things.
There's a fascinating dialog between an Elf and an old woman loremaster (of the house of Haleth) in which he attempts to understand mortality and whence it came... she relates a tale reminiscent of a fall and some sort of sundering of the understanding of death and life. I used to be able to google to refresh my memory of which book/chapter... but it seems google is besotted with Tolkien searches owing to some Jackson fellow.
No, I don't think that's the point of originalism, nor Vermuele's critique of it.
I'm just inserting it here where he'd likely agree that you "push the button" because the next time it comes up it will be over an issue where folks here don't think there's an obvious common good being preserved.
Ultimately it's asking the court to rule not adjudicate... and I think that's increasingly a bi-partisan consensus. We *want* that. Until we get it.
This is slightly oblique... but I feel obliged to point out in a context such as this how Adrian Vermeule (of Catholic Integralist fame) would argue precisely as you reason thus:
"And there are now people standing in front of the Supreme Court saying “hey, to put that feature in, all you have to do is press this button”.
I am arguing that they should press the button."
The anti-Originalist position of the Vermeule faction is the converse of the anti-Originalist position of the liberal faction on the Court... you always push the button in favor of the Common Good.
Preempting the, if you didn't like Originalist Conservative jurists, just wait until...
Pretty sure Gorgias did not actually believe in ontological negation; but instead used it to demonstrate he could prove anything. Whether he really wanted to rehabilitate Helen of Troy? Well, even Melania has her apologists.
On “Up The Union”
Imagine thinking bankers were just transactional middle men with government sponsored fiat and not the forces for social good we know them to be.
"
Well, everyone loses a little bit in a compromise...
Think of it more like building your Citizen Social Presence Score. On the plus side, we're tightening up the vote and making it more secure, on the negative side we live in a society.
"
Sometimes we just need the middle to step-up and broker a compromise.
Voter ID : Vaccine ID
=
Unity in ID
Of course it is preposterous to question the outcome of the election as illegitimate.
It is, however, a rather preposterous system and we should make it less so. In these fractious days, I think all legislation should be of the "I cut / You chose" methodology.
On “Carpenters Christmas: The Definitive Christmas album?”
This is sort of a musical blind-spot for me. As a child of the 70s there are swaths of music that hit me like an allergic reaction... the Carpenters are one of those allergies.
That said, one of the many things I love about Christmas Music is that they are all (almost all) covers! It's 100% about mood and style... there's no originality involve... well, other than arranging the covers into the right mood and style.
And this is a great thing! We can make Christmas playlists (thanks Cloud!) for every mood and style imaginable. And for someone such as myself who makes a Christmas playlist almost every year (and labels them by mood/style and year - thanks Cloud!) I really appreciate this shared culture.
My playlists start with Advent: Benedictine Sisters of Mary and Roger Wilcock make up two excellent lists which dominate airtime between 1st and 3rd Sundays of Advent. We're sort of semi-Pelagian purists when it comes to Thanksgiving/Christmas... we insist on some Advent... right up until Gaudete Sunday, then we fall apart in our self-defined works of virtue.
After Gaudete Sunday (yesterday, by the way), we jump into the popular milieus... Country, Crooner and Jazzy ...depending on the time/mood of day: Afternoon, Cocktail hour, Supper. Mornings are still contemplative Advent Benedictines of Mary... the Semi part of the Pelagianism. These are the songs of communal friendship, wintertide musings, and the silly goings on of romance and party planning... maybe a few country singers thinking about Mary.
We don't really break out the Choral powerhouses until the last few days... the Christmas Eve anticipatory days. Kings College, Choer Rhapsodes and other choirs who have mastered mood/style/technique. These are the big hymnal songs, the lessons mixed with the carols. Arrangements that make Phil Spector weep in awe. I still spend hours looking for Choirs that have a 'take' on these Christmas covers. Kings College is the baseline... after that I'm looking for style and nuance... I abhor the dirgey style of false liturgy that some choirs produce. Ugh.
BUT NEVER ADESTE FIDELIS... this alone must be saved for Christmas Day. Even as we sneak in a few of the others on the anticipatory days to the anticipatory day.
So mood, style, technique and themes can all be grouped as we listen to the same songs that we all know. I even revisit playlists (hence the dates) to see if new entrants have arrived... Dean, Bing and the Andrews sisters joined by Michael and the Puppini Sisters... even found a new crooner this year.
Someday, maybe, I'll even make a Carpenters Christmas mix. Or, more likely, my children will make one.
On “The Swing States Messed with Texas…Or Did They?”
I suppose I'll virtue signal that that I think the outcome is correct.
On the lesser point of Standing, I'd appreciate some constitutional lawyerly thoughts on how to read the plain text.
If it were I, I'd simply assume that this is denied owing to Article II and the selection of Electors and *therefore* Texas, et al. don't have standing to bring suit.
But, if I were writing such an opinion, I'd include the part about Article II which makes the part about Article III relevant. Because if its not simply assuming and skipping over Article II and is making an Article III claim, then I think Alito and Thomas are correct.
But, it seems to me so obviously an Article II issue that I can only wonder why only Article III is specified.
On “Weekend Plans Post: It’s Out”
We finally saved up enough to enclose a screened porch into a sort-of she-shed for my wife... a room for her projects, computer, homeschool, etc. etc. I'm told I'm allowed to use the room conditionally. It is something we've been planning for a long time. And it was her Birthday Month (it used to be Birthday, then weekend, then octave, now Month, soon to be quarter) so we pulled the trigger. Found a young contractor just getting started (a friend of my daughter) who was reasonable and available, because... everyone in the entire world is doing home renovations.
Everything is going along swimmingly, work is great, contractor shows up every day, the usual things that pop-up are quickly resolved and the project is more-or-less on schedule. Just waiting on the ceiling insulation - that we ordered 6-8 weeks ago - no biggie, just a couple of annoying snafu's on the supplier side. Right?
Friday the supplier informed the builder that there's no R38C (for vaulted ceiling) anywhere in the US because... everyone in the entire world is doing renovations.
This is where being young/new will cost us in a delay... he didn't have the juice or experience to make sure his materials were held for him and not delivered to another project... and/or making sure the supplier gave him warning with enough advance to make alternative plans.
So now I'm researching whether we can compress R49 with a baffle or whether new materials (hey, Mineral Wool is thinner!) would pass code. Code sometimes being outcome based - does it conform to the spec? Yes? Good, pass. Versus Inspectors being process based - hey this isn't R38C... we like to see R38C here... why aren't you using R38C?
But we don't know if the inspectors will be jolly, it being the holiday season and all, or grumpy... because everyone in the entire world is doing renovations.
On “Wednesday Writs: The Mess is Growing, So Here Are Links Edition”
Yep.
Ford pre-emptively pardoned Nixon.
"Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."
On “The Political Cyberpunk 2077 Thread”
Hmmn, from my vantage American culture and economic issues are moving rapidly in multiple directions. As might be expected with a broken consensus.
But yes, I see change happening along all these vectors, 'liberal' and 'conservative' alike.
"
No, I certainly wouldn't call any counterfactual pre-determined. But I kinda think this post combined with Veronica's hits on the uncertainty I'm pointing out. What you say seems perfectly reasonable, and yet simultaneously obscene.
But the other thing I'm noting that's interesting (at least to me) is that there are some Liberal voices that are trying to do the whole 'velocity' thing and its not at all clear to me that Liberals can alter the velocity... never mind Conservatives or Republicans.
"
I don't disagree... I don't think the Republican party is 'conservative' in any meaningful way.
But, what is 'conservative' is tiresome and probably past its sell date; so not really what I'm going for here.
On the one hand, I do think there's a notion (often expressed here [cough]) that 'conservative' is just slow motion change... and in practice that seems to be the case - Hey, why can't we have Friday13 level violence? Porn uploaded from *verified* users is the answer - so, maybe that's just true in that we're all really just Liberals. But on the other hand, if we had a conservative political philosophy and a conservative political party, it would be based on different principles and not simply velocity.
But the Republican Party as a conservative political movement isn't a hill I'm going to defend. Heck, I'll probably join you in storming the ramparts.
"
Sure, but the flip-side question is if Civil Unions had been done, would we all be conservatives defending the sanctity of Civil Unions vs. Marriage... because that was the deal?
That's why the though experiment strikes me as intuitively true but practically a non-starter cause there's no way to make anything 'stick'
There's no deal to be had.
"
Heh... imagine if this bold party were to negotiate The Grand Deal:
We agree to everything you ask TODAY... but there can be no further adjustments changes for 25-/50-/100-years.
Would that be a good deal? Would 'today' be limited to what we/they want today or would it turn in to what we/they want 50-years from now?
Who would defect first?
"
Now I finally get why the liberals think conservatism is just slowing down the change...
"why can't we go back to Friday 13th part 1 levels of violence is the 21st century conservative movement"
On “Stop Ruining Christmas”
And are we supposed to be sympathetic to a 2k mile booty call at company Christmas Party in a high-rise that also contains a bank vault with hundreds of millions in bearer bonds? Sometime I feel like the Christmas spirit is dead.
On “What Does God Need With a Political Starship?”
I think the word 'proof' actually diminishes the 'power' of the logic.
In a different age it would have been more accurately described as: The Ontological Subversion of Disbelief. Proof enables Disbelief to take purchase and snap things back; but continual contemplation of the ontological question is unending.
"
I don't think Aliens present an a priori problem. That is, for all we know, the aliens confirm the fall/redemption narrative that is particular to earth/humanity.
Perhaps they also interact with God and we're delving deeper into theological narratives with different types of theological histories. In fact, my default assumption would be that these advanced aliens believe 'something' and it's ahistorical/idiosyncratic to assume they believe nothing. More likely "we're doing it wrong" than some sort of Kantian disembodied rational animal.
CS Lewis explored what salvation history might look like outside the bounds of planet earth. And Tolkien in his unpublished works (some of his best writing) dives quite deeply into the way in which different sentient beings might interact with God... specifically the Ainur, Elves and Men. It's truly great stuff, if one is inclined to contemplate such things.
There's a fascinating dialog between an Elf and an old woman loremaster (of the house of Haleth) in which he attempts to understand mortality and whence it came... she relates a tale reminiscent of a fall and some sort of sundering of the understanding of death and life. I used to be able to google to refresh my memory of which book/chapter... but it seems google is besotted with Tolkien searches owing to some Jackson fellow.
On “From The Jerusalem Post: Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist, humanity not ready”
If MiB taught me one thing...
"
Pretty sure this is a nonagenarian grudgematch somehow involving Buzz Aldrin.
On “From SCOTUSblog: Argument analysis: Justices send mixed messages on corporate liability for allegedly aiding child slavery abroad”
No, I don't think that's the point of originalism, nor Vermuele's critique of it.
I'm just inserting it here where he'd likely agree that you "push the button" because the next time it comes up it will be over an issue where folks here don't think there's an obvious common good being preserved.
Ultimately it's asking the court to rule not adjudicate... and I think that's increasingly a bi-partisan consensus. We *want* that. Until we get it.
"
This is slightly oblique... but I feel obliged to point out in a context such as this how Adrian Vermeule (of Catholic Integralist fame) would argue precisely as you reason thus:
"And there are now people standing in front of the Supreme Court saying “hey, to put that feature in, all you have to do is press this button”.
I am arguing that they should press the button."
The anti-Originalist position of the Vermeule faction is the converse of the anti-Originalist position of the liberal faction on the Court... you always push the button in favor of the Common Good.
Preempting the, if you didn't like Originalist Conservative jurists, just wait until...
"
I suppose the Zyklon B reference is supposed to be the moral zinger... but honestly the deadly words are "competitive disadvantage"
Unpack that and you'll get solidarity.
On “Scott Adams and Me”
As well they should.
Or conversely, 21st century scholar: Why Gorgias was a sh*tposter.
On “LA County Fadeaway: 3 Week Lockdown Coming Monday”
Well that should go swimmingly.
On “Scott Adams and Me”
Pretty sure Gorgias did not actually believe in ontological negation; but instead used it to demonstrate he could prove anything. Whether he really wanted to rehabilitate Helen of Troy? Well, even Melania has her apologists.
On “LA County Fadeaway: 3 Week Lockdown Coming Monday”
See, that's why the US needs Concordats to determine what's a religion and what's merely a sect.
[he said half joking, half suppressing a maniacal laugh]