In Tenure Veritas: Libations From The Ivory Tower

 This morning, we have two reasons to have a look back at one of the earlier books in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.  Equal Rites .  Honestly, we're stepping into the Wayback Machine here, because this one was published in 1987.  We have a few reasons to turn to this one, which is not the best of the Discworld books, but has its moments.  Joe Biden will nominate the first black woman to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court will be examining affirmative action policies, again , in some interesting contexts.  Both are relevant, but really, it's the former that prompts me to w...rite about Equal Rites . So here's the book, in very brief form.  The way wizardry works is that if you are the eighth son of the eighth son (eights are important, instead of sevens), you are all magical, 'n stuff.  If you are sponsored, you can vie for admission to Unseen University, in Ankh-Morpork, which is where most of the best books take place.  Note the d...

 I just have a simple observation for the morning.  When Justice Breyer's retirement was announced, I put up a characteristically snarky post, but one of the observations that I did not bother to make, thinking it too banal, was that Biden would obviously pick a black woman, because the politics of the Democratic Party require thinking in terms of "identity" first.  I had actually forgotten  that Biden had made that a formal promise long ago!  Joke's on me, I guess.  So as I think back on my failure to remember the blatancy of the identity pledge, another relatively simple observation followed.  Now this one is a little complicated, so bear with me.  You see, Joe Biden is what we call, "white," and a, "man."  By the incredibly complex rules of "intersectionality," that makes him a "white man."  I had to check my math three times on that, and then get personal confirmation from Kimberle Crenshaw, because this is really hard stuff...

 In a stunning turn of events, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, allowing President Biden to name a replacement before Mitch McConnell blockades the seat under the likely event of his death in the 2023-4 term, thereby showing that he is not a narcissistic, arrogant moron.  By rejecting the tradition of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in which liberal justices betray every cause they have ever supported and shit all over everyone they claim to defend by refusing to retire when their own side can pick a replacement, Justice Breyer has ensured that the left will not remember him by his initials, or worship at his alter.  They only do that for those who betray them out of self-importance. Justice Breyer was seen, before the announcement, literally shitting on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's grave. Good for him. Fuck Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Unless you like  her replacement.  Do you?  

 I have been telling you, repeatedly, that Donald Trump will never be convicted, nor even indicted for anything.  The big political news of the day is that a grand jury has been convened for his attempt to rig the Georgia election.  So, a few comments.  First, I am updating my assessment of the possibility of an indictment, but not  of a conviction.  A politically-minded DA might think she can score some points by tilting at this particular windbag, even with an inevitable loss.  However, the probability of a conviction remains absolute zero.  You cannot, I repeat, cannot  compose a jury without any Republicans, and there are zero Republicans other than Cheney or Kinzinger who would ever vote to convict Trump of anything.  A conviction is impossible.  Donald Trump really could murder someone on 5th Avenue, on camera, in broad daylight, and you couldn't compose a jury in this country that would convict him because you can't block eve...

 In the hypothetical case that anyone read this obscure, pretentious, little blog, such a reader would understand that I enjoy profanity.  The taboos that we place on language are usually silly and arbitrary, and the act of violating these taboos becomes an iconoclastic act of refusal to submit to rules that make no sense.  George Carlin always has been, and always will be the closest thing I will ever have to a hero.  Yet, there are some "curses" that I do not use, and among them, "son of a bitch."  Why?  It is an attack on the wrong person.  It is an attack on the mother  of the person whom you wish to attack.  If you wrong me and I call you a "son of a bitch," I have misdirected my counter.  Your mother  has done nothing to me, and I have no information pertaining to whether not she is a bitch.  She may be a bitch.  She may not  be a bitch.  Her bitch-itude is both unknown, and irrelevant to the question....

 Several weeks ago, I wrote a series of posts on  Perdido Street Station , by China Mieville.  The novel was set on the world of Bas-Lag, which combines magic, steampunk technology, and various "xenian" species, who mix human and animal physiologies (like the khepri, who have human bodies and insect heads).  Amazing book, filled with fascinating political and social ideas, along with a rich tapestry of a world.  There are two sequels, set in the same world.  Book 2 is The Scar .  A very interesting novel, although unsurprisingly, it cannot quite live up to the grandeur of Perdido Street Station .  Nevertheless, it is worth reading, and it raises some interesting questions that are strangely more timely in 2022 as we spend more time discussing the legacy of slavery than when the novel was published in 2002.  (Sorry, I'm behind on this one.) Spoilers abound, both for Perdido Street Station , and The Scar .  The events of Perdido Street Sta...

 As you may have read by now, several Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, and even Rep. Kevin McCarthy , who is angling for Lindsey Graham's job of Trump's first-gimp in the next administration, have said that they are willing to consider reforming the "Electoral Count Act."  This is one of the smaller reforms Democrats have been considering in order to prevent something like the scheme Trump tried to pull in 2020.  The title of this post gave it away, so let's just do this thing. Anyway, we have a phrase for this kind of tactic.  "Pointlessly obvious reference beaten into the ground through over-use."  Wait, that's not it.  OK, it is, but that's not where I'm going here.  Let's go for a more pithy cliche.  "Fighting the last war."  So here's the deal.  What is Congress's role in counting the electoral votes?  What is the vice president's  role?  Are they purely  ceremonial?  Yes.  The answer is yes...

 Pierre Dørge, "Lost In The Desert, I See A Caravan," from Live At Birdland .

 Tomorrow is a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.  'Tis a strange day, given the strange place of the man beloved by everybody and nobody in modern America.  Beloved as a symbol, deconstructed in his legacy, and substantively rejected by the modern left and right.  Everyone pays homage to the name because as a symbol, nobody on the left or right is permitted to admit their rejection of that for which he stood, and marched and "fought." "Concept creep."  This is one of the more important concepts, so to speak, for you to understand in the modern world.  The term comes to us from Nick Haslam, and his analysis of the process by which technical terms in psychology are weakened and politicized.  Terms like trauma, and abuse have technical definitions, but the words also have political value because of their power, so they have been expanded and politicized, and weakened such that they encompass much more mild circumstances and behaviors....

 I wrote a long-form post yesterday.  I was irate, so I wrote.  What do you do?  Drive angry?  Consume unhealthy substances?  I write.  Regardless, I have one brief observation for today.  The RNC has announced that they are ordering candidates not to participate in debates sponsored by the Commission.  And I'd just like to say... hurray!  "Debates" are falsely advertised.  They are not true Scotsmen debates.  They are soundbite vs. soundbite, and when Trump is on stage, they are even less.  They have never served a purpose because there is no part of the job of being  president that resembles the task of debating, nor even "debating."  It is as though a law firm interviewed candidates by handing them violins and asking them to play the Brandenburg Concertos as part of the interview process, not because the job involves the violin, but just because they've always had a violin portion of the interview process....

 The Democrats' voting legislation is dead.  It is an ex-bill.  Its plumage may be lovely, but it was dead when you bought it, and the only reason that credulous consumers convinced themselves otherwise is that it had been nailed to its perch.  May I interest you in something else?  Perhaps a half-a-bee?  His name is Eric.  Fish licenses are sold next door. Would I have voted for the various bills the Democrats have drafted?  Yes.  I do not agree with everything in them, much of the breathless rhetoric is hyperventilation over nothing, as was the case with voter IDs, but the threat of handing administrative tasks to Republican hacks, and worse yet, creating pathways to overturn legitimate vote counts... this is serious stuff.  Nevertheless, these bills were all dead on arrival.  As dead as that parrot.  I would not have wasted any money on that parrot, nor any real effort on bills that had zero chance of passing.  Did it m...

 One of the predictable, but disheartening admissions that the medical community has finally made, and gotten the political world to acknowledge, is that COVID is not going away.  It is a fact of life, a fact of the world, and we must find a way to exist in a world with COVID knowing that it will not be eradicated.  There was once a time when we may have told ourselves that COVID could be eradicated, or at least contained, but that time has passed.  It has been clear for a while, but it is only recently that the epidemiological community, and from them, the political establishment, has made this message clear to the world, or at least, as clear to the world as can be when a large part of the world exists within an informational bubble divorced from fact.  And so we (I) revisit Haden's Syndrome.  I find it interesting and useful, or at least, a satisfying diversion, to spend my Sunday mornings, rambling about science fiction, and I have made semi-regular ref...