It ain't your Disney Nature
Okay, this isn't relevant, but I have posted a lot on the Punitive Expedition, and I hadn't seen this cartoon before.
Headline:'Mad Men' star January Jones 'forced to bludgeon' a rattlesnake after one bit her dog.
Good for her.
I don't know who January Jones is, and I've never seen Mad Men. I'm probably the only person on earth who has not. I'm not going to either as the concept of a drama based on advertising executives bores me. I think it was probably popular in the first place as people who are young enough that the 50s and 60s seems like ancient times are fascinated by the second half of the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, wich are "the 50s" in our imagination.
Indeed, while that diverts from this, its interesting how nobody thinks of the first half of the 1950s in this fashion. The Korean War, for example, wasn't fun. Or glamorous. And American Graffiti is set in 1962, even though everyone seems to think it was set in the 50s. It wasn't. Indeed, it was filmed in 1973, which is really remarkable, as it was nostalgic about a prior era that was clearly separated from the one it was filmed in, and that era was only a decade prior.
Anyhow, rattlesnakes kill and they're snakes. You need to watch out for them. That a member of the Hollywood set would beat one to death is a good sign.
I'm sure she'll get complaints.
The guy who tossed a bobcat out from under his wife's car probably will get complaints too. He shouldn't, but he was pretty lucky that worked out for him really. I like cats, but I wouldn't want to tangle with one.
Will somebody turn off the microphones please?
Headline:
Trump goes after McConnell, Fauci in off-script Mar-a-Lago speech
Somehow Donald Trump, after driving the GOP into the ground following his defeat in the election, has managed to retain a following. What the crud? It's truly amazing.
The Republicans ought to be irate right now with Trump. He ruined their changes of keeping the Senate. Somehow, he still gets air time. This is a bit like some somewhat inebriated guy who was offered to give a toast failing to get off the stage after starting to tell embarrassing stories about the bride and her family.
Turn off the mike already before things get worse.
Of course, this may be because there's nobody who can seemingly carrying the populist standard. There are some populist candidates right now, but either they're politically unattractive in some ways, or just get more or less ignored. It's interesting.
On this topic, Trump was interfering with Wyoming politics this past week as well. He announced that he was assessing the candidates who will run against Elizabeth Cheney and will endorse one of them, but he's not sure which. It won't matter, that candidate is going down in defeat. He also endorsed the head of the state's GOP in that role, which isn't too surprising as that person has been such a big backer of his.
All this while the GOP in D.C. is trying to distance itself from Trump, with Biden opening up some doors for them in that regard. They'd get further if Trump wasn't in the news.
Burn Notice
A Trumpite and Cheney opponent who has been getting a lot of air time, first welcome, and now not, is asserting that the "Deep State" is after him.
The Deep State is a hard right concept that bureaucrats deeply entrenched in office operate to keep themselves in office from administration to administration as they're primary goal and that they basically function to override democracy.
As with most better myths, there's an element of truth to this as bureaucrats really are deeply invested in their own jobs and tend to, at some point, value them above everything else. And many do indeed ride out careers over multiple administrations. Making it that way was a goal of reform in the early 20th Century when Civil Service rules were put in place such that entire groups of bureaucrats didn't loose their jobs when high offices went from one party to the other. Before that, they were all subject to patronage, which still exist to some degree, but not anywhere near to the degree which it once did. None of that is particularly sinister however.
A bit beyond that it can be the case that career civil service people will dislike an administration. That's pretty common as well. But the conspiratorial assumptions that get attributed to this are largely unmerited. Not only that, but they fed into a Q Anon belief that everything was in control of some sinister forces, which simply isn't true.
Anyhow, Matt Gaetz says that he "may be a cancelled man", and, moreover he may even be cancelled by the "Deep State". This really feeds into that conspiratorial nonsense.
It's also part of the times now in a way that was trailblazed first by Donald Trump but more perfectly by Governor Cuomo. During the recent "Me Too" episode it was pretty clear that an accusation alone, unless it was flat out false or flat out unprovable, was the end of a public person's career. Trump just ignored such accusations against him, however, and they didn't stick. Cuomo denied them but has flat out refused to resign. Gaetz is following the Cuomo playbook but ramping it up.
Did Gaetz do the icky things he's accused of? I have no idea, but we'll probably all get to find out. At any rate, a man who is so modelesque as himself really ought not to be trusted, in my view, as there's something wrong with that, and it has nothing to do with the "Deep State".
Dignified Schadenfreude
Cheney was asked about Gaetz and Trump on this weekends Face the Nation, which I don't normally watch. She was first asked about Trump and pretty much, in as dignified way as possible, and very effectively, seated him next to Jefferson Davis in the nation's list of people whom you wouldn't find seating for even if they slipped you a $50. Her dissing of Gaetz, however, was simply beautiful.
The hose of Face the Nation is Margaret Brennan, who is pregnant and obviously showing. Cheney congratulated her right off the bat and Brennan very genuinely thanked her. When Gaetz came up, Cheney noted that the allegations were "disgusting", noting her own role as a mother of daughters, and then basically dumped Gaetz in the category of people you wouldn't want your daughter to be associated with. It was masterful.
Really not gasping the wiring
On a somewhat related item to the last couple, a female photographer in town has taken a photo of a group of women in town topless on one of the main streets. It's supposed to highlight "rape culture".
It won't, and that's an incredibly stupid assumption.
I haven't see it, so I'm unable to answer the question, and I'm not going to look for it out of a sense of decency and also, should I see it, I might know somebody and I don't want that image in my mind. But here's a news flash for the photographer.
Men like boobs.
And the like them, um that way.
Entire magazine empires generating billions of dollars have been based on nothing but boobs. Some outrageous percentage of the Internet is basically devoted to boobs, according to people who track such things. Probably more of the Internet is devoted to boobs, and viewed by males, than any other single subject that may rival it in any sense.
Men, everywhere, like boobs. Even women tend to be more than a little fascinated by boobs.
Human beings are mammals and mammals. Of the mammals, primates have the highest sexual dimorphism by quite some measure. Members of the Homo genus, moreover have the highest sexual dimorphism of the primates. It's basically off the charts in the animal kingdom. If you were a space alien and popped down on this planet with no prior knowledge of our species, you'd assume it was two different species the way that you'd note that cattle and sheep are two different species, and one of the things you'd probably note is that one of the species had quite a different body from from the other, and that other was fascinated with it the way that cats are with catnip mice. The dimorphism extends to our physical bodies in an off the chart fashion, and it also, like it or not, extends to our psychological makeup.
Part of that is that human beings, our species, Homo Sapien Sapien, has the highest sex drive of any member of the primates. So we are the pinnacle, for good or ill, in this category. We're extremely unusual in terms of a mammal, including a primate, in that both males and females are attracted to sexual intercourse outside of the females reproductive receptivity. Men are, moreover, off the charts on this, and interested pretty much at any time, if the conditions arise.
One of the ways that condition arises, and indeed the primary one for males of our species, is visual. This goes clean across cultures, beliefs and ages. Basically, men are "turned on" by female bodies. For this reason vast amounts of time and effort are generated across the globe photographing women without their shirts, without their pants, and without their shirts and pants.
Women, on the other hand, are "turned on" in a different, and perhaps we should say more sophisticated, manner, although its one that students of the topic say is messed with by pharmaceutical birth control. Women are more receptive "in season" and their minds automatically figure in a bunch of things about men they meet in regard to their suitability for a lifelong, and that's how it is figured, mate. In other words, when on a hot summer day a single man is met with a woman in a t-shirt that's revealing, his mind goes through something like "woo wee. . . she's hot. . . look at those. . . , is she nice, do I have anything in common. . woo wee. . . she's hot", where as a female's mind goes through something like "is he nice, is he decent, does he look healthy. . . " Etc.
Obviously there's more to it than that, but a lot of first encounters are basically of that nature.
Which gets to the photos.
Sure, some female photographer, or even a male photographer, may feel "this highlights rape culture", but that's complete and total BS. The half of the population you're trying to direct that attention to is going to, no matter, what, think something like "wow, tits. . . now I'll pretend that I'm thinking about oppression. . . look at those tits".
Want to address rape culture? Show a photo of somebody beat up, somebody in poverty, or somebody in the morgue.
A biology class make help too.
I'm not, please note, saying this is great. We live in a fallen world. Providence has made us this way and we have fallen, which means that we need structure in a major way here least we be destructive or miserable. None of which means that this is not so.
And none of which, by the way, means we don't know that. It's easy to pretend we're stripping for art, or a cause, or whatever. In the modern era it happens quite a bit. But when those female shirts come off for what we deem a cause, we haven't really forgotten our existential self. We're just suppressing it.
Obsessed.
The Casper Star Tribune is obsessed with the unproven allegations against retired Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart.
The obsession no doubt stems from his being a Catholic cleric. This doesn't excuse the scandal in the Church that was so much in the news a few years ago and which the Church has now largely addressed. Indeed, nobody has really been willing to look at the larger issues involved in that which tend to run directly counter to cherished liberal sensibilities on society, and would argue for going in a direction that they don't want to go.
Like a lot of places, Wyoming had a little bit of this story in its field, although like every other place, scandals associated with other religions and institutions of the same nature didn't get that much press here. It's odd how that occurred, and indeed while its been largely ignored, the evidence remains that these scandals, considered loosely (i.e., with their specifics, which do vary from religion to religion) are just as prevalent in other faiths. Beyond that, they occurred in other institutions, with the one that plagued the Boy Scouts being the most analogous to the one that struck the Catholic Church. Overall, it still remains the case that the person by far most likely to be be involved in something inappropriate in this area is a school teacher, not a cleric. The fact that school teachers, as a body, are by far the biggest danger is given net to not attention at all even though its the biggest risk. That risk probably largely has a different origin, but it's exceeding odd that you'll have instances of school teachers, including female school teachers, who engage in multiple sexual relationship with their students and its always regarded as an individual, not an institutional failing. Always.
It's actually a societal one.
Anyhow, Bishop Hart has always denied the accusations against him and after multiple investigations he's never been charged. At some point, people need to move on from this as a story, but neither the local press or Diocese of Cheyenne are, even though in the last instances a legal inquiry from Rome also did not find Bishop Hart guilty of the accusations levied against him.
The practical truth is that once such an accusation is levied, it's impossible to ever restore your reputation. Its' just ruined. For that reason, such accusations really ought to always be approached exceedingly cautiously. False accusations of sexual misconduct are not as uncommon as a person might wish to believe, and even accusations of rape, one of the worst crimes imaginable, have been shown to be completely false over time. Recently there was an example of a man released from prison here who had served years and years on a false accusation of rape. Whey a person would make such an accusation, I don't know, but it occurred, and later DNA evidence proved it false. In terms of a religious example, St. Padre Pio, now a very venerated saint, suffered such accusations during his lifetime that proved to be false.
No matter, the Tribune is now basically accusing the local district attorney of dropping the ball on the last attempt to prosecute and the Cheyenne police are complicate in the effort. The Trib is throwing rocks at both institutions and basically asserting that the Bishop is guilty, even though multiple district attorneys have passed on a prosecution.
People who aren't in the law aren't really aware how inclined prosecutors are to charge in general. They aren't hesitant. When they actually don't, there's a good reason they aren't.
No matter, the Trib has decided guilt here and that's enough for them, and probably most of their readers.
The Diocese of Cheyenne cant' seem to give this up either, which sort of oddly places them on the same train as the Trib. I've written about that before, but during this era of pandemic, the Diocese has done a very poor job in reaching out to their current parishioners, while doing a really good job of keeping everyone apprised of its current views on Bishop Hart. What is seemingly missing here is that most Catholics here weren't here when Bishop Hart was the Bishop. Quite a few of them weren't alive, and many of those who were, were either very young or living in a different Diocese. Bishop Hart has almost no relevance to any Wyoming Catholic today.
Coronavirus and the Diocese failing to reach out to its flock do.
On a slightly related matter, news has broken that Boston's PD may have covered up multiple allegations of sexual molestation by one of its members, who was also a union rep, back in the 1990s.
You haven't heard of that? It's funny what scandal related stories get lots of press and those which don't. Police departments have certainly been in the news a lot recently, but not for this sort of stuff, and they more or less still are not.
One heck of a towing bill
The Ever Given is being held by Egyptian authorities until the price tag for the recent Suez Canal incident can be worked out. It's a huge bill, something like $1B.
It reminds me in a weird sort of way of what happens when cars are towed off.
This was on my mind anyhow as somebody parked in my parking spot for two days running. It miffs me when somebody parks there as I have to park in somebody else's spot when that happens and I have to guess which one is actually free to park in. One day is bad, but two days?
This isn't a good sign as usually when this starts to occur its somebody who is living downtown and is under the assumption that a private parking lot is public, or is just flat out ignoring it, so it tends to repeat.
New Mexico opts for stupefaction
Joining the North American rush to make the general populace stupefied, New Mexico has become the latest state to legalize marijuana.
There's no good evidence that we need to numb the population any more than it already is, or at least none to suggest that this produces a positive result. It's distressing that moving in this direction is becoming an overwhelming trend. The entire culture seems intent on self medicating itself.
Calculating risk
On medications, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was pulled due to a risk of blood clots that's way below that of being struck by lightening.
I guess the medicos must do what they do, but there's already a fair number of Americans who aren't getting the vaccinations even though almost all of them have been vaccinated for something else in the past. Indeed, its heavily concentrated, oddly enough, by region and political party, even though the leaders of both parties have endorsed vaccination.
I had a conversation with somebody on this who is up in the age group that ought to get vaccinated but is "going to wait". I never could get a clear explanation on what they were waiting for, but what this caused me to recall is that there are pharmaceuticals out there with really demonstrated risks that people freely accept the risk for without a second thought. Birth control drugs are one. They actually have pretty significant risks of all sorts, but nobody really bothers to ponder that as we don't want to. COVID 19 vaccinations, on the other hand, have low risks that people are over weighing.
We can't shovel snow?
The recent snowstorm before the last series of storms cost Casper $500,000. It's thinking of asking for help from FEMA.
It seems weird to ask the Federal Government for emergency funds for something like this.
The Famous
Then one of the local news outlets reported that one Jeffree Star and his close friend had been an automobile wreck the other day. This is not surprising as the weather had been crappy and the roads bad. Lots of people had wrecks. Most of them didn't make the news however.
As far as I can tell, Star is famous for being famous. Without bothering to research him, he's apparently a media personality who combines being a transvestite with outrageous and reportedly racist opinions. At some point during the later period of the Trump Administration he moved here out of the misimpression that Wyomingites harbor views similar to his.
In reality at least the natives do not, but those of us who are natives or who are regional natives are admittedly getting very tired of being told what we think by those who have moved in here in recent years and harbor similar misimpressions. It's getting pretty silly. Just a few weeks ago a politician here insulted Elizabeth Cheney for not living here when the same person moved in here and isn't a native either.
There's no doubt however that something strange is in the air now days. The primary weltanschauug of the region and particularly the state used to be "I don't care what the crap you do, just leave me the heck alone.". This is quite a bit different from the populist view that's been circulating in recent years. Indeed, I can recall back in the late 1980s when I was finishing law school (it seems amazing to realize that it was that long ago) that some group tried to move into a Wyoming community in the northern part of the state that espoused racist ideas and met with a huge protest that basically drove them out of town.
We're rednecks, basically, not racists.
I don't know about Star as I'm disinterested in him, and I'm amazed that people are interested in him, but I note that as he apparently says some awful things. But I also don't get the entire class of people who are famous just for that.
Not that this is a new thing, really. Just a couple of months ago on a daily update regarding 1921 I noted a person who was basically famous for being famous. In another sort of way the entire character represented by Holly Golightly, whom I also mentioned in a recent thread, also was that sort of person, albeit in fiction but apparently at least somewhat based on reality.
Social media and Youtube, combined with television, has really unleashed the floodgates on this however. Early media took the vulgar and made some of its participants famous, as when Barbee Benton transitioned from being one of Playboy's big boob models to being Hugh Hefner's girlfriend to being some sort of actress, something that wouldn't have happened quite so seamlessly, or at least openly, in an earlier era. But now those steps are really skipped.
To add a bit, this reminds of a natural view of the world. Some women who has a vlog on fashion has one, that's really well done, on female beauty in the first half of the 20th Century that tracks media images, such as the Gibson Girl and the movie starlets, against the actual times. It's pretty though provoking, starting off with the fact that in 1900 when the Gibson Girl was the standard, 40% of women were employed in rough menial work. We've noted this before in regards to the evolution of women's employment. So there's the image, and theirs the reality.
Reality for good or ill is reality, and we ought to be real.
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