CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 129th Edition. An unfortunate observation of our times.

Lex Anteinternet: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 128th Edition. Attem...: The 127th edition of this was teed up to go before last night's White House Correspondence Dinner, or this would be that edition.  Havin...

I tend to over empathetic.

That might be an easy thing to claim, but it's true.  I'm often tortured in litigation by how little Plaintiff's lawyers care about their clients.  Indeed, I think it's a hallmark of being a Plaintiff's lawyer, which I'm not, to not really give a rat's ass about them.  Most of them are callous to it.  I'm also tortured, however, by the extent to which litigation is regarded as a mere business transaction while it wrecks the lives an livelihoods of real people.

I'm bothered by the personal plights of people I don't know.  In movies with sad situations I'll find myself tearing up.  The killing of the Iranian schoolgirls in the current war bothers me so much that I couldn't tell my wife about it without starting to tear up and saying "think about their poor parents".  I can hardly stand to think about it now and it fills me with rage that we killed them, even if it was a targeting accident.  We have excuses, but we have no sympathy.

I note all of this as I'm bothered today by the extent to which the horrible human being and his acolytes in the White House have actually made me so fatigued that I'm having a hard time caring about what occurred at the Press Dinner.

Intellectually, I know it was awful.  I don't support killing people.  I'm opposed to abortion.  I'm opposed to the death penalty.  I'm opposed to wars save in the case of absolute need, a part of which his self defense.  I'm realistic enough to know that people can take the lives of others in self defense, but murder of a person is never justified.

But day after day of Trump's assault on human dignity has worn me down so much that I'm not empathetic about yesterdays events.  I know that they were wrong, but it's just an intellectual acknowledgement of it.

Sooner or later, most likely sooner given his advanced age, Donald Trump is going to pass on and go to his reward.  He's publicly wondered if he's damned.  As a Catholic, I hold to the belief that we should hope and pray for his salvation and that we do not know who is amongst the damned.  Hans Von Baltazar posed the question if we might dare to hope that all men are saved, and while we might dare to hope it, I very much doubt that is the case.  Still, we have no idea who is amongst the damned and who is amongst the saved, but just by objective Christian criteria, there's not a single member of Trump's administration that I hear about often whom I would not regard as having their souls in jeopardy.

I hate fact that Trump is so vile that he's made it so that I'm having a hard time being empathetic about a horrible event.  If Trump was to choke on a Big Mac today I'd say a prayer for his salvation, but it wouldn't be one of those things were I consciously morn a death, as I usually do.  I'm not wishing for his death, but I'm so burnt out about all things Trump I'd say a prayer for the dead and then probably move on to other things.

Trump has made many things that way.  He's done such violence to our society and its norms that its reached the state where it's almost impossible to care about them. At this point, if the next President had to tear out the Reflecting Pool, I wouldn't care.

When Trump is gone the nation is going to have a monumental time repairing itself.  I guess we have the example of the post Civil War era, in which the country manage to come back together in spite of actually fighting itself.  How it managed that isn't really clear.  It seems like it just decided it would.

Here's to hoping that the Better Angels of Our Mercy might return.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 128th Edition. Attempted assassination at a pointless event.

Labels: 2020s, 2025 White House Vandalization, 2026, Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Men, Military, News, Secret Service, The Press, The roles of men and women, Weapons, Women, Zeitgeist

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 127th Edition. The Dipshit Edition. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus decides the a General officer of the U.S. Army is too "woke" to be the President of UW.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Army, Education, Ignorance, Stupidity, United States Military Academy, University of Wyoming, Woke, Wyoming Freedom Caucus, Zeitgeist

Wednesday, March 31, 1976. Karen Ann Quinlan.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, suffering from irreversible brain damage, could be disconnected from the ventilator that had been keeping her alive since April 15, 1975. She had been found unresponsive after she consumed Valium along with alcohol while on a crash diet and lapsed into a coma. A Catholic, her parents had appealed to Catholic moral theology arguing that extraordinary means not be required to preserve her life.

She'd live for an additional nine years.

She had been trying to lose weight to fit into a bikini.

This is one of those events I can personally recall.  It was a major news story at the time.

The UN Security Council found South Africa liable for an act of aggression against Angola, a fairly dubious Security Council conviction given that what South Africa really did is intervene in a civil war that other powers were likewise involved in.

The slam dunk was restored as a legal college basketball feature.

Last edition:

Wednesday, March 24, 1976. Passing of Field Marshal Montgomery.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Argentina, Australia, Bernard Law Montgomery, British Army, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, United Kingdom, World War Two

Movies In History: Der Tiger

I watched this 2025 German movie a couple of months ago and hadn't gotten around to posting a review of it.  With the launching of a Donald Trump war against Iran, it feels a bit odd to do so now.

This review contains spoilers.

Der Tiger, released in the US as The Tank, is about, on the surface, an improbable mission given to the crew of a German Tiger tank that has just seemingly survived the detonation of a bridge to go deep into Soviet territory and rescue a behind the lines German commander who was apparently on some secret mission commanding a body of men likewise behind the lines.  Their former CO, they learn that he did not die, as claimed, at Stalingrad.  Because of the nature of the film, it's been compared, unfairly as in my view, with Apocalypse Now or Heart of Darkness, upon which its based, but the theme is completely different.

Going into it, on the surface the premise is absurd.  A tank would make a very poor means of rescuing anyone, let along a Tiger I was was very prone to mechanical breakdown. They're far from stealthy. And the Eastern Front, like the Western Front, was a dense combat environment.  It wouldn't work.

And that's not actually what the film is about.

In reviews of this film, a lot of reviewers are simply baffled by it. The excellent Fighting On Film podcast was one.  But, from a certain prospective, the film makes perfect sense.

That sense is a Catholic one.

I don't know if the director is Catholic, but if he isn't, he's heavily invested in Catholic views.  The clues are there throughout the entire film, from beginning to end.  The tank and its crewmen (with one exception) aren't on a mission to rescue their former commander, whom they do meet at a bunker, but rather they're on a trip, literally, to Hell.

During the trip we learn of the reason why.

Everything is there.  Odd grim reminders.  One wounded tank crewman is is taken out of the stricken tank to go into "the light".  A Mass, in Latin, is on the radio, which the Nazi era German radio would never have broadcast.  The entry into the bunker is guarded by metaphorical angels, although they superficially do not seem to be so.  The fires of Hell are at the end.

All in all, frankly, this film, which is nearly 100% metaphorical, is very well done, but a person needs to be aware of the imagery and background, which I suspect a German audience, where the two significant Christian religions are Catholicism and Lutheranism, which is based on it, may be more than most American ones, in order to grasp it.

In material details, this movie is pretty good, although it seems odd to even discuss the topic in this film. The depictions of German and Soviet armor are excellent, and the uniform details well done.  The tank crew, as mentioned, is of the SS, and they wear SS tank crew uniforms.

Playing stupid games on health care and winning stupid prizes on abortion.

 

Exactly what backers of Art 1  § 38 should have known would occur. Lampoon posted under fair use exception as I couldn't think of a more applicable illustration.

Wyoming Constitution Art. 1, § 38. Right of health care access

(a) Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions. The parent, guardian or legal representative of any other natural person shall have the right to make health care decisions for that person.

(b) Any person may pay, and a health care provider may accept, direct payment for health care without imposition of penalties or fines for doing so.

(c) The legislature may determine reasonable and necessary restrictions on the rights granted under this section to protect the health and general welfare of the people or to accomplish the other purposes set forth in the Wyoming Constitution.

(d) The state of Wyoming shall act to preserve these rights from undue governmental infringement.

Jonathan Lange: The Supreme Court Owes Us An Explanation

Hmm, depends a bit on how he voted on the dumbass Art. 1, § 38..

'Lange has a point, as much as I hate to admit it. But the party that really owes the state an explanation is the paranoid sots who backed the Constitutional amendment set out above from 2024, and those who voted for it, about a right to make your own medical decisions, which you already had, as they feared AHCA meant death panels.

That was freakin' absurd.

Lange, did you vote for it?

This was really predictable. That set it up.  It was obvious.

Nobody is more opposed to abortion, which I regard as infanticide, than me.  Indeed, my views in this general area are probably far more "conservative" than most peoples.  

And to extend it, I'm not in favor of the death penalty either.

And, no, I don't think abortion is health care by a long measure, but if this hadn't been passed, the question would never have come up.

But to set this in the constitution of the state, what the crap did you think would happen?  It puts the court in the place of making an existential decision.

A really easy one to make, in my view, but if you take my view, on natural rights, a lot of right wingers wouldn't be very comfortable, very soon.

Saying Goodbye to Gracie Not ‘just a cat.’

 

Saying Goodbye to Gracie

Not ‘just a cat.’

Friday, December 21, 1945. Patton dies.

George S. Patton died at age 60, the result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident several days earlier.

The general's daughter woke up in the United States and saw him standing, in full uniform, at the foot of her bed, where he smiled.  His daughter Beatrice received a phone call in which he asked "Little Bee, are you alright?'”  An attempt to confirm the call in the morning ended up in the information that no oversees call had been placed.

Such incidents are not uncommon. A fairly large number of people experience post death visitations of people they knew, with it most commonly being the case that they happen very soon after the person's death.  Indeed, in ancient times, Jews believed that the spirits of the dead were not aware of their deaths for a three day period, and the Irish custom of a wake stems from a desire to stay awake with the recently departed to help them know that they had died.

Patton was one of the most controversial American generals of the Second World War.  A member of the cavalry branch, he's famously recalled as an armor general. Almost all of the really effective armor generals in the U.S. Army from the Second World War were cavalrymen.  While now hugely admired, during the war the two slapping incidents he was involved in nearly cost him his career.

Patton, although he died due to an accident, fits into a fairly large collection of senior military officers that died right after the war.

The Battle of Shaobo in China ended in a Communist victory.  It was another one of the battles in which Chiang Kai Shek pitted Chinese collaborationist units that had rejoined the Nationalist against the Communists.

From the same newspaper as above:

Casper received news that the Texas Refinery was going to expand.

It's now closed.

Ethiopian Airlines was founded.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 20, 1945. Tires.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Automobiles, Rationing, Transportation, United Nations

Monday ,November 22, 1875. The death of Vice President Henry Wilson.

Ardent opponent of slavery and career politician Vice President Henry Wilson died in office at age 63.

GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 97

WAR DEPARTMENT,

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE

I. The following order announces the decease of Henry Wilson, Vice-President of the United States:

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, November 22, 1875.

It is with profound sorrow that the President has to announce to the people of the United States the death of the Vice-President, Henry Wilson, who died in the Capitol of the nation this morning.

The eminent station of the deceased, his high character, his long career in the service of his State and of the Union, his devotion to the cause of freedom, and the ability which he brought to the discharge of every duty stand conspicuous and are indelibly impressed on the hearts and affections of the American people.

In testimony of respect for this distinguished citizen and faithful public servant the various Departments of the Government will be closed on the day of the funeral, and the Executive Mansion and all the Executive Departments in Washington will be draped with badges of mourning for thirty days.

The Secretaries of War and of the Navy will issue orders that appropriate military and naval honors be rendered to the memory of one whose virtues and services will long be borne in recollection by a grateful nation.

U. S. GRANT

By the President:

HAMILTON FISH,

Secretary of State.

II. On the day next succeeding the receipt of this order at each military post the troops will be paraded at 10 o'clock a. m. and this order read to them.

The national flag will be displayed at half-staff.

At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired. Commencing at 12 o'clock noon seventeen minute guns will be fired, and at the close of the day the national salute of thirty-seven guns.

The usual badge of mourning will be worn by officers of the Army and the colors of the several regiments will be put in mourning for the period of three months.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND, Adjutant-General.

He had been born Jeremiah Jones Colbath and born to extremely impoverished circumstances, growing up partially as an indentured servant to a farmer in his region.  At age 21 he changed his name, although the reasons really aren't known.  He became a shoemaker, and then entered politics as a Whig.  He was one of the organizers of the Free Soil Party in 1852 and became a U.S. Senator in 1855.  He served in the Union Army during the Civil War and exited the war back into politics as an advocate of the rights  of freed slaves.

With his death, under the law at the, the office of Vice Presidency fell vacant until the next General Election, that of 1877.

On the same day:

Executive Order—Expansion of Ute Indian Reservation Territory

November 22, 1875

EXECUTIVE MANSION, November 22, 1875.

It is hereby ordered that the tract of country in the Territory of Colorado lying within the following-described boundaries, viz: Commencing at the northeast corner of the present Ute Indian Reservation, as defined in the treaty of March 2, 1868 (Stats, at Large, vol. 15, p. 619); thence running north on the 107th degree of longitude to the first standard parallel north; thence west on said first standard parallel to the boundary line between Colorado and Utah; thence south with said boundary to the northwest corner of the Ute Indian Reservation; thence east with the north boundary of the said reservation to the place of beginning, be, and the same hereby is, withdrawn from sale and set apart for the use of the several tribes of Ute Indians, as an addition to the present reservation in said Territory.

U. S. GRANT.

Last edition:

Saturday, November 20, 1875. Winking at collision in the Black Hills and the Las Cuevas War.

Labels: 1870s, 1875, 1877, Army, Black Hills, boats and ships, Crime, Great Sioux War, Las Cuevas War, Mexico, Philip Sheridan, Sioux, South Dakota, Texas, Texas Rangers, William Tecumseh Sherman, Wyoming

Dick Cheney, Wyoming oilman and former vice president, dies at 84

Dick Cheney, Wyoming oilman and former vice president, dies at 84: The divisive and powerful 9/11-era vice president was also a devoted husband, avid outdoorsman and close advisor to his daughter, Liz Cheney.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney dies at 84

I was not a fan of Cheney when he was our Congressman nor when he was Vice President.  I tended to regard his association with Wyoming, while he was in office, as thin, something I've complained about in regard to recent Wyoming politicians as well.  For that matter, I regarded his daughter Liz's connection with the state as thin as well.

Liz Cheney really rose to the moment and in the latter stages of Trump's first Administration she stood out as a genuine hero, a status she has, in my view, today.  Dick Cheney also remained a steadfast defender of democracy in his old age.

It'll be interesting to see how the State, and the current illegitimate administration in Washington, treats his passing.  In recent years Wyoming's politics have been taken over by carpetbaggers who mentally reside in 1970s Alabama, rather than Wyoming, and Donald Trump has lost the ability to be rational in his dementia.  Cheney deserves some sort of national recognition upon his passing.

Will he receive one?

No surprise:

Cohort mortality forecasts indicate signs of deceleration in life expectancy gains

Going Feral: The Feral Week.

Going Feral: Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, September 26, 1915. Wab.: 

Colorado Wolf Debate Heats Up Over Claims Diseased Animals Were Released

 

Colorado Wolf Debate Heats Up Over Claims Diseased Animals Were Released

Thursday, September 25, 2025

We Need To Talk About How We Can Effectively Advocate For Better Public Lands Policy Why the pro-public lands world’s inability to communicate accurately is such a problem, and the steps we can all take to do it better

 

We Need To Talk About How We Can Effectively Advocate For Better Public Lands Policy

Why the pro-public lands world’s inability to communicate accurately is such a problem, and the steps we can all take to do it better

Report: More than 99% of public comments opposed to end roadless rule

 

Report: More than 99% of public comments opposed to end roadless rule

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: These Hunters' Deaths Hit Me Hard

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: These Hunters' Deaths Hit Me Hard: Search and rescue volunteers are briefed before heading out. (Conejos County Sheriff's Office) The search for two missing bowhunters, An...

This is terrible news, to say the least.

When I first heard of these two men dying, it was by way of a headline.  As I was extremely busy at the time, I didn't read deeper into the story.  I frankly assumed they had succumbed due to hypothermia, and that they were likely inexperienced outdoorsmen.

I learned more about it sage chicken hunting with a companion, who had looked into the story more.  He revealed that in fact they were experienced outdoorsmen, but we both assumed that they had died due to hypothermia.  We assumed, frankly, that they'd stepped out for what they thought would be a shorter trip and were caught in a bad situation at which point they couldn't address the onset of the condition.

It turns out we were wrong.  It was a lightning strike.

I've been afraid of lightning my entire life, and a lot of that is due to living an outdoor life.  From my earliest years I can recall being fascinated with lightning, but also fearing it.  My earliest recollection of an electrical strike close by was when I was a child, looking out our picture window. and saw a bolt of lightning hit the ground right in front of the house and arc over the street, as a car passed under it.

My mother related that her grandfather had actually been hit by lightning observing an electrical storm out the back window of a house in St. Lambert, Quebec.  He was fine, but that  might have made an early impression with me.  My father, an avid outdoorsman, didn't mess with lightening at all, although he would continue to fish well past the point he should as electrical storms approached.  The childhood step father of a friend of mine was killed on the golf course by lightning.  The father of a gaggle of girls who where my contemporaries was killed on horseback when struck by lightning.  

I had plenty of reasons as a kid to fear lightning.

As an adult, I've seen lightning strike a human occupied thing when I saw a blot strike a boat in Alcova Reservoir.  I was far enough away that I don't know what happened to the people in it.  While living in Laramie, and going to law school, I had a bolt of lightning strike a power line right above the point I was at as I was hurriedly walking home, hoping to beat the storm.  It blew me to the ground, and I was deaf in one ear for about a week.  Also in Laramie, I remember being up in the high country elk hunting and briefly conversing with a mounted hunter as a storm started to roll in.  The air grew electrick and came in contact, somehow, with the horses steel ringlets on his bridle, causing his ears to shoot up, and a visible electrical current pass between the tips of his ears, just before he reared around and charged down the mountain.

Storms will appear and surprise you.

In the sticks, I watch the weather like a hawk.  It's not snow I'm afraid of being caught in, it's an electrical storm.  I'll abandon a place early if I think it looks like such a storm is rolling in.

Electrical storms in the high country are particularly dangerous. Due to the terrain, they roll up at you before you can appreciate them, and they are very frequent.  High altitude afternoon thunderstorms are a norm in mountainous terrain.

Added to that, in spite of Donald Trump and His Confederacy of Clowns, climate change has extended the summer and fall and that's making traditional activities in late fall more dangerous in various ways.  I'm not terribly familiar with Southern Colorado, but I can claim some familiarity with Northern Colorado and lots of familiarity with all of Wyoming.  This time of year, say thirty or more years ago, storm above 6,000 feet here were snowstorms, not rain storms.  We worried about being snowed out, or snowed in, not rain.  Now thanks to a desperate belief on the part of some that things aren't changing, or it isn't our fault, things are changing.

Wide Open Spaces reported their cause of death as being surprising.  I'm not terribly surprised, as I've had too many close calls with lightning even while being careful.  I'll merely note, it pays to be careful out there. . . really careful.

But sometimes, that won't save you.

Regarding the tragic deaths of Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. 

Wyomingites with deep conservation roots oppose axing Forest Service Roadless Rule

Wyomingites with deep conservation roots oppose axing Forest Service Roadless Rule: Although the state government loathes the Forest Service regulation, many residents value the wild lands and wildlife it protects.

‘Judas elk’ to help target Jackson Hole ‘suburban elk,’ easing pressure on Yellowstone migrants

‘Judas elk’ to help target Jackson Hole ‘suburban elk,’ easing pressure on Yellowstone migrants: Research reveals that animals that summer on ranchland and in residential subdivisions near town pile up on the National Elk Refuge's southern end — a trait that will help wildlife managers steer hunters toward the problematic cohort.

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Coroner: Lightning Strike Killed Elk Hunters Found Dead In Colorado

 

Coroner: Lightning Strike Killed Elk Hunters Found Dead In Colorado

Monday, September 22, 2025

Blog Mirror: Browning Auto 5 Shotgun Review: Still One of the Greatest Semiautos of All Time

 

Browning Auto 5 Shotgun Review: Still One of the Greatest Semiautos of All Time

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My ...

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My ...:   

Blog Mirror: Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My Politics I'm hardly Jimmy Kimmel, but that's also a reason this should worry you

 

Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My Politics

I'm hardly Jimmy Kimmel, but that's also a reason this should worry you