A Forum for Friday
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, September 24, 2021
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106 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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I’m keeping an eye on Hurricane Sam, wondering where/if it will make landfall. It’s a monster storm and will make one hell of a mess out of any place it meets, which thankfully, NOLA looks to be the last place it might hit.
Pretty cool find:
It’s been a while since anyone pushed the 11,000-13,000 years figure, too much evidence has accumulated of a 20-25,000 years ago arrival and I have seen older dates proposed.
‘It’s awful. It’s exhausting’: Alaska rations care as it hits Covid nadir
US public health workers leaving ‘in droves’ amid pandemic burnout
This is not good.
Racial Division, Troops’ Role in Protests Has Hurt Minority Recruiting, Air Force Says
Even though my own kids grew up as “military brats”, they are not interested. It is not disdain or dislike but more like indifference. Our military needs to avoid becoming a mono culture like the police seems to have become. As the saying goes, it needs to look like America.
I know I was a different person after Kindergarten.
@OzarkHillbilly: And IIRC, this is the same governor who is patting himself on the back for not requiring vaccines or masks and saying “hey, look at our low infection rate!”
…..someone should explain to this idiot that hospitalisation shows up several weeks after infection.
Well, we can start our Friday on a bit of hopeful news, a draft of the Arizona audit report confirms Biden won Arizona. Of course, it’s a draft, so we should wait until the final comes out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/arizona-ballot-review-draft-report/2021/09/24/7c19ac08-1562-11ec-b976-f4a43b740aeb_story.html
@Mike in Arlington: I, for one, am thoroughly enjoying the thought of Trump’s rage when he sees the results of this “audit”. 😛
In fact, between the “audit” results and the news of the January 6th subpoenas, he’s probably feeling a downright…..unhealthy….amount of rage.
But we will never get that lucky.
@Mike in Arlington: It will never stop.
Texas secretary of state’s office auditing four counties’ 2020 elections months after an official called the statewide process “smooth and secure”
China making a stink about crypto-currency transactions.
It’s only when you get down to the end of the article that you get told China is planning to create its own national cryptocurrency. So it’s not any moral justification against cryptocurrency at all.
They’re gonna go far.
@Mike in Arlington: Biden’s win in the draft report actually grew, LOL.
He won with 360 *more* votes.
The voters of Arizona should be really, really angry about this waste of time, money, and credibility.
Also, Sen. Grassley who is *88* years old has announced he’s running for an 8th Senate term.
@Scott: I wonder if they will continue that process in light of the Arizona results. In a just world, a bunch of republican grifters should be rethinking their strategy right about now. As Jen said above, they burned through a ton of money (and credibility), with less than nothing to show for it.
@Jen: I can see that. He makes it 4 years, and he’s in the record book instead of Byrd. A perfectly useful and publicly spirited goal.
The CDC director has overruled her agency’s panel and recommended a Pfizer-BioNTech “booster” for front-line workers between the ages of 18-64. Why the panel had said “no” to boosters for health-care workers inundated by COVID patients when those workers were vaccinated nine months ago was a bit of a mystery–even if those workers got only mild breakthrough cases, why risk even shorter staffing?
Of course we wouldn’t even need to be all that concerned if it weren’t for anti-vaxxers, but we have to deal with the situation we’re in.
Meanwhile in the UK the HGV (= heavy truck) driver shortage slow burn fuse has finally hit the sticks of dynamite:
Petrol stations close due to fuel delivery delays;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58670792
Between this and the energy price crunch, (see the Supply Chain article comments yesterday) and the a nagging problems of supermarket shelf re-stocking, the government is having an difficult time.
@Scott:
Bring back the draft
We need to remember that the primary purpose of the Arizona audit and all the ones that follow is to maintain outrage and keep the donations flowing. We had 8 Benghazi “investigations” for that same purpose. Expect many more investigations to follow right up until the next election. Anytime you se a report of an investigation that doesnt quite make sense like the Texas one above remember the true purpose of these investigations.
Steve
@grumpy realist:
Isn’t the whole point of crypto-currency that it’s NOT official or tied to any governmental structure? Who would want to use it when the purpose is to dodge various laws, rules, regulations and red tape?
@OzarkHillbilly:
If I lived on the Carolina’s coast and even further north, I’d be digging the plywood out to cover the windows and bringing in a supply of sandbags.
Then there is this.
The Cost of Insuring Expensive Waterfront Homes Is About to Skyrocket
New federal flood insurance rates that better reflect the real risks of climate change are coming. For some, premiums will rise sharply.
Oh and this coastal resident fully supports the flood insurance program in basing cost on risk.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ironically, one of the biggest obstacles to North American archeology is present day Native Americans. While their hostility to archeologists is certainly understandable, given a long history of Europeans desecrating their cultural site, the pendulum has now swung to the other extreme with Tribes basically suppressing any field research that might end up contradicting their creation mythology, particularly the idea that there may have been multiple waves of human migration from Asia to the Americas.
@steve:
I think it goes deeper than that–the basic objective is to destroy Americans’ confidence in the democratic process itself, and thereby benefit the authoritarians for whom Trump opened the door. Running one of these “audits” in a state Trump actually won isn’t odd at all if you understand the true “why.”
@Mike in Arlington:
I’d like to announce that my firm, the Tangible Pirates, is willing to conduct a full audit of the Cyber Ninjas audit for a bargain price of only $2.8 million.
@grumpy realist:
It should be noted that digital currency and cryptocurrency are two completely different things. US banks have been using digital currency since the 1990s.
@Sleeping Dog: You should hear how my far-right “Freedom Caucus” congressman is banging on about the new requirement to register women for selective service that is in the FY22 NDAA bill. “You will not draft my daughter!”
Sigh.
@Stormy Dragon: While I don’t know what you look like, I imagine you putting your pinky to the corner of your mouth, Dr. Evil-style.
According to a University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats survey, 21 million Americans agree that violence should be employed to restore Trump to the Oval Office.
More problems with idiots in hospitals….
Honestly, let them go home, let them poison themselves with their cow dewormer and hydrogen peroxide. Stop trying to rescue them. Stupidity should hurt, and we can use the ICU beds for patients who are willing to listen to their doctors.
@Sleeping Dog:
Are you fucking kidding me??
I just got a quote for flood insurance as part of a refinancing application. The absolute cheapest I can get is $1836–for structure-only on a house valued at $145k with a $10k deductible.
I live in Wisconsin, and the water is a tiny creek that runs through town. We just had a 100-year flood–the highest on record–and it came nowhere near my house.
I would never see a penny of payout from flood insurance. And someone living on the beach in Florida is paying $480?? Screw them!
@grumpy realist:
What’s the point of a faux-communist dictatorship if you don’t use it to imprison and kill the Crypto Bros? I am disappointed. As soon as someone starts hyping etherium, dogecoin, etc, they should be sent off to the gulags because they are an insufferable douchebag.
China’s “we want our own douchebags” policy is just sad.
@grumpy realist: Yes, stay at home and try every snake oil patent medicine, horse dewormer, hydrogen peroxide, Laetrile, bleach, light bulbs up the ass… Hey, Have you guys tried Carbon monoxide? I hear it clears the airways like no drug ever created, and it’s FREE!!! That’s why doctors don’t prescribe it. Nobody can make any money off of it!
Well, the Marine Corps Marathon has canceled the big event and is again offering a “virtual” option, which means I will be running the whole 26.2 by myself. Again.
I don’t see why they couldn’t run it in person, it’s entirely outdoors and we’ve been having football games in packed stadiums for weeks. Near as I can figure out, it’s due to the Pentagon’s “Health Protection Condition” prohibiting gatherings of greater than 25 people on Pentagon grounds, which would make it impossible for the MCM to use its usual runner assembly area in the Pentagon’s south parking lot.
Thanks, anti-vaxxers! You just keep fucking things up for everyone!
Biggest news of the week: Russell T. Davies is coming back to take over Doctor Who after this final Chris Chibnall/Jodie Whittaker season.
Chibnall was always a terrible choice for the job, and he’s proven that time and again. Davies is the one who brought Who back in 2005, cast David Tennant and Billie Piper (and Christopher Eccelson and others). Steven Moffat is still my favorite among their writers and showrunners, but Davies is a phenomenal choice to bring the show back.
@wr:
Good! Can he recon out most of Chibnal’s BS?
And… what’s the speculation mill saying about Whitaker’s replacement? I’m so disappointed in her. If she had been this doctor instead of a cross-dressing Mork from Ork, it could have been amazing.
@wr: I just saw that. I have tried really hard to like Chibnall’s run, and there are some positive things to say about it, but it has clearly been lacking (to be kind). I was surprised by the RTD announcement (indeed, when I first saw I thought it be a hoax/rumor).
Like you, Moffat was my favorite. (My favorite Doctors are Tom Baker, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi).
@Mu Yixiao: I preferred that outfit as well, TBH. (Although the actual costume is not out of bounds for the Doctor’s long history–I just wish, like with Capaldi, they let her have more than one uniform, so to speak). I actually like the Jo Martin costume (and Doctor-y attitude) more than Whitaker’s.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Sarah Jane is my Doctor. 🙂
Kill off the Doctor, replace with Romana.
@KM: I read this earlier in a Balloon Juice post, “Cryptocurrency is basically the sovereign citizen movement for money,”
@Steven L. Taylor: I started with Davies’ first season — on Netflix, as it had already been on for a few years — so haven’t really seen any Doctors pre-Eccleson. (Or however he spells his name…)
I’m one of the few who really hated Broadchurch, so I was negatively inclined towards Chibnall when he got the job. He just doesn’t seem to like story or understand how to plot.
But his shows were worse than I’d expected. Having three companions meant that there was never a close relationship between the Doctor any any of them. And all three of them were so full of fire for doing good and fixing things they never felt like real human beings. Yes, Rose Tyler and (particularly) Clara Oswald did frequently project their own image of what was “right” on totally alien situations, but they were frequently proven wrong, or thrown into danger, or forced to face their own limitations. These three just show up on alien planets and give lectures about the bill of rights.
I wish we could have seen Whittaker as the Doctor with better writing. I’ve found her seasons so disspiriting I think I’ve left several episodes unwatched.
As for the rumor mill… I try to stay away from it. Everybody’s got an idea who it should or shouldn’t be, but that doesn’t make it real. I do know that my dream Doctor will never happen — it seems that Bill Nighy was approached (I’d guess before Peter Capaldi was hired) and declined, not wanting to play a character with that much baggage.
I guess my own (never to happen) choice right now would be Nighy’s frequent co-star, Carey Mulligan
@wr:
Throw a curveball and go back to the show’s original concept of being a children’s educational show about history
@Stormy Dragon:
According to the apologists out there, that’s exactly what Chibnal did during his run–that’s why every episode of his first series felt like an After School Special.
@Stormy Dragon:
Chibs kind of tried to do that. It was a mixed bag.
@wr: I would have loved to have seen Whitaker with a different showrunner.
I concur about the three companions–it just doesn’t work (and it was problematic when they did it in the classic era).
@Mu Yixiao: Jinx (more or less)
@JohnSF: There are some great audio-only adventures in which Romana is president of Gallifrey.
I’m following Carreyrou’s Bad Blood The Final Chapter podcast, a follow-on of his bad Blood book, with new info and much rehashing of the book and the WSJ pieces as well.
Here’s a quote from Holmes explaining how the Theranos proprietary device works:
“A chemistry is performed so that a chemical reaction occurs and generates a signal from the chemical interaction with the sample, which is translated into a result, which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel.”
This sounds like Ralph Wiggum giving an explanation. I’m amazed Theranos did not collapse right after she uttered “a chemistry.” Imagine Fauci describing a vaccine as “a medicine is performed so that a clinical reaction occurs and generates an action with the vaccine, which is then translated as immunity by the body.”
@Mu Yixiao: She is my favorite all-time companion.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Have you seen The Sarah Jane Adventures?
It’s a young-adult series, but it’s really good–and 100% Sarah Jane.
@Mu Yixiao: I have–good stuff (and the best DW spin-off to date).
@Mu Yixiao: So many aspects of that article made me angry.
How about this stupidity, from a former VP at Honeywell?
Emphasis added by moi.
Anyone who buys a home in *FLORIDA,* a state surrounded by water and routinely hit by hurricanes, should be able to figure this out. If they can understand a mortgage, they can understand flooding=insurance risk–>high premiums.
I am so over paying for other people’s refusal to accept reality. So, so done.
Steven L. Taylor: I was so ready to hate Matt Smith after Tennant, but then I saw his chemistry with Karen Gillan I got so angry because I thought he was a great fit.
Caveat: I’m a huge late comer to the Doctor Who franchise, and I know that skews my perspective a lot.
Default of large Chinese firm may have repercussions worldwide
@Mu Yixiao:
Yes, that proves the point that the flood insurance market is a mess. It should be noted that the Fed agency managing program says that a large number of property owners will see their premiums reduced.
A few years ago, I had a conversation with a guy who lived outside of Galveston, he was complaining about his flood insurance cost. I asked him how far he lived from the ocean and how far above sea level. He told me about 3/4 of a mile and about 10′, I told him it was a good deal.
@Sleeping Dog:
More than that, it’s a scam. Less than 2% of contributors account for about 30% of the claims. There’s a homeowner in Texas that has had his house rebuilt 20 times since 1979.
Honestly? If my town floods enough that it could damage my house, I’d be better off burning it down.
I wanted to like the Jodie Whitaker Doctor Who also. Watched the first season and figured they would work out the kinks in the character and the show would get into a rhythm. Unfortunately, it never did. Didn’t mind the three companions either. What it needed was a compelling story arc which never really happened until last season. I’m a sucker, in general, with big, sweeping stories. Alas.
The House passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which includes a requirement for women to register for the draft.
{gets popcorn and waits for the feminist outcry}
@Scott:
My issue with the Whittaker stories (I barely made it through her first series, and have seen zero of the most recent)–besides the steady rain of anvils–was that it was too much of everyone [i]saying[/i] she is the smart one and in control, and no [i]showing[/i] it.
This is not the Doctor that stepped out on a hospital roof dressed like a dweeby young English professor, looked at a fleet of giant eye-ball ships and said. “I’m the Doctor. This planet is under my protection”.
@Mu Yixiao: Obviously, there’s a split. Some feminists support women being included in the draft, some oppose it. Israel seems to do just fine with mandatory military service for both men and women.
@grumpy realist: @Mr. Prosser: @KM:
So I have a question: What is the Venn diagram between gold bugs and crypto currency advocates? Is it one circle or two separate circles? I don’t know any people of either type so I can’t figure it out.
@Scott:
I didn’t mind the characters themselves. It is just that more than two compansions means too much splitting up the story.
@Mu Yixiao:
I largely concur with this.
@Sleeping Dog:
@Scott:
I got in a lot of trouble in HS and College for suggesting that being a registered, voting citizen be directly tied to 2-3 years mandatory service between 15-21. Not necessarily military, but some public service – road work, nursing homes, litter patrol, parks and forests, Job Corps, Peace Corps, Vista, etc. I didn’t care, just something demonstrating a willingness to serve the greater community. If you wanted to immigrate to USA and took part, cool, you were in!
People to the left and right both mocked and reviled me, so I figured I must be on to something. Or maybe just smoking something funny…
While I realize “The Curse of Fatal Death” was a parody, I still think Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley would all be good choices for the actual Doctor.
Good.
DOJ recommends four-month jail term for Air Force veteran who joined Jan. 6 riot
@flat earth luddite:..a registered, voting citizen be directly tied to 2-3 years mandatory service between 15-21…
During the Cold War when the Eastern Bloc countries did this we called it forced labor.
@Mu Yixiao:
This makes it a good time to eliminate the draft once and for all.
@Mu Yixiao:
Scam wouldn’t be the term I’d use to describe it, but definitely an example of what can go wrong with government run programs. Once the flood insurance program was set up, the rates barely changed to reflect risk and loss history. Plus newer properties that were added to the program have higher than comparable rates.
The changes to the program that the Times article references should have gone into effect under TFG, but politics got them deferred (along with TFG’s self interest) and now that they are going into effect grifters like Menendez and Charlie Crist are pushing for them to be shelved again.
@Mu Yixiao: If men have to register for the draft, I think women should register for the draft as well. At least it will withdraw the sneering “women don’t deserve equal rights because they haven’t registered for the draft” argument.
(In fact, if I were running the system, the first people who have to get registered and called up would be the children of politicians and ridiculously rich people. Maybe if their own kids are on the line they’d be a little more hesitant about getting the US into things like Afghanistan.)
@flat earth luddite:
I’ve long liked the idea of some sort of mandatory national service as well. It could go along way toward breaking down the barriers that have developed around economic class and geography.
mandatory national service=forced labor
so why did this comment get sent to moderation?
Well, it seems there has been some amelioration of the row between the US and France regarding the Australian submarine deal and associated matters.
The US has actually made a (limited) apology. (In diplomatese)
Joint statement on the telephone call between President Biden and President Macron:
These are actually some significant gains for France (Indo-Pacific; “complemetary”; Sahel) if the US follows through.
Even if they don’t make up for the lost deal; there may be some other things that might, to be discussed privately.
However, there are still a lot of aspects to it that don’t quite add up.
(And why is Boris Johnson so peeved?)
These articles by John Lichfield in The Local and UnHerd are very interesting and informative.
I’m going to post some more on this, and the delusions and confusions surrounding it.
(And why it may still end up a net win for the President Biden’s policy and the US despite some people in the State/NSC/Pentagon network screwing up badly)
But possibly not this evening as now going to watch Gardeners’ World Chelsea Flower Show Special on BBC.
But a quick quiz to leave you with:
1)Which country is Australia’s closest neighbour to the east?
2)Which country is Australia’s second closest neighbour to the west?
3)Which country is Australia’s closest neighbour to the south-west?
@Mu Yixiao: Honestly, I hope they postpone Jodie Whitaker’s departure by a season. I’d really like to see what she could do with a better show runner.
I don’t love her Doctor’s style, and her character seems all over the map, but she’s a good actor, and with the right material she could be good.
I don’t like the idea of the first female Doctor’s run being a failure and that becoming a reason to not do it in the future, as there are a lot of women in the fan base who deserve better than that, and there are a lot of misogynistic assholes in the fan base who deserve worse.
Also, I’d like her to get a few good stories. Every Doctor has one or two great stories, with the exception of her.
(Even Paul McGann has the short 50th anniversary thing where he regenerates into John Hurt)
@grumpy realist:..the first people who have to get registered and called up would be the children of politicians and ridiculously rich people.
Fortunate Son
@Gustopher:
Best Doctor? Peter Cushing!
@JohnSF: Not trying to be cute, but east of Australia from what point? It could be New Zealand, or Papua New Guinea. Same issue with second-closest neighbor to the west–it could be Malaysia.
I lived in Indonesia for three years, so am curious as to where you’re going with this…
@JohnSF:
Hmm, Paris withdrew the ambassadors to Washington and Canberra, but not London? Boris got dissed by Marcon, who is treating him like a minor partner (he is) in this affair.
@flat earth luddite:
These seem to be in conflict. Perhaps your qualifier of “being a registered, voting citizen” reconciles them?
@Mu Yixiao:
Was there anything in the first Chibnal series that would be worth retconning? Do you also want “Delta and the Bannermen” and “Kill The Moon” removed from continuity? The bad episodes just kind of sit there, unloved, and forgotten.
Or… do you know of the second Chibnal series?
The big concern I would have with Russell T. Davies taking over again is that Chibnal put things back to how Davies set them up in his first series, so I kind of don’t see Davies doing anything to get rid of it.
I’d like it to be revealed that the Master was just gaslighting the Doctor — it would make for a much better story for the Master, if nothing else — but if we are going to get anything like that it is going to be from Chibnal himself.
I do prefer the Classic series take on the Time Lords. They were just mostly shifting between isolationist and ineffective, and would occasionally make their presence known, but were almost never a source of drama in and of themselves. They were just there, a little annoyed that the Doctor was out galavanting about and interfering with things, but put up with it if they could nudge him to do what they want every few years.
@Jen: My recollection of just post-Vietnam feminists that I knew was that the 2 major categories were supported women registering and opposed the draft for everybody on principal. I don’t recall too many oppose drafting women who were also pro feminist. Still, I was mostly interacting with slightly pre-Moral Majority evangelicals living in the plastic suburbs where (amount adjusted for inflation) the poor people made $100k a year, so my sample is probably skewed some.
@Stormy Dragon: “Throw a curveball and go back to the show’s original concept of being a children’s educational show about history”
That’s what the Chibnall shows feel like to me!
To complete JohnSF’s quiz
This was an open book quiz, wasn’t it?
@Mu Yixiao: ” If my town floods enough that it could damage my house, I’d be better off burning it down.”
Sure, but then the flood would just put out the fire, and what would you do then?
@JohnSF: Totally fine with Peter Cushing. I basically like all the Doctors, canon or not, with the exception of John Pertwee. Richard E. Grant was great in “Scream of the Shalka”, for instance.
Try as I might, I can just not get through the Pertwee years.
@Mu Yixiao: “This is not the Doctor that stepped out on a hospital roof dressed like a dweeby young English professor, looked at a fleet of giant eye-ball ships and said. “I’m the Doctor. This planet is under my protection”.
Or my all time favorite moment: “I’m the Doctor and you’re in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up!”
@Mister Bluster: One man’s government service obligation is another’s forced labor. Kind of like “mandatory volunteer service” in the districts I substitute teach in. (Especially considering that volunteering at agencies that have religious connections is not allowed as a non-establishment issue.)
government service obligation…forced labor
I have been called for jury duty several times. I have sat on a grand jury (one true bill and two no true bills) and sat for one trial on a petit jury. (Found defendant guilty)
Had I not appeared when called to be a juror I could have been arrested and fined or thrown in jail.
I was paid and had pizza for lunch.
Civic duty?
@JohnSF: New Caledonia. Mozambique. Antarctica. (But I cheated and used a map. Didn’t remember which African nation was due West of Madagascar and didn’t realize that New Caledonia was due East–thought it was more Northeast. For East, I was torn between NZ and Chile, but realized that NZ was slightly South also.)
@JohnSF:
Just in the interests of contrarianism, anyone besides me voting for River Phoenix’s version of the Doctor?
@Jen:
Hah! You are correct! It’s actually Papua New Guinea’s S.E. island chain, from the north end of the Cape York Peninsula!
But generally PNG is taken as Australia’s northern neighbour.
The answers I was teasing for were:
France (New Caledonia), France (Reunion) and France (Kerguelen)
@Sleeping Dog:
Yup. (Except that the independent state of Mauritius is a tad closer than Reunion; so second closest)
Point is, France is a S. Indian Ocean/S. Pacific party, with 2 million citizens in the region, and significant (varying) military strength. The only European country really active in the region.
@Sleeping Dog:
Spot on, IMO.
More, I suspect Johnson was deliberately, (possibly in concert with Morrison, but that may be just me over-connecting) trying to lob a turd in the punch bowl.
And both Macron and Biden (despite someone screwing up in the State/NSC chain) saw the play in time to negate it.
Hence Macron “dead bat” (cricketing term) and Biden gining Johnson a flea in his ear over UK/USA trade talks and Northern Ireland Protocol.
And the reports now coming that the UK will get sweet FA re. the sub contract if Washington has anything to do with it.
President Biden still pocketing the SSN deal though.
(Warning: Aussie politics could still detonate under that: there’s reason why they didn’t go SSN in the first place)
@Mimai:
In my defense, IIRC, the first time I said this in HS I was maybe 16, and the voting age was still 21. I asked the teacher why I’d get to go to SE Asia before I could vote or drink, and the conversation went downhill rapidly from there. I’d bring it up again from time to time, just to watch everyone’s heads blow up.
@grumpy realist:
That was the other part of my idea. Children of the wealthy get to go first, followed by the wealthy, followed by the muddle class, etc., etc. That way the poor inherit the earth (or something like that).
@just nutha:
Mauritius (independent) and Reunion (French) both before you hit Madagascar.
Though if you were sailing you might miss them (which the Malays did; which is why Madagascans are ethically a mix of African and Malay plus a bit of Arab, Somali and Andamanese IIRC)
Kerguelen is where I was thinking of SW; though I suppose it’s closer to WSW compass wise, looking at a map now.
(Also Kerguelen bit of a cheat as only inhabitants are a few score French scientists and military, and sparse wildlife, mostly seals and penguins who decided Antarctica was too damn cold; and feral cats chasing feral rabbits and rats)
@flat earth luddite:
Youth = Rock solid defense
@flat earth luddite:
‘Cept in those circumstances, you can bet the wealthy would suddenly become poor.
But still, mysteriously enough, in control of the company x or foundation y.
e.g. the nomenklatura of the USSR.
Technically they owned little beyond the shirts on their backs, and had only “sufficient” salaries.
And if anyone believes that, there’s a nice ocean front property in Idaho I may be able to interest them in…
@flat earth luddite:
You were reading too much Heinlein (is there such a thing?).
@JohnSF:
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss
@Kathy:
The US doesn’t have a draft. The draft ended in the 70s
It has “Selective Service registration”. Young men–and only men–have to register with the government within 30 days of their 18th birthday so they’re on the list if we ever do have a draft. The likelihood of that happening is tiny. But, for the past 40 years, young men have been required to sign up–while women haven’t–or lose the “privilege” of getting government jobs, student loans, or a driver’s license.
Yes, registration should be gotten rid of. But… A less-than-small part of me wants at least a decade of women having to go through the same thing. Equality isn’t just about the same benefits, it’s about the same responsibilities.
And I can only laugh at southern Republicans who are outraged at “sending our daughters to war”, when they’ve been happily sending our sons to war for half a century. If the risk of “darling Savannah” having to drive a HMMV through IED-infested roads makes the war-hawks think twice about military intervention, I’m all for it.
@JohnSF: I clearly needed to cheat off a better map. The one I used didn’t show PNG extending that far or show Reunion or the other island at all.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I have weird mental facility for remembering small scale maps.
Less than some, more than most.
OTOH anything numeric just drips slowly out of my ears.
@Mu Yixiao: “You were reading too much Heinlein (is there such a thing?).”
There is for me. As slog reads go he’s only above Ayn Rand. Then again, I stopped reading Sci Fi in middle school (except for the uni class I took where I only did the lectures but mostly didn’t read the books–and I don’t recall the teacher’s noticing). There was a long stretch (~20 years) where I only read short stories and magazine essays, too. I really only started reading novels again when I lived in Korea.
Supreme Court Review Sought By Christian Wedding Website Designer
Business owners who oppose gay marriage are stupid.
They should accept any and all businesses from gay marriages–and then do an absolute shit job of it.
I have zero sympathy for gay couples who go into a Christian bakery (or any other business) and expect them to make the “most amazing wedding cake” for people the business owners despise. They’re doing it to stir up shit. There have got to be dozens of businesses in the area that will happily create amazing cakes/dresses/floral arrangements/photos/music/whatever with zero fuss.
99.44% of the time “don’t push your gay agenda in my face” is complete bullshit. Instances like this are the remaining 0.56%
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Depends on the period, I think.
Early Heinlein was interesting.
Later on (post 1960’s), he really needed an editor who would say “No, Bob. Just NO. Cut it by half.” 🙂
I always preferred Andre Norton anyway.
@JohnSF:
My father enjoyed Andre Norton. My brother still does.
@JohnSF:
Linguistically, Malagasy (the native language of Madagascar) is a member of the Austronesian family, along with Malay, the Micronesian and Polynesian languages, and several sub-families on the island of Taiwan, where the family is deduced to have originated. It is much more closely related to Hawai’ian, Tagalog, and Maori than it is to any language on the mainland of Africa or non-Malay Asia.
@DrDaveT:
Yes, surprised me when I first learnt that Madagascans were linguistically linkable to Indonesian/Malay.
Though my line about “missed them” re. Mauritius and Reunion was a throwaway joke.
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they were originally Malagasy peopled also; I’ve not a clue offhand.
I recall seeing somewhere a speculation that the Austronesians were encouraged to become sea-oriented cultures, and spread outward, by the flooding of their central range of occupation in the areas from S. China to Java, where a massive extent of lowland was flooded at the end of the last Ice Age.
How true, no idea.