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  From an article in The New York Review of Books: [A student] was asked on a graduate-school application to write three hundred words about the aphorism "less is more." She responded instead with a haiku: A wall torn down or a single door that opens can mean so much more.

In anticipation of the big move, we started decluttering the house, and recently have become more systematic and intentional about it. Next month, Linda retires, thereby declutting her personal schedule after having been employed continuously for 40 years (45 if you count her graduate school stipend; 46 if you count the year she was an RA at Strong Hall). We’re both embracing the opportunity to subtract the detritus that accumulated over all these decades. Some items evoke smiles and memories before they are donated to Goodwill or go into the recycle bin. The results are finally becoming obvious, as the basement empties and bookshelves become vacant. We still have a long way to go, and less and less time to finish the job. Anyone who has ever made a wood carving or admired the marble statues David and the Pietà understands the role of subtraction in creativity. I’m looking forward to creating a new life in the years that remain to us, and subtraction is sine qua non for that.

It appears that, vaccines nonwithstanding, COVID-19 will be endemic for a long time. Enforcing masking and social distancing/lockdowns are not sustainable in American society. We need engineering fixes that don't depend on each person's sense of civic responsibility. Kevin Drum points to two engineering fixes that would dramatically reduce infection rates: better ventilation and installation of far-UV illumination. As he notes, "Here in California we've spent billions earthquake proofing our infrastructure. Why don't we do the same for virus proofing?" Read the rest here: https://jabberwocking.com/civil-engineering-both-high-and-low-tech-can-help-fight-covid-19/

  I really hate even having to dignify the absurd ammosexual myth that to stop a bad guy with a gun, all you need is a good guy with a gun. This myth comes from watching too much TV and too many movies. That's not reality. Look, the Buffalo shooter was confronted by an armed guard at the grocery store. The shooter had body armor and the element of surprise, and the bad guy with the gun killed the good guy with the gun. I'm reading now that the Texas school shooter also had body armor and was confronted by *three* good guys with a gun. The bad guy was able to shoot his way into the school past the three good guys. Can we please drop this phony idea now? Per Josh Marshall over at TPM (paywalled): "When you combine high powered rifles and body armor, these guys are close to unstoppable, at least at first. That’s not their only advantage. These shooters have all accepted that they’re likely going to die within minutes. They also, by definition, have the element of surprise. Un...

"Few crimes are more harshly forbidden in the Old Testament than sacrifice to the god Moloch (for which see Leviticus 18.21, 20.1-5). The sacrifice referred to was of living children consumed in the fires of offering to Moloch. Ever since then, worship of Moloch has been the sign of a deeply degraded culture. Ancient Romans justified the destruction of Carthage by noting that children were sacrificed to Moloch there. Milton represented Moloch as the first pagan god who joined Satan’s war on humankind: First Moloch, horrid king, besmear’d with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears, Though for the noise of Drums and Timbrels loud Their children’s cries unheard, that pass’d through fire To his grim idol. (Paradise Lost 1.392-96) Read again those lines, with recent images seared into our brains—“besmeared with blood” and “parents’ tears.” They give the real meaning of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. That horror cannot be blamed just on one unhinged person. It was...

Setting aside the questions of when "life begins" and the roll of the nanny state, there are negative economic implications for the overturning of Roe: "“The bottom line is, if abortion is not available, women’s economic opportunity is limited, children are born into much more difficult circumstances and that effects those children’s prospects later in life.” All things that increase costs on society." *snip* "Once again, the conservative way of living, one of selfishness is blinding them. Life is an experience of singularities to them. Then again, authoritarian, unitary executive allows for nothing else. It is inducing a more difficult life for themselves than is necessary. Unfortunately, the rest of us suffer too. To keep this economic, the Right, the Republicans do not have a word for “externality”. It is a concept, a truth of life that just does not exist in their world." Read the rest here: https://angrybearblog.com/2022/05/outlawing-abortion-it-is-a...

The world needs to replace fossil fuels with nuclear, solar, wind, tide and geothermal power. We're finishing our 9th year with rooftop solar, which provides ca. 25% of our electricity needs annually. On the other hand, our furnace, stove, oven, water heater and clothes dryer are all gas. Natural gas (methane) burns cleaner than coal, but it is still a fossil fuel. That said, 70% of electrical generation in Missouri comes from coal, so replacing electric appliances with gas is at least somewhat less polluting. When we move to RI, we'll give up the rooftop solar. Nearly 90% of electric power in RI is fueled by gas. So both electric and gas appliances in RI are operating on fossil fuel. Ditto electric vehicles. I doubt we'll install rooftop solar on the house we eventually move to in RI. We will have an energy inventory done to identify ways to minimize wasted energy. But remember, just because it's electricity doesn't mean it isn't using fossil fuel.

  The GOP desperately needs new material. All their conspiracy theories feature Hillary, George Soros and communism. Sad. The Wall Street Journal's idea of going green is to indulge in this type of recycling. From the comment thread: "If you are old enough, every paper had a section devoted to cartoons. The WSJ was an exception, except, nearly every financial person I encountered all considered the editorial section of the WSJ to be their "cartoon" section. Looks like things haven't changed." Honestly, I don't understand why anyone reads the WSJ anymore, except for comic relief. https://jabberwocking.com/hillary-didnt-do-it/

“Until we are done with the ironies of history (because they will never be done with us), the image of Trotsky will not dissipate.” ~Christopher Hitchens I’ve had a lifelong fascination with socialism, communism and the Cold War. This probably springs from having grown up during the Cold War at nuclear ground zero for World War III. Also contributing was that I came of age near the end of the Vietnam War, a proxy war between the US and the USSR into which I very nearly was drafted. My quest to understand this 20th century bipolar world into which I was born has most recently brought me to Isaac Deutcher’s monumental biography of Leon Trotsky, “The Prophet.” In fact, The Prophet is really three volumes published separately: “The Prophet Armed” (1952, 540 p.) “The Prophet Unarmed (1956; 448 p.)” and “The Prophet Outcast (1963; 543 p.).” The first volume was published while Stalin was still alive and Trotsky’s memory was actively suppressed by the Soviet Union. The later volumes benefit f...

 " As an OB-GYN, I work in active fear of being arrested for providing evidence-based health care in this state. I am certain that I am not alone. Intervening in an ongoing pregnancy would be examined as an “abortion” by the medical board and subject to the same scrutiny as any procedure I perform in my clinic. Doctors know that if you perform anything that could even be suspected of an abortion, you had better have all of your regulations followed to the letter. No wonder, even though we are   directed under federal law   to provide appropriate medical care to any pregnant person who shows up in the ER with a medical emergency, few in Alabama are willing to risk their careers and liberty to provide that care. "Too often, I see and hear about examples of this stigma and fear at work when women come to me after being refused treatment in the local ER. For example, one patient started bleeding heavily at home. When she got out of bed in the morning, she said blood and ...

"Republicans in Congress aggressively pushed back against charges their rhetoric may have helped fuel the hate of the 18-year-old Buffalo shooter who allegedly committed one of the deadliest racist murder sprees in recent history Saturday, even as one of their GOP colleagues accused them of enabling white nationalism. "The House’s third-ranking Republican, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York tweeted out a statement on Monday morning decrying as false any attempt to blame her for the rampage targeting Black people — less than 30 minutes before posting a tweet that echoed tenets of the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory that investigators believe may have motivated the shooter." *snip* “Absolutely not,” Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said repeatedly when asked in the Capitol Monday whether he believed his rhetoric could have contributed to the belief system of the shooter. The senator suggested in a Fox Business interview last year that Democrats want to ...

  Canada has lots of baby formula. Why can't we just import some? Read on. Trump, America First, Dairy industry, re-negotiated NAFTA with no provisions for emergencies. Jim Wright So, why can't we just import baby formula? Heh heh, glad you asked. Ever heard of the United States Canada Mexico Agreement? That bit of legislation Trump and Republicans proudly replaced NAFTA with? Remember Trump bragging about that? Remember? That. That's why. Three (or four, depending on your point of view) American companies control 90% of the global infant formula market, chief among them is Abbott Nutrition. When a Chinese company announced it was investing in a Canadian manufacturing facility to make powdered baby formula from excess Canadian skim milk powder (Canada makes a lot of butter, so they have a lot of leftover skim milk), Abbott and the US diary industry spent millions lobbying congress to change the trade rules -- claiming increased Canadian production of formula would "neg...

Fox is pushing anti-Biden propaganda claiming that infant formula that's in short supply on US store shelves is being shipped to the southern border. Apart from stoking anti-immigrant outrage and ignoring the humanitarian issues of women and infants incarcerated by the US, the "evidence" that pallets and pallets of infant formula are being shipped to the border isn't: "But from what I can see, the images showing pallets and shelves with dozens and dozens of cans are not baby formula, they’re cans of NIDO, which is a milk substitute for toddlers. Assuming these photos show what storage rooms currently look like in a Border Patrol holding facility, most of what anti-immigrant pundits and politicians are freaking out about is milk substitute for kids one year or older, not baby formula." Two things you can bet on: (1) Fox News stoking fear and hatred and (2) Fox News reports are either gross distortions or outright lies. Shame. https://www.motherjones.com/mojo...

The SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe certainly qualifies as folly, both in terms of the decision to reverse half a century of settled law and in terms of what it does to the credibility of the Supreme Court. "To qualify as folly for this inquiry, the policy adopted must meet three criteria: it must have been perceived as counter-productive in its own time, not merely by hindsight. … Secondly a feasible alternative course of action must have been available. … third … the policy in question should be that of a group, not an individual leader." ~Barbara Tuchman, "The March of Folly"

When we think of the major drivers of global warming, we think of burning gas in cars and burning coal, oil and natural gas for heating and electricity. But beef consumption is a significant driver of deforestation and methane production world-wide. We mostly gave up beef when Rebecca was in law school and published a law review article about how bad beef is for the environment. If you crave red meat, bison is better for the environment than beef. “Replacing just 20% of global beef consumption with a meat substitute within the next 30 years could halve deforestation and the carbon emissions associated with it, finds a modelling study.” *snip* Beef farming is a top driver of deforestation worldwide, and cattle raised for beef are a major source of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Replacing beef with meat alternatives could reduce some of the food production’s environmental footprint, but it won’t solve the climate crisis, says study lead author Florian Humpenöd...

I got my genome sequenced because my dad died with dementia (FTD and/or Alzheimers) and I wanted to know what my risk is. Based on current evidence, I don't have any of the high risk variants, although there are certainly more risk alleles yet to be discovered. While these dementias are not currently treatable, there are also environmental risk factors. From the link: "As reported by BBC News, and as presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London this week, these nine factors all contribute to the onset of dementia. Ranked in order of highest to lowest risk, they are: • Mid-life hearing loss (9 percent of the risk) • Not completing secondary-level/high school education (8 percent) • Smoking (5 percent) • Not seeking treatment for depression in youth (4 percent) • Physical inactivity (3 percent) • Social isolation (2 percent) • High blood pressure (2 percent) • Obesity (1 percent) • Type 2 diabetes – the more common variant linked to obesity (1 perc...

  Santa Barbara is about to go online with a water desalination plant that will provide 30% of the city’s needs. This prompted the recollection that my dad worked for years on water desalination, even consulting after retirement. According to my brother Mike, he foresaw that the approach he was researching—boiling and condensation—would be overtaken by reverse osmosis, which is indeed what the Santa Barbara plant uses. Mike also sent me a link to a 1991 LA Times article that quotes our dad: “The research was funded primarily by the Atomic Energy Commission, which was looking for uses for what it expected to be cheap energy produced by nuclear power plants, and by the Department of Interior, which foresaw water shortages in the West. “Somewhere along the way, the Department of Interior lost interest, partly because the California Water Project (which brings water to Southern California from the North) was under way and it was thought that it would relieve the water shortage,” said c...

I started teaching medical students in 1988 and have been an instructor and course director for one or more first-year med school courses continuously since 1990. When I started, there were two full years of pre-clinical course-work. Now we're down to a year and two-thirds and there are plans to shrink further. Some medical schools in the US already only have a single pre-clinical year. Personally, I thought the pre-clinical lectures and exams were excessive in the beginning, particularly in courses like Medical Biochemistry (my course) and Human Anatomy, but probably also in most courses. Some of those lecture hours could have been replaced by flipped classroom problem-solving and other forms of problem-based learning. I ran PBL in my course for over 20 years. Now, the race is on to push medical students into the clinic as fast as possible. On the other end, the sole path to licensure in the US currently is through an internship/residency. These are mostly supported by the federal...

  Why did Alito's draft opinion get leaked? The smart money is on one of the right-wing majority or their staff, in order to counteract efforts by Roberts to recruit one of their number to a majority in favor of upholding a weakened Roe. Roberts, of course, realizes that a complete overturn of Roe will forever sully his name in judicial history. By pushing out the draft prematurely, the right-wing reasoning is that either Roberts will be intimidated or that the well of collegiality he's trying to draw from will be poisoned. Regardless of the outcome, the myth of apolitical justice in the US has been exploded. If Roberts loses this round, look for a series of further decisions repealing Obergefell and other federal protections of the right to contraceptive access, inter-racial marriage, gay sex. According to Alito, if it's not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, it's not a Constitutional right and states can do whatever they want. We're looking to move to blue...

To pass a federal law codifying Roe v Wade, the Democrats will have to keep the house and have at least a two vote margin in the senate in the midterm elections. That's why turnout this November matters bigly. ". . . if your goal is to make abortion rights the central issue or even a central issue in the midterm, this is how you do it and no other approach will have a comparable impact. After that you definitely need to fight; you need to be aggressive; you need to be all those things. But without that clarity none of it will translate electorally." https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/if-youre-serious-about-making-roe-the-midterm-issue

The rule of law, like money, rests on the ephemeral sands of belief. When people stop believing in them, though, they have to be replaced, or else we're reduced to anarchy and barter, not a good look for a nation in the third decade of the 21st century. So what to do with the failed institutions of the US senate, the electoral college and the Supreme Court? I don't know. What I do know is history. When the existing institutions failed, we got Bollshevik Russia, Franco's Spain, Hitler's Germany and Mao's China, just to cite a few egregious and long-lived examples. As a confirmed institutionalist, I don't have a good answer for someone who asks why America should have any confidence in today's Senate and SCOTUS. Hope is not a plan. "One of the more consequential contradictions of the Democratic Party is that the vast majority of its staffers, consultants, electeds, and media avatars, along with a substantial portion of its electoral base, are institutiona...

"The leaked draft opinion that set America aflame Monday night contains more than proof that a majority of Supreme Court justices voted to overturn abortion rights. It’s peppered with hints revealing an openness to outlawing abortion nationwide, always the end game for the core of the anti-abortion movement. At the very least, it reveals where Justice Samuel Alito, the reported author of the opinion, stands. It’s unclear whether the other conservatives reported to have joined him in the vote — Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas — signed off on this version of the draft. The document holds the kind of clues that will not elude those in the rightwing legal space marching towards the next theater in the abortion wars." https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/draft-supreme-court-opinion-roe-abortion-outlaw?fbclid=IwAR0zfSV4ELGeHd5zTQliipI8C4yqkSYPli_cD36Z3PKtx2iMC_ch1hMJT2g

  You may have read that more and more COVID deaths are among vaccinated people: • when more and more people are vaccinated, deaths in the vaccinated population will be an increasing share. If 100% of Americans were vaccinated, 100% of COVID deaths will be vaccinated people. See how that works? • vaccine immunity isn't forever. Over time, immunity declines. That's why we get boosters. Nobody claimed that a vaccine shot confers complete resistance to COVID-19 forever. Smart people keep boosted and practice social distancing and masking where appropriate.

I'm old enough to recall a GOP dominated by conservatives. Back then, the Democratic Party was home to the Southern racists. Even Goldwater, who was pretty out there, could publicly call out the religious right. Howard Baker was a conservative without being a right-wing extremist. We used to call them Rockefeller Republicans. Beginning with Nixon's Southern Strategy, the Southern racists migrated to the GOP, and with Reagan, the GOP abandoned the position of fiscal responsibility to embrace the phony supply side economics of the aptly named Art Laffer. Now, the GOP is the party of Trumpism and the Democratic party is the conservative party. The take-no-prisoners extremism of today's GOP has taken on the coloration of the Bolsheviks in 1920s USSR, only with less violence (so far). There are a few rumblings of dissatisfaction in the GOP, but mostly behind the scenes. Too few Republicans have the testicularity to call out Trump for fear of the Trumpenproletariat. It's wort...