Civil Commotion

The First Felon’s speech at CPAC included the complaint that children are not back in school yet, adding a fillip implying that the reason is incompetence on the part of Joe Biden. But, according to Science magazine:

Keeping schools open in Sweden roughly doubled the risk that teachers would be diagnosed with the pandemic coronavirus in spring 2020, a study has found. It also raised the infection rate for their partners at home by 29% and for parents whose children attended in person by 17%, the authors reported on 11 February in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Children might not be so susceptible to the Coronavirus sickness as the adults who surround them, that is, but they clearly are efficient carriers.

It is too soon for schools to re-open.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is catching a load of grief for posting an anti-transgender sign outside her Congressional office door. She deserves it.

It apparently is too complex for the fundamentalist mindset to grasp, but there is more to sexuality than plumbing; there also is orientation, and identity, and about a dozen other traits that are influenced by multiple genes. This is why there is no single “gay gene” — there are lots of genes implicated in sexuality.

Ironically, the issue of Science that the multi-phobes cite when they trumpet “no gay gene” detailed a long and hard-fought editorial dispute over whether to go to press with the piece because they knew that simpletons would misconstrue it. One editorial bloc feared the article would be used just as Greene (mis)uses it, and the other editorial group argued for the long view, reasoning that the science had to be published before it could seep into public consciousness.

I’m with the long-view group. Unfortunately, the Republican Party I grew-up with has become the party of malice-eaten simpletons.

Texas is the poster child for what happens when you turn everything into politics — including science, Mother Nature and energy — and try to maximize short-term profits over long-term resilience in an era of extreme weather. The Mars landing is the poster child for letting science guide us and inspire audacious goals and the long-term investments to achieve them.

The Mars mind-set used to be more our norm. The Texas mind-set has replaced it in way too many cases. Going forward, if we want more Mars landings and fewer Texas collapses — what’s happening to people there is truly heartbreaking — we need to take a cold, hard look at what produced each.

Thomas Friedman

Friedman nails something I’ve been thinking about a lot during the past week: the Evangelical Right are driving a lot of the science denial in America — and they aren’t merely wrong; their resolute ignorance is dangerous, and in our mental filing system they ought to be classed with the White Supremacists and all the other loopy misanthropes.

The New York Review of Books notices [pay-walled] the revival of Stoicism.

The recent revival of Stoic philosophy has stayed surprisingly true to its ancient roots while gaining popularity among executives and tech-bros.

The founding editor of the Review died a couple of years ago, and the new owners/editors are still struggling to get their footing. I picked-up the trend almost 3-years ago.

If publishing trends can be trusted, a lot of people are looking toward Stoicism, a pre-Christian philosophical movement nearly wiped-out when the Roman church seized control of the western half of the Roman empire following Rome’s collapse. Just this year has seen publication of Ward Farnsworth’s The Practicing Stoic, Massimo Pigliucci”s How to be a Stoic, and — get ready — even a book of daily devotionals by Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic.

Stoicism, a philosophical movement born more than 2000-years ago and advanced by figures as different as a former slave, Epictetus, and an emperor, Marcus Aurelius, is … in.

So … ho-hum. I’m out of optimism for the Review; the new management just doesn’t have the depth.

Reviewing the FBI’s FOIA response regarding Madalyn Murray O’Hair, I find myself constantly marveling at the letters sent to her and to the federal government about her.

Here is an alarmed letter sent to J. Edgar Hoover.

Sir:

I have read your books, best of all was “Masters of Deceit”

I am writing this letter in regard to a Madalyn Murray O’Hair who was instrumental in getting prayer removed from public schools and now wants prayer banned from outer space. What I want to know is where does she get all her power to do these things? Who is she? What does she do for a living? Can’t she be stopped?

As you stated in your book, Communism is more than an economic, political, social, or philosophical doctrine. It is a way of life; a false, materialistic “religion.” It would strip man of his belief in God.

So she is trying to strip man of his belief, by having it banned. I would like to know how she can have so much say so. What can we do to fight back on her kind? I have two girls in school, I need not tell you more as your know the school situation. I have prayed many times for our wonderful country and I want to help in any way to preserve it.

Thank you for your time and hope you will write in regard to my letter.

Just so’s your know, this is among the most literate of the letters.

What most consistently startles me about these letters, I suppose, is the ignorance they reveal about so many Americans’ understanding of the operation of their own country and the meaning of its First Amendment. Granted, you shouldn’t expect much of people who believe in talking snakes, but I still am struck by the ignorance and indignation from time to time.