Iconoclasm, courtesy of Bishop Daniel Garcia.

"Please, implacable godless mobs--don't remove statues of our Saints! 

Let us do it for you instead."

What leftist self-identified Catholics and other let's-meet-you-halfway compromisers forget is that Girondins always get tumbrel rides. Always. And early in the radical escalation process, too.

For the rest of us, there is no one who will protect you from the mobs. There's barely anyone who will raise an objection. Those with the authority to change the trajectory are feckless empty suits, moral cowards or actively-facilitating the destruction of order.

You are on your own. 

Pray that our times become more sane, and maybe they will. Deo volente.

The modeling hobby: a sure path to inner serenity.

Progress and repairs on two vehicles.

The Land Raider is the one on the left. You may recognize the Predator on the right.

The Land Raider represents "progress." As in "I somehow installed the turret melta gunner despite the most opaque model instructions to ever originate in an English-speaking nation." The above is literally all the directions "say."

I was cursing England and all its pomps and works last night. But somehow, I solved the puzzle, as the above close-up shows.

The Predator shows the power of repair. Elizabeth accidentally broke the left sponson lascannon. Fortunately, I had been clued into the Miracle of Magnets by 40K Youtubers, and had some handy. The magnets allow rotation, if not elevation. But I will take it with no hard feelings at all.

Valuable lessons all around on a happy Father's Day.

Year Zero Update.

In addition to those already mentioned in other posts, here are additional statutes defaced, pulled down or in the process of being removed:

George Washington;

Ulysses S. Grant; [Warning: contains link to Adam Serwer. The warning is mostly for me as I browse the archives in the future: I hate his writing, all the way down to the punctuation.]

Saint Junipero Serra;

Theodore Roosevelt;

Francis Scott Key; and

Miguel de Cervantes.

Arrests are not, of course, being made.

A celebrated member of the cultural elite speaks candidly.

The Pulitzer has been a bit tarnished since Walter Duranty received it for shilling on behalf of Joseph Stalin.

So the fact that Nikole Hannah-Jones received it for her pilloried-across-the-historical-spectrum "1619 Project" is in keeping with the writing standards considered award-worthy by the Pulitzer committee.

[As an aside, it might be low-brow to describe Ms. Hannah-Jones' worldview as a bougie love-child of those of Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis, so don't do that. We aspire to be middlebrow here. One day.]

Despite the painful flaws in her corpus--which include embarrassing attempts to deny the exact words which she spoke--she is unquestionably an important cultural figure. And she does, from time to time, take stands which are uncongenial to coalition politics--as you will see below.

Also, she is remarkably forthright in her initial observations--if less so on revision. All of this makes her both an important thought leader and reliable reporter of the thought-processes of like-minded believers, and thus, an important voice to keep tabs on.

John Sexton has done an admirable job of recording her most recent eye-opening statements--some of which have since been deleted. But screenshots are forever.

To sum up:

• Tearing down a Founders' statue is good.

• Sure, calling such actions the "1619 Riots" is an honor.

• More than 432,000 Union soldiers died in the American Civil War. Almost 40,000 of those Union dead were black. But the deaths of 392,000 non-black Union soldiers contributed nothing to freedom for black people, and to even mention them is to deny "black agency."

• The most important thing about the General responsible for the destruction of the Confederacy is that he briefly owned a slave whom he freed when Grant was destitute.

• Defending the 19th Century Grant as "an imperfect man of his time" is just like making excuses for Hitler and bin Laden.

• She's not going to comment on Grant's statue being pulled down.

• Well, ok--she says you'll never see her calling for the removal of statues of Grant or Lincoln. Which allows for these interpretations: (1) you'll never see her
  *calling* for it; and/or (2) her *objecting* to it; or (3) she might think such would be a bad idea for unspecified reasons.

• Never mind--that tweet was deleted. Too conciliatory? Boots on the ground itchy to uproot more? Wouldn't be the worst bet.

• She wants you to consider the argument that massive fireworks displays over the past few days are government psychological warfare against black and brown people because black and brown youths can't get their hands on great fireworks.

• American Indians owned black slaves.

She finished on an irrefutable point. I will just add that famed tribes fought for the Confederacy.

All in all, pretty dispiriting. But I have every confidence 2020 will find a way to lower the floor.

The Pope Francis Reading Game.

I'll have more about my "faith journey" (to use the saccharine phrase) of the past several years in a later post.

On a related note, the titular head of our "faith community" (sorry for the rhetorical carcinogens this fine Monday morning) doesn't bother me much these days. Probably because his role in the spiritual life of my family is virtually zero. His name appears in Latin or English at the masses we attend...and that's it. 

My Much Better Half points out how he has vanished from the Catholic catalogs we receive in the mail--and, indeed he has. The customers seem to be voting with their orders--or lack thereof.

But anyway, he continues to insist upon himself in various public statements, because of course he does. It's what humble people do.

Every pope is, by nature of his office, a spiritual leader and a politician. The latter by virtue of the fragment of the Papal States he literally rules, but also because being the head of a far-flung flock appearing in every nation around the globe forces political considerations into the daily calculus of the Successor of Peter.

Alas, our current pontiff has reversed the priority of his two roles.

The reality is, he's not a very good politician, unless you think being a cheap-shotting demagogue who torches the same strawmen over and over makes you a good politician.

Which, if you live in America, maybe you do. Wheat is the only crop we produce more of. But that, too, is for another post.

The reality is that in virtually all of his political statements, internal and external, he's a rhetorical bully. He picks safe targets and unloads on them, to the acclaim of the faction he leads. Rigidity, bat christians, the rabbit mother, seminarians who think tradition has value are mentally ill, tanning the hide of a Catholic who introduced him to a convert--weak targets all, none of whom can strike back or safe ones who can but won't. 

Classic bully. And, naturally, this is enabled by the applause of so-called fellow Catholics and non-Catholics who both enjoy watching people they dislike be smacked around.

But he won't clear his throat for actual persecuted Christians--Pakistan, Hong Kong, China--because every bully recognizes a stronger one.

Anyway, Don McClarey points out the pontiff's latest safe target: priests who objected to church closures because of coronavirus.

Stunning. And brave. 

And sure to garner applause--because it did. Note the tittering of the New York Daily News. 

Never mind that he reversed his own church closure order following an objection by a cardinal who kept his open. Self-awareness is not one of his strengths.

Forget it, Jake--it's Rome.

Now, I happen to think that church closures weren't a bad idea--so long as baptism and confession were still available. The evidence seems to point to the virus thriving in enclosed spaces with lots of people emitting aerosols. But note that I am exceptionally hostile to keeping churches closed when services in smaller spaces and with personal contact are allowed to open: restaurants, salons, gyms, to name but three.

Not that the pontiff cares about such disparate treatment--because of course he doesn't.

For whatever reason, his shtick no longer throws me off like it used to. But I understand why it still bothers other people.

So let me help by offering a fun rhetorical exercise.

In every story where the pontiff rhetorically slaps a weak target, insert the following phrase before or after his name: 

"Ever the petulant man-child."

For example, the NY Daily News report linked above now reads as follows:

On Saturday, while meeting with Italian doctors and nurses of the northern Italian province of Lombardy to offer personal thanks for selflessly risking their lives to assist coronavirus patients, Pope Francis, ever the petulant man-child, also worked in a subtle dig at conservative priests griping about shuttered churches amid the outbreak, reported The Associated Press.

Try it--it will help your blood pressure. Frankly (no pun intended), you need to laugh at his exhausted act. And what's the worst that can happen?

Some fanboi/girl snarls at you with the classic pinched look on his/her face? Sure, that's likely. But so what? Their act has earned a chuckle, too.

That would explain it.

Urban Policing in 2030.

I posted this earlier, but you need to read this excellent piece of reporting by journalist Charlie LeDuff.

LeDuff authored the magnificent Detroit: An American Autopsy.

And after stints with the Detroit News and Fox 2, he's currently with a collective of veteran local journos at Deadline Detroit.

Here's a lengthy sample:

As the #DefundPolice movement gathers steam across the United States, it's worth asking what it means, exactly, to defund the police and what the consequences would be.

There is perhaps no better case study than the City of Detroit – one of America's most violent – which cut back its police force and funding during the historic bankruptcy, settled in 2014.

Funding for the police department has fallen 20 percent since then. Wages for police officers were cut 10 percent and have never recovered, accounting for inflation. Health benefits for retired officers were stripped away and pension payments deferred.

Consequently, Detroit is having severe problems attracting recruits and retaining cops. There are now 20 percent fewer officers patrolling the streets than in 2014. Half have less than five years on the job.

As George Hunter of the Detroit News (the only journalist in the state who covers the DPD full time) reported, “use of force” incidents have dropped nearly 60 percent since the department exited a 13-year federal consent judgment in 2014 over its excessive use.

That is encouraging, and may be due to better training. But morale and effort may also be contributing factors. Consider that arrests are down nearly 40 percent.

And now, in the hot summer of 2020, funding and morale troubles have come to roost. Violent crime has exploded in the streets of the Motor City, despite the three-month Covid-19 lockdown.

There have been 100 homicides so far this year, a 25-percent spike over last year and there have been 271 non-fatal shootings, representing an increase of 30 percent. Most disturbing, during 80 days of the COVID lockdown, 18 children were shot.

There is no doubt that human priorities in America's largest majority black city have gone neglected. Precious dollars have been diverted to private development. Outright graft has been a contributor to misery for decades.

The biggest public works project in Detroit since bankruptcy? A 2,000-bed jailhouse.

But public safety is, and must be, a top priority. Especially for children. Strip the police, and who will make the streets livable for our most vulnerable?

Read it all. Especially the interviews of young survivors of unsolved violent crimes.

If you want to see life in the wake of defund, look to Detroit. The overstretched force increasingly just secures crime scenes, collects shell casings and waits for the ambulance (if the victim is lucky) or draws chalk outlines and waits for the Wayne County Coroner (if the victim is not).

Not that many people outside of the victims, their families and officers themselves seem to care.

And when you consider what is going to happen to municipal and state budgets in the wake of the coronavirus shutdowns, all of this is coming soon to an urban statistical area near you.

Warhammer 40,000 is an endless source of memes.

I have been tempted to have days where I post in nothing but memes.

Gotta appeal to the yutes, who live by them.

But more seriously, game fandom generates them, and they can often spread to outsiders, and borrow from other pop culture references in the process.

 

Insane hysteria: there's no other way to describe it.

In my years as a plaintiff-side employment attorney, I have seen nooses in workplaces and racially-threatening messages that invoked nooses. Enragingly, I have to report that this phenomenon isn't as uncommon as it should be. People who put nooses out to intimidate their co-workers deserve to pay through the nose as they are booted out the door.

However, this case is not that.

In Oakland, an African-American fitness enthusiast named Victor Sengbe donated and with the help of friends installed the functional equivalent of TRX ropes in a public park. Here he is, describing what he did.

And here is an April picture taken by a local right around the time Sengbe put them up.

And here's more photographic evidence, including a not-very-clear picture of one that prompted the complaint. But remember--ALL the ropes were taken down. So.

Despite my considerable bulk, I have been working out more over the past few years. I can now ride a bike with my children, move furniture with cape-wearing confidence and generally don't sweat when I eat. In fact, I worked out yesterday--via Zoom cast from my still-closed-by-edict-studio. And I even did the exercise from hell--burpees. And body weight squats. And lunges. And planks.

They're all fun, really. 

 

At the studio, there are and I have used TRX ropes. They allow you to do "body weight" exercises such as push-ups, curls, etc.--the variety of self-inflicted pain is limited only by the imagination.

Anyway, Mr. Sengbe's donations were up and appreciated by many parkgoers for weeks. And it's clear kids had fun with them--which was one of the intended uses.
 
He's now being investigated for a "hate crime."

Because some hysterics hallucinated that they were nooses.

THEY. 
ARE. 
NOT. 
NOOSES. 

Repeat as neccessary until that essential dispositive fact gets lodged into your head.

As if the donor's testimony wasn't enough, Associated Press' tortured verbiage describing the ropes confirms it. [Not to mention the lack of pictures of the ropes in ANY report which would confirm the ridiculousness of the complaint.] Despite the wire service's best effort to humor our nation's growing population of hysterics, nooses don't have hand-grips at the bottom.

That should have been enough to put this to bed.

Enter White Woman Ally™ Mayor Libby Schaaf.

No, it doesn't matter what they actually are. What they were imagined to be by a handful is what counts. Libby has their imaginative backs, so of course there is a hate crime investigation underway.

If you see thumping white paternalism here, in the form of a Woke Mayor all too happy to keep her voters infantilized and terrified--congrats. You have a mastery of the obvious.

In the meantime, a black fitness enthusiast has seen his kind gift to the community perverted by overheated lunatics into a symbol of hatred. And removed.

And you can probably imagine the hate torrent he's enjoying from the forces of Progress.

To conclude, I have long thought we still have a problem with racism in this country--because we do. I have seen an incident involving an actual, indisputable workplace noose quite recently.

But now, I think one of our growing problems with racism comes from White Savior Allies--especially white women--bigfooting everything, stoking fear and generally making things worse.

If Mayors Libby Schaaf and Jenny "This Is Fine" Durkan aren't enough for you, how about our celebrities "taking responsibility" [sic] and now Phoebe Bridgers coming to the rescue?

Parting thought: all of this hair on fire "help" definitely helps bolster the helpers "I care" credentials, and by extension, their careers. 

Happy coincidence, that.

Wisdom--for individuals and nations.

Do not disregard the discourse of the aged, for they themselves learned from their fathers;

because from them you will gain understanding, and learn how to give an answer in the time of need.

--Sirach 8:9.

Preview of Coming Attractions.

It's not just the obvious "blue flu."

Disgruntled officers--and other public employees--have called in sick to register disapproval of higher-ups before.

But this is different. Here, there's a growing sense that leaps to judgment are leaving cops on their own. 

Muckraking journalist extraordinaire Charlie LeDuff points out that Motown's bankruptcy partially-defunded police in Detroit, and the results are not encouraging, to say the least. Note especially the fear of "ending up on the 5 o'clock news."

In the absence of defunding, collapsing morale and an environment steering away potential LEOs from big cities will give us the equivalent of "defund."

Attrition of policing in large cities is underway: early retirements, for starters. And under-funding of big city departments already leads to transfers to better jobs in the suburbs. When you throw in the "All Cops Are Bastards and Here's Our 59 Demands" mindset, it's going to be a torrent. Who will want a career in an urban department?

Meanwhile, in Seceded Seattle, life without police is...CHOPpy.

And Mayor Jamie Buchanan is letting the rebels run the show.

If you'd like a less-bleak anecdote to end on, here it is.

But such moments of amity are the exception.