My Kid Draws Comics

 This one is taken directly from life -- Dr. Skull is the one chomping down on the cheeseburger, while chiding the kid for wanting catfish.

What I'm Watching Now

I just spent the past couple months watching every single episode of Vera, which is a police procedural show about a grumpy old lady who heads a murder squad in Northumbria. Partly I love the dialect, but also it was fun watching a woman be mean and unreasonable. Usually only men get to be unpleasant in media. Also the landscape was beautiful -- it's Northern England (I think?) and on the east coast, so there are a lot of fisheries and rolling hills and farmlands. Lots of ancient castle-like buildings too. There's a bit of copaganda, of course, but the show makes a point of having the police actually help people -- providing liaisons for victim's families and so forth -- showing how that can be done.

The show also makes a point of having disabled characters as police officers -- one character is an amputee, and two others are in a wheelchairs -- as well as featuring characters of color as police officers, as well as in Northumbria in general. The crimes weren't all murdered women, too, which was a refreshing change. It's available on Amazon Prime, though you have to subscribe to Britbox to watch it.

I also finally got around to watching Derry Girls on Netflix. I'm probably the last person on the planet to figuring out how much fun this one is. Again, I love the dialect; and the characters, especially the grandfather, are just great. It's about a group of Catholic schoolgirls during "the Troubles" in the 1980s, but that conflict is mostly in the background. The main business of the show is these girls (and one guy) in their daily lives. I was sorry this one ended.

Now I'm watching The Gentleman on Netflix. I almost quit watching this one in the first few minutes because it looked like it was going to your typical hot guy does hot guy things. (The lead, Theo James, is very pretty indeed.) But I stuck with it because I liked how the siblings interacted -- like actual siblings, I mean -- and I'm still mostly enjoying it. It's about a duke who discovers his father was maintaining the ancient and enormous estate by leasing out part of it to a weed-growing consortium. The duke soon discovers, much to his chagrin, that he has a certain talent for criminal enterprises.

It reminds me a little of Breaking Bad, except the duke is likable, unlike Walter White, who was always something of a jerk and who got worse as the series progressed. There are still moments in every episode where I wonder why I'm watching this, but it's charming enough that so far I have stuck with it.

Scalzi on Harris

John Scalzi has a good post up on the Harris/Biden situation. Go here to read it.

Key graph:

Can Harris win? Yes, I think so. It’s not 2016 or 2020. Here in 2024, the Supreme Court, with six conservatives, three appointed by Trump, has already gutted people’s rights, and Project 2025 makes it clear that the plan is to gut even more, and to make living in these United States objectively worse for almost everyone. 

The reaction I'm seeing from the Right is predictable: Harris isn't qualified because her parents weren't born in America; Harris isn't qualified because she's a whore; Harris isn't qualified because she's brown; and similar bullshit.

Honestly, what else have they got? They can't claim their guy is more qualified. He's a joke and a grifter. If they had integrity (yeah, don't make me laugh) they'd call for him to step down too. He's nearly as old and twice as incoherent as Biden, and the last time he was President, he let a pandemic kill over a million American citizens.

ETA: Right now, conservatives are wailing that it's no fair for Biden to resign! He has to run! WAAAH!

Holy Hell

Biden steps down.

Living by Lies

My kid sent me this

right after I finished a polite discussion with a conservative on FB who told me she didn't care what the evidence was, she believed what she believed.

This is why I find Rod Dreher's book title -- Live Not by Lies -- so hilarious. Every single thing this current crop of conservatives lives by is either a lie or based on lies. 

I mean, it would be hilarious, if they weren't trying to force us to live by their lies as well.

See also this.

And this.  One of the people in the comments makes a distinction between lies and bullshit, to which he should probably have added just utter stupidity. 

Pro-Trump is Pro-Q

I parked by a car that had a Pro-Trump, a Pro-Q, and a Pro-life sticker on it. Should have given it a door ding, but I restrained myself.

Weather Report

It was almost cool when I went for a walk last night by the river. (By "cool," I mean it was 88 degrees.) This is a blessed respite between heat domes, I guess.

It's 80 degrees right now, at 11:00 on a Saturday morning. Nice!

The rabbits have taken to lying under our outside table (the one my fig tree is currently on) scratching themselves divots in the earth and then flopping on their sides to lie in the cool spot they've created. It's adorable.

From PZ Myers

 This cracks me up:

Apparently, Conservatives Were Always Against the Iraq War

I was called a terrorist and treasonous to my face because I didn't think we should attack some country that had nothing to do with 9/11 just so Bush could be doing something. I remember "conservatives" screaming at those on the Left. I remember Freedom Fries. I remember the Dixie Chicks being cancelled because they spoke out against the war.

I remember this:

Child covered in her parents' blood

And now this: apparently conservatives never supported the war on Iraq. It was all Biden's fault!

We've never been at war with Eastasia.

Oh, and apparently they've all taken to wearing big white bandages on their ears, just like the one their idol Trump wore. It reminds me of the convention where conservatives wore Purple Heart band-aids to make fun of the Purple Hearts John Kerry got for being wounded in Vietnam. 

Walking by the River

I took a walk at dusk down by the river, the first time I've walked there in a couple of months (because summer), and found there's a new project underway, to "restore native grasses," which is pretty cool.

Lots of wildflowers too. I snagged this picture, which the internet tells me are plains coreopsis:

I enjoyed the walk but holy hell it was hot, even at 8:00 p.m., and the air as thick as steam. Back to the gym today.

MAGAts Screeching with Delight

The reaction from the Right to Trump's ear being nicked is almost orgasmic with glee. Clearly they all think this will lead to his election. (I'm dubious, since no one who wasn't already pro-Trump will have their opinion shifted.)

Meanwhile, "conservative" pundits are claiming this is the fault of the violent left, and something about a bulls-eye, and what can you EXPECT when you go around calling people fascists?

Yeah, these people, the ones who call immigrants, leftists, trans people, and brown people vermin, who joke about throwing people out of helicopters, who say journalists should be lynched, now they're clutching their pearls about rhetoric.

These People

Pardon me if I'm not convinced.

Meanwhile, 2,500 children a year being shot, some of them in classrooms, well, that's just the price of freedom, isn't it?

A relevant quotation:

“We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Mr Roberts told the War Room podcast, founded by Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

Edited to add: PZ Myers' take on the situation

ETA: Just a reminder:

What I'm (Not) Reading Now

Frank Herbert, Dune

I once again tried to read Dune. Once again, I couldn't get further than six pages. If you love this book, God bless, but despite everything I've read about it which makes it seem like I would love it, it's just clearly not for me.

Colin Barrett, Wild Houses

Set in Ireland, lovely dialect, you'd think I love it. Getting great reviews. I tried twice, just couldn't get through it. I don't know why -- I just couldn't get interested in any of the characters. If you like really short novels about hoodlums in Ireland, you might like it more than me.

Jane Smiley, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidle Newton

I recently read Smiley's latest novel, Lucky, and liked it right up to the last five or six pages, which are postmodern and grim. Anyway, I also liked Smiley's Moo, so I thought I'd give another of her books a try. This one started well, but yeah, no. Apparently I only like one in ten of Smiley's books. Lidle Newton, again, seems like a book I would like -- a 20-year-old marries an abolitionist after her father dies, and they take out for Lawrence, Kansas, in the years just before the Civil War. Doesn't that sound like a hella book? Sadly, after a promising start, it descends into tedium. Did not finish.

Sarah Langan, A Better World

A near future novel -- everyone except the very few hyperwealthy are desperately poor and ravaged by the collapsing ecosystem. The very wealthy have created gated communities where the air and water are filtered, and decent, non-toxic food still exists. If you have the requisite skills, you can join one of these company towns. Our main characters do, only it turns out everyone there is very unfriendly. Why? I guessed the plot twist coming at about page 30. It's not a very striking one. Also, I didn't care about any of the characters, who were either ciphers or assholes. Stopped reading about page 70.

Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham

Basically, a what-if. What if Hillary Clinton had not married Bill? What would her life, and our country, be like? I was interested in this premise, but by the time Hillary decides not to marry him, I was so bored I could not go on. I've liked, in a tepid way, Sittenfeld's books before. This one didn't do it for me.

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake

I keep trying to like Atwood. I made it all the way through Handmaid's Tale, but I can't say I enjoyed it. This one was mentioned in Michael Berube's book of criticism, The Ex-Human, which I liked a lot, so I thought I'd give her another try. Noped out about page fifteen. Just deadly boring. 

What all are y'all not reading?

Anxiety Dreams

 I had the worst dream last night -- we had moved to Atlanta, and I had to take a bus to get to my new university (which seemed to be more like a high school than a university) and we were living in a hotel room with two other families and I couldn't find the bus stop, plus I was late. And the kid was about 12 years old, so he had to get to school too, and Dr. Skull had a job somewhere but he wasn't sure where. Or which bus to take to get there.

It was one of those dreams where you wake up and are still trying to solve all the problems in the dream, and remembering it was just a dream does not dispel the anxiety. 0/10 do not recommend.

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Whaaaat!

Weather guy says we might get rain today. And the high tomorrow is 77? 

Whaaaat!

It hasn't rained in maybe a month here, and the grass has gone crunchy underfoot, so rain will be nice. Fingers crossed.

Fig Tree

My fig tree with figs on it. They are....almost...ripe.

UK Rousts Conservative Rule

In a landslide, 412 seats to 121, Labour wins against Conservatives.

Good news at last.

So Hot

It's 101 here and that's the temperature, not how it feels. It feels murderously hot, is how it feels.

The weather guy keeps promising rain, with "cooler" weather behind it (that is, low 90s). 

Please.

Meanwhile I am living on watermelon, figs, and blueberries, with some peanut butter on crackers for protein.

Fig Season Has Begun

 These are not from my tree, though my figs are also beginning to ripen!

They're delicious.

My Kid Makes a Comic

 From his art tumbler:

Yeah, This Isn't at All Alarming

Presidents are now immune to prosecution over illegal actions they take if those actions are part of their "official conduct."

So now a President could, say, torture or murder someone and if it could be argued that this was part of his "official conduct," then he's immune. Or, less dramatically, he could take bribes while in office. Or interfere with elections. Or whatever the fuck he wanted. If it can be argued that this is being done while he's conducting his official business, he's immune.

The court’s conservative majority – which Trump helped create – found 6-3 that presidents were protected from prosecution for official actions that extended to the “outer perimeter” of his office, but could face charges for unofficial conduct.

What I'm Listening To

I have learned, like many another, that having audiobooks to listen to makes exercise much less tedious. Listening to audiobooks also helps me fall asleep, at least sometimes.

And my library's Hoopla has a lot of audiobooks available, so it's not even expensive. I also have an audible subscription, which gets me one book a month pretty cheaply. I've found the reader is a big factor in whether I can stand to listen to these books.

Here's what I've been listening to lately:

John Wiswell, Someone to Build a Nest In, read by Carmen Rose

I'd never read Wiswell before, but this was one of the books my Hoopla made available, so I gave it a listen. Then I liked it so much I read it as well, and added it to my Asimov's review. It's the story of a monster who falls in love with a princess, told from the point of view of the (pretty monstrous) monster. Lots of body horror. Carmen Rose does an amazing job, so if you can listen to this one, rather than reading it, I would.

Tana French, Faithful Place, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds

One of French's Dublin Murder Squad books, though not exactly. A murder detective whose entirely life has been shaped by having been dumped by the girl he loved when he was 17 years old, finds out she didn't dump him, she was murdered.  I'd read this before, and French is great if you can stand the big feels. Reynolds does an excellent job of reading it, but sadly he doesn't read French's other books. 

Richard Adams, Watership Down, Peter Capaldi

Watership Down in the epic novel about rabbits searching for a new home, or rather a utopian space. It's a great book. I've loved Capaldi since the days when he was doing In The Thick of It, and he reads this perfectly. 10/10 no notes.

Connie Willis, The Doomsday Book, read by Jenny Sterlin

I had obviously read this one before, but listening to books is a very different experience from reading them, and I enjoyed this one a lot. As you probably know, this is the story of two epidemics, one in 2090 or so, and one in 1347. That second one is the Black Death. The first time I read this book it broke me in half, so bear in mind that there are lots of deaths, including child deaths. There's also a bit of classicism, which I'm pretty sure is not intentional. Still, a ripping yarn, and Jenny Sterlin's reading is wonderful

The Debate

That was depressing as fuck.

The talk is that Biden had a cold, that usually he isn't that doddering. Okay, I guess. It was still painful to watch. 

Trump, obviously, did nothing but spout one lie after the next, which is pathetic in a different way. Also, the constant lies will make no difference, because Trump voters don't care, and uninformed voters aren't going to read fact checks.

That these are our choices is just depressing. Obviously I'll vote for Biden if the other choice is a con man whose governing principle is to hurt his enemies and fill his own pockets, but is this honestly the best we can do as a country?

not to be controversial but personally i think we should have more options than a gently alive corpse and the dumbest Hitler of all time

— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) June 28, 2024

Mom for Liberty Throws a Tantrum

People in a hotel lobby were existing in public in a way this person did not approve of. So she had a screaming fit and was escorted off the hotel grounds by the police. 

Just your reminder that "liberty" means liberty for them, not for you.

Also, remember that no matter what they squeak about how they support gay people, they're coming for everyone in the LGBTQI community, not just trans people.

"Settled law," for today's "conservatives," just means "settled until we get our hands on it."

Meanwhile, what has Biden done for LGBTQI people? (Meanwhile who are the GOP pardoning? Oh, that's right -- murderers and treasonous turnips.)

Obamacare

When I was my kid's age, I couldn't afford health insurance. So I did without.

So long as my only healthcare needs were a cut thumb and bike wreck, that was fine. But when I got cancer, well.

My kid is able to have health insurance thanks to Obamacare. That health care covers pretty much all of his healthcare needs, and the co-pay is less than five dollars. He needed an ultrasound recently, and his Obamacare covered all but four dollars and nineteen cents. It covers 100% of his therapy. He's able to start graduate school because he doesn't have to worry about healthcare.

This is what Trump and the GOP want to take away from us, even though the cost is almost nothing.

See also marriage equality, student loan forgiveness, and the ability to access contraceptives, as well as all the work that has been done on climate change.

You need to ask yourself why the GOP wants to destroy all those things.

Also, I'm seeing a lot of people argue that voting for Biden is just like voting for Trump. All I can say to those people is sweet Jesus, have you been paying attention? I don't love Biden either. I'm still going to vote for him because yes, the lesser of two evils is still less evil.

Yes, I understand that people don't like the situation in the Middle East. Yes, Biden has failed to create a Utopia here in the US. Yes, rent is too high and wages are too low. But if you think Trump will be better, maybe wake the fuck up.

Also, just a reminder, a vote for a third party is a vote for Trump at this point.

WITH the Heat Index

 Just kill me now.

Exercise

Days like this, I'm extremely glad we pay for access to a gym. If I had to go out and exercise in the steaming swamp that is the Fort right now, I would stay inside and eat ice cream instead.

Mmm. Ice cream sounds delicious.

My favorite -- you can't get it in the Fort

The Problem with Walking in My Neighborhood

 ...is that everyone insists on chatting with me.

UGH.

Climate Change is Now

 At least it is now officially summer:

See also this:

Dozens of bodies were discovered in Delhi during a two-day stretch this week when even sundown brought no relief from sweltering heat and humidity. Tourists died or went missing as the mercury surged in Greece. Hundreds of pilgrims perished before they could reach Islam’s holiest site, struck down by temperatures as high as 125 degrees.

Insomnia Again

Argh, I'm having insomnia again and nothing is working.

Things I have tried:

• Exercise (more exercise than usual)
• Limiting caffeine (I'm reduced to a single up of tea, always before noon)
• Listening to audiobooks until I fall asleep (this used to work but no longer)
• No screens after nine p.m. (useless)
• Hot milk with herbal tea
• A hot bath
• Melatonin tablets (useless) (they did used to work, but no more)

I am trying to avoid sleep medications, since recent research is showing they are bad for you long term, but last night -- for example -- I lay in bed listening to a audiobook for two hours, then got up and drank the warm milk, and then lay down again to try for sleep without the audiobook, and then finally got up and did the dishes and laundry. Did not fall asleep until six a.m.

UGH.

Summer in Arkansas

In the 90's all this week and a high of 100 predicted for Monday. And still technically spring.

The coldest summer of our future has commenced.

Thirteen weeks until Fall.

What I'm Reading Now

Josephine Tey, The Franchise Affair

I found this one in a used bookstore. I love Josephine Tey, and I thought I had read everything she had written, but I had missed this one somehow. It's not exactly one of her Inspector Grant novels, though he appears in it briefly -- it's about a 40-something lawyer who takes as a client a 40-something woman and her 80-something mother who have been accused of kidnapping and abusing a 15 year old girl, in an attempt to force her to be their maid. Written in in 1948, it's a charming look at small-town England just after the war. As usual with Tey, it's mostly a conservative point of view, but very readable nonetheless. Liberals are silly, mainly, that kind of thing, but also some religious stuff. I enjoyed this one very much, despite that. 

If you've never read Josephine Tey, start with Miss Pym Disposes, which is her best book. But this one is also very good. (I've read my copy of Miss Pym Disposes to tatters.) They're mystery novels, and there is usually a romance somewhere, and justice always prevails.

Richard Adams, Watership Down

I'm not actually reading this one, I'm listening to it while I exercise. I've read it several times, though. It's an epic novel about rabbits. One of them, based on Cassandra, according to Adams, can see the future, and usually isn't believed. But his brother Hazel believes him this time -- the rabbit, Fiver, sees doom coming to their warren. Hazel, Fiver, and a half dozen other rabbits flee the warren, and for the first half of the book trek across a small area of England. They end up at Watership Down, where they establish a new warren, and that's just the first half of the book.

If you haven't read this one, you should. I'm not kidding about the epic part -- it's structured very like an epic, probably intentionally, as Adams had a classical education and attended Oxford. He based many of the rabbits on people he fought with in WWII. Anyway, a great read, and I'm enjoying listening to it as well.

John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

I also listened to this one, and highly recommend "reading" this book that way -- the narrator is excellent. This is an odd, fascinating book about a monster who falls in love with a princess, more or less, told from the point of view of the monster.  It's the monster's point of view that makes this really work -- she thinks and acts like a monster, and yet we find ourselves on her side. There's some rough bits -- A bit of body horror early on, and some off-stage physical abuse of the princess, plus emotional abuse on-stage -- so be aware of that, but also a happy ending.

This is Wiswell's first novel. I'll be reading his further work.

Stephen King, You Like it Darker

A collection of short stories. King is better at novels than he is at short stories, but these are all readable, if not all excellent. More "literary" rather than "horror" in this collection. He touches on COVID in several stories, and there are some very weird ghosts in one. Also a gruesome death by alligator.

I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I got it from the library rather than shelling out $$$. If you liked King, you'll like this one. And if you don't like King, you might like this one anyway. You can skip the ghosts. 

Father's Day Weekend

The kids are visiting us for the weekend, but they only just realized it's Father's Day weekend today, so it's not for that.

I made them a lovely Dutch Baby for breakfast, and Dr. Skull is going to make a cheesecake for dinner.

Meanwhile it is so hot here. What the hell. It's not even technically summer yet.

How I Will Spend my Summer Without Teaching

I'm not teaching this summer, which is such a relief. I have 12 weeks in front of me with -- shit, what? Oh, okay. It's down to nine weeks now. What the absolute fuck, where did my three weeks go?

I drove to New Orleans for my father's memorial and then I drove home again and then my dog died, and then today I didn't do a gotdamn thing but drink tea and read SF novels.

Right, okay. What will I did with my almost nine weeks that remain?

I'm going to read more SF novels (big surprise) and write reviews for some of them, and I will also work on what might be (knock wood, touch silver, spit) a new novel. Or maybe just a novella. WE WILL SEE.

I will also continue exercising. And I'll visit my kid and the rest of my family up the mountain once a week or so, which is easier now that we have the Subaru. Oh, and I promised Dr. Skull a trip to visit Glen Campbell's grave. (Why? I do not know.)

Speaking of Dr. Skull, Dr. Skull wants to get a new dog. I am against that for the time being, though a pet search program keeps throwing up cute puppies for my perusal. I'm just not ready.

A black mouth cur that Petfinder says I should get

R.I.P. Heywood Floyd, 2010-2024

My little dog started having seizures and trouble walking yesterday, and today he had a seizure that wouldn't stop. After running tests the emergency vet and I decided it was time.

It never gets any easier to let them go.

In Case You're Confused

The American College of Pediatricians is not a credible organization. And they are not to be confused with the American Academy of Pediatricians, though they would like you to conflate the two.

See here: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/american-college-of-pediatricians/

And also here: https://jabberwocking.com/no-pediatricians-arent-suddenly-opposed-to-gender-affirming-care/

(Blogspot has suddenly stopped allowing me to embed links, I do not know why.)

This is what the Mediabias/Fact check site says about them:

Reasoning: Hate Group, Poor Sourcing, Pseudoscience, Failed Fact Checks
Bias Rating: FAR-RIGHT
Factual Reporting: LOW

Among other things, the American College of Pediatricians spread the lie that the vaccine for HPV causes infertility.

And the group was specifically founded by sixty doctors who wanted to oppose marriage equality. They exist to spread lies and bigotry about LGBTQ people. They're also a very tiny organization -- there are more than sixty of them now, but not much more. (700, in 2002, as opposed to over 70,000 in the AAP.) 

Anyway, if they're braying about trans kids now, it's (a) not a surprise and (2) lies and bullshit.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Down in New Orleans

Day One: We drove ten hours, through intermittent torrential downpours, reaching New Orleans in time to eat at the Kosher Cajun before it closed. The storms were blinding -- my windshield wipers couldn't keep up with them -- but brief. Driving through Memphis without being able to see more than a few feet ahead of the Subaru was a real treat. However, we survived. 

I had a lovely tongue sandwich at the Kosher Cajun, highly recommend. We're staying at a hotel about three minutes from a very small Trader Joe's, which we visited after dinner.

It is so hot here. SO HOT. The temperature is only 90 degrees, but the air is thick as soup. I did not miss the weather in New Orleans, city of my dreams.

Day Two: We had breakfast at the hotel -- Residence Inn does a nice free breakfast -- and then drove Uncle Charger to the French Quarter. Then Dr. Skull and I drove around visiting places either he or I wanted to visit  while we were in town. This included Trader Joe's and the giant Barnes & Noble. I finally burned through all my Barnes & Noble gift cards. We visited Zuppardo's (Zuppardos,com), which is the grocery store my mother always shopped at, and where my brother Mike worked as an adolescent. It has been rebuilt and is not the tiny crowded grocery of my childhood.

The Zupppardo's of my Childhood

Current Zuppardo's

In the evening we met my sole surviving brother and his wife for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. A big gusty thunderstorm hit as we were driving home. 0/10 do not recommend. Driving in New Orleans is a real treat, by the way. And I mean that with ever ounce of sarcasm in my bones.

Day Three: The ceremony was at three, so in the morning we went to a used bookstore, but it was closed, and then back to the Barnes & Noble instead, and also the Kosher Cajun one more time. Then we came back to the hotel to dress, and went on to the ceremony. Lots of my father's friend and co-workers showed up, none of whom I knew, but it was a nice ceremony. Dr. Skull told his favorite stories about my father, including the time he blew up part of a building testing an O-ring, and how he and my father would go buy ice together. Afterwards, we all went to a very loud and smoky bar and grill, the River Shack, which was one of the places my father liked to hang out. (They had Dixie on tap.)

We came back to the hotel and I fell asleep at 8:30.

Day Four: Since I had gone to bed so early, I woke at 4:00 in the morning. We ate the free breakfast at the hotel, and got on the road by 8:00. Aside from a torrential downpour while we were on the twin span crossing the spillway, and a very exciting roadkill (a giant alligator), our trip home was uneventful. We came back via I-49 because Dr. Skull wanted to visit Glen Campbell's grave ("Who?" the kid said), but in the end we were too tired and just came on into town.

the Twin Span

Upon arrival, we found the house had lost power during the big storm on Monday, but was otherwise okay. Now we are waiting for the AC to cool the house down to a bearable level.

We boarded the dog and the cats, but we can't pick them up until tomorrow. I am going to spend the evening reading novels and eating ice cream.

It isn't Easy Being Green

 Typewriter Monkey makes comics:

regret rates pic.twitter.com/HcqiClktNj

— Typewriter Monke 🔆🏳️‍⚧️ (@tpwrtrmnky) May 30, 2024

part 2 pic.twitter.com/x1AcvF2ZbW

— Typewriter Monke 🔆🏳️‍⚧️ (@tpwrtrmnky) May 30, 2024

this one's for all you bizarre little reply guys out there :) pic.twitter.com/Ul6aSZ3HVV

— Typewriter Monke 🔆🏳️‍⚧️ (@tpwrtrmnky) May 30, 2024

Guilty on All Counts

Trump is now a convicted felon. 

Will this stop conservatives from voting for him? The hell it will. I've already seen radical right wing sites declaring this makes him a martyr, though to what God I cannot imagine. The Great Golden Trump Idol, I suppose.

My kid asked me how Trump could continue to run for president even if he's a convicted felon. "I thought you couldn't vote if you were a felon. Or is that just to suppress the black vote?"

Famously, Eugene Debs ran for president from actual prison in 1920 -- he'd been convicted of "sedition." So a little thing like a conviction on 34 counts of fraud won't stop Trump.

Here's what Trump had to say: 

“This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” he said. “The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people, and they know what happened here.”

 

Summer in May

 It is still May here -- though, to be fair, almost June -- and we already have summer weather. In the 90s every day, damp and sunny at the same time. It's like living in a swamp.

However! I had purchased a fig tree and it has figs on it. It seems to like this horrific weather.

Joanna Trollope

Joanna Trollope's The Choir has long been a favorite of mine, but back when I first read it, the public library I had access to did not have many books by Trollope, and the other one I read by her (was it The Men and the Girls? I don't really remember) I didn't like, so I never went on to find her other books.

A few days ago, while I was wandering the aisle of my current public library, I found a bunch of books by Joanna Trollope, and took out The Rector's Wife, thinking it probably was in conversation with Orwell's A Clergyman's Daughter, and it kind of is. (Trollope, being the great-grand-niece of Anthony Trollope, is almost certainly up on her English novels.) 

Orwell's book, you'll remember, was a weirdly constructed episodic look at a few years in the life of the daughter of an impoverished clergyman, who Orwell posited was as stunted and miserable as she was because she was terrified of sex. 

Trollope's book is a look at about a year in the life of the wife of an impoverished clergyman -- a rector, who looks after 12 parishes for nine thousand pounds a year. This is 9000 pounds in 1988 pounds, and I have no idea how much that would be in 2024 dollars*. There is very little love remaining between the rector and his wife; and due to the social norms of their parish, she has not been allowed to have a job, outside of doing the work a rector's wife is expected to do. Basically, the story is about how the rector's wife breaks free from this parish and this loveless marriage, and how her kids grow up.

I've read a couple more of her novels since then, including a re-read of The Choir, which is excellent. They are hit and miss -- some of them are very good, and others not so much. There's almost always a romance happening as part of the novel, but -- like Angela Thirkell and D. E. Stevenson -- they are books about people in a community, and what happens during a given period of time. If you like Thirkell and Stevenson, you'll probably like (some) of these.

Start with The Choir!

*Having done the math, that would be around $15,000 in 1988 dollars, and so about $40,000 in 2024 money. Lower class money, especially since the rector and his wife have 3 kids.

Free Speech, But Only if You Say Things I Agree with

 Pharyngula posted this Pharyngula posted this today:

The outrage over "riots" at or near universities is very much like the outrage over Black Lives Matter, and the subsequent lies and excuses over the attack on the capitol on January 6.

Or, as Francis Wilhoit put it,

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

Traveling to New Orleans

We're getting ready to drive down to New Orleans (a ten hour trip) for my father's memorial service. We'll hang out with the family while we're there, and I'm looking forward to that part of it.

I'm very much less looking forward to the actual trip. Remembering to take everything we need. (Medications, electronics, charging cords, the CPAP for Dr. Skull, all my various pairs of glasses, clothing for the service, shoes for the service....) The driving. The traffic. Finding the hotel. Honestly, leaving home, which is where all my stuff is and I can pretty much control the environment.

I used to love to travel. I guess, looking back though, that was mostly when I did not control my environment. Getting out of my parents' house (TVs always on, the AC set at 80 degrees, endless racket) in order to camp at state parks, even ones without plumbing, I guess that was an improvement?

Or maybe it's no longer being 22? Remember how bored we were in our early 20s? I haven't been bored for decades.

My trip checklist (so far):

Animals to vet 

• insulin 
• food 
• blankets

Stop mail (this can be done online! So cool!)

In luggage

• meds (mine, Dr. Skull's)
• glasses (all five pairs)
• CPAP and CPAP cord
• Phone and phone chargers
• Earbuds, headphones, chargers for both
• Laptop and charger
• wallets (both)
• spare fob for car
• Checkbook (jic)
• Toiletries, including toothbrushes & floss
• Clothing, including underwear and socks
• Clothing for service, including fancy shoes
• Pajamas 
• Dr. Skull's nuclear socks

In Subaru

• sunglasses
• ice chest
• trip folder with route and reservations
• Pillows

What am I forgetting about? I know I'm forgetting something.

Science Fiction from the 1970s

I'm reading a paperback SF novel from the 1970s, and oh my god y'all.

Within the first 10 pages, we have a white guy setting a black guy straight about racism -- you'll be glad to know it doesn't actually exist, it's just that black people are too touchy.

Within the first fifty pages, we have a earnest explanation about eugenics and why this Utopian society had leaned into it -- they don't want people whose IQ is less than 130, see, or people with "physical defects," since those people would have to be "second class citizens."

Within the first sixty pages, one character explains to another that the great thing about this Utopian world is they have such delicious foods as corn on the cob and wild strawberries. Also, there is plenty of goat milk for the kids. And there is fishing and hunting!

Also, everyone has a lot of kids. Also, there is no such thing as marriage, so the women are delighted to sleep with anyone who asks. 

Also, we learn that this Utopian world "screens out" male homosexuality. Nothing about female homosexuality, so I guess that's cool.

Within the first 80 pages, we have yet another white character racesplaining to the (same) black character that this Utopian society is not, after all, actually racist. It is just that white people turn out to be better qualified for this Utopian world.

The 1970s, you will remember, is the same era that produced Le Guin, Butler, Joanna Russ, John Varley (at his peak, not the later John Varley), and Joe Haldeman. So writing good SF was possible. I don't know what the hell this is.

J.D. Vance and Our Current Conservative Turnips

As this piece in the Washington Post notes, J. D. Vance is really all you need to know about modern conservatives. (That's a gift link, or it should be.)

I remember when Rod Dreher and the rest of the "deep thinkers" of the conservative pack discovered Vance's ridiculous book. They were so happy they were peeing themselves. Why? Not because the book tells the truth about people in Appalachia. It doesn't -- there have been by now literally dozens of take-downs of Vance's nonsense. 

These refutations of Vance's book were, of course, dismissed or ignored by the Right. Of course they were. Our current crop of conservatives could not possibly care less about the truth, or evidence, or facts. What they like is anything that "feels" right to them. And by "feels right" they mean anything that justifies their bigotry; or anything that justifies the status quo.

To be clear, Vance doesn't believe anything he's saying anymore than Trump believes the nonsense he spews. They both wants applause and fame, and don't care what they do to get it. Today's conservatives want to feel vindicated, and don't care what lies they have to swallow to get that feeling. 

True fact: More than once when I have provided evidence to a conservative that a given piece of information is false, or untrue, they have responded, "I don't care."  That's the crux of it. They don't care what is true. They care that they are being affirmed.

Why is this a danger? Well, that "doesn't care what he does to get it" bit. Neither Trump nor Vance is a true believer. But they will do whatever they need to do to get that applause, that fame, those $$$. Today's conservatives will do whatever needs to be done to get that affirmation, so that they can continue to believe in the lies* that build their world. 

It's practically the American way, so I don't know why we're surprised. But as Matt Bai notes in his opinion piece

History tells us that repressive movements enabled by cowards and hucksters are just as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the legitimately hateful. You can wreck a country with cosplaying careerists just as easily as you can with bloodthirsty revolutionaries.

That's the sad truth.

*This is why Rod Dreher's book, Live Not by Lies, is so ridiculous. Every "truth" he lives by is a lie.

Kill (certain kinds) of People, Go on Fox News, Get a Pardon

Apparently in Texas it's okay to murder people at protests if they're the sort of people "conservatives" think should be killed. 

Daniel Perry "developed a hatred of Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020 and wrote to friends about how he planned to kill a few of them. Eventually he did. He deliberately drove his car into a crowd of BLM protesters, claimed that one of them had maybe raised a rifle in his direction, and then gunned him down before plowing through the rest of the crowd to make his escape."

The governor of Texas pardoned him today.

The GOP Platform

GOP candidate promises to burn books, and exhorts Americans not to be gay.

Stir in some anti-abortion and anti-trans rhetoric, and you've got the GOP platform.

Like many other short videos Gomez has made, the ad featuring her running included an image of her holding a large gun. Others show her firing guns, including at an inflatable Star Wars stormtrooper.

In February, Gomez posted a video in which she used a flamethrower to burn books with LGBTQ+ themes.

“This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of state,” she said. “These books come from a Missouri public library. When I’m in office, they will burn.”

Trump's Solution for Immigration

Trump, apparently, thinks we should have immigrants for dinner:

“‘Silence of the Lamb,’” Trump said. “Has anyone ever seen ‘The Silence of the Lambs’?”

And here we go.

“The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man,” Trump continued. “He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me, I’m about to have a friend for dinner’ as this poor doctor walked by. ‘I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’ But Hannibal Lecter, congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter.”

I look forward to turnip-headed conservatives explaining to me that that is not really what he said, and if he did say it, he was taken out of context, and if he wasn't taken out of context, everyone normal believes that anyway.

 

Happiness is a Choice

Over at Nicole and Maggie's, there was a recent discussion in the comments about whether happiness is a choice -- whether we can, whatever the situation, choose to be happy. 

This is something I've been thinking about for a while now, since 2014 at least, because my kid's high school principal used to start every morning by instructing the kids that they could "have a good day -- or not! The choice is yours!" As a kid with depression and anxiety, who hadn't yet realized he was trans and was suffering all kinds of ways from that, he was infuriated by this bit of chipper banality.

Is happiness a choice? In the long (long, long) run, a little bit, maybe. When you're caught in external events (a job you hate, financial and health problems, a government which is hell-bent on destroying your rights and also the climate), things are not all right. You can't just chose to pretend they are all right. (Though people do! So maybe you can?) You can, sometimes, work to change those thing, and get to a place that's happier. 

Though can you? Right now, I'm feeling both anxious and unhappy about what's happening in this country, and to the environment. The rights of my kid are under constant attack. The rights of people like me to control our our bodies is under constant attack. Those attacks tells us clearly that our country, our community, our government, doesn't think people like us should even exist, much less have the freedom to make choices about what our lives are like. In the face of constant belittling scorn from those around us, it's hard to keep going, never mind being happy about it.

And there's nothing we can do about the environment. I mean, we recycle. But honestly I couldn't even think about buying an electric car, because there's no infrastructure in my community for such a vehicle. I can't ride a bike to work or to the store because my town keeps voting down bike paths, in favor of building more roads; and the roads we have currently are not safe for people on bikes.

In any case, dutifully recycling my cardboard is not saving the planet and walking to work is not saving the planet. The vast majority of carbon and pollution comes from corporations and manufacturing, and nothing I can do will change that. I can't even vote them out, because here in this solidly red state my vote is pointless.

I do also think "happiness" is at least partly a genetic thing. My mother was happy, all her life. She didn't choose that, I'm pretty sure. I remember once talking to her about my suicidal ideation. She was surprised. "I've never felt like that," she said. "I've gotten, well, down, sometimes. But never like that."

Since I consider suicide when I get a flat tire, this was hilarious to me. 

I don't think that difference has much to do with nurture, since if anything my mother had a much rougher childhood than I did. Though it might! She was given a lot of independence as a kid, cooking for and raising her two younger siblings; and she had a vast kinship network around her, so she had people she could turn to for help. Maybe that matters. 

I think you can choose to do things that will improve specific problems you're having (work towards a new job, for example) but I don't know if you can choose happiness. 

I've built my life to be pretty much what I wanted it to be -- I'm a professor who teaches fiction writing, for God's sake, which looked like an impossible goal when I was 23 years old and I first wistfully thought that would be a nice job to have; I spend most of my time reading and writing, which are the two things I love best.  I have a wonderful kid. I'm even getting enough exercise. I even have enough money, at least right now. These are all things I wanted and worked toward. Am I happy?

Well, I'm happier. But I still have anxiety and long stretches of depression. 

The fact that I now have enough money means that I hardly ever think about the best way to kill myself, or at least for not very long. Instead I remind myself that I have the money to fix the flat tire, (or even just buy new tires if I want!). That's a big help, but is "enough money" something I could have chosen earlier? It really was not. 

I mean, in theory, I could have chosen a job that paid more money, but really, could I have? The job best suited to me, writing and teaching writing, is not one that society values, so it doesn't pay much. If I'd chosen a better paying job that I hated, would I have been happier? 

I could have been a little more frugal, sure, but what made me poor was not buying fresh fruit for my kid, but having cancer when I was 29, a financial blow I've only just recovered from. That wasn't anything I chose. Nor did I choose to live in a country where one single serious illness could destroy my financial stability for the next thirty years. In hindsight, obviously I should have declared bankruptcy right away, instead of paying hospital bills for twenty years. I could have chosen that, sure.

Anyway! My point, and I have one, is that "choosing" happiness is a simplistic way of looking at the complicated mess/morass that is actual life. Most of us are doing the best we can in a tangled mess of circumstances, and telling us we should just cheer up is not a useful tactic. And it can feel like an attack, to be absolutely honest. If we could be happy, we would -- most of us, anyway.

End of Semester

I have submitted my grades. I still have to go in next Monday and Tuesday for interviews -- we're hiring a poet -- but aside from that I am D-O-N, done.

Now I can get started on all the million thing I have put off for months (cleaning out our closet, culling books, doing laundry). Also, I have book reviews due and a book to write.

Summer stretches before me like a blissful meadow. Except that middle part there, where the blistering heat settles in. UGH.

Today I am making bagels, doing laundry, and reading Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith.

 From Barry, over at Alas, A Blog:

See also:

Insomnia

 As long-time readers of the blog know, I have suffered from insomnia since I was literally a toddler. I can remember toddling around our house in the middle of the night when I was too small to see over window sills. It was worst in my adolescence, when I would frequently sleep only every other night; but it's still pretty bad.

I've been using a technique someone recommended here, listening to audiobooks until I fall asleep, and usually that works pretty well. Though not last night. Argh. It was too hot in the bedroom, and also my cat kept mewing insistently in my ear, until I got up and turned the water faucet on for them. They wanted a drink. No, they couldn't drink the water in their dish. Also, they wanted me to stand there and watch them drink the water. 

Anyway. One thing that has help me not suffer as much from the insomnia -- two things, really -- is research that shows even lying there away is helpful, since the brain gets some rest; and also another bit of research which says six hours of sleep is enough for a lot of people. (My pcp says at least seven and no more than eight.)

Last night it was about four hours of sleep, and about four hours of lying awake fretting. The audiobooks do cut down on the fretting, so that's nice.

Happy Birthday to My Kid

Twenty-six years ago right this minute, I was holding him for the first time. He looked like a little lobster.

We celebrated by taking him and his sweetie to Crystal Bridges to look at the art, including an exhibit of art made out of beetles and butterflies and rocks.

Outside Crystal Bridges -- the kid is the one in pink shorts

It was a splendid day, although the museum was also being visited by several high schools and a middle school. Still, you like to see that. Better than taking them to battlefields, which is what my high school did with these last weeks of school. 

End of the Semester

Thursday was the last day of classes. I have about ten days of grading to do, and then I am done until August.

Honestly this is the best part of teaching. What I want out of life is day after day with nothing to do but write books, write about books, and read books, and academia's lengthy breaks give that to me. Back when I was poor, I would have to teach four classes, all summer long, so I didn't get this break. It's nice to be able to afford not to teach in the summer.

Games I'm Playing

I like to start the day with coffee and a few games, to sort of wake my brain up, if you see what I mean.

These aren't games like video games -- they're more like puzzle games.

Twodle, Threedle, and Fourdle: more complicated versions of Wordle, which has gotten too easy for me.

Sudoku, which I play through an app.

Connections, which is still pretty hard for me. It kind of wants you to think sideways, which I have some trouble doing.

And I also do a couple lessons on Duolingo, which taught me to read French (I still don't speak it) and is now teaching me Portuguese. 

By the time I'm through those, I'm mostly awake, though I don't know if it's the coffee or the games.

What I'm Watching Now

I started Fallout and really didn't like it, maybe because I know nothing about the video game and have no idea what's going on. But I also knew nothing about the Last of Us, and I loved that one. Anyway, I quit watching Fallout halfway through the third episode.

There's a new season of Call the Midwife, and I'm enjoying it, though the show is now in 1970, and in my opinion the 1970s through the 1990s were the worst decades in history. God, the 70s sucked. No computers, wild inflation, appalling interest rates, and here comes Ronald Reagan. Gah. The 1980s were even worse. Things started improving somewhere around 1995, I think, but that may be because 1995 was when I got my first university position, and my life improved.

I'm also watching Unforgotten, which is free with Prime on Amazon. It's a British police procedural, about a murder squad that (so far) deals with historical cases -- that seems to be the term for cold cases in Britain. Murders that are 30 or 40 year old, that kind of thing. I like the lead, and I like how the show gives us the people surrounding the crime, showing us how the crimes have affected the community. Also there are like six seasons, so it'll keep me occupied for a bit.

Unforgotten trailer