Three Dot Lounge: How I Empty the ‘Boneyard’

A fixture of San Francisco in the last half of the Twentieth Century was columnist Herb Caen. He became famous for his "Three Dot Lounge" of trenchant news/gossip items. He was the West Coast's answer to Walter Winchell. It was Twitter before anyone could bang on about something in 240 characters and publish it to the world.

In this post I am adopting something close to that approach, ridding myself of items in my "boneyard" -- draft posts that never went anywhere. The reason they didn't often was because I started with what I regarded as a bang-up idea but soon got lost in the weeds trying to make it all hold together logically and consistently. And there was always something new that kept me from going back and doing the post justice.

But here I am going to free myself of any attempt to do anything but introduce a point of view. Have at it with critique and/or amplification.

The "Yellow Peril"

The recent arrest of current and former military men of Chinese heritage involved in espionage reminds us of the challenges of a pluralistic society. Ill treatment based on race or ethnicity can always be a breeding ground for disloyalty -- take note, Ivy League. And the "motherland" is one of the three basic tools foreign agents use to turn Americans against us -- the other two being money and/or sex.

"Phew"!

My feeling after the November 5 results was not so much joy than sheer relief. Those of us who had been following Rich Baris, the People's Pundit, went into the night confident of the outcome but worried about a "hanging call" by the MSM. But such was the size of President Trump's victory the news gave it up before the post-election counting shenanigans could change the narrative.

The End of the "Beginning"

Winston Churchill famously said, in response to the first Allied victories recorded after three years of retreat and resistance, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The outcome of the November 5 election was not the end of our national nightmare. Happily, President Trump made it to, through, and beyond the inaugural and is starting, unevenly, the process of constitutional reform. But opposing forces remain allied if not yet fully efficient in their resistance.

The Most Malicious Myth (h/t Ann Althouse)

“Trump, Outrage and the Modern Era of Political Violence/The latest apparent assassination attempt against the former president indicates how much the American political landscape has been shaped by anger stirred by him and against him.” This was a NYT headline back in September. According to the NYT, without President Trump’s insertion into politics in 2015, we would be a peaceful country; that all ills begin and end with him. That is not true. What is true is that President Trump successfully personified existing unhappiness with the course our country was taking and offered, in exchange for political support, to take concrete steps to address that unhappiness. That he did that imperfectly or abrasively is totally beside the point. His great sin was gathering that political support and winning. Americans chose disruption over submission. It's not pretty, but it's very American.

The Darkness Weather Report

I have a theory, actually more of a notion really, that humans exist more than just temporally in the natural world. That is, human behavior is an outcome of natural forces, just as is fish behavior, whale behavior, bird behavior, and all other life forms. I do not rule out a “supernatural” element, but I attribute to that supernaturality (is that a word?) a set of rules or constraints that, if understood, would make its involvement ordered and not random. If true, human paroxysms should be predictable to some degree, like the weather. Seems like we are currently in a bit of fair weather between storms. But the storm lurks and we must be prepared.

The Challenge of Evil

I have been trying to elevate my focus beyond the discrete instances of outrage to the structures of the problems that seem to engulf us now. The first thing I consider is the extent to which we are actually facing new and more intense challenges than we have faced in my lifetime. If one is not paying attention and then is forced to, one can mistake inattention for relative peace and comfort. While there are a few things today that may be truly novel, most of our problems seem to be repackaging or updating old challenges we thought had been defeated.

The Long Fuse of Indeterminant Length

I understand that there is a philosophical disagreement over whether the Constitution is a fixed or “living” document. But giving the “living” approach free rein results in “anything goes” outcomes that are not predictable and simply an expression of power. A power hierarchy that is the end result of a fully realized “living” Constitution is indistinguishable from a prison. It might be a prison without walls, but a prison nonetheless. Everyone would know they were one misstep from losing everything. That would be true of everyone in the power hierarchy regardless of their own capability for self-deception which would give them an outsized feeling of security. The "living" Constitution is a fuse of indeterminate length, but certain outcome.

I Am A Partisan For Peace

I truly believe that there are some things worse than death, and that there are some things worse than war. But I am a partisan for peace. I am an old man now. I spent 40 years of my working life in support of American national defense. I responded favorably to the initiation of every military action in my lifetime, only to see the outcomes in every case being ambiguous at best and disastrous at worst. The major achievement of my lifetime in national defense was the disassembly of the Soviet Union. And that outcome was not the product of men in battle but the persistent pressure of a strong economic system vs. a weak one, with armaments sufficient to deter direct active aggression against official allies.

You Can't Campaign Against Compassion

Most Americans have a bit of “bleeding heart” in them. It’s in our DNA. Many Americans are descended from persons who underwent hardships and are sympathetic and charitable to others experiencing current hardship. No political campaign wins by campaigning against compassion. You are telling your voters that they are not the loving, kind humans they either think they are or aspire to be. Progressives understand this, thus they modify the language to make something that is fundamentally bad sound good and compassionate. So we are told to spend blood and treasure on endless foreign war to have peace; we are told to accept government dependence and control (slavery) to be free; we are told to restrict our speech and consumption to approved narratives (ignorance) to have all the information that we need (knowledge). It’s called “truth inversion,” and it is venal and deadly.

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More to come.