The Right Time To Leave Afghanistan

 I've seen complaints from the establishment caste that Biden pulled our troops out of Afghanistan too early, that we are an immature nation that lacks patience, etc. 

This was the wrong time to leave Afghanistan.  We should have left 20 years ago.

Two Heads Are Better

The Niners today have two starting quarterbacks (one of whom is already injured.)   

In the first NFL game I attended. both teams had two starting quarterbacks. The Washington Racial Slurs were led by Sammy Baugh, holder of most passing records at the time and also the team punter, and Eddie LeBaron, a short running quarterback who made jump passes briefly popular. The L.A. Rams were led by Bob Waterfield, married to Jane Russell and winner of a league title, and Norm Van Brocklin, who would later win a league title with another team.

These teams played two quarterbacks. The Rams, as I recall, used Waterfield in the first and third quarters and Van Brocklin in the second and fourth quarters. The offense was notable. Both quarterbacks ended up voted into the Hall of Fame.

So far the Niners seem to be playing their two starters by running them in and out according the situation. The results may be awesome.    

The Importance of Being a Man

Susan, my wife since 1965, had a biopsy done on her face recently. Probably nothing much. But she has to wear a bandage on her cheekbone. Accompanyiong her places has earned me dirty looks from several young women. One of them came up to us and asked her, "Are you all right?"

(on FB)

Recall

 Nearly everyone in Sonoma County who sees this has already decided to vote against the recall of Gov. Newsom and the County District Attorney. If Newsom loses, he will be replaced by a malignant tRumper. If the D.A. loses, the office will be empty--no one is running to replace her. 

I don't care for either of them, but here I am supporting them. 

I suppose history is rich in powerful, murderous sociopaths like Nero or the current governors of Florida and Texas. I wish that what we are going through was unusual, but I've lived through a time that contained the Holocaust, the fire-bombing of Tokyo, many massacres, and now elected officials promoting the deaths of hundreds of thousands of voters. And the warming of the planet. 

(also on Facebook)

Leaving Afghanistan

When I was very young, Hitler set out to conquer the world and failed. The world is large; there weren't enough Germans to go around. 

The size calculation wasn't difficult to make, but I bet Hitler had been a bad math student when he was attending school with young Ludwig Wittgenstein. In any case, the same mistake has also been made by Tojo, Stalin and George W. Bush, none of whom could count accurately.  

The United States is never going to rule the world, serve as the world's police force or protect the women in a hundred medieval nations. In fact, according to George Will last week, we should not even adopt an equal rights amendment to protect American women.

As we abandon Afghanistan, my suggestion, despite Will, is that we work on equality for women in North America, where we live and can make a difference. 

California

 

The new census shows that White people now make up 35% of the residents in California, while Latinos make up 39.4%. Maybe someone should notify the Republican Party.

Cuomosexualism

 Cuomosexualism is the practice of riding the subway at rush hour in order to press yourself against other bodies.

The Refusers

People who today refuse vaccination have not suddenly become foolish. They were foolish in high school.  

In general the best among us are mediocre at weighing relative risks. Some people are worse than mediocre. 

Yesterday  the Republican governor of one state announced that everyone in his state who died recently of the coronavirus was unvaccinated. Nobody has died from the vaccination. So what are the odds that vaccination is worse than the disease?

TV  showed a small resort town in a state where there are no mask restrictions or distancing rules. People from more competent states are flocking this small town for vacations, where many will get infected and some will die. When interviewed they said that vaccination is a private matter (it's a public health issue). They said they were reclaiming their freedom from the government (but they obediently strap on seatbelts). 

Their true reason, in many cases, is that they are afraid of the vaccination. They don't trust the government, which has lied to them most of their lives.  And they don't trust science. They don't know how to weigh the odds. They've made another bad decision. 

Marcos

In an effort to escape for a few hours the media coverage of  Cuomosexualism, I turned to reading ON THE  PLAIN OF SNAKES by Paul Theroux, an account of Theroux's recent trip through Mexico. 

When I was young, we drove into Mexico without a thought. We did everything without a thought. I'd think twice now.

The border and many resort areas are controlled today  by warring cartels. You don't go out at night. Many ordinary people consider the police more dangerous than the cartels. Parts of Mexico have failed to provide safety, medical care, education and social welfare. Which brings me to the Zapatistas, a group Theroux encountered. 

About 40 years ago a socialist rebellion began among the Mayas in Chiapas, led, after a fashion, by a former philosophy professor in a mask. At the time he called himself Subcomandante  Marcos. He took the title of subcomandante to make it clear that he was subordinate. He and a small group of followers set out to find what the Indians in the countryside actually wanted. This is probably what set him apart from the missionaries, the  Chomskys, the UN missions, the Gueveras of the civilized world, who came to enlighten, not to listen. 

If you want to help, first find out what the people want. 

Mexico, I guess, had other fish to fry and did not really care all that much when the Indians in Chiapas set up a state within the state, one that has lasted since the 1980s. The army came and killed some people and left and so on. 

Marcos, still masked and hidden and free after all this time, wrote:  "Behind our face masks is the face of all women excluded. Of all the indigenous people forgotten. Of all the homosexuals persecuted. Of young people belittled. Of all migrants beaten. Of all people imprisoned for their thoughts or words. Of all workers humiliated. Of all who died in oblivion. Of all the simple and ordinary men and women who don't count, who are not seen, who are not named, who have no tomorrows." In 2002  he wrote of the Basque separatists that "neither this noble cause, nor any other, can justify the sacrifice of human lives. Not only does it (killing civilians) not lead to any political gain, even if it did, the human cost is unpayable. We condemn  military acts that hurt civilians. And we condemn them equally, whether they come from ETA or from the Spanish state, from Al Qaeda or George W. Bush, from the Israelis or Palestinians, or anyone who . . . makes victims of children, women, old people and men who have had nothing to do with the matter."