Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

I stopped at the roadside popup market to buy some vegan chili. It comes frozen. I like it, and I like having it in the freezer for a quick dinner when I don’t have the inclination to do my own cooking. I bought four. They are $8 a piece. Should I have been appalled or surprised when the guy who served me got a calculator to decide what I owed?

“In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.” Fran Lebowitz.

We are considering selling our house and moving into a condo, but not surprisingly, the ones that seem desirable always cost a little more than we can afford. I am reminded of the wise words: “Thrift is a wonderful virtue—especially in an ancestor.”

The 120-year-old house in the country often needs work, but I have learned that at this time of year, I have to be tolerant of our workmen. They do a good job, but right now they can be hard to get. It is hunting season, or should I say seasons. There is regular deer season, bow-and-arrow deer season, black powder deer season, turkey season, duck season, goose season, bear season. . . . And on the first days of these seasons, as with first day of the trout season in the spring, the workmen are out hunting, or fishing, not working at my house. But a remember what I heard years ago, “If God didn’t want man to hunt, he wouldn’t have given us plaid flannel shirts.”

Did I miss them? I have not heard those who rightfully complain about America’s mass incarceration and long prison sentences deriding the twenty-two-year sentence given the Proud Boys leader.

A wise person said: “An excellent time to win freedom by means of good behavior is before you go to jail.”

I don’t know of any legislative accomplishments of Jim Jordan, Congressman from Ohio and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, even though legislative accomplishments are supposed to be the reason why people go to Congress in the first place. Instead, Jordan, who as Lillian Hellman said about Norma Shearer, has “a face unclouded by thought,” seeks to block or discredit criminal and other investigations into Donald Trump’s activities. The FBI, the Justice Department, state law enforcement officials are partisan hacks, at least when they do things Jordan does not like. In The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession David Grann describes another Ohio Congressman a generation ago who, from the floor of the House where his statements could not be used in a defamation trial, said, “Mr. Speaker, I have evidence that certain F.B.I. agents in Youngstown, Ohio, have violated the RICO statute and stole large sums of cash.” The speaker was James Traficant who was later convicted of ten felony counts, including racketeering and taking bribes. Also what comes to mind are the words of the FBI agent in charge of the Traficant investigation: “Every time we charge another public official, the media presents it as another black eye for the community. I’d prefer if they portray it to the community as another step in cleansing ourselves.” The agent concluded, “As long as they choose to put people in office who are corrupt, nothing will ever change.”

“Man is the only animal that laughs. He is the only animal that has a House of Representatives.”

Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

When has the Senate filibuster aided non-conservatives?

You have some new bodily lump, pain, or discoloration. Do you feel better if you learn that this condition has a name?

John is the ranger, as his father was before him, for the community’s 4,000 mostly wooded acres. Recently I have worked with John on a conservation easement for a portion of this land. My admiration for him has grown. He seems to know every inch of the land, and his conversation is filled with landmarks such as Turkey Hill field, the path going from Fox Run Creek to Porcupine Parade, the Hardy’s 1930s hunting grounds, and much more. I nod as if I understand. His devotion to the conservation of the lands is palpable, and he has been invaluable as I and others have worked on the easement. I have known who John was for a long time, but only because of this recent project have I felt comfortable in trying to get to know him a bit better. He is about to retire, and I asked him what he was going to do. He was vague as I might have expected from someone who retains something of a mountain man from yesteryear. Thinking that perhaps this might be an activity in his retirement, I asked him if he hunted. He replied, “I used to hunt with a lot of the old-timers here,” and rattled off a host of names I did not know. He continued, “I haven’t hunted in six or seven years.” And then, almost blushing and with a shy tone, he said, “I have gotten soft. I’ve killed enough deer in my life.”

“The key to success was having parents who had succeeded.” Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind.

Old joke: Southern Baptists do not believe in making love standing up. It could lead to dancing.

The Olympics are upon us. Margaret MacMillan in War: How Conflict Shaped Us (2020) points out that the modern Olympics have taken on many attributes of war. The competitions are by nations, award medals, incorporate national anthems, and have teams in uniforms behind national flags.

Growing up and well into adulthood, I could stand alongside a Wisconsin farm fence, moo, and cows would amble to me. The spouse, once again doubting me on the important stuff, thought I made this ability up until I demonstrated it to her several times. But then after a considerable absence from Wisconsin I found that I was out of practice or the voice timbre had changed, I had lost my cow-calling trait. I have had many sad moments in life.

I watched videos of the invasion of the Capitol on January 6 and was reminded of the words of David Hume: “Everyone has observed how much more dogs are animated when they hunt in a pack, than when they pursue their game apart. We might, perhaps, be at a loss to explain this phenomenon, if we had not experience of a similar in ourselves.”