1. When you take a one hour walk at 7 AM wearing short pants and it is 29°, you get cold.
2. It appears that Trump may actually succeed in getting the two Democratic senatorial candidates in Georgia elected by persuading his loyal cult followers not to participate in a rigged election. Should this happen, it would be strong evidence that God exists and that she has a wicked sense of humor.
3. I listened yesterday to the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board offering the opinion that the pandemic will accelerate the movement to online and virtual economic activity and that this will quite disproportionately disadvantage the poor, the nonwhite, and those with fewer educational credentials. The thought was not new to me but I was quite impressed by who was offering it publicly. Later on, when my knees thaw out, I will try to speculate for a bit on the lasting changes that we will be dealing with even after everybody gets vaccinated.
4. It is not all bad being old. Susie and I should be right in line after those of our generation in nursing facilities. I am beginning to think we might actually be able to go back to Paris next June in time for the annual celebration called Fete de la Musique. (Forgive the absence of the circumflex – there are limits to this dictating program.)
29 comments:
No vaccination for me, thank you. Maybe in the next decade, but I'm not injecting that engineered DNA into my body. When I was younger I always wanted to work on a coronavirus vaccine but at every stop it was always "one cannot make a vaccine for a coronavirus as it mutates too quickly". Now here we are and I'm getting all the new rationales why one can make a vaccine. This world is majorly screwed up, just look around you. And next year Paris is not going to be a fun place at all but I'll let you be the judge of that as you probably can shut out most of the sketchiness sitting at a cafe. Not to be a downer, I guess its something to look forward to if nothing else.
Mais ou sont les neiges d'anton! Where are the snows of yesteryear?
Boy, you really know how to cheer a guy up! Next you will be pointing out that we all die anyway.
beautiful words in and of itself, thats why I have not added the translation.
Dictes moy où, n'en quel pays,
Est Flora, la belle Romaine ;
Archipiada, ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine;
Echo, parlant quand bruyt on maine
Dessus rivière ou sus estan,
Qui beauté eut trop plus qu'humaine?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
Où est la très sage Heloïs,
Pour qui fut chastré et puis moyne
Pierre Esbaillart à Sainct-Denys?
Pour son amour eut cest essoyne.
Semblablement, où est la royne
Qui commanda que Buridan
Fust jetté en ung sac en Seine?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
La royne Blanche comme ung lys,
Qui chantoit à voix de sereine;
Berthe au grand pied, Bietris, Allys;
Harembourges qui tint le Mayne,
Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine,
Qu'Anglois bruslerent à Rouen;
Où sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine ?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine
Où elles sont, ne de cest an,
Qu'à ce refrain ne vous remaine:
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
Has anyone read Miguel De Unamuno's Tragic sense of life? Unamuno was a decent philosopher in his own right.
Anonymous @2:07
Bad enough that Villon wrote in the passe simple, or whatever the heck that is, but did you really have to use the old French spelling as well?
Hmm, an hour's walk in "short pants" in 29 degree weather? Hope you had a shot of whiskey first. No real reason these days, however, not to have a little snort in the morning---my mum says it'll ward off the Covid too.
RPW is, what, 86 years old? He probably has no feeling left in those lower legs anyway. :)
After the biological weapons act, governments get around the supposed ban on bioweapons by developing them for 'defensive purposes'. So they get developed along with a vaccine - of course you want to be able to vaccinate your own people too when something like this gets into the wild. Is it just coincidence that we remarkably now have a coronavirus vaccine less than one year to the date of this thing being confirmed in the wild?
Professor Wolff,
Economist Richard D. Wolff offering a perspective on where to go from here in the wake of the November election
@01:08:35
(full segment starts at @57:07)
Global Capitalism: Live Economic Update - November 2020 Post-Election Special (Youtube/Democracy At Work Channel)
Let me also say something about Paris. Two hours by train and I'll be there. It takes three times as long to get to Berlin. This difference also expresses the emotional relationship I have with both metropolises. Paris is the city of my youth. I never counted the number of times I was there. At the end of the 1970s there were still a lot of small, somewhat shabby, but cheap hotels. At 30 France you were there. Departure at 5 a.m. and breakfast at 8 a.m. at Gare du Nord. The cafes were already full at this time. It was hectic, loud and one would have been surprised if the Garçon had smiled friendly. Then we took the metro in the direction of Châtelet and Les Halles, the belly of Paris. In my memory two events are forever connected with the city. One of Michel Foucault's public lecture at the Collège de France in 1979. I have never seen so many people sit in an amphitheater and listen for two hours as someone speaks the truth. And then there was Jean-Paul Sartre's funeral in 1980, which I only witnessed by chance. The streets around the rue de Rennes could not hold all the masses of people walking around with his coffin. It was later said to have been 1 million. What other city in the world honors its philosophers in this way?
correction ... Foucault speaks "about the truth". :)
To add to Jeffrey g kessen’s suggestion of whiskey to ward off the cold I suggest Red Breast Irish Whiskey. I don’t drink, but I am told by reliable sources (my kids) that it is fantastic.
A.K.’s comments reminded me of the story told in Brands biography of Franklin. Voltaire, who had been exiled from Paris, returned to the city to meet Franklin. A short time later they both attended a meeting of the French Academy of the Sciences. John Adams wrote that, after they greeted each other, “And the cry spread through the kingdom and I suppose all over Europe: How charming it was! Oh it was enchanting to see Solon and Sophocles embracing.” Voltaire died later that month and I gather that he was buried quickly to avoid clerical objections to where he was buried. Franklin attended a memorial service at the Mason Lodge of the Nine Sisters, a service that annoyed both clerics and the Crown. Franklin was a member of the lodge which in itself had long annoyed the powers that be.
He won't tell them not to vote. He will however tell them that the GA election was rigged and that Kemp and Raffensberger cannot be trusted. He will send very mixed messages, which will not be good for the senators. Meanwhile, Ossoff and Warnock are going to bust their asses to win.
-Sam Wolff
I just electronically filed my Bar Complaint against Mr. DiGenova. It is quite easy and I would encourage anyone who is outraged by his public threat on the life of Mr. Krebs to file a Complaint as well. The more complaints the Washington D.C. bar receives, the greater the likelihood he will be disbarred. You do not have to be an attorney to file the Complaint.
You can find the Complaint form at the following link:
https://www.dcbar.org/attorney-discipline/office-of-disciplinary-counsel/filing-a-complaint/how-to-file-a-complaint/complaint-form-english
You will need the following information:
Joseph E. DiGenova
1776 K Street NW Suite 737
Washington, D.C. 20006
(202) 289-7701
dt@diGenovaToensing.com
You can skip the line requesting his Bar number.
There is a space to explain the nature of your complaint. Write how the information that Mr. DiGenova threatened the life of a public official affected you and affected your view of the legal profession. If you believe he should be disbarred, feel free to say so.
MS - it didn't affect me at all. Much less would I be outraged. I am completely numb to political or other kinds of outrage at this point. My view of the legal profession was already at rock bottom. Couldn't care less, brother.
"The first thing we do let's kill all the lawyers".
God bless you and keep you safe.
Professor Wolff --
Short pants in December. Are you attempting to channel Christopher Robin in a quixotic quest to recapture some small aspect of boyhood? By this time of year, I tend to opt for the utility of long pants.
-- Jim
Anonymous,
I must say, that is one of the strangest salutations I have ever received – first you want to have me killed, and then you advise me to stay safe.
The quotation from Henry VI is often recited without knowing its context. The line is spoken by Dick the Butcher, a ruffian and a murder. Of course the lawless among us would prefer there were no lawyers to enforce the law against them.
In defense of lawyers, let me say that until we are able to figure out how to have a functioning society “governed” by anarchy, a society needs to have regulations in the form of laws which govern how the disputes, wrongs, injustices which inevitably occur among people are to be resolved. This requires a group of people who have the experience and training to interpret and apply those laws, i.e., lawyers. We cannot always rely on there being a sovereign as wise as Solomon to dispense justice fairly. And while there are, as in any profession, some bad apples, there are a lot of conscientious, hard-working lawyers who practice their profession with dedication and integrity. That is why it is important that when we come across a person who has been given the credentials to practice law, but who betrays the ethics of the profession, as Mr. DiGenova has most certainly done, that they be called to account and have their credentials to practice law stripped from them.
Uhh, just a heads-up to Anonymous---talk about killing people, even in quotation marks, is likely to get you in trouble. Now then, on to MS's Comment: DiGenova and his wife have been hob-nobbing around fringe right-wing causes for decades, always as far as I can surmise with an interest in cashing in. Go for it MS.
Jeffrey,
Thank you for coming to my defense. But I want to make it clear that I did not take Anonymous’ quotation from Henry VI personally. Moreover, even if it were a serious threat (which it call for me to stay safe makes clear it was not), compare what Anonymous did to what DiGenova did. DiGenova, on a national radio program, called for the assassination at dawn of a public official who had properly discharged his official duties. This would be egregious for anyone to do, but for an attorney to violate his responsibilities as an officer of the court by calling for the murder of another citizen is totally reprehensible, and he should be stripped of his right to practice. And Jeff, you, and anyone else reading this blog who lives in the U.S., can go for it as well. It will only take 20 minutes to complete the Complaint form online. Imagine how good you will feel when you read that Mr. DiGenova has lost his license to practice law. Moreover, you will make Shakespeare very happy. (I am hoping for a national movement, like the one Arlo Guthrie launched by inspiring draft dodgers to sing Alice's Restaurant._
Oh brother. Quoting Shakespeare is not tantamount to an actual threat. One can despise the legal profession while not wishing any ill will against a particular person who practices law.
Anonymous, it all depends on context. Even an innocently offered Shakespeare quote (such as yours), can stir up trouble in these wretched over-sensitive times. Now then, back to MS yet again, I'm beginning to suspect that you are an extremely learned and clever Russian troll. Do give us a bit of background. My Google and I shall certainly fetch the truth.
Jeffrey,
I appreciate the compliment, but be very careful. Your compliment puts you in a very distinct minority among the commenters on Prof. Wolff’s blog, and you might be assassinated (you have divulged your full name, after all). Regarding personal information, I believe I have disclosed quite a bit about myself already in some past comments – about my marriages, where I went to undergraduate and graduate school, that I am an attorney, where I practice law and even Danny was clever enough to find out my name. I dare not disclose any more, except to say, no I am not a Russian troll. (Nor, I would like to think, an American troll, though many of my detractors claim otherwise. I dare say that I do not believe that I have earned that disrepute.).
For those interested in watching the debate between Rev. Warnick and Sen. Loeffler, it will be live streamed on CNN.com starting at 7 P.M. ET tonight.
MS, I'm sure you are very well-pleased with yourself, believing that you have "many detractors".
MS
Our profession has long put up with the contempt of the savages. This from Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
“The pastoral tribes [Huns and Goths] who were ignorant of the distinction of landed property, must have disregarded the use as well as the abuse of civil jurisprudence; and the skill of an eloquent lawyer could excite only their contempt or abhorrence.”
In a footnote, he adds: “The Germans, who exterminated Varus and his legions, had been particularly offended with the Roman laws and lawyers. One of the barbarians, after the effectual precautions of cutting out the tongue of an advocate, and sewing up his mouth, observed with much satisfaction that the viper could no longer hiss.”
David,
That’s a great quote. Thank you. And congratulations on reading Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, no small achievement.
Although the savage in me would like to see DiGenova’s tongue cut out and his mouth sewed up, I recognize that would violate both due process and the 8th Amendment. I will settle for disbarment.
MS
I bought the three volume Modern Library edition at used book store in Portland, Maine a number of years ago, and it sat gathering dust in book case. Some reference to Gibbon a few months ago led me to open it up, and I have been delighted. He’s a good companion during the pandemic, constantly getting off some great lines. Here are a few that I like:
“The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.”
“The wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private interest.”
“…it is much less difficult to invent a fictitious story than to support a practical fraud.”
“Besieging Rome by land and water, he thrice entered the gates as a barbarian conqueror; profaned the altars, violated the virgins, pillaged the merchants, performed his devotions at St. Peter’s, and left a garrison at the castle of St. Angelo.”
David,
Those are wonderful! It is always a pleasure to read a writer who chooses the words carefully and writes with clarity combined with panache’. I particularly like “…it is much less difficult to invent a fictitious story than to support a practical fraud.” Sound like anyone we know of?
That first quote is a different rendition of one that has floated around for awhile, usually and perhaps incorrectly attributed to Seneca:
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
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