Notes From The Cave

If Cubs fans are truly apathetic as described here, I have to wonder whether they are really fans or people who just came on board when the team was winning. I am a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan and the World Series did not change my loyalty nor expectations. I am grateful for 2016 but don’t expect them to win every year and not surprised they aren’t competitive this year. Last year they subtracted much more than they added, and the one big add is really an unknown.

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While I like micro.blog’s bookshelf that produces the Reading section of this site, one thing I don’t like is that I don’t have control over the order of the list of books in the Finished Reading page. What I want is a chronological list, but what is produced appears to be random.

I also track my reading in outline (OPML) files using Little Outliner. While I have indivudual pages for 2020 and 2021 today it occurred to me that I might be able to produce a master index using an OPML file with parent nodes that include the other files, which I have done and is now accessibe via http://books.frankm.info.

Here are some notes about how I did the above.

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Finished reading: After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements by Erin Vearncombe 📚

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David Brooks:

I’m trying to understand why committee members are not gripped by these realities. After more than a century of relative democratic stability maybe it’s hard for some people to imagine precisely how the fits of political violence that bedevil other nations could hit our shores. Maybe the committee members are imprisoned in the categories set by past investigation committees — Watergate and 9/11.

I think the answer is the same as to the question of why the Attorney General has not already filed charges against Trump. Fear of retaliation. Fear that doing so will be what pushes us over the cliff towards that civil war.

The United States is like the frog in warm water with the temperature increasing.

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Last week I wrote about how the problem with gun violence in the U.S. is not so much with those in political office as much as it is with those who keep electing those people in to office. I should have noted then about how gerrymandering, which is being completely ignored by the Supreme Court, is contributing to the battle between the states that frankly is destroying democracy. The Guardian addresses this topic in terms of abortion, but the same applies to guns.. It points to the hypocrisy of a Supreme Court that says such decisions should be made by legislatures but does nothing to maintain fairness of representation that is necessary for a functioning democracy.

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The real question is not why is there evil, it is, why is there good?

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I drove from Colorado to Michigan over the last three days. Gas prices in Nebraska and Iowa were in the $4.30 range, I think mostly due to the heavy use of ethanol. The highest price was $5.79 in Joliet, IL, which I think is the most I’ve ever paid for a gallon of gas.

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Former Supreme Court clerkssay the problem is not the Heller decision rather the legislative process not doing anything. I wonder whether the same clerks would consider the extent to which Citizens United broke the legislative process?

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For evil to flourish, good men forget who they are. They forget the ideals they once swore to give their very lives for. They come to believe that they are aggrieved, that justice, liberty, and democracy are zero sums and that they have been diminished by the rising freedom of others. They come to see education and intellect as “elitism” and they begin to regard duty and the obligations of civilization itself as oppression. They raise up ignorance, hate, and especially violent rage as strengths and sneer in contempt at compassion, charity, and selflessness.

Source: Stonekettle Station, Insurrection, One Year On

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I’ve been mulling the article I linked to yesterday that makes suggestions for practical gun safety based on the NRA’s safety rules. And I suspect that one may think to themselves, how would gun safety laws help decrease the amount of gun violence in the United States. And here from the article is the point:

Well written laws are about pragmatism.

For example, we all know that laws against drinking and driving won’t stop drunk driving, but they weren’t intended to. We know it’s going to happen. People are going to drink and drive and kill themselves and each other. We know we can’t eliminate it completely. That’s the pragmatism part.

Instead, drunk driving laws were intended to do two things, 1) give us legal recourse as a society, 2) make us responsible for our antisocial behavior – which in turn leads over time to a change in culture.

And that change significantly, measurably, reduced drinking and driving and provably saved lives and made American roads a safer place for all of us.

But, and this is important so pay attention, here’s what those laws didn’t do: they didn’t keep those of us who take responsibility for our own actions from 1) drinking, or 2) driving (note the operative word here is or).

And that’s the answer.

We need gun laws that give society legal recourse by making each gun owner/user personally accountable for their own actions.

Most sane people, pro gun law or anti gun law, will at least acknowledge that gun violence is way out of control in the United States. We have a societal problem. The problem has been getting worse for a decade and no laws have been passed to address it. What message, what permission, does the very act of not doing anything have on society? I think it says, the current state is ok. Keep on with the killing no matter whether it is in a school, a church, or a movie theatre.

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