Rethinking the Villeneuve Dune

 I believe this was the third time I've rewatched the second Villeneuve Dune film. Due less to me loving it and more there being nothing else I wanted to watch. 

About the casting, the actress playing Lady Jessica is too young to be believable as Paul Atriedes' mother. She looks and acts more like an older sister. The actress playing Chani is believably third world but someone - Villeneuve? -  rethought her character and made her an anticolonial activist, which author Frank Herbert never imagined. This is "woke" rearing its ugly head.

Oddly, Christopher Walken is a good choice for the Emperor, and the Harkonnens are well cast as uniformly evil but of varying degrees of smart to go with it.

Travel Blogging Epilogue

Home in Nevada, tired and jet lagged ... I've been up and dressed for 27 hours, got a little sleep along the way but, honestly, not much. The alarm went off in Oslo at 3 a.m. and we left for the airport at 4 a.m. Oslo's airport isn't at all near the city center where our hotel was, our driver estimated the distance as 49 kilometers, which is 30 miles but it seemed longer.

The flight from Oslo to Heathrow was bearable, as we were in first class and had a row of 3 seats between the two of us. The knee room was execrable, the breakfast was blah, and there was no entertainment. At Heathrow the club room for business class pax was good, if quite busy.

The British Air flight from Heathrow to Las Vegas was direct, lasted ca. 9 hours, and the movie selection leaned heavily on Disney and Paramount - not much to love. I did rewatch the Second Dune film made by Villeneuve and will have more to say about it in a separate post. 

The plane was too cold, I spent the time wrapped in a blanket from chin to toes. The food was indifferent, Brits not known for their culinary skills. The entertainment package had many films and TV shows with no English subtitles. Then the drive home, done by a professional, took probably 90 minutes but we're finally home. 

Looking back how do I rate the cruise? Viking does good food, we had lobster twice, prime rib once, steak any night we didn't like the four entrees: one regional, one fish, one meat, and one vegetarian. 

Their ice cream 'vendor' carried gelato and sorbet, their cookies were good. The entertainment wasn't outstanding but was pleasant enough. 

Their onscreen stateroom entertainment package was excellent. We watched 2-3 films, Fox News when we wanted to, and it was good. Their wifi worked very well for our purposes. 

We both said Scandinavian furniture didn't often fit our bodies, The other DrC is convinced Viking beds are terrible, a view I don't share. The crew were multicultural, but uniformly cheerful and nice.

We had one day of rough seas, the rest were darned smooth sailing. So ... not a bad trip, once we arrived there and got going. Getting there and getting home were long, tiring, and intermittently a hassle.

I’m not certain the cruise game is still worth the pain and disorientation involved in intercontinental travel. Maybe it is time to get realistic about sticking somewhat closer to home.

The Deep Six

An F-18 fighter jet has fallen off of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman - somewhere in the Red Sea, taking the tractor pulling it along. The pilot and the tractor driver were both rescued, mostly unharmed. It appears the ship may have been taking evasive action under hostile fire when the accident happened.

It is likely a board of inquiry will evaluate this incident to determine if changes in operating policy might be indicated. I don’t know what the tractor cost, the jet had a $56 million price tag.

A WWE-Style Feud

Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won enough seats in the next Canadian parliament to form a government. Whether or not they have an absolute majority isn’t yet clear, without one they will need a coalition partner.

If I were President Trump I’d be tempted to send a card recognizing Carney’s thanks to Trump for making his election possible, reminding Carney that he owes Trump a big favor, and leak the card to the public. It will force Carney to badmouth Trump, which will keep the feud going. Trump knows the value of a good feud from his WWE days.

Wound in the Salt

The other DrC is on a low-sodium diet for blood pressure reasons, and decades ago she became allergic to a common component of many blood pressure drugs. So she is truly careful about how much salt she eats and it works, her blood pressure is controlled. 

Cruise ship dining rooms are uniformly cooperative with her dietary restrictions. However, today and tomorrow we are on the Norwegian economy and, when we sought supper she could eat, locals looked at her and said, or implied, we don’t do low sodium. I am reminded this is where salt cod was produced wholesale and shipped all over the world.

She is bummed. I think she is sorry we did the extension that put us on the train this morning. We could have flown to Oslo, and thence home today and saved some money and hassle. I don’t blame her, she’s trying to stay healthy and I totally support that. Oh, well, the vagaries of international travel ….

Meanwhile, on a less serious note, my scraggly beard continues to sprout. It will be Thursday morning before I can shave it off. I’ll probably look like Gabby Hayes playing the old prospector, maybe I’ll get a picture if it’s ugly enough to be funny. 

It Unfolds as Expected

I hope none of you are surprised that Democrats have sued to block nearly every one of Trump’s executive orders (EOs). Their doing so was always in the cards. Trump knew it going in, and went ahead anyway.

He knew a lot of what he was assuming he had the authority to do was in a legal gray area, and that all the various suits would work their way to a Supreme Court which would find in his favor much, but probably not all, of the time. 

This process will take months, which is why he signed all those orders immediately, or nearly so. Fortunately the DOJ gets to defend his EOs so it doesn’t cost him out of pocket. 

Good legal practice consists of making the strongest argument on behalf of your client of which you are capable, while not breaking the law yourself. AG Pam Bondi seems to have the stomach for the fight. 

I hope she can motivate the department’s lawyers into doing good work on DJT’s behalf. Likely many would rather not and she may need to fire a few pour encourager les autres. 

Recognizing Stalemate

My favorite foreign affairs analyst - George Friedman - writes what could be an epitaph for the war in Ukraine. If only the parties to the stalemate can find the will to end it. Hat tip to RealClearWorld for the link. Friedman reasons:

Russia’s goal was to conquer Ukraine. That it has succeeded only in taking a small portion of the east has led to absurd claims that the east was all Russia wanted.

Ukraine’s goal is to keep all of its territory. The problem is that the Ukrainian military isn’t strong enough to compel the Russians out of Ukraine.

Russia cannot occupy Ukraine, Ukraine cannot force the Russians out, and the negotiations must acknowledge as much.

Travel Blogging XIV

Woke up at oh-dark-thirty this a.m and it was raining in Bergen. Room service breakfast arrived ca. 6 a.m. and we got about getting ourselves to the pickup point by 7. We ate, dressed, packed our toiletries and electronics, checked all the drawers in the room to be sure we hadn’t left anything behind, and got to the pickup point by 6:45. 

Since I’m using a walker this trip and the other couple we’re traveling with has him in an electric wheelchair, they’d laid on a van to take us to the train station. Needless to say, we got wet getting our carry-on stuff, plus ourselves, a folding wheelchair and folding walker  into the van. The drive to the station was clearly too far to walk, though we’d been told it was nearby and walking might be required. 

At the station there was a wait that seemed interminable (but wasn’t) since we were wet and train stations aren’t heated. I sat in the walker which was  a blessing. Eventually we got on the train and it pulled out of the station smooth as silk. The train from Bergen to Oslo is nice, plenty of leg room, clean, and runs on overhead electricity trolley-style as many European trains do.

The trip took 7 hours and the scenery was outstanding. Lots of wooded canyons with lakes in the bottom, or streams. Plenty of little weekend places dotting the hillsides, and as we climbed up to the high level plateau snow became prevalent until, up top, the lakes were still frozen over and it is almost May. This trip is one of my favorites, even though I slept through part of it because of the early get-up. 

I mentally stereotype Norway as a string of seacoast towns and fjords, yet we motored steadily east toward Oslo through a lot of non-coastal country which reminded me of Switzerland, if not quite as tidy. The train stopped at several hamlets along the way but was only at each for perhaps 3-4 minutes before gliding away. 

Another train trip it reminded me of, one we’ve done twice, is the Canadian train from Jasper townsite in Alberta which heads west via Prince George to Prince Rupert on the BC coast. That trip is less developed but has similar gorgeous scenery. 

Something I noticed was the prevalence of medium-sized, absolutely square windows in newer houses along this route. I’ve seen them elsewhere in Europe but it never caught on in the States. 

We’re in a downtown Radisson Hotel in Oslo tonight and tomorrow night, after which we fly home. The other DrC’s cough is better, we’ll take it easy here in town. My head is already at home thinking about all we have to get done before leaving for WY by way of SLC. It is a busy spring for us.

Travel Blogging XIII

We woke up this morning moored in Bergen, Norway. It is the final stop on this cruise and is a port kept busy by the Norwegian offshore oil fields. We don’t disembark until tomorrow morning early. The new batch of pax for the next cruise will embark later tomorrow, say around noon.

Meanwhile we will have boarded a train which will take us to Oslo where we will spend Monday and Tuesday nights in an hotel and fly out on Wednesday to Heathrow and thence to Las Vegas. 

Today we will be involved in packing and getting ready to go. This isn’t our first visit to Bergen, we’ve visited the old Hanseatic Village which still faces the harbor. 

Tomorrow’s train trip is another treat we’ve experienced before, it climbs up to and crosses the largest high altitude plateau in Europe, and is very scenic. 

Blue State Blues

There is a bit of folk wisdom circulating online and elsewhere that generally goes by the name “Pottery Barn rule” and is attributed to former DOD Secretary Colin Powell. It states “if you broke it, you own it” meaning the fault is yours and you pay for the now-worthless broken item.

Seeing this report of Sen. Schiff (D-CA) complaining that CA Democrats need to deal with the state’s manifold problems suggests he has been Pottery Barned. Democrats have had sole control of CA politics for fourteen years, which is plenty long enough to support the claim that whatever the state now experiences - good and bad - is theirs to own. 

The state suffers from runaway homelessness, wildfires, poor schools, neglected infrastructure, overregulation, and sky high taxes. If CA doesn’t top the lists of bad places to do business, it comes close.

The result is human outmigration sufficient to cost CA several House seats. And it is losing corporate headquarters too. 

As they say in the Navy, it all happened on the Democrats’ watch. They ‘broke’ it and they have to take the rap for neither preventing the breakage nor fixing the problems. I wish them the joy of gluing the pieces back together.

Travel Blogging XII

At sea, a bit south of Aberdeen en route to Bergen … I had anticipated the North Atlantic would be rough, just goes to show how the ocean can fool a person. The sea is so calm you’d hardly know we are moving. There are no waves, more like ripples that might go 6” high. 

It isn’t the most calm I’ve ever experienced, that would have been one time returning from Hawaii to, maybe LA, when the sea was like glass, I mean dead flat. For fun I went to the stern that day and stood looking at our wake which extended back behind us as far as the eye could see in a very straight line.

I am ready for this cruise to be over, this a.m. I reached for my electric razor and found its battery was dead. Then I found that I’d not brought the charger for it, so I will be growing a stubbly beard until we get home. I may not have mentioned that I don’t like beards, on me anyway. And I’m ready to sleep in my own bedroom too.

Weird Oncologic Science

Medical Xpress reports research in Italy that finds increased consumption of chicken on a regular basis is associated with greater frequency of certain gastrointestinal cancers and early deaths. The research done by the Italian National Institute of Gastroenterology.

The researchers found a higher incidence of gastrointestinal cancer development and also early deaths related to those cancer cases among people who ate more than 300 grams of poultry per week. The risk of dying at that level, they found, was 27% higher compared to people who ate just 100 grams of poultry per week or less.

Three hundred grams equals roughly 10.5 ounces, or less than 3/4 of a pound per week. 100 grams equals 3.5 ounces, or a scant quarter of a pound. A family friend whose meat intake seemingly consists almost solely of chicken should learn of these findings.

Travel Blogging XI

We are tied up alongside in Amsterdam. The pax have gone ashore bundled up as the weather is maybe 48 ℉ ashore, and the skies are gray. We are staying aboard, having enjoyed another room service breakfast and looking towards an after breakfast nap.

As we ate we pulled back the curtain and watched the riverine barge traffic for which the region is noted. A whole subculture of riverine craft ply the waters of the interconnected Rhine, Main, Mosel, and Danube Rivers. 

Unlike on the Mississippi River, family-owned motorized barges are the norm here. Each with a dwelling/pilot house including parking spot for the family car at the stern, and some of the larger barges have a forecastle for a hired hand in the bow. Specialized barges are the norm here, they either carry bulk cargo like grain or gravel, or they carry containers, or in some cases are miniature oil tankers carrying fluid cargo.

With the interconnected rivers, you could actually ship stuff from Bucharest to Bruges on river craft. I have spent the afternoon looking out our stateroom floor to ceiling window at the river traffic going past. 

It is the Rhine’s usual mix of purpose-built river powered barges and river cruisers, work boats of various descriptions, and pleasure craft ranging from outboard-powered row boats to inboard skiffs to cabin cruisers to sailing yachts with inboard power to tour boats to whatever will float. I don’t see any jet skis.

My turn to do the laundry. Tomorrow being a sea day the launderette will be crowded all day long so I’m doing it today when the laundry is only moderately busy. Viking supplies the machines and the soap, all we need bring is dirty clothes and those we’ve got.

Beef … It’s What’s for Dinner

John Hinderaker of Power Line writes about meat consumption being up in the US, something he doesn’t find surprising but seems to think the legacy media do find it odd. He quotes the New York Times:

Meat has muscled its way back to the center of the plate. Sales of beef, pork, lamb, poultry and other meat in the United States hit a record $104.6 billion last year, according to a March report by FMI, the nation’s largest food retail trade group…. 

On average, Americans ate nearly 7 percent more meat last year than before the pandemic, according to one report. And the number of consumers who said they were trying to eat less meat fell to 22 percent, the lowest level in at least five years.

Some of this sales increase may be attributable to higher prices for meat. Some, but not all. 

I know I’ve eaten much more than my share of rib eye steak over the decades. During BBQ season we probably eat it up to 4-5 times a week. As we’ve gotten older the portions have gotten smaller but that is us being realistic about our activity level being much less than formerly.

I Have a Question

Distantly related to the prior post is the following which has puzzled me for some while. I do some minor gaming online, crossword puzzles, solitaire, mah jong, and the like. Those often contain ads for other games which I am repeatedly assured contain no ads. And they are not the sort of game which would reveal my interests, potential purchases, or other things of value to a marketer. 

I know the ads I see cost the owner of the game money to run, and yet there is no obvious income stream attached to the games they would have me download. Which makes me wonder, why do they bother? What is in it for them if I play their game? Does whatever I download contain malware which surveils my online activities and reports same to their database? Will they end up storing stuff on my computer or using it to relay anonymous stuff? 

As attorneys ask, “que bono?”  Latin for “who benefits?” What is in it for them? Something obviously, for it isn’t the case they do it for ego gratification or as a hobby. How does it make money for them?

The “Why” of COTTonLINE

As you can imagine I am online quite a lot, reading things I can access for free. Normally these are supported by ads which I ignore as much as possible. But the advertisers believe the fees they pay to advertise are worth it and who am I to argue?

A bunch of things to which I’m offered links are behind paywalls, meaning they want me to pay to read them. They incorrectly believe what they are creating is so valuable to me I’ll pay for the privilege. 

As what I do online is not a business, I can’t write off the expense of subscribing to dozens of different sites as business-related. So I work around the paywall when I can and shrug off reading those things to which I cannot gain free access.

I don’t ask readers of COTTonLINE to subscribe as what I do here is a hobby and my only daily expense is my time. Every few years I have to buy some piece of electronic equipment but I view that as acceptable hobby costs. I am retired and, while working, saved the money that now supports me and my hobby.

In 30+ years of college teaching, and another few years of lecturing on cruise ships, I became accustomed to having an audience for my insights, such as they are, This hobby fills that vacancy in my life.

All of the above is by way of saying where I am with regard to making money via the web ,.,, in short, I don’t. I blog because I like doing it, and if I don’t do much for a few days, you may drift away and stop reading, but my ego can handle that and there’s no impact on my wallet.

The Dem’s Dilemma

The “commentariat” keeps marveling that the Democrats who lost big last November have not been able to settle on a path forward that shows much chance of leading them to victory. A big part of this difficulty is that Trump has put his stamp on the  80% side of every 80-20 public opinion split. 

Another big part is that the people who give the party energy are all on the left, with the possible exception of Sen. Fetterman. He has become this cycle’s version of Joe Manchin, a lonely centrist contrarian. 

In order for centrist Democrats to emerge and be empowered, the party will have to nominate a latter-day George McGovern who will lose big, even a lot of normally blue states. AOC would fill the bill.

Kamala Harris didn’t lose by a large enough margin to surface centrists in the party who are, for the moment, keeping their heads down and powder dry while hoping their turn will come along before they’re too old. If history doesn’t repeat but rhymes, then a latter-day Bill Clinton may be who gets Democrats back into the White House.

Travel Blogging X

Alongside in ZeeBrugge … Today the tours which left the ship took pax to Bruges, perhaps to shop for lace, chocolate, etc. Rumor has it what we call “French fries” actually originated here in Belgium where something like half the population speaks French. The other half speaks Flemish which isn’t so different from Dutch.

As we mentioned yesterday, Belgium is known for its chocolate and the houses which create the candies. I’ve visited a chocolatier on an earlier trip here and they really do excel in the craft. 

Modern Belgium is known for the headquarters of the European Union being here, as well as the headquarters of NATO. If the EU ever becomes a United States of Europe, Belgium would become its District of Columbia. 

To date, it shows no signs of accomplishing that feat and probably never will. The EU shows every sign of becoming a place ruled by an unelected, self-replicating bureaucratic “blob” run by and for the sort of oligarchs who gather at Davos for the WEF, alas.

Tomorrow we are in Amsterdam, not one of my favorite cities, Honestly, I can’t think of many large cities I like, maybe Singapore, the city-state designed by Mr. Lee. It is at least clean and the modern architecture is superb. One thing is certain, as we work our way north, the days are getting progressively colder and the Bergen/Oslo area is likely to be quite chilly.

Travel Blogging IX

A rainy spring day in Le Havre … the other DrC - apple of my eye for yea these many decades - continues to cough. I wrote yesterday about being tied up alongside in Honfleur across the mouth of the Seine. Whereas Honfleur is a charming small fishing village, Le Havre is the French equivalent of San Pedro, a busy working industrial port, the second most important port in France, after Marseilles.

We will stay aboard today, loafing around and doing not much of anything. Maybe watch some of the Vatican ceremonial goings-on, with their two thousand years of practice, few do it better. 

Here in Le Havre we are near surrounded with the gigantic blades of wind turbines, many dozens of them lying side by side covering acres of storage space. Our sleek little cruise ship must look as out of place as a princess who inexplicably finds herself on a factory floor.

The Europeans are as serious about going carbon-free as everyone says. It is peculiar that they are largely alone among nations in this seriousness. If Europe actually had a representative government instead of one run by a self-perpetuating EU bureaucratic oligarchy, they’d not be as gung-ho about being green.

The rain has gone and the sun is shining, but it is not warm outside. There are still puddles on the deck. That same thing happens along the CA coast where I grew up. Remembering what Mark Twain said about how cold he was one summer day in San Francisco. I grew up in an era when people still left their hearts in SF, but I was never one of them. 

Tomorrow we are in port at Zeebrugge near Bruges in Belgium. It would be fine to acquire some Belgian chocolate, they are the world’s master chocolatiers although the Swiss and Germans give them competition.

Travel Blogging VIII

At sea approaching Portsmouth, U.K. … We have calm water today, much appreciated by all and sundry.  The other DrC announces she has a cold, and her cough does sound juicy. I remain healthy so far, knock wood. She cancelled her trip to Paris in honor of her cold.

We’re sitting in the central atrium on the middle deck, listening to a piano and flute duo playing classical airs, killing time until the vocalist goes on at 9 pm in the theater forward. 

Observation … Viking pax are younger than Holland America pax, I see fewer walkers and wheelchairs on this cruise.

The singer last night was loud without being especially charming. Thus ended Monday.

Next day … We have been in Portsmouth harbor since early this Tuesday morning, this has been a Royal Navy base for centuries. It is an entirely protected harbor and the other DrC informs me it was the base from which Ike coordinated the D-day landings in Normandy. It’s where he made the famous decision about the iffy weather that June in 1944: a day’s postponement followed by the “go” signal on the 6th.

For lunch today I had not 1, 2, or 3, but 4 generous scoops of Rum Raisin gelato. It is my favorite and nearly impossible to find in the US. On the other hand, in the Commonwealth countries it is a usual flavor so I eat it in Canada, Oz, and EnZed and of course in the U.K. itself. Yay, Viking, for having my favorite flavor!

Tomorrow we will be in port at Le Havre and the energetic among the pax contingent will go to Paree for the day. Taking caution as a result of her cough, the other DrC has cancelled the trip to Paris she was going to make with the wife of the other couple with whom we’re traveling. 

We’ve not been to Le Havre but were once moored across the bay at Honfleur in a Seine cruiser, and it was from there we toured the D-day beaches where the invasion occurred, and saw the Bayeux tapestry. Alas, all the brave and tiring things we once took for granted but can no longer do. Aging is a sad business.

Pope Dies

Pope Francis died unexpectedly this morning at about 7:35 a.m. Rome time. Yesterday he met with Vice President and Mrs. Vance.

Francis was 88, and had served in the office for 12 years. He formerly was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. He was the first Jesuit and first South American to be elected pope. His politics reflected his growing up in the Peron era.

An appreciation of his papacy concludes thus.

There will not be another pope like Francis. Whatever one’s opinion of him, he changed the face of the Catholic Church. What remains to be seen is whether his changes last. 

Travel Blogging VII

At sea, crossing the Bay of Biscay to Portsmouth … The water is rough, as predicted. Not dramatically rough, but plenty to feel insecure of one’s footing. 

Every few minutes we hit some kind of turbulence that shakes the ship and feels like a car hitting a pothole. Our routine anti-seasick meds are doing the job so far. We are trying to mostly sleep through it, hanging out in our cabin. Which venue is getting boring, by the way.

Travel Blogging VI

Porto, Portugal … We are moored in the Leixoes port which serves Oporto, Portugal. The day is overcast and somewhat rainy. As I have no plans to go ashore, I will stay dry but the gloom does affect our mood.

There is a storm north of here the Captain (correctly) believes we’d like to avoid. Instead of casting off at suppertime, as planned, we will overnight here in port and sail on northward tomorrow morning. It is hoped we will therefore avoid the worst of the big waves as we cross the Bay of Biscay en route to Portsmouth and then to Le Havre, from which buses will take the ambitious to Paris for the day. As a consequence we have eliminated a planned stop at Falmouth on the south coast of Britain. This degree of schedule flexibility to avoid anticipated bad weather is unusual in my experience, unique to Viking? Maybe so, in any case, I approve.

Much of the Bay of Biscay is relatively shallow and thus produces dramatic waves which have sunk many’s the ship in days past. We’ll see what today brings. 

A Happy Easter Wish

COTTonLINE wishes our readers a Happy Easter, whether or not you are a celebrant thereof. It is springtime and that is always a season of optimism, of new growth, of renewal and flowers. Plus new spotted fawns in the WY backyard, always a treat.

Try to ignore the coincidence that finds dopers’ favorite date coinciding with the celebration of the risen Christ. It was bound to happen sometime, and this is one of those times. The other DrC’s birthday happens soon and we will celebrate it together as we have for half a century.

While I should be thinking of this trip, my headspace is already full of everything we have to get done when we return to our winter home at trip’s end. When you relocate your residence twice a year, as we do, considerable planning is required and much work is involved as well. 

As we age the work of relocating gets harder. Eventually it will be more than we can accomplish, and we’ll have to give up our dream of year-round spring weather. Bummer. 

Before that happens, expect us to exercise our considerable ingenuity in finding ways to simplify the process. Many will involve duplicate “stuff” at both places to reduce what we haul back and forth. 

Travel Blogging V

At sea off the coast of Portugal … Today is one of two so-called “sea days” in this cruise. A sea day is a day when we are not in port but cruising between two ports. We left Malaga, Spain, and are headed for Oporto, Portugal. Oporto is the home of Port wine, beloved by Brits. 

Earlier this morning we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and are now cruising north along the coast of Portugal. We will reach Oporto tomorrow morning, in time for shore excursions to visit wineries, and otherwise tour.

As soon as we left the Mediterranean Sea the weather became overcast. After a series of blue sky days it is now looking dreary when I look out the window. I hope we don’t have gray days for the rest of the cruise. You remember how iffy the weather was when Ike was deciding if the conditions were right for the D-day landings in Normandy? That was in early June, this is mid April so we could well have wall-to-wall storminess. 

This ship has a small planetarium and a resident astronomer, it is something I’ve not seen on the many cruise ships I’ve been on. Viking has its own way of doing things. 

Later … dinner tonight was lobster, and not the tiny little tails either. These were so large I had trouble finishing one, each bite dipped in melted butter of course. 

After dinner our singers and dancers gave us a series of Broadway and West End melodies from the musical theater. They aren’t great talents but they do their best and are 4 energetic Brit kids. I will go hear them whenever they’re on. 

Weird Dietary Science

 Medical Xpress reports findings of a new study of the adequacy of vegans’ diets.

In a new study of people with long-term vegan diets, most ate an adequate amount of total daily protein, but a significant proportion did not meet required levels of the amino acids lysine and leucine. Bi Xue Patricia Soh and colleagues at Massey University, New Zealand, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Humans are natural omnivores, meat being a historic part of our diet whenever possible.

Clear Majority Want Illegals Sent Home

A new CNN poll shows that a majority of voters approve the deportation of all illegal immigrants. Go here to watch Harry Enten, CNN’s data guy, report that the number supporting deportation of all 11 million illegals is 56%, up from 38% in 2016. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

It’s clear what all the stories of rapes and murders and armed groups breaking into apartments can do to public opinion. You would hope the Europeans would figure out the need to shut down their illegal immigration from the Middle East and Africa. Mostly the Visegrad group sees the need, the rest of the EU can’t or won’t.

Travel Blogging IV

Malaga, España … This fair city and busy port has the dubious distinction of being the only place we have been robbed in all our travels. We were unloading a rental car in front of our hotel and I set a backpack down on the ground, leaning against my leg, as I turned to pick up another bag and when I turned back with the second bag the backpack was gone, as if by magic. 

Sadly it contained a laptop and some cash. We spent much of that evening sitting in a police precinct describing what happened to a translator. Everything turned out okay in the end, insurance paid off, but it was traumatic and complicated our lives to no end. España has highly skilled ladrones or thieves, it is the trade for some families.

Malaga is the port associated with Granada, in the same way Valparaiso is associated with Santiago, Chile. A quick look out the window suggests the port of Malaga is very busy, with both freight and pax.

Travel Blogging III

At sea, approaching Cartagena, Spain … This morning I ate the best room service breakfast I have had during 20+ years of cruising. Crisp bacon, fluffy scrambled eggs, broiled tomato halves, sliced fresh pineapple, cranberry juice drink, and an English muffin with butter and jam. Viking does food exceptionally well, in comparison to other cruise lines.

The other DrC says we aren’t supposed to be in port in Cartagena until noon, something of which I had not bothered of inform myself. I don’t have a lot of plans for shore excursions this trip, which is okay with me.

Later ,,,  The port of Cartagena is surprisingly busy today, several large Aida cruise ships full of Germans in port. We have a pretty day and it is warmish outside, when I opened the door to our balcony and stuck my arm out to check. 

The other DrC and her friend Karen have gone ashore and they walked a paseo, people watching. I gave that idea a pass, but I hope it works for them. I’m sitting in the great atrium listening to quiet instrumental music. 

Still later … We heard the entertainment troupe do a show this evening, and it reminded me of the shows one used to see on Princess or Norwegian. Four Brit kids who could dance some, sing okay, and had energy, doing a show on the pop hits of the decades, basically the 50s, 60s, and 70s. 

Remember, cruise pax are old, what the other DrC calls “geezers.” They like music of their youth. When the DrsC first started cruising we’d hear big band era pop songs, those are gone as the people who’d remember them would now be 90+ and most such are either dead or no longer traveling.

Travel Blogging II

At sea en route to Cartagena, Spain … As anticipated we spent a good deal of today sleeping, getting caught up and finding our way around the ship. Eating some good chow - bacon cheeseburger and fries for lunch, steak Diane etc. for supper, and we are starting to get over jet lag.

By modern cruise ship standards Jupiter is a small ship, only 930 pax and a crew of maybe 400+. The big ones are hauling 5000+ pax and more decks too. So finding my way around hasn’t taken forever. 

A lot of what is nice about Viking ships is what normal cruise ship stuff is not here. There is no gallery selling mass-produced oils, no mob of professional photographers, no casino, no dress-up nights and very little nickel-and-diming of the pax. Nearly everything we want is included, although the entertainment is perhaps a bit thin.

Every time we cruise the eastern, Mediterranean coast of Spain I marvel at how dense the ocean traffic is here. Dozens of large ferries you could almost mistake for cruise ships, actual cruise ships, tankers and container ships. It is rare that there isn’t another ship within view. Considering it is many miles between ports along this coast, the traffic is essentially heavy by ocean standards.

We’ve sailed across both the Atlantic and Pacific multiple times in each direction and it is rare to see more than one other ship per crossing. By contrast, at supper tonight - which lasted maybe 80 minutes - we must have seen at least a dozen ships.

What We Fund with Taxes

Harvard argues that the government has no right to tell them - a private institution - what they can and cannot do, teach, research, and believe. Perhaps this is true. What it chooses to do with privately raised funds, insofar as those activities are not criminal, is Harvard’s business.

On the other hand, the government has every right to decide what activities it will and won’t fund, including to which universities it will issue grants. Harvard has no absolute right to government funding and students have no right to government funding of their study at institutions of which government does not approve.

The gray area is what Harvard chooses to do with NGO-provided funds which originated in government grants of taxpayer contributions. I’d argue that passing public funds through one or more NGOs doesn’t magically make them private. 

Travel Blogging I

Barcelona, Spain … It took nearly 20 hours to arrive here, leaving from our NV place. The route was to Las Vegas by car, and from there to London and on to Barcelona by plane. It was long, tedious, and I wasn’t impressed by either British Airways or Heathrow airport. Neither were terrible, but both were basically unimpressive. Plus the only time I slept much was on the flight from London to Barcelona.

Individual Brits were very nice unless they were immigrants, the immigrants weren’t awful, but didn’t go out of their way to be nice either. I have been using a wheeled walker on this trip and it has been a help. The other DrC insisted we bring it and, as usual, she was correct.

Viking met our plane and brought us by van to the harbor. The drive to the port from the airfield was very familiar, not our first visit here, nor even our second.  I don’t actually know how many times we’ve either begun or ended a cruise here in what the other DrC calls “Barc,” sounding like “bark.” 

Later … I wrote the above after we arrived on board the Viking Jupiter and before we went to bed. Following a night of intermittent sleep I awoke feeling hung over, though all I drank last night was mineral water. Crossing 8-9 time zones can have that effect. The ship doesn’t depart until this evening so we will have a lie in this morning and a lazy day trying to start getting over jet lag.

Our stateroom isn’t large but is very nice in the austere Scandinavian style: pale woods, clean lines, right angles. It isn’t something I would choose for my home, but as you might imagine for a cruise line named “Viking” they do it to the hilt throughout the ship. It works very well. 

Rich Genes

Here is a quote that makes an interesting assertion, I wonder if it is accurate?

The intergenerational income correlation is indeed quite high. But twin and adoption studies show that most or all of this correlation stems from heredity. The reason why kids from rich families do well isn’t that mom and dad buy their way through life. The reason, rather, is that rich families have genes that cause financial success, and pass these genes on to their kids.

I wonder if the reverse is true, that poverty is so intractable is because of inherited “poverty” genes? 

Process Note

I won't be posting memes for the next couple of weeks. I will be traveling and posting using the iPad. 

It is so much easier with the home wide screen plus desktop setup that, while traveling, I will limit myself to text posts, and maybe photos. I will Travel Blog, of course, and comment on the news of the day. 

Saturday Snark

Except maybe China.

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Bill Maher on Trump, the Host

 A fine column in the New York Post relating what Bill Maher said about his dinner with President Trump. Please read the whole thing. Some key quotes:

Trump used the word “lost” in relation to the 2020 presidential election. “And I distinctly remember saying, ‘Wow, I never thought I’d hear you say that.’ He didn’t get mad. He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public,” Maher said.

I’d never seen him laugh in public. But he does — including at himself — and it’s not fake. Believe me, as a comedian of forty years, I know a fake laugh when I hear it.”

“A crazy person does not live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there. Which I know is f–ed up, it’s just not as f–ed up as I thought it was,” Maher said in summation.

There is an insight I haven’t seen elsewhere. Trump’s years in show biz were spent learning how to project different aspects of himself in different situations, as needed. In other words, he is a performer like Ronald Reagan and Maher. It takes one to know one, eh? 

Later … RealClearPolitics has the transcript of what Maher said on-air about his dinner with Trump, the good, bad, and ugly of it. There is quite a bit of good. If I were to attempt a summary of Maher’s view, he sees Trump as someone who has chosen to portray a bigger-and cruder-than-life public persona because it works, so many people like it, even if Maher doesn’t.

This reminds me of a performer many young people won’t remember = Milton Berle. I found him absolutely icky but he was a big draw on early black and white TV, and I still can’t understand why.

Saturday Snark (belated)

Images courtesy of Politico's

The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

Unraveling

I have repeatedly written about "extreme federalism" as a possible solution to, or outcome result of, the extreme polarization of US politics. I viewed it as an better alternative to civil war.

Comes a columnist who sees something similar-but-different happening in Canada. He views the provinces becoming increasingly autonomous because Ottawa permits it, and/or doesn't deal with the problems they face. 

It could be that Ottawa finds it too difficult to craft national policies which fit the 10 provinces' divergent cultures and needs. Maybe one size cannot fit all, at least not comfortably.

If you like Canada enough to have visited it repeatedly, I recommend the article. See its conclusion.

Canada is not disintegrating. It is unraveling. But the effect is the same. The provinces are no longer listening for the center. And the center is no longer capable of drawing them back. Yeats’s line still holds: the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Not because of rebellion. But because the call has grown too faint to matter.

Personal note ... Alberta feels more like Texas or Montana than it does eastern Canada. They share rodeos, cattle, oil, pickups, vast flatlands and a pioneer past.

Another One Down

We wrote Tuesday about Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield - US representative to NATO - fired for publicly dissing POTUS.  Now we see another woman officer getting sacked for the same offense: publicly disagreeing with the Commander in Chief’s policies.

This time - Col. Susannah Meyers is the culprit.  She was the commander of the Space Force base in Greenland which the VP and Second Lady visited recently Her electronic message:

“[I] spent the weekend thinking about Friday’s visit — the actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you,” she wrote to her subordinates in the email obtained by Military.com and verified by the Space Force.

“I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”

“I commit that, for as long as I am lucky enough to lead this base, all of our flags will fly proudly — together,” Meyers added.

Her “luck” just ran out. Meyers was relieved of duty as post commander, effectively ending her career. She was planning to retire and perhaps figured she had nothing to lose. 

It appears that DEI has placed a number of like-minded individuals in places of authority in the military. I expect we will see several more such stories in the days and weeks ahead. 

Statuesque

The Daily Caller reports Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy had a pigeon alight on his head while he was taping a segment for Fox and Friends on the White House grounds. The birds often do this to statues, which end up covered with the droppings, 

It is fair to say Doocy was not amused. I am imagining people in the business humorously referring to him as “the statuesque Peter Doocy.” Meanwhile the article goes on to report the relevant federal officials are looking into the problem. 

Most solutions I can think of would arouse the ire of PETA except perhaps this one: Fox could add a falconer and his bird to their camera crew. Allowed to do what falcons do naturally - kill and eat pigeons - its frequent presence would move the flock of pigeons elsewhere and keep them away.

It Is Cleverness

Had Trump merely announced a 10% tariff on all imports, the complaining would have be thunderous. Instead, Trump announced shocking big tariffs followed after a pause by a 90 day postponement before implementing his reciprocal tariffs, and the market rallied big. Little remarked upon is his leaving the 10% base tariff in place. 

This is "art of the deal" negotiating. Reducing resistance to what you will require by demanding much more and then appearing to give in somewhat. His cleverness is akin to a doctor frightening a needle-averse patient with a big horse syringe, before bringing out the little syringe she'll actually use. 

The 10% is what he already had in mind for revenue. Applied only on imported goods, giving domestic producers a minor leg up.

Our trade partners are all relived that the tariff is only 10% and everybody pays it. Ten percent of the value of everything we import will be billions per year in revenue.

I expect the punitive tariffs will be reserved for bad actors, and maybe for countering non-tariff trade barriers which discriminate against such US exports as meat, dairy, and GM farm produce.

Invaders

At Instapundit Stephen Green posts an X containing the following quote by Catholic Bishop Athanasius Schneider. His topic is the Islamic immigrants flooding Europe, and he is exactly right.

They are not refugees, they are invaders who want to Islamize Europe. They want to destroy historical culture in Europe. Unfortunately, many Europeans have not yet understood this or have profited from it.

In Europe they label people who hold this common sensical view “members of the far right,” if not actual Nazis. Doing so is cultural suicide. We have taken the actions they seem unable to take, to turn the tide of unwanted immigrants. Why doesn't Europe fly them home?

Target Guam?

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes, meaning it semi-repeats.  The last time the US was attacked by a rising power in Asia was in 1941 by Japan at Pearl Harbor. Upset by Japanese brutal attacks on the Asian mainland, the US had cut off oil and scrap iron exports to Japan and they felt “backed into a corner.”

This time we’re upset by China’s huge mercantilist trade imbalance and other hostile acts short of war. In reaction we’re imposing tariffs that threaten the collapse of the enormous Chinese manufacturing-for-export sector. 

If China feels “backed into a corner,” what sort of retaliatory lashing out might this emergent Asian power undertake? Probably not an attack on Pearl Harbor, maybe one on Guam? 

That would be a shame, Guam and its people are super nice. The culture is a mix of Asian, Hawaiian, Filipino/Spanish colonial and US. Their family names reflect ancestors who were born Spanish, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Pacific Islander, and other European-American.

The DrsC spent a year on Guam some decades ago. The largely Roman Catholic islanders, who style themselves the Chamorro after the pre-Magellan indigenes, are US citizens who call the US “the mainland.”

Minuses and Pluses

It is an ill wind that blows no one good ... that's a proverb first published in 1546 by John Heywood.

The Daily Wire reports Chinese tourists may be light on the ground in the US this summer, in reaction to the tariff+ battle. In this they resemble those Canadians who are choosing to stay home or go elsewhere. Who will be hurt? Tour companies, bus operators, hotels, sellers of souvenir tchotchkes.

Who will benefit? The hordes of American tourists who will visit our National Parks without being overrun by busloads of pushy, entitled Chinese tourists. Honestly, they won't be missed by vacationing Americans. 

We may miss the Anglophone Canadians who tend to be agreeable folk.

Harvard Obfuscates

Harvard gets many more applicants than it can accept, yet it offers a remedial math course. Harvard claims the need is caused by school disruption during the Covid era. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.

Do you seriously believe Harvard can’t fill its vacancies with applicants who don’t need math remediation? I don’t. The need stems from their now-camouflaged DEI efforts to bring to campus more students from under-represented races and ethnicities. 

I give you good odds if you could see the faces in that remedial math course you’d see almost no white and Asian faces. Harvard values merit less than DEI. They deserve to suffer federal wrath as a result.

The Other Shoe

You may have seen news reports the Trump administration has fired our representative to NATO, a Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield. Perhaps you attributed her removal to misogyny?

Here is the rest of the story, posted at Instapundit by Stephen Green. An X post by Jack Posobiec.

BREAKING: Per report, Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield refused to put up POTUS & SECDEF pictures in NATO HQ. Also held an “all hands” where she said “we will wait them out 4 years”

She has been relieved of duty.

A reminder to all in uniform: POTUS = CINC. Showing open disrespect to a CO is clear grounds for dismissal.

A Soaring Eagle

CNN's data guy Harry Enten, summarizing the first several weeks of Trump 2.0.

I think there was this concern among some folks that Donald Trump would come in for a second term and be a lame duck. He ain’t no lame duck. If anything, he’s a soaring eagle.

Amen, brother. 

Weird Evolutionary Science

A really interesting X article making the claim that, before we humans domesticated dogs, cows, etc. we first domesticated ourselves. We are the ape that imagined, and then created what and who we have become. And the process continues today. Some key thoughts:

One of the chief characteristics of domesticated animals is their reduced aggression compared to wild types.

This retention of juvenile traits into adulthood is called neoteny and is considered a hallmark of domestication.

Although wolves were domesticated into dogs in several regions of the world around 15 to 40 thousand years ago, they were not the first animals to be domesticated. We were.

We invented our humanity. We invented cooking, we invented human language, we invented our sense of fairness, duty, and responsibility. All these came intentionally, out our imaginations of what could be.

Maybe. Or possibly those inventions were us deciding to repeat attempted behavior that appeared to produce good results, and discard those parts that worked "poorly." I'm somewhat a Skinnerian, an empiricist.

Oligopsony

Donald Trump recognized something others had overlooked. The US market is so lucrative for exporters in other nations that they must have access, regardless of tariffs posed by our government. 

Exporters of high tech and luxury goods face what economists call a “oligopsony,” a market with few buyers which gives those buyers leverage over the suppliers. We had power we weren’t using, maybe didn’t even recognize we had, until Big Don decided to activate it. 

The evidence for this power is the rush by other nations to cut trade deals with the White House. Some have analogized this rush to the “prisoners’ dilemma.”

Left-wing Authoritarianism

Writing at PJ Media, Matt Margolis cites opinion research which finds radical views on the left, something called “left-wing authoritarianism” featuring an “assassination culture.”

The findings were stark: Some 38% of respondents said it would be at least "somewhat justified" to murder Donald Trump, and 31% said the same about Elon Musk.

When counting only left-leaning respondents, justification for killing Trump rose to 55% and Musk to 48%.

Are sentiments like these precursors to civil war? Or is it just the desperation of a movement being overrun by a successful, hyperactive opponent like Trump, as they watch their long-running, corrupt schemes being demolished by his ally Musk? 

Later … Reacting to this poll, John Hinderaker of Power Line concludes as follows.

Data like these raise, I think, the question whether the United States has a future as a united country. (snip) An “assassination culture” has taken hold of one our major parties. Is there, any longer, a basis on which liberals and conservatives can collaborate, in good faith, in governing a democracy?

I am not at all sure the answer to that question is Yes.

Close Spaces

Common sense about public transportation from the redoubtable Kurt Schlichter via X. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

All these people who love public transportation and trains and want to stick us in them could do more for their own cause by empowering police to lock up criminals and weirdos than anything else, but they’re ideologically unable to choose normal people over bad people and normal people don’t want to be trapped in a close space with bad people.

Please forgive Kurt’s run-on sentence, the thinking is correct. Elevators can be iffy, too. 

The Comfort Class

Americans don't like to talk about social class. If asked, something like 70% of us will answer we are "middle class." That answer is probably only correct for 40% of us.

Written for The Atlantic and out from behind their paywall courtesy of msn.com, comes an article talking about "the comfort class." What, you may ask, is "the comfort class?"

Our systems--of education, credentialing, hiring, housing, and electing officials--are dominated and managed by members of a "comfort class."

These are people who were born into lives of financial stability. They graduate from college with little to no debt,, which enables them to advance in influential but relatively low-wage fields--academia, media, government, or policy work.

Many of them rarely interact or engage in a meaningful way with people living in different socioeconomic strata than their own.

Nearly every aspect of society has been designed by people unfamiliar with not only the experience of living in poverty but the experience of living paycheck to paycheck--a circumstance that, Bank of America data shows, a quarter of Americans know well.

The haves are literally in a different head space than the have-nots.

Wealth is not the marker of the comfort class. Security is.

The entire article is worthwhile. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.

Two Recommendations

If you are concerned about the stock market plunge, you need to read what Bill Ackman has Xed about the tariff strategy. Hat tip to Power Line's John Hinderaker for the link. In Ackman's view, the market will recover in the next few months as countries rush to cut deals with the US to ease pressures on their economies.

Trump’s strategy is not without risk, but I wouldn’t bet against him. The more that markets support the President and his strategy, the higher the probability that he succeeds, so a stable hand on the trading wheel is a patriotic one.

----------

For RealClearPolitics, military historian Victor Davis Hanson writes a scenario for how he believes the war in Ukraine will end. He predicts a Korean-peninsula style "hot peace" following a ceasefire. Some of his thoughts:

Western leaders simplistically thought that sending more arms, money, and Ukrainians into the cauldron would eventually break Russia -- 30 times larger than Ukraine, 10 times richer, over four times more populous, and far less bothered by the mounting toll of its greater losses.

If and when peace comes, we can already foresee the misinformation that will follow: Trump deserves no credit. Zelenskyy remains the true hero. A now hollowed-out Russia was the real winner.

Clearly, nobody but Trump could coax, bully, and chivvy the hostile parties to make a deal ending the fighting. If he succeeds, we will have reclaimed the title, however briefly, of world hegemon - the essential power.

Remembering

Fox News has a story of a family who spotted two white deer in a herd they saw on an Iowa back road. The article goes on to differentiate true albino deer which have pink/red eyes, and so-called leucistic deer which can be white but have normal brown eyes.

This story resonated with me because, as long time readers will remember, some years ago the DrsC spent a month or two in the Santa Ynez valley each winter. The south coast area between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo is beautiful.

We'd park our RV at a county park on a reservoir called Lake Cachuma and enjoy the SoCal winter weather. It was often shirt-sleeves warm in the afternoons. 

A herd of deer frequented a large ranch along CA 154 between the park and the picturesque little 'Danish' village of Solvang. For at least a couple of winters that herd had a white deer among the normal brownish gray ones. It was always a treat to see, and we noted the other deer didn't treat the white one as "racist." In the same vicinity, one winter we saw a healthy yearling black bear, and wild turkey flocks were common. 

The Ojai valley I grew up in is maybe 35 miles ESE of the Santa Ynez valley, or 65 miles by road. Similar climates, but Ojai runs to citrus groves and less wildlife while Santa Ynez is less developed, with vineyards and horses. Probably because it is farther from Los Angeles.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Opportunity Time

A lot of Democrats are whining and complaining about Trump's tariffs. I haven't seen the claim elsewhere so I will make it here. 

What Democrats fear is that tariffs will function exactly as Trump claims, creating a manufacturing boom that will produce tons more jobs and wage gains for the blue collar workforce. When this happens the blue collar is going to vote for whoever will continue Trump's policies, including his tariffs. Thus, Democrats will be in a hurt. 

If I were a market player (I'm not), I would have sold big before Trump announced the tariffs - it wasn't a surprise - and tomorrow be looking to buy back in selectively. What happened was predictable and there was money to be made in trading actively.

Friday Snark

Images courtesy of Politico's

The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.