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Home » Open thread 5/12/21

Open thread 5/12/21

The New Neo Posted on by

I discovered this song in a strange way. I bought a record about forty years ago that I thought was a certain piece of music, but I had made an error and it was this piece instead. After I listened to it, the music began to grow on me tremendously. This isn’t the original version I had, but it’s close:

Comments

Open thread 5/12/21 — 43 Comments

  1. Lovely, and thanks for a nice start to the day!

    For those interested in the gas “shortage,” about 60% of gas stations in North Carolina are totally out. Our nearest station says he’ll get gas in an estimated two weeks. This extreme situation is caused entirely by panic buying. If people had been sensible, we’d have limped along all right. The pipeline is releasing gas manually at a couple of terminals in the state.

  3. Liz Cheney is out of GOP House leadership and I think it’s a big deal, but not for the reasons the media is obsessing about. Even if it’s the very least they could do, House Republicans giving Cheney the boot is a very public break with the entrenched political/media establishment in favor of GOP voters and the self-interest of House Republicans.

    Standing up for yourself and your supporters shouldn’t be a big deal but it is because it shows that what started with the Tea Party and continued with Trump isn’t going away and is becoming less and less containable by our decrepit and degenerate elite.

    Mike

  5. The same boobs who cleared the toilet paper off the shelves last year are now working on the gas pumps.

  6. That is, indeed, a nice way to start the morning.

    If I may ask, what piece of music were you looking for when you discovered this?

  7. My knowledge of German indicates something like, “I have your desire for God,” but I’m confused by “deine.” It is the familiar form of “your,” but I’m not sure who the second person is supposed to be in that phrase, especially since it’s familiar and not formal. If it was some Biblical reference; like “the desire of Saint so and so for God,” then it would be the formal you, “seine.” So it seems like the speaker is referring to someone he or she knows personally (it’s also singular, not plural), who is not a religious figure or elder or some other person due formal respect.

    “I have your desire for God.” It’s likely an idiom I do not know, or an historical reference I am too ignorant to understand.

  8. Rufus T. Firefly, if it helps, according to the You Tube video it’s from Psalm 37: 4-5. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” (ESV)

  9. I love the opening notes that sound like a recorder, but I believe is pipe organ. I think I can hear some of the wheezy start/stopping sounds. Later it sounds like a bass clarinet in the mix but it’s hard to tell.

  10. Thanks, Kate. So it’s reflexive? I don’t see a reflexive verb there. I’m sure the German is correct, I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on to improve my own, feeble German!

  11. Ach! I think I’ve got it. It’s in the imperative! Makes sense. I was wondering why “ich” was left out. It’s not, “I have your desire for God,” but “Have! your desire on/in God!”

    Thanks, Kate. Now I understand.

    (Our word, “lust” obviously comes from the German, “Lust,” but, as Kate indicates in the recommended translations, “Lust” in German has more, subtler meanings than our version, which is typically just the prurient interpretation of the word. Germans commonly have “Lust” for foods, for example.)

  12. Rufus, I speak no German, but I was reading the French translation on the screen. 🙂

  13. Now nearly 75% of Raleigh-area gas stations are empty. There was a sad post on our local Next Door from a woman who has one car with one-quarter tank. I hope her near neighbors take care of her.

  14. Interesting. Given the time period it was composed, the male part could well have been intended to be sung by a castrato.

  15. (Our word, “lust” obviously comes from the German, “Lust,” but, as Kate indicates in the recommended translations, “Lust” in German has more, subtler meanings than our version, which is typically just the prurient interpretation of the word. Germans commonly have “Lust” for foods, for example.)
    ————
    The German translation of the title for the play “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is “Die lustige Weiber von Windsor”.

  16. The German translation of the title for the play “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is “Die lustige Weiber von Windsor”.

    In the same way, the 1905 operetta known as Die lustige Witwe to the Viennese is translated into English as The Merry Widow.

  17. “if there’s a horrible human being in the Republican leadership, it’s Mitch McConnell”

    At least McConnell is a grownup. When he screws over conservatives or the American people, he’s doing it for the practical reason of protecting his corporate masters. Cheney’s just acting out of spite.

    Mike

  18. How not to safely handle gasoline in containers. One could just chalk it up to weeding of the gene pool.

    Check out both videos: The crazy lady on cell phone video, and the federal (US-CPSC) informational slo-mo video of gasoline flashover.

    I had the childhood thrill of saving a friend’s life from just such a container flashover.

    To be completely pedantic on the issue, there is a crucial little metal screen disk inserted into genuinely safe gas containers, that you don’t want to do without.

  19. Saw this,

    “Bill Gates Used to Pay Sex-Workers to Swim Naked With Him and His Rich Friends”
    http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=393780

    And immediately remembered a scene in the mini series “The Killing” which is set in Seattle, where they are at the home of a Tech-billionaire who has an indoor pool with underwater windows and “invites” young women to come and swim naked in it for him and his friends pleasure. Apparently the Gates swim parties were well known but never reported.

  20. From the Epoch Times:

    BERLIN—The head of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech said Monday that there is no need to waive patents on coronavirus vaccines because manufacturers will be able to produce enough shots to supply the world over the coming year.

    Ugur Sahin, the chief executive of BioNTech, rejected the U.S.-backed proposal to temporarily lift some intellectual property rights for vaccines in order to boost global supply during the ongoing pandemic.

    Just pay up pal.

  21. Habe deine Lust an dem Herren,
    der wird dir geben was dein Herz wünschet. Befiel dem Herren deine Wege,
    und hoffe auf ihn,
    er wirds wohl machen.
    Erzürne dich nicht über die Bösen,
    sei nicht neidisch über die Übeltäter,
    denn wie das Gras werden sie bald abgehauen,
    und wie das grüne Kraut werden sie verwelken.
    Hoffe auf den Herren, und tue Guts;
    bleib im Lande und nähre dich redlich. Alleluia!

    Let your joy be in the Lord;
    he will give you what your heart desires. Dedicate your ways to the Lord,
    and trust in Him;
    he will make things well.
    Trouble not yourself over the wicked;
    do not be envious of the evildoers,
    since like the grass they will soon be mowed down,
    and like the green weed they will wither.
    Hope in the Lord, and do good;
    so shall you dwell in the land,
    and be well nourished.
    Alleluia!

  22. TommyJay, there is no need for the patents to be waived, and if they were, it wouldn’t help third world residents any faster than just selling the doses would. In fact, it takes time to set up manufacturing to make those vaccines safely. Far better, and far safer, to let Pfizer and Moderna continue making them and shipping them around the world. We’re already reaching the point where enough Americans who want the vaccine have been taken care of to allow massive export.

  23. geoff b:

    I think those parties were before he was married. At least, that’s what I read somewhere.

  24. The doom-loop of a falling fertility rate
    https://theweek.com/articles/982103/doomloop-falling-fertility-rate

    What if the drop is not reversible..

    a bit late to ask that question… not that anyone really wanted to take it seriously on top of everything else… but it IS serious… VERY serious… how do you tax the future if there isnt anyone in it?

    =====================================

    Replacement-level fertility — the number of babies each woman, on average, needs to have in order for the country’s population to hold steady — is 2.1 births per woman. As recently as 15 years ago, the U.S. was bucking the trend of many peer nations in Europe and Asia in averaging about 2.1. But since 2007, the year before the start of the financial crisis and the extended recession that followed, we’ve fallen off a cliff. By 2019, the average number of births per woman had fallen to 1.71, and last week the CDC announced that the number dropped to 1.64 in 2020. That most recent downtick may be partly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s not divergent enough from recent trends to suggest there will be a reversal once the pandemic passes.

    For now, the American population continues to grow, in part because of our relatively high levels of immigration. But we’re growing at the slowest rate since World War II, and even this anemic level of growth will soon come to an end if the fertility rate doesn’t bounce back.

  25. That’s probably because the factors driving people to opt for smaller families are much more powerful than other considerations. People across the world tend to start families later and have fewer kids when they are wealthier, better educated, and have easy access to reliable birth control, and the prospect of receiving a government check or a tax break isn’t enough to act as a countervailing incentive for most people.

    [they never mention feminism and gender hate]

  26. The article linked in the linked post says that the parties at home ceased sometime, a year or so is implied, after he and Melinda started dating but alludes that he continued to have some affairs while away from home on trips.

    I was just struck by the press not reporting it but that a Seattle billionaire’s sex-pool parties shows up in a 2011 TV series.

  27. geoff b,

    I am not a fan of Bill Gates. I don’t like the way he uses government power to leverage and multiply his own power and wealth. He is pretty much the poster child for Crony Capitalism.

    However…

    The alleged events happened before he was married.

    They happened at a time in America when social mores were very different that today.

    I don’t think any laws were broken and I don’t see any coercion involved.

    Considering who Bill Gates was then, I am not at all surprised that his tastes in entertainment may have been more juvenile than his actual age.

    So, I honestly don’t care about this story or what Bill Gates did with his spare time and money decades ago. “Who amongst us will cast the first stone?”

    So, if we don’t want the Democrats pull these types of shenanigans on people like Kavanaugh, how can we do the same to Bill Gates? This is (or should be) beneath us.

  29. Artfldgr,

    It does appear to be universal nature in humans to produce less the more their material wants are satisfied. As more third world countries become second world countries and seconds become firsts it is a fair prediction that we will, in the future, reach a point where the human population trends downward. There are a lot of variables, including life expectancy, but it is a valid consideration.

    I’m not sure if it will be positive, negative or neutral, but it’s an interesting thought exercise. One can imagine a gradual adjustment and technology allowing for a good quality of life with fewer people required to supply what is needed, but it could also go poorly. Japan is struggling with this issue now.

    Which cultures breed the most, the longest is also an interesting piece of the puzzle. In other words, the third and second worlds are going to be adding more people than the first. Once nations make it into the first one can hope they behave civilly, but we can end up with large populations in third world countries envying the material wealth of small populations in first world countries. Sort of Vandalds/Visigoths vs. Rome 2.0.

  30. I never said that I cared one way or the other about what Gates did or didn’t do sexually before or after his marriage. My only, slight, criticism is of the press not reporting on it.

    I was merely wondering if the scene in a TV show was done because it was common knowledge in the reporting and tech circles that he had done something similar to what the TV show showed and they were doing an inside joke.

    Democrats will burn down everyone and everything they think stands in their way to power & the money that power brings. Gates learned that lesson during the Clinton years from David Boies. Either pay them the Dane-geld demanded, which he did after Boies, or you have to beat them so badly that they never go after you again. We are all headed for that choice now whether we are nice or not.

  31. Exactly Kate,
    If people like that wizard of best governmental practices, Chelsea Clinton, truly wish to get vaccines to under developed countries, then the U.S. and EU should just buy it for them. I’d suggest that the west should push China up to the extortion line, to ante up a big sum too. I’m not generally a fan of big foreign aid, but this is one of the better types.

  32. “So, if we don’t want the Democrats pull these types of shenanigans on people like Kavanaugh, how can we do the same to Bill Gates? This is (or should be) beneath us.”

    The above is pervasive fallacy that leftists abide by rules of decent political behavior. The left will continue to pull these types of shenanigans (Bork, Thomas, Kavanaugh) on anyone and everyone regardless of what their political opponents do or don’t do. The left doesn’t care; ends and means, their ends justify any means. Unpleasant thought? That’s where we are and what they do.

  39. @Hubert:

    Well chosen, Sir! Lisitsian and Hotter are both new to me. I could listen to different versions of an die Musik all day. Same goes for die Schoene Muellerin — less keen on Winterreise as a daily staple.

    YouTube has a lot of Lisitsian recordings. I’m going to be busy for a while, starting with this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wATIWu3W_GQ

    Thanks!

  40. Re hoarding: after the ship was stuck in the Suez Canal, saw a senior lady at Walmart with ~4 bulk packs of toilet paper in her cart. Hope I’m still laughing in a few weeks!

  41. I discovered Lisitsian through a passing reference in an article about Dmitri Hvorostovsky, perhaps this one:

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/09/22/out-of-siberia (paywall, plus…it’s The New Yorker)

    Hvorostovsky didn’t make it into his sixties. He died at 55 of brain cancer. Lisitsian made it to 92, having lived through the formation and collapse of the Soviet Union.

    That Onegin aria is a good one. Check out his performance of Yeletsky’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades”:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipf1ufoE7wg

    Effortless. Here’s Lisitsian and tenor Sergei Lemeshev on “O Mimì, tu più non torni” from “La bohème” (1956, still in Russian):

    https://youtu.be/ZceHn2QKpWk?t=4598

    Lisitsian, Lemeshev, Ettore Bastianini, Cesare Siepi, Leonard Warren, Robert Merrill, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and other great singers–there must have been something in the water in the first few decades of the 20th century.

  42. “The doom-loop of a falling fertility rate” – Artfldgr

    Not much new in that post by Damon Linker, and no useful suggestions for reversing it.

    As I noted above, a declining population and rising median age will tend to drive down economic productivity and growth and could eventually make Americans poorer, in the aggregate, over time. But as I’ve also pointed out, increasing wealth tends to contribute to declining birthrates. What if declining wealth removes that disincentive toward procreation, producing a self-correcting uptick in the birth rate once again? What if, in other words, a poorer America of the future turns out to be a more fertile America, just as the the poorer America of the past tended to have much higher birth rates than we see today?

    Stupidity on stilts: the high birth rate was not totally unavoidable (abortifacients are Old Skul), but it was necessary because, among other things, so many kids died in infancy, and subsistence farming required large amounts of unpaid aka family labor. We aren’t going back there unless things get a LOT worse.

    This challenge leads some people, often economists, to suggest that the best, and maybe only, viable response to declining birth rates is for countries to increase levels of immigration, especially from regions of the world with a lot of excess (above replacement-level) births.

    Thus there is no NET change in population in the world; it just shifts locations.
    In fairness, he was making an argument for lifting the national rate in America, but it’s a global problem.
    Also, as Linker correctly points out later, the immigrants from third-world to first-world become relatively wealthy, and adopt the fertility habits of their host country.
    So there is, in the end, a net global decrease in population.

    I confess to having a long-time fondness for this speculation.
    “The Vitanuls” (John Brunner, 1967) proceeds on the premise that the current population explosion, plus the introduction of a longevity drug, has used up the entire pool of human souls (available for reincarnation*) and that babies are being born mindless.”
    (spoiler removed)

    Sidebar on the benefits of internet searches.
    Who knew there were sites like these?
    The first one gave me the above answer, as I had forgotten the title and author, while remembering the core of the tale.

    https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/139002/world-runs-out-of-souls
    http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/reincarnation
    http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?53848

    *The plot works just as well if you posit a finite number of pre-existing souls, without reincarnation.

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