Daily Digest |  |
- Meat Loaf on a Weber, and Vice Versa
- How should the U.S. respond to a Russian attack on Ukraine?
- Let’s Declare Victory and Go Home
- Court Enjoins Biden’s Federal Employee Mandate
- Susan Vass: Remembering Louie Anderson
| Meat Loaf on a Weber, and Vice Versa Posted: 21 Jan 2022 08:57 PM PST (Steven Hayward) I’m not a fan of meat loaf—the baked dish—or Meat Loaf, the musician who passed away today. Still, I am always sorry to hear of the passing of any artist who attracted a mass following. I am, however, a huge fan of Weber grills, and regard the Weber kettle one of the great products of modern science, worthy of the Nobel Prize in physics. The green egg and other designs are very worthy, but for the coals, it’s Weber forever. So I’m a little sorry to see Weber decide they need to join the apology brigade for what is at most only a mildly embarrassing coincidence that most people would never have noticed:
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| How should the U.S. respond to a Russian attack on Ukraine? Posted: 21 Jan 2022 07:37 PM PST (Paul Mirengoff) I don’t know anyone who believes the U.S. should respond with American boots on the ground. I know few people who believe the U.S should do nothing. The range of acceptable options lies somewhere between imposing more sanctions on Russia, but going no further, and providing some form of military assistance short of ground troops. As to sanctions, there’s a debate about how much damage even stringent ones would impose on Russia. There’s also the question, raised by Joe Biden himself during his most recent press conference, of the extent to which Europe would go along with stringent sanctions. Based on what Biden said, it’s fair to infer that Europe would balk at severe sanctions. If so, it’s fair to infer that a sanctions regime wouldn’t impose the kind of damage on Russia that would cause it pull out of Ukraine or deter it from such adventurism. Indeed, I question whether any sanctions regime could induce Putin to curb his territorial ambitions. In sum, sanctions are a weak response. What other options, short of ground troops are there? Michael Vickers, a Defense Department official during the Obama years, lays them out in this article. He raises the possibility of deploying U.S. air power against Russia. He does so in the context of deterring Putin from moving against Ukraine, but for air power to be a credible deterrent, we must be prepared to use it in case Putin is not deterred. Even just the use of our air power would put Americans in harms way and put America at war with Russia. I don’t see a prudent administration doing this. Vickers suggests the following course of action, on top of sanctions, if Russia attacks Ukraine:
I don’t know whether Vickers is correct in his assessment that we could drive the Russians out of Ukraine through the same methods we used to help the Afghans drive out the Russians in the 1980s. But there’s no doubt that Putin doesn’t want another Afghanistan or anything like it. Nor do the Russian people. Were Russia to become bogged down in Ukraine and incur a steady loss of Russian life there, Putin’s grip on power might well slip. Therefore, we should make it clear to Putin, if we haven’t already, that we will support Ukrainian resistance to Russia. And we should make good on that threat if there is an invasion/occupation. Some might argue that this response isn’t warranted because Ukraine’s fate has no bearing on U.S. interests. I consider this argument frivolous in the context of a debate over whether to provide the kind of assistance described above. It’s clear to me that America has enough of a stake in opposing Russia to justify providing aid, as opposed to troops, to support Ukraine. Nonetheless, before the U.S. comes to Ukraine’s aid against a Russian attack, that U.S. interest will have to be spelled out, not just asserted.  |
| Let’s Declare Victory and Go Home Posted: 21 Jan 2022 06:18 PM PST (John Hinderaker) In 1966, Vermont Senator George Aiken, addressing the Vietnam War, said that it was time to declare victory and go home. As usual with such quotes, the reality is perhaps more complicated. But there is a reason why Aiken’s supposed quote has gone down in history. If he didn’t say it, he should have. In my opinion, we are at an analogous point in the covid epidemic. The time has come to stop vowing to crush covid, or to achieve the impossible goal of preventing a virus from spreading. It is time to declare victory over covid–or a truce, anyway–and go home. The U.K. is now following that path, along with other European countries. Kevin Roche expresses similar thoughts:
Pretty much everyone else got that wrong, too.
“The epidemic is over now.” It is time to declare victory and go home. The damage we have done to our children in our futile attempt to “stop the virus” is a crime. We will be living with the consequences for many years to come. Meanwhile, the best thing we can do, as George Aiken may have said many years ago, is declare victory and go home. Let us at least stop inflicting further devastation on the next generation.  |
| Court Enjoins Biden’s Federal Employee Mandate Posted: 21 Jan 2022 04:41 PM PST (John Hinderaker) President Biden issued four orders purporting to require vaccinations in various populations. Two of those mandates have been addressed by the Supreme Court. The other two were challenged in a case brought in Texas by a group called Feds for Medical Freedom. Earlier today, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown issued an order enjoining the federal government from enforcing Biden’s mandate that all federal employees be vaccinated, or lose their jobs. Judge Brown’s order is here. I have not studied these issues exhaustively, but from a quick read it seems persuasive. Judge Brown relied in part on the Supreme Court decision that barred implementation of an OSHA rule that would have required all employers of more than 100 people to force their employees to be vaccinated, or else fire them. This is the key section of the court’s opinion:
That reasoning appears sound to me. So one more attempt by the Biden administration to act unlawfully, to jam extreme measures down the throats of Americans, has fallen short. Joe Biden is compiling a record of failure that is truly impressive.  |
| Susan Vass: Remembering Louie Anderson Posted: 21 Jan 2022 02:49 PM PST (Scott Johnson) When I read the sad news that St. Paul native Louie Anderson died today at the age of 68, I asked our own Susan Vass (a/k/a Ammo Grrlll) if she could provide a personal remembrance. Susan writes: My heart is heavy today. My husband Joe and I were just recovering from learning that Oregon Muse, a co-blogger on Ace of Spades, had died of COVID. We did not know him personally, but he did the Book Thread and was always very kind to promote our various books. It seemed that he had recovered and then, suddenly, he was gone. Then just yesterday I learned that Louie Anderson was in hospital being treated for a blood cancer and today he is gone. Louie, in a very real sense, was responsible for my being, first a comedian, and then a columnist, which flowed from being a comedian. Back in the early ’80s, Louie was hitting his stride in Minnesota comedy. He had had a very good set on Johnny Carson (video below) and was preparing to go to Los Angeles to see if he could take it to the next level. To raise money for the move, he had at least a dozen "Last Chances to See Louie" weekends at several different comedy clubs in the Twin Cities. I went to the one at the Comedy Gallery and laughed so hard that the proprietor had to get me a paper bag to breathe into because I was hyperventilating! When I got home that night, I could not even sleep. I came up with what I thought were several pretty funny lines for Louie. I knew his home base was the Dudley Riggs Theatre on Seven Corners and I went down there and "stalked" him. He graciously took my little handwritten notes and the next night when I saw him, he said, "This is pretty funny stuff, but it isn't my 'voice.’ You should do it yourself." Oh, my. That had never occurred to me before. I thought of myself as a writer, not a performer. I practiced on my late-shift job for a couple of months and went up on the Open Stage one night for the longest five minutes of my life and it went quite well. Dudley Riggs, himself, the proprietor of that club, was in the house and told me not to do any other clubs and he would hire me! Yikes! Louie was one of 11 children in a very poor home on the East Side of St. Paul. They actually lived in government welfare housing. He was also a large and unathletic kid. He probably honed his comedy skills as a survival tool. When he first hit it big, and would come back from L.A., he had kind of "gone Hollywood,” telling us young comics that in L.A. if you were a star you should "never open a door for yourself and never carry anything." But, eventually, he got over that. The last time I saw him was perhaps 10 years ago when I opened for him at the Mayo Clinic's shindig for employees with over 25 years of service. Again, I gave him a piece of material. He tried it out that night and it went well. We both had very good sets and went out for dinner afterwards with the agent on the job. I was impressed with how much Louie was loved by all who approached him. He patiently posed for pictures with all and sundry, signed autographs and chatted with whoever approached him. He had gotten over his "Hollywood" period and could not have been sweeter either to me or his audience. He was a rare talent, not just as a brilliant writer, but his real forte was in what comics call "crowd rap" – just chatting with the audience and coming up with jokes on the spot. I never saw anyone who was better at it. He had a Minnesota Everyman quality that made people love him almost instantly. He worked 100 percent clean and was particularly hilarious channeling his mother's voice. May he Rest In Peace. Gone way too young and will be much missed. PS: The five-minute video below perfectly illustrates Susan’s last point about Louie coming up with jokes on the spot.  |
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