Oh yeah. That'll help.

Vandalize the statue of the man who freed the slaves.

Community response to wrongful death of George Floyd

"Maplewood Police Chief Scott Nadeau said that 'we have had some minor grab-and-run thefts by groups and several attempts to loot stores like Burlington Coat Factory and Best Buy. ... I think that its safe to say that the looting or attempted looting is related' to Floyd’s death."  [Star Tribune]

Safe to say it's related.  Because apparently nothing says "working out my grief" better than stealing electronics from Best Buy.

Of all men Socrates is wisest

The Pythian oracle at Delphi, back in the 5th century B.C., may have let slip that she had an admiration for Socrates, based on that philosophical young man's admission that he deemed himself the most ignorant of mortals. She may or may not have said in Delphic fashion that young Socrates was the wisest man then living -- probably deemed so because he said he knew that he did not know, you know.

What I think I know often turns out to be error.  "Know yourself" was a Delphic maxim. "Don't fool yourself."  But self is so easy to fool.  It's almost like self wants to be fooled.  And Science is hard. There will be Math on the test, as they say.  History is full of past scientific pronouncements that are now considered foolish.  For example, there was a time when everybody "knew" that purging and bloodletting was the cure for most ailments.  Science and scientists have been wrong for so long, edging and sidling toward truth as they do so slowly, that it is a wonder we the peasantry give any time or consideration to men of science.  See "self is so easy to fool" as noted above.

For even when selflessly sleuthing along the science trail with best intentions (that is, nothing other than truth) the researcher can end up wildly wrong.  But when a less-than-altruistic scientist learns to like the spotlight, and perhaps finds he likes to be the expert in an "experts say" headline (Socrates would say, he turns from philosophy to sophistry), the results can turn from erroneous to evil.  For example there was that thing about a Master Race in the last century.  (Oh, all right, go ahead and ring the Godwin bell.)

Does best science, informing upright Solons, lead to wise public policy?  Or do we mostly have sophists tickling the ears of other sophists?  Or worse?

The planning will be planned according to plan

We have a 4 phase plan to reopen the state. The plan will be a phased plan that we will plan to utilize in phases. The phases will be planned and the planning will be phased. We will move quickly and slowly to open but remain closed. I have created a staff of staffers who will plan the phase and planning while phasing their phases. And that is our re-opening plan.

I do not know the origin of that quote. (I came across it here.) But it seems a lot like what I have been hearing lately. 

Then there was this from California Governor Gavin Newsom.  Quarantine camps and lockdowns until there is a vaccine? And, I assume, until everybody in the state has been vaccinated?  And then re-tested to make sure the vaccine worked? 

I watched a little movie this morning.  JB Benna at Journeyfilm has released his little documentary about Roz Savage rowing solo from the Canary Islands to Antigua. 

"JB Benna’s inspirational short film, entitled Rowing The Atlantic, tells the story of Roz Savage’s journey from an ordinary career woman to an adventurer, facing the most intimidating challenge of her life rowing 3,000-miles across the Atlantic Ocean. We see her struggles, her shortcomings and fears and how she discovered that she had it within her to rise to this seemingly impossible task."

The video is in HD so do embiggen it.

It is kind of refreshing to think for a few minutes about something not political or news-driven at this flu-obsessed time.  Because sometimes the ocean of life just up and breaks your oars.  Also: British accent!

True Love Till Death

It's February 2020.  Yet I keep seeing people's favorite quotes running around the internet, and they don't seem to change much. There are motivational and de-motivational posters.  There are colorful Don't-Worry-Be-Happy thoughts and dark foreboding This-Is-My-Sad-Face thoughts.

The elusive nature of Love is the target of many of the quotes.  Winning or Losing.  Promising or Leaving (or Being Left).  Fling or Forever.

Right. When it happens to you, having the one you love get up and leave you is The Deepest Pain.  Understood. Yes, that hurts.  Breaking up is hard to do, and all that.  Corruptio optimi pessima -- what is the worst is the corruption of what had been the best.  But even as a subset of loss, that isn't the worst loss.  The lovelorn heart is not the one that knows the deepest anguish.

So far as I've made it through this life, the worst pain I've encountered is this:  the one I love is hurting while I am powerless.  A sick child.  A parent with cancer.  When someone I love is fighting a battle that I can't substantially help them win -- to me, that is deeply painful.  A pain beyond memes and posters of people on the edges of cliffs.

At times like that all you can do is hold them.  Sometimes that means in your arms.  Sometimes it can only be in your thoughts and prayers.  Hold them in the security of promises kept and vows honored.  Hold them in the small daily things that are all we can do.  Even if that means only remaining quietly nearby. 

I acknowledge (but try not to dwell morbidly on it) the approach of the end of life for me and for others in my life.  One of the consequences of True Love Till Death is, well, Death. 

When the time comes, I figure the holding will still be the best course to take.  Because if love was the right thing to do in the first place, it is still the right thing to do in the last place.

Windows is now that rude clerk at Home Depot

Saturday morning is time to finish up my grocery shopping list.  To ensure the very best prices I need to check with Safeway.com's Just-for-U, which gives me the warm cozy feeling that I am saving money and doing something right for a change. 

So. Pull down the laptop and fire that sucker up. 

Spinning ball bearings.  Spinning ball bearings that occasionally stop and start spinning again. 

What's taking this thing so long?  Let's find out.  Ctrl-Alt-Delete.  No immediate response.  Eventually the little menu comes up and I click on Task Manager.  No immediate response. 

Finally a pale small empty window labeled Task Manager comes up.  Overlaid on it is a message that Task Manager Is Not Responding.  In fact, Windows, NOTHING is responding. 

Yes at last Task Manager does respond, and I close things like HP Support Services and Chrome update and such.  Great.  All settled down.  Now I can browse Safeway.com.

And I think: "If I worked for a company that had Windows as an employee, I would agitate to get Windows fired ASAP."

It is true:  Windows is that rude clerk.  You know the kind.  You go into Home Depot to get the kind of exterior caulk that you can paint over.  Like everything else these days, the labels have all changed from what they looked like when you bought it last year, because New! and IMPROVED! or something. 

So you see a clerk. Two clerks in fact, yucking it up about something.  I walk up to within striking distance and announce that I have a question. 

He turns slightly.  The mouth opens slightly.  The eyelids close slightly.  Then he turns back to his co-worker and finishes what he was saying.  They both laugh.  I get the impression that he had finished with, "See?  This guy? He's just what I was talkin' 'bout. Heh."

Then oh so slowly he three-quarters faces me and puts on a sarcastic version of his work face. 

That's Windows.  Windows is that guy.  Like I'm interrupting Windows' precious time by wanting to actually use my computer for a non-Windows-sanctioned function.

Some day, Windows.  Some day I'm about decided I'm gonna hafta just Linux this thing.  Then you'll be sorry.  But then, given the limitations and learning curve, I know I'm gonna be sorry too. 

But it will be a satisfying kind of sorry.