Political Rants

2019-12-13T19:31:15Z

Generation Gap: I saw a blurb with a picture of a couple who looked to be about my age and the words "Millennials are lazy and entitled says the boomer generation that could get full-time jobs with benefits right out of high school and afford a house and a car at 21, but selfishly destroyed that option for future generations by electing anti-tax, pro-cut trickle-downers like Ronald Reagan."

There are really at least two boomer generations. The early boomers got pushed into going to college because they didn’t want to die in Vietnam. The later boomers couldn’t get jobs without going to college because, by that time, it took a college diploma to get pretty much any job that wasn’t sweat labor. The cars people my age had "right out of high school?" Usually those were older cars passed down from their parents. And buying houses? Ha! Not with double-digit interest rates on mortgages.

I was 22 during the 1980 election. Of people who were 22-29 (i.e. late boomers), 44% voted for Reagan, with another 44% for Carter, and 11% (which included me) for John Anderson. (The 18-21 year olds, who are arguably Gen X-ers, have similar figures, by the way.) And, by the way, much of the focus of the election was on Carter’s foreign policy failures, e.g. the Iran hostage crisis, though the economy (with high unemployment and runaway inflation) was also an issue.

Sorry, millennials, but you need to be blaming your grandparents, not your parents.

Jewish Nationhood: A number of people are up in arms about Trump’s Executive Order that allows Jews to be considered as a nation and not only a religion. While I am: 1) no fan of His Orangeness and 2) sure that most of the people who have been commenting on how terrible that order is mean well, I think the critics have gotten this wrong.

First of all, what the order actually says is that federal agencies should apply Title VI to anti-Semitism. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is slightly strange in that, unlike other parts of that law, it prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. That is, it does not explicitly bar discrimination on the basis of religion (or, for that matter, sex. At the time the law was being debated, Senator Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania said that it applied to anti-Semitism on the grounds that anti-Semitic acts discriminate against Jews under a broad definition of national origin. His point was that, Jews can be discriminated against even if they are practicing some other religion.

The concern is, of course, that defining Jews as a nationality plays into the trope of dual loyalties. The problem with that is that mainstream Jewish thought considers Jews to be both a religion and a nation. Jewish liturgy is full of references to the Jewish nation, with admonitions to be a light unto other nations and such. Also, the accusation of dual loyalty has been applied to other religious groups, too. It’s why there was anti-Catholic sentiment directed against JFK, to give an obvious example.

Really what disappoints me the most is that there are some Jews who fall for Trump’s faked concern and ignore his adoption of actual anti-Semitic tropes. But that’s a whole other subject.

Other Political Rants: Nah. My blood pressure was quite good at my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, so let’s not screw that up. I will note that I got the second shot of the shingles vaccine and my arm is still sore two days later.

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About Last Week

2017-09-11T20:39:55Z

Celebrity Death Watch: Kate Millett wrote the feminist classic Sexual Politcs. Gene "Stick" Michael played baseball and moved into management, primarily with the Source of All Evil in the Universe. Don Williams was a country music singer, as was Troy Gentry. Michael Friedman wrote the score of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Len Wein was a comic book writer and editor, credited as co-creator of Wolverine. Don Ohlmeyer was a sports television executive, responsible for Monday night football. (He was also the mentor of someone I grew up with, who has some very interesting stories about him.) Nancy Dupree was an historian who focused on the history of modern Afghanistan. Jack Kiel created McGruff the Crime Dog.

Jerry Pournelle wrote science fiction and published articles on military strategy. He had actually worked for the company that I am employed by at one time (as well as other companies in the space industry). He was alleged to have been the first author to have written a published book using a word processor on a personal computer. I have absolutely no recollection of having read anything he wrote, but I think I have read anthologies he edited.

Lotfi Zadeh was a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and is best known for his work on fuzzy logic. I am somewhat hesitant to list him because there had been at least two earlier, incorrect reports of his death. But the EECS department is now reporting it, which is a more reliable source than various Azerbaijani sources. Incidentally, it is probably not well known that he was Jewish, at least technically, as his mother was a Russian Jew. (His father was Iranian and, I assume, Muslim, in which case the Muslims would claim him too. Though maybe not, since he apparently went to a Presbyterian mission school when his family returned to Iran from Azerbaijan. None of this actually matters in the least – I just think it’s interesting. And is perhaps an example of fuzzy religious and national identity.)

Birthday: I turned 59 on Labor Day. I really want my life to be in much better order by the time I’m 60.

Speaking of Order: I more or less tore my living room apart looking for what I had done with some theatre tickets. Of course, they turned out to be in the pile that I was positive that they absolutely could not be in. In the process of searching, I did manage to throw out 4 bags full of papers. What is pathetic is how much there is to go.

A Little Night Music: That ticket was for Signature Theatre’s production of A Little Night Music. Signature makes something of a specialty of Sondheim so this was a sure bet. And it was, indeed, a good show. There were lots of familiar performers, e.g. Bobby Smith as Frederik, Sam Ludwig as Henrik, Maria Rizzo as Petra, Will Gartshore as Carl-Magnus, and Holly Twyford as Desiree. I should note that Twyford is known as an actress, not a singer, but was more than up to the role. But the real highlights were Florence Lacey as the acerbic Madame Armfeldt and Tracy Lynn Olvera as Charlotte. Both performers highlighted the humor of some of Sondheim’s wittiest lyrics. Even though this is a show I know well, I still noticed lyrics I hadn’t quite caught before. Overall, this is among the best theatre I’ve seen here.

I do have one complaint, however. The air conditioning was way too aggressive. It wasn’t even hot out. I need to remember to bring a sweater or shawl whenever I go to Signature.

Also re: Shirlington: I had amazingly good parking karma for this trip to Signature, with an available spot right by the stairs / elevator in the closer garage. I believe the reason for this is that it allowed me to do a good deed. There was a miniature Celtic festival going on and a blind woman was trying to find a place to sit to listen to the music. I let her take my elbow and led her to the chairs set up in front of the stage.

Story Swap: Saturday night was our monthly story swap, which is always fun. I have found an Albanian story to tell, which went over reasonably well. Especially the part in which the hero is sent to collect overdue taxes from a church full of snakes.

JGSGW: There was a Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington meeting on Sunday. The topic was ancestry tips and tricks, but, alas, that was pretty much focused on tips for your tree on ancestry and I don’t keep mine there. I was hoping for tips on more effective searches. And, given that the speaker was time constrained, I didn’t bother asking. I did have some conversations before the meeting which were most useful, so it wasn’t a waste.

I had intended to go to a storytelling show later in the day, but I was too tired. At least I did manage to get grocery shopping done on my way home from darkest Maryland.

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Political Rants

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