A partially “lite” and somewhat random post before descending into seriousness

Grubby work continues around Ye Olde Homestead and I cannot yet face returning to the “our job” series. I hope you enjoy this somewhat random, mostly occasionally “lite” post in the meantime.

My reluctance to return to Serious Blogging is partly because the next episodes are planned to cover ideas for building alternative justice systems and nobody can build a great justice system, anywhere, at any time. Because justice systems, however noble their intent, nearly always involve both coercion and unhappy (for somebody) outcomes.

But my reluctance to return is in part because events are moving so fast that the world seems to be remade — and not in a good way — every week or so. Concerned parents as “domestic terrorists”? Offering to turn illegal alien families into millionaires for the inconvenience they suffered at the border? The deadly rout in Afghanistan being hailed as a great success? Such things would have been hard to imagine a month ago. And here, they’re suddenly the “reality” we’re blandly expected to accept.

And that, of course, is along with the bizarre realities we already anticipated, like like doctors, nurses, and EMTs being driven out of their jobs during an alleged medical crisis, and skilled workers, vital workers, of all kinds being treated the same — all in the name of a policy that doesn’t actually exist yet and will be blatantly illegal (but who cares about that?) if it’s ever actually enacted.

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Another reason for being quiet — a reason you may increasingly feel in your own heart — is expressed by Toirdhealbheach Beucail at The Forty Five and The Adaptive Curmudgeon: It feels like a time to learn to be silent. Not adopt the silence of submission — never, ever that — but the silence of wisdom and waiting and observing.

My reasons are different than theirs, and yours (if you feel this drive toward silence at all) will be different than mine. But it’s impossible to argue fruitfully with evil. Or insanity. Or irrational fear. Or mass hysteria. And one or all of those things govern our civil life as we speak.

I speak only to You the Sane. So I’m not likely to shut up any time soon. But oh, the temptation just to disappear into a waiting, watching silence is strong.

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The amazing Sarah Hoyt has a reasonably rational explanation for how our times have become so desperately irrational:

Communism is an amazing thing. It achieves in four generations what took the royal houses of Europe ten to achieve via incest and genetic messes: leaders so useless that it takes three tries to figure out on which end to put the crown.

Worse, the crowned heads of Europe had some excuse. Most of them were genetic rejects. Communism does this with perfectly normal if not brilliant people by simply training them to bark like seals and clap at received wisdom and never, ever, ever, let a seed of doubt of a shred of thought get in the way.

It takes four generations, as she describes — from the evil generation to the desperate generation forced to believe that mere words and mere performances trump uncooperative reality.

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That said, on with the nonsense, the links, the what-nots, and the randomness, some of which I’ve been saving up for quite some time.

This being Halloween, here’s a great impromptu costume:

And with grocery prices rising, here’s food for thought:

And here’s another reason why half the writers in the world are constantly threatening to give up the profession:

Total truth right there. And one of many causes why so many writers are so infamously drunks and druggies. Not to mention chronic whiners.

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Show me a 10-foot paywall and I’ll show you a 12-foot ladder. (H/T to … somebody I can’t remember because I’ve been sitting on this link so long)

John Wilder describes, in his irreverent and intelligent way why economic collapse will be much worse for the developed parts of the world than less developed.

Jeremy Egerer explains how “the age of science” — which you might imagine would be an age of skepticism and inquiry — is doomed to be an age of authoritarianism and the end of science as we idealistically and naively hoped science would be.

Captain Capitalism claims this is a perfect time to “go Galt”. I disagree with some of his reasoning and would not normally link to somebody who reduces any woman to the c-word (be forewarned). But … well, this IS as good a time to go Galt as any, and it’s encouraging how many educated, professional, determined about-to-be-former employees are poised to do just that.

Finally, just for the heck of it, here’s another dog in a skeleton “costume.” Enjoy.

(H/T Kat Swenski)

Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain if you’re into that sort of thing. Since both All Hallows Eve and Samhain pressage our seasonal entry into darkness, I don’t know whether they’re to be celebrated or dreaded. But no question we have already entered extraordinarily dark times. May you survive and thrive through them.