The Order of Time, Carlo Rovelli

 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-meaning-of-time

The link as per usual is to a more detailed professional review. 

Most people are aware of Einstein's theory of relativity -- time is relative to your frame of reference.

An aside -- isn't it interesting that everyone seems to accept that Einstein's theory is a THEORY, even though is has been tested in a number of ways -- one being that using very accurate clocks, one "stationary" relative to the plane, and a very fast plane, it can be shown that "time" travels more slowly as "objects|" move faster. 

The scare quotes are because what we "see" is not necessarily "reality". Everything we see is relative to our perspective and speed. From the perspective of the house builder, "the flat earth" is true enough, while we know that from the perspective of an astronaut on the moon, the earth is a sphere. Which is "correct"? It is a matter of perspective. 

 "Science" is ALL theory from a given perspective. It is as correct as the next test, or change of perspective. It is a useful tool, something only to be "trusted" within boundaries of perspective.

I find that to be the useful takeaway from the Rovelli book.

... But in physics, once we start to look at what exactly the difference is between past and future, it’s extraordinarily slippery. In the past, the universe seemed to be in a very peculiar state. Physicists use the expression ‘low entropy’. So because there was this low entropy in the past of the universe, that’s the only source of difference between the past and the future. But low entropy is itself a slippery thing because it implies a state of order!

If the difference between the past and the future is just a natural disordering of things, the question becomes: why were things ordered in the past? Who ordered them? And this is still a mystery.

It reminds me of the quote from Spinal Tap member Nigel Tufnel that is inscribed on the wall at the Stonehenge visitors center which made me laugh out loud: "no one knows who they were or what they were doing ..."

There "seems to be a natural ordering of things" ... nobody knows why, or how. Religion is often derided as "the God of the gaps" ... but so is "science", a proffered replacement for religion. The set of things we don't "know" is much larger than the set if things we at least believe we do. 

Largely, Coke (religion) has been replaced with Pepsi (science), and the marketers have largely made science  "the choice if a new generation". 

All The Tea In China

 https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/all-tea-china-how-england-stole-worlds-favorite-drink-and-changed-history-sarah-rose

The linked review covers the basics. 

My biggest insight acquired from the book was how the English enjoyment of tea in which the water is boiled, killing microorganisms, and being a mild stimulant, may have been a significant  factor in England being more innovative and economically successful than nations whose favorite drink for enjoyment and killing the nasty little beasties was wine or beer, which are mild depressants.

One may be a bit more alert after a cup of tea vs a beer! 

I find term "stole" to be a bit moralistic. "Industrial espionage", or mere natural "oh, I see this thing, I wonder how they do that" with various levels if copying, espionage, etc are as old as the first spears, knives, bows, etc. 

Attempted copies at various levels are a constant in technology ... consider this shot of the US Space Shuttle vs the Russian Buran. Notice any similarity? 

While the Chinese may have come out on the short end on tea, they are decidedly the experts in technology acquisition (industrial espionage) today!

Was the theft of the secrets of tea "the greatest theft of intellectual property in history" ?  Perhaps, but Ih would think that the theft of the secrets to create an H-bomb by the USSR, or the technical transfer of rocketry knowledge through the immigration / immigration by Germans like Wernher Von Braun allowed the US to reach 

The book has at least for a bit made me revisit tea -- realizing (correctly) that it was black tea that I would prefer. Let the testing begin 

Pfizer Jab 75 Years To Independent Review

FDA Says we only need to wait 75 years for independent review of often mandated jab.

Well, that is the one we took because my wife would lose her job if she wasn't vaccinated. 

“If you find what you are reading difficult to believe—that is because it is dystopian for the government to give Pfizer billions, mandate Americans to take its product, prohibit Americans from suing for harms, but yet refuse to let Americans see the data underlying its licensure,” Siri said.

The Pfizer jab is the only one that has been approved by drug regulators. Approvals mean products have met a higher threshold of safety and effectiveness than those given emergency clearance.

We only experienced 6 weeks of really nasty coughs and fatigue from the jab. We had Covid last December, the jab was much worse.  

Biden Declares He Should Not Be President

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/11/bidens-covid-scorecard-is-worse-than-trumps.php

... during a 2020 campaign debate, Biden proclaimed: “Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.” At the time Biden proposed this disqualifier from holding the presidency, the U.S. had recorded 220,000 covid deaths, according to the Journal. Since inauguration day, it has recorded 350,000. And counting.

The comparison is really unfair, because Biden has had the advantage of vaccines created by Trump's "Warp Speed" program during his entire administration. Of course, had Biden been president in 2020 we would have had ZERO Covid deaths. 

Furthermore, as the Journal reminds us, Biden promised to “shut down the virus, not the country,” and he claimed to have a plan to accomplish this. This was BS.

So was his statement that “if [Trump] had done his job, had done his job from the beginning, all the [220,000] people would still be alive.” Has any presidential candidate ever defamed his opponent so flagrantly on a matter of policy? If so, I don’t recall it.

Americans that predominantly listen to the MSM have no awareness of this. Biden's claims are taken as gospel when they are made, and when they prove to laughably wrong,they disappear down the memory hole.  The closest to Biden him being called on these howlers in anything approaching "mainstream" is something like this from the WSJ opinion page, which is behind a paywall??

Why is the country divided?

Nicomachean Ethics

 https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/books/review/book-review-aristotles-nicomachean-ethics.html

The link is to a review of the translation that I read by Harry Jaffa, a thinker I admire. 

Why read Nicomachean ethics? 

In my case it was because it is referenced so often in many of the books that I read, I became embarrassed that I had never read it. Now having done so,  I'd recommend reading something like "The Interpretive Essay" at the back of the translation I read instead. 

The book was written about 330 BC, which gives great creedence to Solomon's observation in Ecclesiastes 1:9

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun."

What is the good life? How can I be happy? What is the best society? What is virtue? How can I be virtuous?  What is the meaning of life given that we did? Is this it, or is there an afterlife? 

While Aristotle could have known of the Hebrew Bible, chronologically, there is no evidence that he did, 

One the first page of the interpretive essay, we have this quote from Micah 6:8"He has told you O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

While Aristotle would reject that statement because he sees there as being many "gods", and therefore many views of "the good", this work is a valiant, but ultimately confusing and questionable attempt to define "the good" or "how to be happy". 

As Jaffa says in the linked: 

The debunking both of Socratic skepticism (“the unexamined life is not worth living”) and of biblical faith (“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”) has led to the crisis of the West, a chaos of moral relativism and philosophic nihilism in which every lifestyle, no matter how corrupt or degenerate, can be said to be as good as any other.

The Ethics at least makes a valiant attempt to escape pagan muli"god" relativism and that attempt is worthy of being oft referenced. For this of us that believe that history DOES matter, this is at least close to THE foundational work of our secular history.

For a Christian, the biggest realization is that Christ answers the "difficult questions" that Aristotle struggled and largely failed to answer. 

One of the many wonderful freedoms of Christianity is that our search for "happiness" and "virtue" are answered in Christ.

A Good Test For Voter Fraud

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/11/this-years-most-stunning-poll-finding.php

So Republicans have huge leads across the board in voter preference polling a year after the "election". Interesting. 

Obama got 69 million votes in 2008, the old record popular vote total (he got less in 2012). 

Trump received 10.1 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016. for a total of 74 million votes, a new record!

But, that dynamic, intelligent, compelling candidate Joe Biden got 81 million votes in 2020! Another new record! 

I don't think anyone would question that Joe Biden is a far more dynamic and compelling candidate than Obama was in 2008, so what could possibly account for this strange happening?

As we know, the only reason that Trump was elected in 2016 was Russian interference! 

As Hillary courageously said in 2019:

Clinton was asked whether it angers her that none of the current Democratic candidates invoke her on the campaign trail while Trump’s rally crowds still break out into “lock her up” chants.

“No, it doesn’t kill me because he knows he’s an illegitimate president,” she said. “I believe he understands that the many varying tactics they used, from voter suppression and voter purging to hacking to the false stories — he knows that — there were just a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out like it did.”

It has to be true, because it was published in the Washington Post! BTW Jimmy Carter, was quoted in the same article also saying that Trump was not a "legitimate president. . Carter should be eternally grateful that "legitimacy" doesn't depend on any standard of performance. 

Post 2020, we know that questioning the results of an election borders on treason, and must be suppressed on social media!

So if Republicans fail to win both houses in 2022, questioning that will be treasonous as well! 

The future of avoiding one party rule in the US depends on Senate defeat of HR1, which likely means it depends on Joe Manchin. 

If HR1 passes Democrat control of government will be "mailed in" perpetually.

As One Computer Said

 I rest my case.

"Rigged", Mollie Hemingway

https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/22/how-texas-protected-its-vote-from-getting-rigged-in-2020/ 

I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Ms Hemingway at this wonderful event ... a thoughtful belated birthday present from my wife. As a bonus, the guy sitting next to us grew up in Bode IA, a town about 15 miles away from our current home, even closer to my wife's home of her youth. 

As an LCMS Lutheran, it is good to know that Mollie is a sister in Christ!

I was struck by the number of attractive young women at the event -- maybe "15%", average age 25-35? Similarly, young couples ... 25-40. Perhaps moderate / intelligent conservatism is stronger than it is characterized to be by MSM. 60% of the attendees were "50-70", pretty much all couples. There was a lot of evidence of "upper middle" wealth, and unfortunately only a handful of blacks. Conservatives need to get more "Winsome"!

I've been interested in voter fraud since at least 2005 when I read "Stealing Elections". 

It is pretty much an open secret that Nixon beat Kennedy in '60. The "Daley Machine" came through as did a couple of counties in Texas. Nixon was encouraged to challenge, and would likely have won, BUT, he refused since he felt that Americans having faith in the integrity of their elections was more important than winning! (that really changed in 2000!).

"Rigged" covers a lot of well documented information on how the media, Deep State and Democrats had the election rigged from the day after Trump won in 2016. 

On page 138, she even mentions "The Cloward Piven Strategy" ... if you have to destabilize the country to win, go for it!  ... BLM, Riots, Defund the Police, "CHAZ" ....

She pulls a number of quotes from a Time magazine article from Feb 2021 that pretty much covers what Mollie does. Of course the Time perspective is THANKFULLY by expert coordination between the Democrats, Corporations, the Deep State, the media, etc, the country was SAVED from Trump!!! (praise be to Satan)

 She discussed the Hunter Biden memory hole. As always with that kind of discussion, my mind goes to Mary Jo Kopechne. Perhaps what happened to her is not America's "Original Sin", but it is one that changed us forever. She ought to have a memorial in Washington, right next to Ashli Babbit's. 

It is a worthy and heavily footnoted book that is easy to read. Yes, it could have been a little shorter, but then I'm really not one to cast aspersions here. Writers tend to write.

It gives a "medium distance" view of 2020, and really makes the case that it is America that is now "Rigged", not just the 2020 election. 

As always, the linked review at the top is more "traditional". 

One of the key takeaways of the book is that complaining about election fraud AFTER the election is useless, The evidence has been destroyed by those that committed it by then! If we want fair elections we have to act NOW. If we let bills like HR1 pass, the cause is lost, and short of civil war, separating the nation to red and blue, our goose is cooked -- the steep descent into Fascism/Oligarchy will be complete.

Let's go Brandon!

The Soul Of Politics, Elmers

This work seems to be an excellent synopsis of the work and thinking of Harry Jaffa, a giant of "real conservatism" vs "paleo conservatism, "Bloomian Conservatism",  the conservatism of Robert Bork, and others. 

It gives an excellent idea of what it is that is critically worthy of being conserved, rather than just "standing athwart history and yelling STOP!" as Buckley once claimed as the mission of the National Review, 

As Buckley said, "If you think arguing with Jaffa is difficult, you should just try to agree with him"! 

Why is this so? Because Jaffa attempts to get at the roots and the mistakes made by those who fail to understand the strengths and weaknesses of those roots. Lincoln and Churchill are strongly praised and illuminated, but many noted conservatives are roundly criticised. The book is a mini primer on Aristotle and especially "Manichean Ethics". 

It is however a SYNOPSIS, and generally easily readable. 

I loved "The Closing Of The American Mind", Jaffa has a lot of negative things to say about Bloom and that book. 

How he connects critical thoughts about the tensions between freedom and liberty down through the ages is extraordinary. The differences between "Athens and Jerusalem" are fascinating. He ties the thinking of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Churchill into a (mosty) understandable thread even for one as woefully uneducated as I. 

I was introduced to Jaffa via "The Three Whiskey Happy Hour" (which I highly recommend).

That led me to "The Reichstag Is Still Burning" ... also excellent, and then somehow to here.

"Soul" is a gateway drug to another list of excellent books. I'd recommend reading "Soul", but if you feel that is to great a task, this synopsis of Jaffa is another worthy gateway. 

Let's go Brandon! 

Crime And Punishment

Here is a link to a summary of the book, it seems quite good, but it does not include what I see as the key line, printed on the back cover of my copy. 

"One death in exchange for thousands of lives, it's simple arithmetic". 

What we miss by reading and discussing the classics is how they bear on timeless principles in understanding human nature. 

If you are certain that all "intelligent people" need to "believe the science", the "simple math", rather than the complexities of immutable human nature and the sages, poets, theologians and philosophers that have wrestled with these questions for thousands of years will drive your decisions.

Is it not at least taking a few hours of your time to read a classic work before supporting the sacrifice of millions of lives on the altar of convenience through abortion? 

Part 3, Chapter 5 ."..All men are divided into "ordinary" and "extraordinary." (3) Ordinary men have to live in submission and have no right to transgress the law because they are ordinary. (4) On the contrary, the extraordinary man has the right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way because he is extraordinary. That is not an official legal right but an inner right to decide in his own conscience whether to overstep the law or any obstacle that stands in the way of the practical fulfillment of his idea. (5) All great men would (or should) have the right to eliminate a few men in order to make their discoveries known to the benefit of all humanity."

Take away God where all men are equally sinners, and nothing else other than their acceptance or rejection of Grace really matters, and you discover it is all about "categories" ... wealth, education, gender, family lineage, etc

If  video works better for you, here is a bit of a plug for reading it.