Here's an interview with a civil war expert (civil wars generally, not the US civil war) who says we're in dangerous waters. The gist is that two factors out of many considered turn out to be important: 1) how far a country is from solid democracy or solid autocracy. As we get away from those poles, instability increases. 2)

And then the second factor was whether populations in these partial democracies began to organize politically, not around ideology -- so, not based on whether you're a communist or not a communist, or you're a liberal or a conservative -- but where the parties themselves were based almost exclusively around identity: ethnic, religious or racial identity.

And the bit I found most clarifying was that the US Civil War is the wrong model to have in mind.

What we're heading toward is an insurgency, which is a form of a civil war. That is the 21st-century version of a civil war, especially in countries with powerful governments and powerful militaries, which is what the United States is. And it makes sense. An insurgency tends to be much more decentralized, often fought by multiple groups. Sometimes they're actually competing with each other. Sometimes they coordinate their behavior. They use unconventional tactics. They target infrastructure. They target civilians. They use domestic terror and guerrilla warfare. Hit-and-run raids and bombs. We've already seen this in other countries with powerful militaries...

The whole thing is short and worth reading, regardless of how convincing you find it.

His assassination is crazy and awful, and maybe deserves a thread.

I got a booster yesterday, since I'm going to be visiting my mom in a hospital after surgery next weekend.

One side thing that was always galling about rightwing covid minimizers is that the things they were saying pre-vaccine - "it's just a bad flu", "masks are too annoying and not worth it", etc - would eventually come true. Eventually, it was inevitable that treatments would improve and vaccines would exist, and eventually we'd all safely relax. The nature of the virus and scientific progress was rigged to guarantee their eventual smugness.

I'm definitely at that place. People are testing positive fairly frequently around here, and it just doesn't register as much of a concern (although I do still expect them to stay home for five days). In preparation for my visit next week, I'll go back to wearing a mask indoors and resume safer habits, to make sure I don't bring it to my mom. But aside from situations like that, my default is to be fairly shruggy at this point. This current surge is the first surge since I've adopted this laissez-faire attitude.

Moby Hick writes: Taking it upon yourself to build a giant monument purporting to guide humanity to an "Age of Reason'' takes an amount of ego which I don't think is healthy. Blowing one up because Alex Jones fans don't like the sayings is worse. But without some connection to a community, the Georgia Guidestones were just an unusually heavy billboard and a monument to nothing but the vanity of the anonymous rich dude who paid for them.

Being large, highly visible, and stationary, a monument is very vulnerable until time gives it the protection of tradition (at least until the Taliban come along). Which is another reason for making sure the monument has a connection to a community. The people of early medieval Dorset understood this, which is why Dorset now has a hill with the centuries-old chalk outline of a giant erection.

(In case someone isn't paying attention to stupid news, here's some helpful context.)

Heebie's take: Just helpin':

The enigmatic roadside attraction was built in 1980 from local granite, commissioned by an unknown person or group under the pseudonym R.C. Christian.

...

The 16-foot-high (5-meter-high) panels bore a 10-part message in eight different languages with guidance for living in an "age of reason." One part called for keeping world population at 500 million or below, while another calls to "guide reproduction wisely -- improving fitness and diversity."

It also served as a sundial and astronomical calendar. But it was the panels' mention of eugenics, population control and global government that made them a target of far-right conspiracists.

One could attempt to understand why rightwingers directed their paranoia at the contraption that seems like it came from kin, but dwelling in their mental headspace is never going to yield anything interesting.

Your country is just as weird as our country. I just read that if he refuses to resign, the Queen can fire him. TIL!

All I've got is this article about a tattoo artist being sued for copywright violation for using a portrait of Miles Davis. I found it mildly interesting because I too am guilty of such a violation, if Claire Turlay Newberry's estate ever found out and got mad at me about it.

I have now had experiences in several industries semi-lately - psychiatrists, therapists, speech therapists, and pain management clinics (in a different state) - where anyone who takes insurance has a mile-long wait list, and we've ended up paying out of pocket for treatment. (In theory we can submit it to insurance on our own, as out-of-network, and at least contribute to our deductible, but our track record is spotty on follow-through.)

It's so dystopian. All these medical services are essentially unavailable, even if you have insurance, unless you're wealthy enough to not use your stupid insurance policy. At least we're not rationing health care here, right?

And then, what's even worse is that the providers who don't accept insurance function beautifully. It's like dealing with any industry that primarily deals with any UMC clientele. Scheduling SNAFUs are dealt with gracefully, there's an assumption of goodwill, communication can happen over email, you can get ahold of someone when you have a question, and so on. My impression is that these providers used to accept insurance, or would like to accept insurance, if the insurance industry didn't make it so impossible and time-consuming and infuriating for them.

(Some were pre-covid, but I'm sure it's all been exacerbated with the labor shortage.)

I've been listening to The War On Cars podcast a little lately*, and god it makes me insanely uncomfortable. They are smart people talking about systemic problems, and they are good about not blaming the individual but instead looking at the system. (Mostly. Sometimes they are terrible about remembering the existence of families, and dense about why people in the suburbs like taking their car everywhere.) But anyway, my lifestyle is the worst. I don't even like driving and yet I drive an insane amount. And we drive big cars, because we've inherited them or they're minivans. And I am too scared of all the big cars to buy a little car. And we live in a place still trapped in the mentality that single family homes and large parking lots are essential buffers from anarchy.

Anyway, cars really are terrible, and the media coverage of bikes vs cars is also really terrible in general. And I can't imagine embracing biking until it becomes significantly less scary. (We recently got a few bike lanes on major streets with physical barriers, which is a great start.)

We'll get our new hybrid minivan tomorrow. This is the first new car I've ever bought. I found the least I could do, and did it.

I do mildly wonder about how these car-minimizing utopias function in a very hot place, and I always come back to public transportation over bikes. Are there any examples of cities with huge biking populations and great biking infrastructure, where it's brutally hot for half the year?

*You see, we have pick-ups and drop-offs at camp on three consecutive weekends across the state, and so we have plenty of time for podcasts.