In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

Just so as not to obsess over the idea of impeaching a US president after he's left office (when it seems to me the mature adult reaction would be more or less to say "good riddance, let's go on with life"), I draw your attention to the video above frm a UK YouTuber who discusses a case of UK police who've imposed a £200 fine on two ladies who took a walk and bought coffee while socially distanced. The exact circumstances aren't clear, largely because I can't understand the accents of those speaking on the video, but it appears that a central issue is that the ladies are allowed to leave their homes only once a day for exercise, but the police had been watching them and appear to have detected that this is the second walk they've taken today. In the US, thank a merciful Providence, law enforcement has made it clear that it does not see this type of activity within its responsibility, and generally US civil authorities haven't specified how ofte...

I had another e-mail from the visitor who commented on crowded emergency facilities a week or so ago, this time referring in particular to a CNN story that covered a hospital in Apple Valley, CA Rural hospital staff devastated by Covid-19 patients: A couple things about this piece: Apple Valley is hardly rural; we are one of three large-sized cities in the high desert. We have three hospitals of varying sizes. It's interesting that some people are arriving by foot -- there is a bus stop right by the ER. (Not to belittle their symptoms, but those sick must not be at death's door.) In the "good ole days" the ER at St Mary's was overrun. I dislocated my shoulder 20+ years ago & had to wait three hours to be seen. (I speculate that is why St Mary's has instituted a new policy for pregnant women that come into the er. They are immediately whisked up to the OB ward to be seen instead of sitting amongst the er-ers. In fa...

The situation is fluid, but the powers that be are effectively making sure last year's dumpster fire burns uninterrupted. As of today, Trump has 11 days left in office, and there's no indication that he'll order anyone to seize the White House to keep him inside. Yet, amid calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, there's apparently serious talk of a second impeachment. Just the process of debate on the House floor and scheduling a vote will presumably take enough time to make the whole thing moot come January 20. This is kabuki and an apparent acknowledgement that the US Congress has nothung important to do. Pelosi's position seems to be just an extension of her tearing up of Trump's State of the Union message last winter. With close majorities in both houses following a contentious election, the majoity's position seems to be unified mostly around the position that the plebs must be punished for voting in some proportion for Trump. This isn't leadership. ...

In a remarkably unserious move, California public health officials issued an updated travel advisory Wednesday, discouraging non-essential into and out of the state. The new advisory replaces the pre-holiday advisory that asked travelers coming into California to self-isolate for 14 days. As of Wednesday [Jan 6], the California Department of Public Health says those coming back into the state should self-quarantine for 10 days. . . . That 10-day period does not apply to health care workers and emergency responders coming in to help the state’s struggling hospital system. Residents are also being asked to avoid traveling to places in the state that are more than 120 miles from their homes, or to other states or countries. That recommendation does not apply to residents who have to travel for things like work, study or immediate medical care, or those who routinely travel out of the state or the country for essential reasons. So let's parse this out. Two weeks ago, the...

Last week, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn wrote to Gov Newsom asking that he try to get the Navy hospital ship Mercy back to LA, although it went largely unused when it was sent here last spring. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has written a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom supporting SEIU 721’s request for additional healthcare workers in Los Angeles County hospitals in response to the surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations. Hahn is also requesting that Governor Newsom call on federal partners to dispatch the USNS Mercy hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles. “Our SEIU healthcare workers are exhausted and our hospitals are overwhelmed. They need backup,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “This surge is the crisis that we dreaded all along. We need as much support as we can get for our healthcare workers and we need the USNS Mercy back in the Port of Los Angeles.” As far as I'm aware, Gov Newsom hasn't replied to the request, and in fact the Mercy is in dry...

One byproduct of my conversion to Roman Catholicism has been a much greater appreciation for Aristotle, who was a major influence on Aquinas and other Scholastic thinkers. An Aristotelian looks for causes. On the other hand, William of Ockham, a prominent Scholastic, established the Law of Parsimony, which says that entities should not be multiplied without necessity. This brings us to the popular idea that at some time prior to written history, space aliens came to the planet and built the major ancient monuments in both hemispheres. This is a semi-Aristotelian view, since proponents are actually raising worthwhile and reasonable questions about causes. Why the widespread ancient interest in astronomy, which appears to have been remarkably precise? How was this information transmitted through generations without what we currently understand as writing? Why do so many ancient structures in both hemispheres take the form of pyramids? Why are they precisely laid out according to astro...

I've been following the Harvest Rock Church's case in Pasadena, CA since its inception last spring. As I covered here a month ago , the US Supreme Court sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit for reevaluation in light of its Diocese of Brooklyn action, which essentially signaled that it would find restrictions on attendance specifically tailored to churces a violation of the free exercise clause of the US Constitution. However, this didn't decide anything, it just kicked the issue back to the district court. The consensus at the time was that Harvest Rock's attorneys would need to relitigate the whole issue back up from the trial court to the Ninth Circuit, and that's what's been happening. As of late last week, Harvest Rock and the state have been filing new briefs with the Ninth Circuit. The court has been asking interesting questions. As outlined here, The Court of Appeals requested supplemental briefing by the parties to address whether (1) the LA ...