Writers often compare the beauty of the pagan myths with the brutality of the biblical story.  This is doubly wrong.  In the first place, the biblical chronicles are not trying to be beautiful.  They are saying this is how history is when we rebel against God.  You can find beauty in the Bible’s poetry, but you shouldn’t expect it in its history.

Peaceful assembly to express opposition to an injustice is a protest.

Peaceful and public violation of an unjust law is civil disobedience.

Mass violation of just laws protecting persons, private property, and public property is a riot.

It is a disservice to the language to call a riot a protest.

Just a little thought about unanticipated consequences.

Instead of enjoying his vocation, he thinks that his vocation is enjoyment.

I mentioned in a previous post that some people think we ought to practice social distancing not just while the epidemic runs its course, but from now on.

In a world in which more people than ever before think that when you die, you’re nothing but worm food, it’s hard to resist the idea that this sort of hysteria is connected with other common ones.

Now I’ve seen everything:  Boutique rioting.

A crowd floating down Austin’s famous Sixth Street.  Young men holding hands with their girl friends, strolling along and looking.  Every third person taking a video or selfie.

And in the background, a store being looted.

The mayor says he is pleased that some of them are wearing masks.

I have nothing to say against real science.  But isn’t it interesting that the people who talk most about “following the science” usually don’t know much about the science?