FRIDAY short TAKES.

Another week with a longish prologue.  So it goes as the outlines of the saecular crisis emerge.

Thought itself can be sinful.  "The power elite have discovered that their cosplay revolution is seen as merely ridiculous. Minority groups don’t want the new names that have been issued to them. Straight people prefer not to be called cisgender, and gay people don’t like being submerged in a tide of heterosexuals who style themselves queer. Even The New York Times, that high conclave of official euphemisms, has begun to soft-pedal chilling locutions like 'gender-affirming care for minors,' instead referring honestly to puberty blockers and body-altering surgery."

Those best and brightest?  Not so much.  "The public concluded that the more elite the campus, the more ignorant, arrogant and hateful the students seemed."  You were warned.  Reap what you sow.  "Surprisingly few people consider college an opportunity to engage with complex ideas, develop their own perspectives on fundamental questions about human existence, morality and society, and appreciate diverse cultures, histories and forms of artistic expression alongside others who share those interests."  Time for a privilege check?  "Protest activity has been common, however, at elite schools with both low acceptance rates and few Pell students."

This time, we can't blame the lead in the pewter.  Seeking Tacitus and Gibbon?  "The Roman Republic fell when politicians began criminalizing politics."  We have much to look forward to.  "The Roman experience is that subsequent challengers of the status quo get smarter, more effective, and more ruthless."  Stir in a few mountebanks, and weep?  "If the US suffers from any potentially terminal condition, it is likely the metastasizing pathologies of its ruling class—that is, its elite."

Sometimes, Caligula's horse looks appealing.  Democracy.  "If voters decide to elect him, that will be the final verdict."  The choices aren't great.  "It is difficult to see an area of the world that is markedly better off since Biden took the White House.  There isn't an institution in the country Biden hasn't weakened."  He's Our S. O. B? "Trump is no longer Trump: he has been transformed into a living symbol of the progressive elites’ abuse of power and contempt for the principle of equality."  It's a dangerous game.  "By bringing such a dubious criminal case against a former president, the Democrats have now openly criminalized public policy differences. "  Go ahead, reject the false binary.  "A vote for Biden or Trump would be contrary to an adult lifetime of conservatism."

The weekly round-up of pithy elaborations on traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

1.  Fewer and fewer people trust the government.  Why?  Unintended consequences.  "We wanted 'progress' and we got it good and hard."  (Read the whole thing and scroll down!)

2.  The National Debt is Making Us Poorer.

3.  It's the rent-seeking.  "As long as megaprojects are driven by narrow politics and 'process' as opposed to efficiency, the country will continue to lag in improving its infrastructure despite massive subsidies from government."  The good news in that essay, the totalitarian states aren't doing so well either.

4.  Buckwheat, beyond parody?  "At publishing time, the White House issued a press release warning the American people that all failed Democratic policies were, in fact, right-wing misinformation."

5.  Indeed.  "When Hillary Clinton a few years ago wanted to build a Woodstock memorial, I said it should be a National Guardsman feeding a crying hippie."

6.  An obsolete alliance, "flirting with war and extinction in Ukraine."  What is the end game?

7.  Imagination is powerful stuff.  "Democracy: the matching up of people who want free stuff with politicians who promise free stuff. Problem: free stuff as they all imagine it does not exist."

8.  Self-checkout is a high-trust culture privilege.  Will the destruction of Penn Station or of the self-service supermarket rate as the most significant monument we've destroyed?

9.  Politicians' promises?  "Any change to congressional process is only as good as Congress' willingness to abide by the new rules."

10.  Putrid political purity tests!  "Left-leaning Democrats questioned whether Biden’s move to the right on the issue would boost his fortunes."  By their fruits ...  “The reason why immigration matters so much to so many is that it is a living, breathing illustration of the failure of Washington to solve what everyone else in America sees as a crisis.”  Everyone, that is, who is not a left-leaning Democrat?

11.  Approximately nobody in elective office?  "Who has a better appreciation of voluntary affairs as spontaneous order and of how Paris is fed?"

12.  MV=PQ.  "Are we seriously going to argue that a global phenomenon was primarily caused by 'greed'? And that the level of greed varied widely from country to country?"

13.  Quasi-public, for profit?  "Amtrak doesn’t sufficiently compensate most freight railroads for the cost of operating their higher-speed trains amongst slower, heavier freight traffic."

14.  Shut up and dribble?  "You have to set an example.  Do not blow it.  Just play ball."