Wear a Mask for Protection.....But Not Against COVID-19

Gun control activist David Hogg wears a mask to signal that he's not a conservative:

I feel the need to continue wearing my mask outside even though I’m fully vaccinated because the inconvenience of having to wear a mask is more than worth it to have people not think I’m a conservative 😬

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) May 14, 2021

Dr. Susan Philip (Chron photo)

There's another, more important reason to wear a mask, despite the CDC guidance that fully vaccinated people don't have to wear a mask outdoors: to protect oneself from being yelled at or worse by people who want everyone to keep covering their face.

Dr. Susan Philip, San Francisco health officer: [bold added]

she has a message for city residents: Nobody needs to play the Mask Cop.

“They’re getting dirty looks. They’re getting yelled at, and they’re feeling very uncomfortable in their neighborhoods following our recommendations,” she said. “We want to make sure that everyone understands that this is permitted. We want people in the city to feel comfortable removing their masks.”

The Department of Public Health shared a particularly eye-popping email from a Glen Park resident who insisted on anonymity in this column “because of how irrational people can be about this particular topic.”

His email described going on two short walks without masks after the CDC said that was fine. On one walk, a woman screamed, “COVID is real, and people die!” On the other, somebody flipped him off and said, “Why don’t you move?” even though he’s lived in the city for more than 15 years.

“People are unhinged. ... My neighbors are scared to take their mask off outside because of other people — not the risk of COVID,” he wrote. “I would think such an educated city would understand science and trust the experts.”

The SF resident made several mistakes in his previous sentence: that San Francisco is an "educated" city ("indoctrinated" is more accurate), that residents understand "science" (but only if science agrees with their preconceptions), and that they trust the experts (but only if the experts support their politics).

David Hogg wears a mask to signal he's not a conservative. Conservatives wear masks in Cambridge--where he goes to school--and in San Francisco for protection against David Hogg's people.

Housing: It Doesn't Work if You Force It

Last year we noted how some California politicians are

trying to alleviate the housing shortage by forcing communities to accept dense housing near train stations.

SB50 would have removed control of housing development from municipalities, which through zoning regulations and onerous permitting have slowed construction.

SB50 would have eased the development of small- and medium-size apartment and condominium projects by raising height limits, removing density restrictions and reducing parking requirements.

Under the bill, cities could not have blocked residential buildings of at least four or five stories within half a mile of rail stations and ferry terminals, provided they met other local design standards. [The bill] ... would have essentially eliminated single-family zoning in California, except in small coastal communities and areas at high risk of fire.

SB50 was defeated in the State senate on Wednesday. Politically this was a classic blue-on-blue battle between State central planners and the liberal "wealthy suburbs", which don't object to the regulatory State unless it affects them (e.g., building homeless shelters and high-density housing in their communities).

Historical note: eleven years ago the Bay Meadows race track was torn down (photo right). The residential-commercial complex that arose became a prototype for the planners' vision:

the mixed-use project abutting the Hillsdale Caltrain station will comprise more than 1,100 housing units, up to 1.5 million square feet of office space, 90,000 square feet of retail space and 15 acres of parks.

The Bay Meadows prototype has been disappointing in one regard. The apartments and townhouses have been anything but low-cost (current Zillow ad, right).

A Caracas in our Future?

Two juxtaposed stories in today's fishwrap illustrate why the City is circling the drain.

Violent beating of three seniors in San Francisco’s Chinatown sparks fear, outrage

The violent beating of three older men captured on video in San Francisco’s Chinatown over the weekend has sparked fear and outrage among some residents in the city’s Chinese-American community, who said they feel increasingly targeted following several high-profile attacks on the neighborhood’s most vulnerable residents....

Three victims, all men ages 63, 67 and 68, were left with varying injuries, police said. Two were treated at San Francisco General Hospital and later released. A third was checked out by paramedics and released at the scene...

No one has been arrested and no suspects have been identified in the attack.

And who is the official who will lead the fight against this recent wave of attacks against seniors?

How Chesa Boudin, a public defender who never prosecuted a case, won SF D.A. race

Boudin’s story is even more movie-worthy. His parents were left-wing radicals in the Weather Underground and served as getaway drivers in an October 1981 robbery that wound up killing three people. Boudin, 14 months old at the time of the incident, was adopted by Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, also Weather Underground radicals. He graduated from Yale and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar.

Voters elected Mr. Boudin "despite never having prosecuted a case and having a controversial background that included an imprisoned father* and a stint working for Hugo Chávez, the late president of Venezuela who was criticized for trampling human rights."

*Not your run-of-the-mill imprisoned dad: "His parents were left-wing radicals in the Weather Underground and served as getaway drivers in an October 1981 robbery that wound up killing three people."

Hugo Chavez was the socialist who turned Venezuela, the wealthiest country in South America, into a hellhole where millions flee from starvation, disease, and crime. San Francisco currently has the highest per-capita income of all U.S. cities, and the progressives are in charge. Let's hope the parallel to Venezuela stops there, but the signs aren't hopeful.

Well, San Francisco voters keep electing progressives like Chesa Boudin, so there may yet be a Caracas (Wikipedia: "Caracas has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, with 111.19 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants") in our future.

The Revolution Eats Itself

A phrase that's become popular in conservative circles is Annals of Leftist Autophagy, which began with the New Criterion in May, 2018:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that revolutionary sentiment is inherently expansionist and, if unimpeded, always winds up devouring its earlier partisans.

As we write, the social-justice chain Starbucks, famous for hectoring its customers about progressive politics and serving expensive burnt coffee, is being boycotted because a store manager in Philadelphia had two black loiterers arrested and removed by the police.

Once one notices the phenomenon, one sees it everywhere. Autophagy, i.e., when the body eats itself, occurs metaphorically when Ivy League colleges discriminate against Asian-American applicants, when anti-Semitic statements are justified if the right people speak them, and when white working-class union members are called "deplorables."

A current example is from California, where some leftist politicians are trying to alleviate the housing shortage by forcing communities to accept dense housing near train stations. They're getting push-back from other leftists.

Still waiting for Al Sharpton's outrage (Chron photo)

A provocative mailer by a deep-pocketed Los Angeles activist equates a state housing bill with “Negro removal,” a comparison that prompted state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Mayor London Breed to fire back Thursday.

The ad, paid for by Michael Weinstein, appeared on cable television, snowballed on social media and popped up in mailboxes throughout the city this week. It features a picture of famous black author James Baldwin with a quote about San Francisco’s urban renewal policies, which displaced thousands of African Americans from the Fillmore.

“San Francisco is engaging ... in something called urban renewal, which means moving the Negroes out. It means Negro removal,” says the quote, attributed to Baldwin in 1963.

It’s juxtaposed with a picture of Wiener, whose bill, SB50, seeks to put more housing near transit stations and job centers.

Frankly, I don't know who's going to win this argument. Just get the guillotines sharpened.

No Rest From Politics

In 2006 Diocesan Bishop Marc Andrus lay in front of the
Federal Building to protest the Iraq War. (Episcopal archives)

Since 2012 we have commented on the outspoken advocacy of leftist politics by the Episcopal Church. So far, most priests we know have not crossed the line where they claim to be speaking for the church. (Admittedly, it is difficult for casual observers to discern the difference when priests wear collars to political events and demonstrations.)

The 2015 Diocesan Convention noted signs that the half-century decline in church attendance has bottomed out. Other mainline Protestant churches have experienced the same leveling, even an uptick in attendance. [bold added]

Galvanized by opposition to Trump administration policies, these congregations, which typically are theologically liberal and historically white, are turning themselves into hubs of activism. For some congregations, that shift has prompted a surge in attendance—especially among young people—something mainline Protestant churches haven’t seen in decades.

Liberal churches are organizing rallies, taking on racial issues and offering sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. Some clergy have returned to the front lines of protests, where they are playing more prominent roles than any time since the Vietnam War.

Arguing against church involvement in progressive politics is a lost cause, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I will just say that it's very sad that leaders of the religious left have adopted the worst traits of the religious right: 1) Blaming others (Trump, Republicans, racists, etc.) for the world's problems instead of looking into their own hearts and actions; 2) Being self-righteous about it.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?---Matthew 7

A Short History of Liberalism

The Economist produces an entertaining short history of liberalism, What Have Liberals Ever Done for Us?

If liberals were true to their founding principles, I would happily join their ranks.


Note: transcript below the fold.

Divorced from the News

Last fall we switched the automatic recording of the evening news from ABC to CBS. I watched CBS once or twice a week but grew appalled at how anchor Scott Pelley interspersed his anti-Trump opinions with the news. (He once led with "It has been a busy day for Presidential statements divorced from reality"--see video below.) And note: I would have been perfectly okay with an opinion section, identified as such, that Mr. Pelley inserted anywhere in the program.



When Hawaii judge Derrick Watson placed a preliminary injunction against the President's executive order on travel and refugees, the judge got pushback from Trump supporters, some of whom referred to Hawaii's remoteness from possible dangers posed by refugees:

They cited statistics from the State Department’s Refugee Admissions Office that showed since 2010 that just 20 out of more than 530,000 refugees settled in the United States since 2010 were brought to Hawaii for resettlement.

I still remember Scott Pelley's closing remark, something like "last time I checked, the flag had 50 stars." Wow. This is what people say when they are absolutely confident that listeners agree, not only with the policy position but also with the snideness of the remark.

Today's headline: "Scott Pelley to Step Down as Anchor of ‘CBS Evening News" [bold added]

Mr. Pelley has been anchoring the “CBS Evening News” since June 2011. The broadcast has been in third place behind NBC’s “Nightly News” and ABC’s “World News Tonight” and unlike the network’s morning show, hasn’t made gains in the ratings for some time.

Apparently, CBS has a limit on how long it can remain divorced from reality.

Crosscurrents of the Pacific

Hawaii's four electoral votes are reliably Democratic; the last Republican to have won the Presidential vote was Ronald Reagan in 1984. Neil Abercrombie, the current governor, was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Given Hawaii's liberal bona fides, one would expect that Governor Abercrombie's bill to legalize same-sex marriage would sail through without much opposition. One would be wrong.

5,100 people registered to testify at the House hearings on the issue, and over 1,000 did speak, most of them against the bill, over five days.

Gay marriage has proved a contentious issue in the solidly blue state of Hawaii, which has large Christian and Mormon congregations.

The people of Hawaii are strongly pro-labor, but they're also strongly religious. Asians and Pacific Islanders, groups that are temperamentally (but not necessarily politically) conservative, comprise the majority. Given their culture's traditional deference to leaders, it's still likely that same-sex marriage will be approved, but it's no slam dunk at the Crossroads of the Pacific. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

[Update, Headline on 11/13: "Abercrombie Signs Same-sex Marriage Bill Into Law":

Gay couples can get married in Hawaii as soon as Dec. 2. Clergy can refuse to perform gay weddings. Churches and other religious organizations can deny goods, services and facilities for gay weddings and receptions if it violates religious beliefs.

Abercrombie said the bill may not be a "perfect vehicle" but it was the product of the deliberative process. He said the debate recognized both equality and religious freedom.]

Not So Dumb After All

Bay Area residents whose politics are right-of-center (the center being quite to the left of the rest of the country) have learned to stay in the closet. They smile when jokes are made about conservative politicians, Mormons, and Southern Baptists. Their car bumpers are a politics-free zone for the sake of vehicular preservation. They refrain from questioning the dogma of anthropogenic global warming climate change, and quietly endure the chortling over scientific studies that "prove" that liberals are more intelligent that conservatives.

It was therefore startling to read yesterday's column by Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times:

Conservatives may not like liberals, but they seem to understand them. In contrast, many liberals find conservative voters not just wrong but also bewildering. [snip]

Moderates and conservatives were adept at guessing how liberals would answer questions. Liberals, especially those who described themselves as “very liberal,” were least able to put themselves in the minds of their adversaries and guess how conservatives would answer.

Now a fascinating new book comes along that, to a liberal like myself, helps demystify the right — and illuminates the kind of messaging that might connect with voters of all stripes. “The Righteous Mind,” by Jonathan Haidt, a University of Virginia psychology professor, argues that, for liberals, morality is largely a matter of three values: caring for the weak, fairness and liberty. Conservatives share those concerns (although they think of fairness and liberty differently) and add three others: loyalty, respect for authority and sanctity.

Nicholas Kristof analogizes the ability to grasp other world views to an ability to speak other languages [bold added]:

Another way of putting it is this: Americans speak about values in six languages, from care to sanctity. Conservatives speak all six, but liberals are fluent in only three. And some (me included) mostly use just one, care for victims.

One sign of empathy is the ability to put oneself in another's shoes. It would be asking too much for Mr. Kristof to take the final step and admit that conservatives as a group evidence an admirable personal quality in a greater quantity than liberals (like charitable giving) but at least he makes a start.

[Update - related: there's now evidence that real bilingualism increases intelligence.

The bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks.]

Amusing Juxtaposition

[Note: this post has been re-written and slightly expanded.] Real Clear Politics amusingly juxtaposes two opinion columns. Blame the Childish, Ignorant American Public drips with condescending 'tude while Why are Liberals so Condescending? at least attempts dispassionate analysis.

Most conservatives, especially those who live in blue states, have gotten used to their positions being characterized as stupid, unscientific, racist, uncompassionate, sexist, hypocritical, and/or evil. The words have been used so often that they have lost their sting. Liberals who lazily use caricature as a substitute for thought would do well to realize that that approach leads to underestimating one's opponents.

(In case one wonders about the first author's political leanings, other examples of Jacob Weisberg's writings are Obama's Brilliant First Year and Ignore Fox.)

No Recognition

Speaking of liberal condescension, we are approaching the third anniversary of a prominent example-- Ellen Goodman’s column on climate change in the February 7, 2007 Boston Globe. Excerpts follow, with especially choice passages in bold:

By every measure, the U N 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raises the level of alarm. The fact of global warming is "unequivocal." The certainty of the human role is now somewhere over 90 percent. Which is about as certain as scientists ever get.

I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

There are astonishing gaps between Republican science and Democratic science. Try these numbers: Only 23 percent of college-educated Republicans believe the warming is due to humans, while 75 percent of college-educated Democrats believe it.

This great divide comes from the science-be-damned-and-debunked attitude of the Bush administration and its favorite media outlets. The day of the report, Big Oil Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma actually described it as "a shining example of the corruption of science for political gain." Speaking of corruption of science, the American Enterprise Institute, which has gotten $1.6 million over the years from Exxon Mobil, offered $10,000 last summer to scientists who would counter the IPCC report.

This works for some. But a lot of social science research tells us something else. As Ross Gelbspan, author of "The Heat is On," says, "when people are confronted with an overwhelming threat and don't see a solution, it makes them feel impotent. So they shrug it off or go into deliberate denial."

Ms. Goodman and her ilk aren't wrong necessarily; the record snowfalls burying the Atlantic coast don't disprove anthropogenic global warming. But developments since her column was written--the falsification of climate data, the manipulation of computer models, the substitution of conjecture as fact about glacial and rain-forest recession--should at least merit an apology from her for the calumnies ["Holocaust deniers"] heaped upon those who had questioned the "settled science." But such an apology from a dyed-in-the-wool liberal is as likely as her recognition that the President's call for civility applies to her as well as conservatives.

Irish Eyes

Irish journalist and film-maker Phelim McAleer on the Dennis Miller show:

I came to America looking for right-wingers obsessed with bedrooms and sex. Then I discovered all these left-wingers and liberals obsessed with every other room in the house.

They want to know what's in your fridge, is it bottled water, how much electricity your fridge uses, what's in your thermostat? How [do] you insulate your attic? What's in your garage? What's your car? They even want to know what's in your lightbulb, what's in your lamp?

In the tradition of de Tocqueville, some of the keenest observations about America are made by outsiders.