Americans aren't stupid. Anti-intellectualism has little to do with intelligence.

The common strain that binds together the attitudes and ideas which I call anti-intellectual is a resentment and suspicion of the life of the mind and of those who are considered to represent it; and a disposition constantly to farm-near-me/">minimize the value of that life.

-- American historian Richard Hofstadter

The previous post sets the table.

From 2009: "Hot Hofstadter, cold Cappuccino," or a treatise on Nawbanian anti-intellectualism.

We're just America in a microcosm, after all. 

Are Americans Just Stupid? by David Niose Psychology Today

Anti-intellectualism has little to do with intelligence.

... To understand American anti-intellectualism, it’s important to realize that smart people can embrace dumb ideas. On an individual or social level, this happens when the right mix of factors come together. The first factor is our own makeup – all humans are to some degree biologically prone to intellectual laziness, emotional decision-making, confirmation bias, and other natural impulses that often obstruct critical thinking.

But beyond the biological elements, there are also numerous environmental factors that can reinforce or weaken anti-intellectual tendencies. The extent to which one's family embraces education and critical thinking, for example, will be a major factor for many. Also, and importantly, the existence of influential cultural institutions that promote anti-intellectualism may result in a population that, regardless of its raw intellectual abilities, will seem in many ways ignorant.

ON THE AVENUES: There, there. People are dying, so you may have to wait until 2021 for your pork chop sandwich.

Who ever thought that forty years of narrow selfish leadership of academic, corporate, and political institutions would lead to a population full of raw anger?
-- Matt Stoller

Last week militarized police and the National Guard units were deployed to disperse peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters using counter-insurgency techniques previously devised for use against "enemies" abroad.

This wasn’t sufficiently violent to suit President D. “Nero” Trump, who proposed using armed service regulars to attack American citizens and occupy their cities -- not unlike the Chinese did in Tiananmen Square in 1989, or the United States in Iraq 17 years ago.

Meanwhile in excess of 100,000 Americans have died from a mysterious novel virus, with the number of infections reaching upwards of 2,000,000. Between 30 and 40 million are unemployed, and taking these statistics into consideration over a meal of Olive Garden takeaway and hard seltzer, perhaps another 150 million of us have concluded (a) the virus doesn’t exist, or (b) if it does, it’s perfectly safe because FREEDOM, and (c) in any event the virus that is, or perhaps isn’t, was devised by pussy libtards in cahoots with the Chinese for use against OUR president, and this is why (d) blacks protesting perennial injustice should be crushed with surplus army gear, but whites objecting to science, protesting any semblance of justice for non-whites or failing the physical when attempting to join the local SWAT team must carry their own powerful armaments and weaponry anywhere they please as “penis proxies.”

(Credit LEO Weekly for “penis proxies.”)

Our Big Mac president recently embraced the aforementioned counter-insurgency techniques to have the way cleared for a photo-op at a church, holding a hastily borrowed Bible aloft, upside down, in his best choreographed attempt to appear engaged.

The same half of the population that has rejected science because STOCK MARKET GODDAMMIT applauded vigorously, pausing only to blame blacks for their own targeting by the militarized police.

Amid the bleating and babbling of those shaven-headed old white guys with sour expressions whose monster trucks now routinely travel 50 mph down Spring Street, safe in the knowledge that our own municipal enforcement mechanisms remain in hibernation deep within Jeff Gahan’s agoraphobic “pretend leader” bunker, I’ve spent the past few days wondering about the precise level of violent injustice required to bring forever snoozing New Albanians out into the streets to protest.

Now I know the answer: cancel Harvest Homecoming and watch as the yokels finally are stirred to action.

---

The Harvest Homecoming cancellation announcement came Wednesday evening from the organization’s governing committee. Apparently the officers embraced rationality in consideration of a plain fact grasped by virtually anyone who has ever attended the festival, this being that almost every aspect of the event’s success relies on a high volume of humans, not a few of them drunk, all of them eating, squeezed into relatively small areas of streetscape.

Most of the time this business plan works out as intended. However, 2020 emphatically is not “most of the time.” The committee rightly fed the facts into the public health calculator of spacing and hygiene necessary to contain the pandemic, crunched the numbers, and found -- alas -- that 2 + 2 still equals 4.

Harvest Homecoming will return in 2021, by which time the global health situation probably (although not necessarily “will”) be clearer. Caution? It’s the most balanced attitude toward unknown factors, and something not to be confused with fear.

Of course, as FDR reminded us, we have nothing to fear except being deprived of amenities and diversions guaranteed to us by the United States Constitution … or the Board of Public Works and Safety, at the very least.

---

Within seconds of the meeting’s final gavel, howls of Internet fury arose from the troll-in-the-mirror narcissists, who figuratively descended on Harvest Homecoming with eggs, toilet paper and so very much mangled syntax.

Seeing as I’m a connoisseur of humanity’s limitless capacity for illogical behavior, I risked the rhetorical rubber bullets cascading into a group of innocent bystanders (namely, Harvest Homecoming’s volunteer workers, who don’t deserve the abuse heaped on them by hordes of sheer dullards), strapped myself into several layers of PPE and dove into the social media scrum, only to be deafened by what sounded like hundreds, perhaps thousands of indignant, starving crows.

Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me

You might say it was “enchanting.” Here are several examples.

ML (works at Humana): This is so overblown at this point.

BNB (hospital worker): So you can have thousands of people go protest but we can't have harvest???

WJ: maybe , you should have asked the people of New Albany about the cancellation of the harvest homecoming. before doing it. let us decide if , we want to take the chance or not.

BH (maintenance technician): 250,000 have died from covid...1.2 million died from the flu in 2017...🤔

MD (says he’s a University of Louisville graduate): This is dumb why not wait and see if this thing goes away! Cases she almost gone to zero!

TC: Man. Watch the downtown New Albany business district go belly up now. This was a BIG MONEY deal to a lot of businesses.

What in the name of rolled oysters, elephant ears and frozen chocolate covered bananas is the matter with you people?

I never thought I'd be defending the decision-making of the Harvest Homecoming committee, with which I’ve often differed, but it isn’t hard to put yourself in their shoes. Most of Harvest Homecoming’s governing committee members and volunteers are multi-generational lifers. Love the festival or hate it, they work throughout the year in preparation, and take their tasks very seriously.

This decision to cancel Harvest Homecoming in 2020 almost surely was the hardest thing these folks have ever had to do outside the heavy issues we all face in own personal lives. It’s mind-boggling to accuse them of taking their responsibilities lightly. This whole process must have been traumatic for them.

Did any of you think of THAT?

Here YOU are, masquerading as a “fan” of Harvest Homecoming until the going gets choppy and your field of vision narrows to the chief malady of our nation, in big-ass block letters: ME ME ME ME ME ME ME.

Guess what, doofus: this may come as a surprise, but there are times when it isn’t about YOU; rather, there are times when it needs to be about all of US.

The Harvest Homecoming committee is being responsible and looking to the festival’s long-term prospects. That's savvy. Not everyone hereabouts rejects science, and it’s really hard to imagine big crowds turning out his year. If the committee goes fast, some of the throng will be back this year. If it goes slow, probably most of them will return in 2021.

To be fair, we’ve also heard from non-profit organizations as well as for-profit vendors, for whom Harvest Homecoming is a primary annual revenue source. There’ll be pain, just as there has been for the food and drink business. Losing St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t exactly enjoyable, nor being closed entirely or operating for more than two months on far less than 50% of customary sales volume.

It's what had to be done for the greater good. As with the pandemic writ large, perhaps the pain will lead to fresher thinking. Is there anything that can be done a little bit each day of the year to offset the risk of depending on just one week?

Must we go to the office five days a week, or can we work from home for three?

Is it really necessary for you to spit in my face while extolling the selfless virtues of The Donald?

As for the experts, well, if you’ve never been charged with thinking past the distance to where your car is parked, or planning activities for a few hundred thousand of your closest friends as opposed to heading down to the stop ‘n’ rob for a Big Gulp or three, then you may wish to get a life.

I’m told you can buy one at Amazon, although be forewarned.

The life you buy for yourself might be manufactured in China -- and then what?

---

Recent columns:

May 28: ON THE AVENUES: The late, great Lee Kelly -- by Matt Nash.

May 21: ON THE AVENUES: Godlessness in defense of heathens, infidels, idolaters, atheists, non-theists, irreligious people, agnostics, skeptics, heretics and apostates.

May 14: ON THE AVENUES: Food is my friend, but please, I'm no foodie.

May 7: ON THE AVENUES: COVID tolls for thee -- whatever, so hurry and get your ass back into this seat.

ON THE AVENUES: Pandemic, pornographic, pecksniffian. Just three random words until the booze kicks in.

It wasn’t an uncommon sight, just a comforting one.

David Thrasher stood outside his Art Store on Market Street in downtown New Albany, gesturing to passing traffic; however, actual cars were few and far between, and the asphalt remained unencumbered by tires for long stretches on a Tuesday around noon.

For Dave the pandemic was a flashback.

“Look at that,” he said to me, pointing at the emptiness. “It’s like when I first opened. You could go out there, lie down and take a nap.”

Dave’s Art Store is a civic institution, not so much a retail business as an office, workshop and museum filled with his vast collection of pop culture relics, which occasionally are combined into purely Thrasherist creations.

For 20 years Dave’s been telling passing strollers that admission to the Art Store is free – but it costs ten bucks to get back out. He’s also the originator of the phrase that best describes New Albany: “We’re all here because we’re not all there.”

The two of us chatted for a while, maintaining the six-foot separation required of social distancing (“we never were all that close,” Dave chortled), and knowing that his projects require a fair amount of travel, I asked if it was even possible to work at the present time of our down-hunkering.

“I’ve been tested,” he replied, shrugging.

There was an appropriate pause.

“Just not for the virus.”

Then: “They can pay me anytime. I’ve got so much money I’m burning it for fuel.”

Thanks, my friend. Those were laughs I needed badly.

---

You’d think there’d be plenty to write about during a pandemic, which is perhaps the single biggest story line of my six decades on earth, except that I’m finding it very hard to concentrate. I can’t begin to coherently organize my thoughts, much less make sentences from them.

Times are tough, but having spent ample time reading about history, what’s happening now in the world isn’t all that surprising. From the Black Death through cholera and malaria outbreaks, through the post-World War I influenza pandemic, and now COVID-19, humanity receives periodic post-it notes from Mother Nature.

I’m reminded of George Carlin’s rant on the futility of “saving” our planet.

The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are! We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

It would be glib for me to shrug and say fine; if a pandemic is inevitable, let’s allow the herd to be culled, but the problem with this attitude is there’s no way to pick the precise group slated for thinning. It might be your own, especially if you’re ignoring reality. After all, the coronavirus isn’t checking IDs … or political party registrations.

Rather, the virus is killing people. It's making others very ill, causing untold disruption to lives everywhere, and in large measure exposing and exploiting any and all societal fault lines it stumbles across -- and dude, we have oodles of those. While it might be possible to chart these weak spots in an orderly fashion, my omnibus verdict is fast, off the cuff and goes something like this:

There’s science and rationality, and then there’s stupidity and superstition. Ignore the former at your peril, because the latter has about as much substance as light beer.

---

Ah, yes: beer. I still receive a few “craft beer news service” e-mails. Clicking on a link the other day, I was transported to an oh-so-familiar place where typically under-informed commentators as yet embrace their narcissism and debate the relative merits of yet another wave of copycat IPA releases.

I tried mightily, but after a few paragraphs it stopped registering. Oblivious geekdom is a place I’m no longer interested inhabiting. True, I was saying this well before the pandemic, but now it all seems yawningly frivolous.

Similarly, in spite of not being a sportsball obsessive for many a moon, when all the various ball seasons abruptly ended last month and the Derby and Olympics both were postponed, the stoppages barely dented my consciousness. I felt almost nothing.

Will I care at all when the games finally resume?

The single most important consideration for me at this precise moment is the profound, inexcusable and damnable dysfunction of America’s economic and political systems, because this fustercluck will cost us far too many lives.

Finishing a close second is the way this kakistocracy has acted as a sort of truth serum during the COVID-19 curve-flattening measures, pertaining both to leaders and the (mis)led.

History teaches us that a crisis like this invariably reveals and exaggerates traits already ingrained in us. At present I’m convinced that half or more of the adults in this country, if sent back in time to 1945 and forced to tour the concentration camps in Europe as residents nearby were obligated to do at the war's conclusion, would view the scene and dismiss it as a fake fact.

Only then, a poor third, comes the overwhelming sadness of watching helplessly as most aspects of daily life that lie central to my being, from which I’ve derived (and in equal measure pissed away) money throughout my adult life -- food, drink, travel, tourism -- have been gutted.

They’ll be back once this is over, but irreparably changed; whether for better or worse won’t be known for a while.

---

I need to take a deep breath. Have some Scotch whisky. Settle down.

It should be remembered that informed opinion in Europe after World War II was overwhelmingly pessimistic. After so much unrelenting and devastating conflict over a period of decades, future prosperity seemed unlikely. Could civilization even survive the horror?

It could, and it did. The experts were wrong. To close this column with a modicum of optimism, a passage from the late historian Tony Judt’s remarkable, highly recommended book, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945:

'Post-war', then, lasted a long time; longer, certainly, than historians have sometimes supposed, recounting the difficult post-war years in the flattering light of the prosperous decades to come. Few Europeans in that time, well-informed or otherwise, anticipated the scale of change that was about to break upon them. The experience of the past half-century had induced in many a skeptical pessimism. In the years preceding World War One Europe was an optimistic continent whose statesmen and commentators looked to a confident future. Thirty years on, after World War Two, people had their eyes firmly and nervously fixed upon the terrible past. Many observers anticipated more of the same: another post-war depression, a re-run of the politics of extremism, a third world war.

But the very scale of the collective misery that Europeans had brought upon themselves in the first half of the century had a profoundly de-politicizing effect: far from turning to extreme solutions, in the manner of the years following World War One, the European publics of the gloomy post-World War Two years turned away from politics. The implications of this could be discerned only vaguely at the time—in the failure of Fascist or Communist parties to cash in upon the difficulties of daily existence; in the way in which economics displaced politics as the goal and language of collective action; in the emergence of domestic recreations and domestic consumption in place of participation in public affairs.

And something else was happening. As The New Yorker's Janet Flanner had noticed back in May 1946, the second highest priority (after underclothes) in France's post-war agenda for 'utility' products was baby-carriages. For the first time in many years, Europeans were starting to have babies again. In the UK the birthrate in 1949 was up by 11 percent on 1937; in France it had risen by an unprecedented 33 percent. The implications of this remarkable burst of fertility, in a continent whose leading demographic marker since 1913 had been premature death, were momentous. In more ways than most contemporaries could possibly have foreseen, a new Europe was being born.

Perhaps even America can be reborn -- as opposed to "born again." Stay healthy and safe, my friends. Some sweet day soon, we'll be clinking glasses again.

---

Recent columns:

March 26: ON THE AVENUES: It's a tad premature to sing the healing game.

March 19: ON THE AVENUES: If it's a war, then the food service biz needs to be issued a few weapons. We need improvisation and flexibility to survive the shutdown.

March 12: ON THE AVENUES: Keep calm and carry on.

March 5: ON THE AVENUES: I've got the spirit, but lose the feeling.

ROGER'S DIARY OF THE END TIMES: It's "hard," or the softening of American drinking habits.

Perhaps a lifetime in the better beer business informs my cynicism, or is it our proximity to the bourbon revolution in Kentucky? 

My entire adult life has been dedicated to the proposition of enjoying the pleasures of alcoholic beverages in their time-honored sense -- namely, that they're alcoholic, and with alcohol comes a certain olfactory experience whether beer, wine or liquor.

So, why is everyone going soft with "hard" liquids designed expressly to not taste hard?

I may have answered my own question, and of course I realize that the "hard" revolution in indeterminate "soft" tasting alcoholic beverages (a) has always been with us (wine coolers, light beer, et al) and (b) owes to fundamental denial v.v. personal health; in short, a collection of numbers aimed at convincing drinkers that they can have it all.

Or: If kombucha is healthy for your gut, why corrode your gut with the alcohol "hard" kombucha contains?

And: Mass-produced vodka is odorless and tasteless. Couldn't you add your own tablespoon?

Each day I peruse social media in the morning, invigorated with the assurance that people can't possibly get any dumber.

By afternoon, I'm ready for some of that hard kombucha ... and could you hold the probiotics? Those give me a hangover.

The next drinks trend: Just put the word ‘hard’ in front of any beverage name, by Esther Mobley (SF Chronicle)

Think of a nonalcoholic drink you enjoy. Now put the word “hard” in front of it. Voila: You have a viable new product category.

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: "First It Was Exploding Cans, Now 450 North Shrugs Off Miscalculated ABVs."

The tweeter's spot-on prelude, which I wish I'd written first:

"I love this story (below) so much. It's everything wrong with craft "beer" these days: Absolute shit product, exploding cans, Branding for kids, Zero QC, Zero integrity, (apparently) Zero accountability, Zero fucks given... and consumers still buying."

This is why I'm happily ensconced in the Realm of the Retro. To paraphrase General Grant, I'll fight it out on these principles if it takes the rest of my life.

Let the uninformed buyer beware?

To an extent, yes, but kaleidoscopes, tilt-a-whirls and rotating roulette wheels aren't my personal idea of fun, and this article is required reading for anyone who still cares about beer -- the actual liquid in the glass, not the institutionalized attention deficit disorder which seems to have gripped the land.

By the way, it's an Indiana brewery in the process of grabbing attention for all the wrong reasons. As an old friend once observed, "for shit's sake."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — First It Was Exploding Cans, Now 450 North Shrugs Off Miscalculated ABVs, by Kate Bernot (Good Beer Hunting)

THE GIST

"Holy shiiiiit."

So began the text in a provocative screenshot that was circulating on Twitter in mid-December. The image, whose origins and authorship are unknown, claimed to show laboratory test results of a beer from Columbus, Indiana’s 450 North Brewing Company.

The beer in question was Slushy XL Elephant Ears, a “smoothie-style” Berliner Weisse flavored with raspberry, blackberry, graham cracker, cinnamon, and vanilla, and which could be visually mistaken for a grape Slurpee. The release was part of the brewery’s Slushy XL line, a hype-darling series of kettle-soured beers packaged in 16oz cans and flavored heavily with fruit purees after fermentation. The test results showed the beer’s ABV was 2.65%, significantly lower than the 8% ABV listed on the can.

"If they sent this away to another lab the results would be exactly the same," the screenshot read. "Shocking."

Not only had the brewery apparently been wildly incorrect in its ABV calculations, but it was charging customers IPA-level prices—roughly $15-$19 per four-pack—that some might be reluctant to pay for such a low-strength beer.

450 North responded via a statement on Instagram posted Dec. 24. Signed by owners David and Brenda Simmons, the post breezily acknowledged the disparity, apologized, and stated the brewery would remove the ABV from its Slushy line until early 2020. It also said the brewery has since adjusted its ABV calculation process to “include any additional adjuncts added post-fermentation.”

"The findings were unexpected," they wrote. "The independent testing of multiple Slushys has determined that our calculation process was critically flawed."

According to Instagram, the brewery has released seven Slushy beers since then, but did not disclose any of their ABVs, or assumed ABVs. The Simmons haven’t addressed the issue since their lone response on Christmas Eve.

WHY IT MATTERS

This isn’t 450 North’s first quality control stumble related to its super-fruited beers. In August 2018, its brewers acknowledged some of its fruited, kettle-soured beer cans might explode if not refrigerated immediately after purchase, because yeast present in the cans could continue to ferment thanks to the the hummingbird-nectar levels of sugar added post-fermentation. Can conditioning isn’t new, but it is a delicate process that takes nuanced attention to allow a beer to finish gracefully—let alone safely. 450 North, however, opted to add levels of fruit that could have been a can’s kryptonite.

“If you want something super fruity, that’s the risk you’ve got to take, it seems like,” 450 North’s assistant brewer Brian Pine told the ABV Chicago podcast at the time. The brewery charges roughly $15-$19 for 16oz four-packs of these beers, noting on Instagram that “the amount of fruit added to our Slushys has always dictated the price.” It’s unclear if that’s specific to actual fruit puree, or fruit juice, which caused the latest problem for the brewery.

But these ABV errors, which the brewery’s Instagram post calls “critically flawed,” raise additional red flags and beg even more questions. Namely, how did the brewery miscalculate its ABVs so drastically? Did it really not know its beers would be less alcoholic following significant additions of fruit? Did it just not care? Do its customers care?

The controversy also raises questions around the Simmons' two other beverage alcohol companies: Simmons Winery and Gnarly Grove Hard Cider. The couple clearly has an understanding of fermentation when it comes to a variety of alcohol categories, so what happened with 450 North?

Those questions can’t be answered here, however, as 450 North did not return messages left with taproom staff, or direct messages on social media.The email address listed on 450 North’s Instagram account is invalid. Additional follow-up calls to the brewery went unanswered; the brewery’s voicemail was also full ...

Chief edible tourism bourbonist Greg Fischer is "praying" that restaurant meals will be taxed higher because that's "easiest" for him and his oligarch friends.

Is he daft?

Fischer Says Restaurant Tax ‘Easiest’ Option For Covering Pension Obligation, by Amina Elahi (WFPL)

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said budget talks are already underway and will pick up in earnest in the new year. City leaders will again need to contend with a large pension bill that is expected to grow another $10 million in the fiscal year starting in July. The question is whether they will turn to cuts for a second year in a row, or successfully raise taxes instead.

The easiest option would be a 3% restaurant tax, which could cover most of the city’s pension costs for the next few years, Fischer said in a year-end interview with WFPL. That move would require authorization by state legislators, which he said would be easy to do. It wouldn’t need a Constitutional amendment, and smaller cities already have the power to implement it.

“I pray for that,” Fischer said. “And we’ll, we’ll see if that happens.”

Short of that, he said the Metro Council may need to reconsider the insurance premium tax they voted down last spring. Fischer said it’s the only real option they have for increasing taxes without state approval. And he said public backlash to cuts that resulted from that vote may encourage Council members to reevaluate ...

Trump at Game 5: Live by the theatrical gesture, die by the theatrical gesture.

Reminiscent of John 3:16?

I'll remember the World Series as the first time in a long while that I rooted for a National League team. New York Yankees appearances are an exception, and in cases of a Dodgers-Yankees series, I wouldn't watch at all.

I've nothing whatever against the players, but I couldn't abide the Houston front office's tone-deaf response to assistant general manager Brandon Taubman's outbursts aimed at female reporters, which took place following the league championship series.

Seems Taubman outed himself as a douche bag -- albeit it explainable behavior for him given a former career on Wall Street -- and his superiors arrogantly flailed for days before belatedly mouthing platitudes absent sincerity about their comprehension of a changing world.

Around the game, shots of schadenfreude have been chased by I-told-you-so's. Contempt for the Astros runs deep -- and has well before this incident. Jealousy breeds some of it. The organization's arrogance accounts for the rest. The Astros painted themselves as a disrupter and reveled in the commotion. They lived with the perception that they didn't understand people. They fed their process, followed it with fealty, doubled down. They believed in it, and they never had much of a reason not to, not until a week ago, when the assistant GM high on the feeling of winning the pennant opened his mouth, and two days later, when Luhnow and the Astros forgot to abide by that essential principle that has guided them for so long: Bad information leads to bad decisions.

Spare the tears for Taubman. Before we know it he'll be back at an investment firm, screwing taxpayers.

 And the Trump scene at Game 5? Spew feces for a living, and you'd best expect to get feces spewed back at you.

I'm happy the Washington Nationals won; again, nothing against the Astros as players. Even apart from the Houston front office fiasco, witnessing a seven-game pro sports series in which the visiting team won all the games is something we're not likely to see repeated.

Take me out of this ball game at The Economist

Donald Trump’s embarrassing reception at the World Series was a defining moment of his presidency

As a rule of thumb, the more an American president is loved, the more baseball stories there are about him.

Although not Donald Trump.

He had not been to watch the Washington Nationals (the Senators’ successors) before this week. And though he was persuaded to go because the “Nats” were appearing in their first World Series, he was not invited to throw the first pitch. On what he might have expected to be his best day as commander-in-chief (he revealed the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi hours earlier), he was hidden away in an executive suite. The Lerner family that owns the Nats did not want him sitting with them. And the one time he flashed up on the big screen the jeering of the crowd was thunderous. A chant of “Lock him up!” rippled round the stadium long after Mr Trump’s image was replaced by footage of smiling servicemen. “Veterans for impeachment” read a banner behind home plate.

The usual battle lines were drawn.

Mr Trump’s Republican defenders dismissed this indignity as mere swamp gurgling. “You can either be loved in dc and hated in America. Or you can be loved in America and hated in dc,” tweeted Congressman Jody Hice. But it signified much worse for the president and his party than a few thousand hostile bureaucrats.

The newspaper concludes ...

He is not the first president to be booed at a sporting event. Bill Clinton was jeered by a nascar crowd, George W. Bush and Barack Obama at baseball games. But veterans of those occasions (and there were several watching the Nats that night) considered the hatefulness of the response to Mr Trump qualitatively different. This should make conservatives even more worried. For years they have exaggerated the vindictiveness and radicalism of the left to mask the contradictions in their own camp. Yet Mr Trump’s divisiveness has turned this into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Charged with partisan grievance, many on the left want to scrap the electoral college, pack the courts—do whatever it takes to never again be tyrannised by an antediluvian minority. Conservatives may soon have more than the odd gay wedding cake to contend with.

And it already seems certain that the one baseball event Mr Trump will be associated with occurred at Nationals Park this week. Sport lifts people with a feeling of vicarious striving for perfection even when their team loses. And when it wins, as the Nationals ultimately did, bringing Washington its first World Series in almost a century, the memory never fades. This is why sport is so much more loved than politics. Immortalised in baseball history, Mr Trump’s humiliation this week will be remembered long after most of his administration’s scandals have faded into oblivion.

Mouth breathers and bicycle lanes: "From congestion to cost, there are many entirely misguided arguments in circulation."

It would be nice if we had a newspaper.

It would be nice if we had a newspaper willing to ask questions of public officials.

It would be nice if we had a newspaper willing to ask questions of public officials, as whenever Jeff Gahan assumes full credit for a new miracle, the reporter asks: and what exactly are you doing to connect these various miracles by some form of mobility that isn't another automobile?

But we don't have a newspaper, and this isn't nice at all, because it means that Gahan and his car-centric ilk continue to utilize the ol' bait 'n' switch, pretending that infrastructure projects are about mobility options, when they're typically no more than another driver pacification scheme.

We don't have a newspaper. It really sucks.

Ten common myths about bike lanes – and why they're wrong, by Peter Walker (The Guardian)

From congestion to cost, there are many entirely misguided arguments in circulation

Cycle lanes have been in the news recently, as have the many often entirely misguided arguments that opponents use against them.

For all the (slight) progress in some UK cities over mass cycling, we are still at a stage where a leaflet from a local branch of the party of government (see below) will state falsehoods about bike lanes as if they were the undoubted truth.

So perhaps it’s time to demolish 10 of the most common myths about cycle infrastructure. Do by all means suggest more in the comments below.

1. Cycle lanes increase congestion (and thus pollution)

This is perhaps the most common myth, possibly because critics confuse what feels like it’s true with what actually is true: the assumption that if you take some road space from motor vehicles, you get more traffic jams – as with (a commonly used parallel) forcing water down a smaller pipe.

But fluid and traffic are not the same thing, as shown by 60 years of governments trying and failing to road-build their way out of congestion. The idea of induced demand – more road space brings more cars – has been known for decades, and it also works in reverse. This is especially so with bike lanes, which are such an efficient use of the same space that they can often mean the same amount of space carrying more people overall.

Yes, traffic jams have worsened in some cities where bike lanes have been built, but studies show this is largely down to other factors, for example the growth in the number of Uber-type private hire vehicles and Amazon delivery vans.

Most compelling of all, of course, is the fact that motor vehicles cause the congestion in the first place, and the only real way to reduce traffic congestion is to have fewer of them on the roads.

Snip

10. There’s no need

This is, in effect, the message of the critics: not this, not now – let’s try to get away with unambitious schemes without proper infrastructure, which will never change much.

You could write a whole column – even a book – about why this is absurd, but it’s always worth stressing this point to the cycling naysayers: OK, what’s your solution to gridlock, pollution, a climate emergency; to cities that are noisy, dangerous and unjust? They will not respond, because there is no answer.

Suburban gun sales quadruple as "Mayor Greg Fischer and Louisville waterfront officials say the time is right to renew the push for pedestrian and cycling access on the K&I Bridge."

Here's the first reference to the K&I Bridge in this blog's 14-year history, occurring on February 10, 2005.

Mayors united in support for K & I bicycle link

Last fall, during a chat with NA Confidential, former Councilman Richard Bliss took note of the K & I bicycling proposal.

The railroad isn’t hard to work with, we recall Bliss saying at the time. He added that so long as you’re willing to take all the responsibility, do all the work, pay for all of it and accept all the insurance liability, the railroad’s right with you on a project.

Readers can click here for links to another dozen articles about the K&I appearing in this space during the last seven years, like this one on February 9, 2016.

K & I: It's like a litmus test for prejudice ... and it's got hazmat, too.

It remains difficult to for me to fathom the disgruntlement in some quarters expressed at renewed calls for the K & I to be converted into a shared use path ...

... Huckabee-voting Louisville East End suburbanites bash the notion of potential expenditures to assist mobility and interconnected neighborhoods, preferring to reserve transportation subsidies for their own auto-centric sprawl.

New Albanians are terrified that ISIS-colored refugees are in Portland, just waiting for a footpath to launch attacks on Dewey Heights.

Portlanders exactly say the same, only in reverse.

All of it remains purely theoretical, and yet already social media experts are debating policing levels, surveillance against chicanery, and all the other details barely mentioned when the Big Four's conversion was lauded as a victory for modernity.

Then there's the entity that should be on the nationalization chopping block, Norfolk Southern.

Fast-forwarding to the present, it seems the local imagination drought still very much afflicts us. Today a Facebook discussion broke out about Green's WDRB piece (below), and I believe these viewpoints lowered my IQ by at least 30 points, leaving me with very little brain power to emphasize a point we've been making here for about a thousand years, or at least since President Lincoln mistakenly awarded right-of-ways to the railroads from terra firma down to the planet's core, and up in the sky all the way to Jupiter.

Nationalize Norfolk Southern's skanky asses.

Wait -- that's a valid consideration, but not what I meant to say, which is this:

Whether the K&I pedway happens or not, the decision and the process will have next to nothing to do with New Albany, in the sense that the city of Louisville will be the prime mover.

Kentucky owns the river, and Norfolk Southern the bridge. New Gahanians are merely bit players in all this, so if the mayor starts taking credit for any of it, vote for someone else.

ANYONE else. After all, #EightIsEnough

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer backs new effort for K&I Bridge pedestrian path, by Marcus Green (WDRB)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Mayor Greg Fischer and Louisville waterfront officials say the time is right to renew the push for pedestrian and cycling access on the K&I Bridge.

The Waterfront Development Corp. broached the issue briefly at its meeting this month after Fischer, a board member, asked whether the renovated Sherman Minton Bridge will include a path for cyclists. That project won’t.

But Fischer told WDRB News in an interview that it’s important to finish an Ohio River loop between Louisville and Southern Indiana, where a trail system in Clark and Floyd counties is being completed.

On the Louisville side, early work is underway to expand Waterfront Park to the west and toward Norfolk Southern Corp.’s railroad bridge between the Portland neighborhood and New Albany, Ind.

Despite previous pressure from elected officials and business leaders in Kentucky and Indiana, Norfolk Southern has resisted efforts to allow people on the span’s former car lanes. The company did not return a phone message seeking comment ...

Speed Thought Control: Board of Works, city engineer still unable to grasp reality when it comes to speedway street grid dangers, so they spout meaningless drivel.

Team Gahan can be like a pile of wet rags. It can also be like a cat.

There are a number of reasons cats arch their backs, but here are the three main ones ... first is that of the fear aggressor. In this classic Halloween pose, a cat arches his back and shows piloerection (i.e., his hair stands straight up) as a way of making himself look bigger when confronted with danger. When a cat looks like this, he is basically saying, “I’m scared of you but I’m ready to defend myself if you come any closer.” The cat may also make it clear that he’s ready to defend himself by doing things like growling, hissing, spitting and showing his teeth. If you encounter a cat giving this display, the best response is to slowly back away and give the cat his space.

Just like at this week's Bored with Public Works and Safety meeting, from which we learn that one whole year after erecting completely useless, HWC Engineering-inspired crosswalk signals-to-drivers-to-maim-pedestrians, the city now proposes to make a helpful instructional video. Let's hope drivers watch it BEFORE hopping into their speeding cars.

Does HWC get the contract for the video, too?

It's awesome the way the city's expert functionaries are questioned, and ZOOM -- up go their backs. Meanwhile, the stenographer Chris Morris still refuses to question the bilge spewed at him from all directions.

Please, Bill, may we have a reporter who possesses a minuscule iota of intellectual curiosity about the planet?

Seriously, can it get any dumber than this?

I'm not sure whose eyeballs city engineers Larry Summers is using when he surveys supposedly obvious "reduction in speed" on Spring Street, but isn't it inadvertently hilarious that in the immediate aftermath of the story related here ...

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: The curious case of the speeding ticket, the honest cop, his fuming chief and the city's abject failure to calm downtown traffic.

... we now have "evidence" in the form of droll claims that fewer speeding tickets have been issued, when in fact the police department vastly curtailed its usual downtown speed traps after two-way streets were implemented -- and rightly so, this being one objective of proper design to reduce speed, which we largely failed to put into place out of political squeamishness, if not stupidity.

Yes: the cops can't write tickets when they're not monitoring speed, can they?

The police presence became noticeable only AFTER neighborhood residents complained to BOW, only to be told smugly that city officials who never walk the streets are a far better judge of such matters than people who live astride them.

Anyone seen my pitchfork?

It's been an utter fiasco, and City Hall remains in a Orwellian state of institutional denial and serial tone deafness. The only sensible thought uttered by any of the officials quoted in the article below is this, from Al Knable:

"I am for whatever works to slow traffic.

Exactly. Shouldn't each of them, mayor and minions, begin any instance of commenting about speed and safety with an affirmation of this simple, single objective?

Shouldn't they be fighting to implement safety measures, rather than making the sort of "we can't do nuthin' at all" excuses, just like this oldie but still goodie:

Summers said he does not think a stop sign or signal can be installed at Fourth and Spring because a traffic count would not warrant one. He said there is not enough traffic on any of the side streets, off of Spring, that would require a stop sign.

Jeeebus, Larry: then conduct the fucking traffic count as a prelude, and if the state's cars-first standards aren't serving the cause of walkable street grid safety, can't we fight against THEM, to do what's right for US, rather than dismissing safety because enhancing safety is too much trouble?

Ah, but wait. 

We'd have to consult with Republicans like Ed Clere to do that, wouldn't we?

And that's why we don't bother fighting for safe streets, isn't it?

Our New Gahanian milieu may be comprised of counter-productive anti-intellectual squalor, but it's our DEMOCRATIC PARTY's counter-productive anti-intellectual squalor. If New Albany can only be as bright as its leading elements, then literally, we're a place where the sun don't shine.

#OurBananaRepublic

Speed Control: New Albany collecting Spring Street speed, by Chris Morris (Tom May's Summa Theologica)

NEW ALBANY — One of the reasons the city of New Albany converted Spring Street to two-way traffic last year was to control speed. And for the most part, it has worked.

Instead of three lanes of traffic heading in one direction, Spring Street was cut down to two lanes going east and west. It's obvious traffic moves at a slower pace from Vincennes to State Street.

"I know from talking to the police chief that traffic tickets along there are down significantly. People are not going as fast as they used to," Larry Summers, New Albany city engineer, said. "If you just eyeball it you can see a marked reduction in speed."

But there are still issues with speed along that stretch of Spring, and following the death of skateboarder Matthew Brewer, who was struck by a minivan at Spring and Ninth streets in August, residents came before the New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety pleading that something be done to make the street safer.

The city decided to collect speed data to see if more needs to be done.

This week, crews will begin setting up six radar detector signs, three in each direction. Data will be collected for a month and motorists will be able to see how fast they are traveling once the signs are turned on. Summers hopes it's a wakeup call for some motorists who drive down Spring without paying attention to speed limit signs. Once the data is analyzed, the city will decide its next move.

"When we did the two-way conversion project we said we wanted to do further analysis on the grid," Summers said. "This is a continuation of that in some regards. Speed reduction is very important. We want to make this more of a walkable community."

The radar detector signs will be similar to the ones along McDonald Lane. Paul Lincks, with HWC Engineering, said signs will be placed eastbound near Fourth and Ninth streets, and between 11th and 13th streets. Westbound, signs also will go up between 11th and 13th streets, beyond Ninth Street and before Fifth Street.

Lincks said the radar detector signs should produce results city officials are hoping to achieve when it comes to analyzing speed.

"Let's get the data, look at it, and go from there," he said. "We will be able to compare the speeds cars are traveling to the speed limit to see what is going on."

New Albany City Councilman Al Knable said converting Spring Street to two-way traffic was done to make it less of a thoroughfare, and more of a neighborhood street.

"At times people are still treating it like a thoroughfare," Knable said. "I am for whatever works to slow traffic. I hope this will give us meaningful data to see what the next step might be."

Summers, who lives along Spring Street, believes motorists will pay attention to the speed signs.

"People drive distracted. I hope this is something that gets their attention," he said.

POSSIBLE FOUR-WAY STOPS

Ron Howard knows exactly how to make Spring Street safer, he said. For starters, he would place a four-way stop at Fourth and Spring, at the New Albany Fire Headquarters and Sweet Stuff Bakery. He said motorists on Fourth, looking to cross Spring Street, can not see traffic in either direction when cars are parked along the street. He said they have to cover the crosswalk and almost get out into Spring Street to see if it's safe to cross.

"Your direct line of sight is blocked when cars are parked along the street," he said. "You would have to do away with parking there. It would take a minimum of four spaces and I don't think the bakery would like that. I don't see any other way but to put a stop sign there unless you put up a traffic signal."

Howard said making Fourth and Spring a four-way stop would cost "next to nothing."

"The only way to get out there [on Spring] is to ignore the crosswalk," he said. "You are blind in both directions. It seems to me the safest thing to do."

Others have also suggested putting in a four-way stop and 13th and Elm streets to slow traffic.

Summers said he does not think a stop sign or signal can be installed at Fourth and Spring because a traffic count would not warrant one. He said there is not enough traffic on any of the side streets, off of Spring, that would require a stop sign.

EDUCATING DRIVERS

Summers said the city plans to release a video on its website to educate the public on the new crosswalk signals that were put in when Spring Street was converted to two-way.

Anti-Semitism always mutates to survive, forever feeding on raw stupidity.

We live in times where there is a surplus of facts, information and knowledge, all of it at our fingertips, more bountiful and readily available than at any point in human history.

Perhaps it is a reflection of our inability (unwillingness?) to sort, collate and quantify all this knowledge that every day it's possible to pluck an item or 200 from the news feed and reach the inescapable conclusion that people have nonetheless become as stunted and dense as medieval peasants.

And yes, I know ... I'm insulting the medieval peasants by making this comparison.

I'm far from perfect as a human being, but these variants of hatred make no sense to me, whether they're anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny or homophobia. If anything, I can come close to understanding the impulse to hate the haters; while abstract discussions of "love" haven't ever ranked high on my personal hit parade, it seems obvious that hating hate isn't enough.

But at least medieval peasants knew how to cook their own meals, while contemporary white supremacists are doomed to the dollar menu at a fast food chain. If logic can't cripple them, perhaps coagulated arteries will.

Jew-hatred keeps mutating to survive (The Economist)

Lessons from the Pittsburgh massacre

... Most Jews in Europe do not cower. Nor have American Jews been as safe as they presumed. That became tragically apparent on October 27th, when a white-supremacist gunman, named as Robert Bowers, shot dead 11 Sabbath worshippers in Pittsburgh (see article). “I never thought that the kind of terrorism that we have seen in France and in other places in Europe would be raising its ugly head in America,” says Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish group. And he thinks “it’s only the opening round.” Suddenly, it is American Jews who have started talking about whether, when and how to leave.

It is futile to try to assess the true extent of Jew-hatred from the deeds of a lone gunman. The Anti-Defamation League (adl), which fights bigotry, says there was a sharp rise last year in anti-Semitic incidents, such as vandalism of Jewish sites and harassment (including bomb threats). But the number of assaults on Jews was small and fell. Worldwide, violence against Jews has declined sharply since 2014, according to an annual study by Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Centre (see chart).

Beyond such violence, defining anti-Semitism is harder because it is so protean. Historically, notes Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s former chief rabbi, “Jews were hated because they were poor and because they were rich; because they were communists and because they were capitalists; because they kept to themselves and because they infiltrated everywhere; because they clung to ancient religious beliefs and because they were rootless cosmopolitans who believed nothing.” These days, overt Jew-hatred is comparatively rare in the West, largely because of its association with the Nazi Holocaust. Often it is disguised. Rants about “globalists” on the far-right and “Zionists” on the far-left can be euphemisms for “Jews”. Yet both words have straightforward meanings, too, and not all who use them are bigots.

Michal Bilewicz of the University of Warsaw outlines three categories of anti-Semitism. The “traditional” kind is based on Catholic teaching (since abandoned) that Jews killed Christ, and on medieval blood-libels (accusations that Jews killed children to mix their blood with Passover flatbread). The second, “modern”, sort is based on a belief in conspiracies by powerful Jews. The last kind, “secondary” anti-Semitism, holds that Jews abuse the history of the Holocaust. Others seek to categorise the miasma differently: eg, as racist, economic, cultural and religious; or explicit and coded; or soft and violent ...

Begging for density -- or, a city council meeting recap for Thursday, March 15, and the case for liquor as proper vaccine.

I live in a country that chronically devalues, denigrates and under-funds social services — or, if you will, the safety net.

Then, neglecting to drink the three martinis that might have given me immunity to the inevitable IQ-reduction therapy, I am treated to a city council populated entirely by 50-something white male NAHS graduates undertaking to discuss helping strapped local charities by reviving curbside donations by sanctioned panhandlers bearing buckets, but only the certified organizations, mind you; we wouldn’t want those in need to beg for THEMSELVES, would we?

How gauche, so let’s be sure and make the bucket brigades LOOK as respectable as possible, maybe lanyards, badges and a dress code, then they’ll fleece enough drivers on Calmed! Chaotic! two-way streets (no one can decide which, so enter your biased viewpoint here) to refrain from soaking the taxpayers for social services.

We don’t want it to LOOK bad when these sanctioned organizations like the Salvation Army shake down drivers, or it to LOOK bad for the needy to tend to their own panhandling, or for it to LOOK bad for there to be people in need in the first place, which is why perennial luminaries like Dan Coffey can simultaneously insist there isn’t anywhere near enough affordable housing in NA, then vote against the Mews proposal in his own district, though he flipped and voted for a PUDD development at Daisy & Green Valley (below), all the while insisting that 500 affordable housing units at the New Albany Housing Authority must be abolished.

Meanwhile, ask our nine city council members to define density, and their answers will range from “3” to “33” to “TILT.” The Democrats who wrote the comprehensive plan that stipulated density continue to oppose density, having forgotten to define it exactly in the document they approves.

The banker Blair supports annexing more suburban land when we know it only escalates maintenance costs. Paddy Mac thinks walkers are always to blame in accidents because they don’t know their place, and compares the street grid to the painted striping on a factory floor. Coffey plots a coup to seize municipal power for the K of C; barring that, he'll accept public money to restore the facade.

Barksdale, supposedly a Republican, supports the Mayor (a Democrat) more often than Phipps, one of Gahan’s most dependable yes men.

If I were to predicate my 2019 support for council representatives on a simple pattern of logical consistency from one meeting to the next — from ONE MINUTE to the next -- there’d be no need to even consider voting. I haven’t witnessed so many circular arguments since King Larry walked the earth (one time on a single ordinance requiring three votes, Kochert voted for, against, and abstained), when all I really want to do is to live in a country that values social services without the need to assign non-profit bucket-wielders a Caesar-issue security clearance.

The newspaper's coverage centers on the zoning ordinance. Nothing is said about the "let's make NA great again for non-profits begging in the streets" ordinance adjustment, which ultimately was tabled so Coffey can fine-tune it into a shibboleth he can micro-manage between barbecued bologna campaign backslappers.

New Albany City Council turns down proposed development at Daisy Lane and Green Valley, by Erin Walden (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — A high-end housing development proposed to go near Green Valley Road and East Daisy Lane has been squelched.

The first two readings of an ordinance that would have rezoned 5.1 acres for development failed on a 5-4 vote during New Albany City Council's meeting Thursday night.

COMMENTARY: Deaf Gahan mentioned "opioid crisis" in a press release, but this probably doesn't mean what you think it does, so let's clear it up.

It seemed like big news earlier this week, but with a wee bit of scrutiny, the spiel is exposed as more of the same New Gahanian institutional flatulence.

Three years after Southern Indiana's opioid crisis exploded into widespread consciousness, both here and throughout the nation ...

(Austin, Indiana) is a tiny place, covering just two and a half square miles of the sliver of land that comprises Scott County. An incredible proportion of its 4,100 population — up to an estimated 500 people — are shooting up. It was here, starting in December 2014, that the single largest HIV outbreak in US history took place. Austin went from having no more than three cases per year to 180 in 2015, a prevalence rate close to that seen in sub-Saharan Africa.*

 ... Jeff Gahan finally referenced the issue publicly, for attribution. Upon closer examination, however, it appears that Gahan said nothing at all of substance.

Gahan piggybacked the opioid topic only after Mike Moore broached it at the press conference announcing a lawsuit against distributors, one clearly impelled and initiated by Jeffersonville, not New Albany.

He hitched his "unwoke" consciousness to the usual preferred study grants, After all, how else to properly monetize opioid addiction to serve the cause of campaign finance?

And, he showed no signs that he believes addiction is a problem right here in New Albany.

Note the Jeffersonville- and Moore-centric tone of local chain newspaper coverage. In fact, the reporter Beilman's initial "breaking news" tweets didn't mention New Albany's participation in the lawsuit. This news came later.

Jeffersonville, New Albany to sue opioid distributors over 'broken homes, families torn apart', by Elizabeth Beilman (Chain Newspaper)

Three multi-billion distributors targeted in federal suit

The cities of Jeffersonville and New Albany are taking on multi-billion dollar wholesale pharmaceutical distributors that officials claim are responsible for proliferating the opioid addiction crisis in their communities.

Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore announced at a Wednesday morning news conference that the city is filing a lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp.

Impressive. Jeffersonville's mayor actually spoke publicly in a room with people present. Perhaps Moore doesn't suffer from a personality disorder.

Seemingly as an afterthought following Moore's explanation, Gahan's thoughts are recorded, via the same old ritualistic bunker news release quote.

New Albany announced later in the day that it is joining a lawsuit against these same distributors.

New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan attended the Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Symposium in Indianapolis this week, participating in workshops and hearing from speakers from a variety of professions.

"The opioid crisis is spreading to communities across the nation, and we all need to be more active in learning about what we can do to prevent opioid addiction," Gahan stated in a news release.

New Albany has applied for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor's Challenge grant, which focuses on early education and what communities can do to fight the opioid crisis.

As Beilman attributes, New Albany's copycat case is lifted directly from Gahan's agoraphobic propaganda generator, deployed in the absence of a living human being willing to tackle a genuinely vital issue.

Perhaps mayoral stand-in Mike Hall was ill, or at lunch.

Mayor Gahan Joins Lawsuit Against Wholesale Opioid Distributors

Mayor Gahan joins others in a lawsuit against wholesale opioid distributors, which have helped spread the opioid addiction crisis.

“The opioid crisis is spreading to communities across the nation, and we all need to be more active in learning about what we can do to prevent opioid addiction,” stated Mayor Gahan.

Earlier this week, Mayor Gahan attended the 8th Annual Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Symposium in Indianapolis ...

Profiles in courage, eh?

In essence, other people have an opioid problem -- we'll study it a bit longer, and let someone else pay the lawyers. But I suspect Gahan is harboring deeper conniving on this matter, as tutored by Breitbart and Bob Norwood.

Let's say you're a 50-something white male C-student New Albany High School graduate steeped in the mythology of (a) a local Democratic Party structure in perpetual thrall to the legacy of Strom Thurmond, and (b) your upbringing in a decaying river town, where you always close your eyes when you sneeze and the presence of vulnerable people in public housing prevents honest and upright folks from making a living selling veneer.

Furthermore, thanks to the Peter Principle, you've somehow emerged as mayor -- the biggest fish in a tiny pond.

Privately, you've already resolved to solve the public housing "problem" by annexation, sycophant-seeding and demolition. Comes the opioid epidemic, and your first inclination is to hunker down and deny such things even exist in your idyllic city. 

Hence one of Shane's excellent new words: syndemics.

The term syndemics was coined by Merrill Singer, a medical anthropologist at the University of Connecticut. Singer was working with injecting drug users in Hartford in the 1990s in an effort to find a public health model for preventing HIV among these individuals. As he chronicled the presence of not only HIV but also tuberculosis and hepatitis C among the hundreds of drug users he interviewed, Singer began wondering how those diseases interacted to the detriment of the person. He called this clustering of conditions a "syndemic," a word intended to encapsulate the synergistic intertwining of certain problems. Describing HIV and hepatitis C as concurrent implies they are separable and independent. But Singer’s work with the Hartford drug users suggested that such separation was impossible. The diseases couldn’t be properly understood in isolation. They were not individual problems, but connected.

The wheels can be imagined squeakily turning in the mayor's noggin.

Singer quickly realized that syndemics was not just about the clustering of physical illnesses; it also encompassed nonbiological conditions like poverty, drug abuse, and other social, economic and political factors known to accompany poor health. “Syndemics is embedded in a larger understanding about what’s going on in societies,” he said when I spoke to him. Singer dubbed the syndemic he’d observed in Hartford "SAVA," short for substance abuse, violence and HIV/AIDS. In the past ten years, several medical anthropologists have pursued syndemics theory in other contexts. Emily Mendenhall, who studies global health at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, has described a syndemic of type 2 diabetes and depression among first- and second-generation Mexican immigrant women in Chicago. She named that syndemic "VIDDA," short for violence, immigration, depression, diabetes and abuse, the constellation of epidemics the women were experiencing. “The people who get affected by any given disease, it’s not random,” said Bobby Milstein, a public health scientist, today at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who founded the now-defunct Syndemics Prevention Network at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It happens systematically with certain people who are placed in conditions of vulnerability that are not entirely under their own control.”

He reaches for a Bud Light Lime bar napkin and begins drawing circles.

All of what has happened since the late 1980s is potentially part of Austin’s syndemic: the sudden unemployment, the desertion of the young, the fall in rent prices, the rise of the itinerant population, the decline of infrastructure, the overprescription of pain pills, the lack of assistance. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, it seems, the town itself had become sick, the result of various forms of ‘structural violence’ — a term introduced by Harvard physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer to describe harmful social frameworks — along with historical, behavioral and political risk factors.

There it is in a public policy nutshell: 

If the city is honest and pristine, but is being held back by public housing, then public housing must be like an Austin infiltrating the perimeter; that's where all the drugs, fornicators and layabouts are. Obviously, uproot public housing like a stray LEGO block and toss it over to Louisville or Greenville or Birdseye -- somewhere, anywhere except here in Come To City -- then magically, we'll have rid ourselves of the preconditions of opioid addiction. What's more, there'll no longer be poverty amid Luxury Lebensraum ... and there'll be lap dances aplenty for the Interim Executive Director.

Look, I didn't say it made sense, only that it's highly likely. Money first; logic a distant second.

Of course, Dan "Copperhead" Coffey arrives at precisely the same conclusion without aspiring to justify all those C-minuses: They're not citizens, so tear down their buildings and they'll go away. Fuck 'em; they don't vote.

In short, the systemics of syndemics apply to New Albany outside the boundaries of public housing, but scapegoats always play better amid the dynamics of denial.

There really ought to be a vaccine for this level of stupid.

---

* How Did A Small Midwest Town End Up With America's Worst HIV Problem?, by Jessica Wapner (Digg)

ASK THE BORED: Elm Street reversion rollout? Don't ask, because it's not the city's top priority, or something like that.

It looks like the newspaper's Elizabeth Beilman drew the short straw for the Board of Works meeting this morning, seeing as usual Bored observer Chris Morris was otherwise occupied urging precipitate vigilante action against the owner of 519 Hausfeldt Lane.

MORRIS: Time has run out on New Albany house

 ... But that black walnut tree would be a welcome site to the folks who live near 519 Hausfeldt Lane in New Albany. Instead of a walnut tree they have junked cars, trash, mosquitoes and yes rats running around the neighborhood. You see 519 Hausfeldt Lane is a junkyard sitting in a residential area. The house and both front and back yards are full of junk. And due to an ongoing lawsuit, nothing can be done about it until a judge rules on the matter or tosses it out for having no merit. But something needs to be done with it, like now. It needs to be bulldozed ...

... So there are legal hurdles to clear. But it sounds like the city is determined to do something about the property. That is a good thing. This should be the city's top priority as we close out 2017. Whatever it takes to speed up the process needs to happen.

I understand due process, but it's a joke that in 2017, in a civilized society on a street visible to many and near a large industrial park and college campus, this is allowed to continue. It seems like no judge could look at this property and say it's not a health hazard or just wrong. Something has to get done.

"I understand due process, but ... "

Wait -- wasn't this Donald Trump's subliminal campaign slogan?

Morris is a member of the News and Tribune's editorial board, which was unable to muster a coherent response to DNA's recent Sombrero Stereotyping Walk, perhaps because speaking out about unaddressed racial stereotyping might insult the (naturally) well-intentioned "right" type of people, not the "wrong" evil straw men -- like the owner of this admittedly nasty suburban property-value-lowering house.

"This should be the city's top priority as we close out 2017."

Seriously?

This one house?

Granted, there is absolutely no defense for the noxious schlemiel wreaking havoc on his neighborhood -- nor for dozens of other similar buttwipes around town, those with the good fortune NOT to have one of Morris's favored grandees living right next to them so that the nearby afflicted won't have a better-connected voice to argue their case, as Larry Clemons has been doing with regard to 519 Hausfeldt.

And yet even Clemons has insufficient strings to pull as they pertain to a legal system rightly or wrongly accepted by most of us in 95% of instances, so just this one time, let's discard due process and just do what's "right."

I feel for the neighbors, but please, can everyone read a few American history books? In this case, as in so many other areas of the human experience, it's wise to be very careful what you wish for.

Others might decide it's time to abandon due process, too, and in circumstances of far more pressing impact. Vigilantism is a dangerous concept, isn't it? And can the editorial board muster some energy for explicating the multitude of local examples wherein actual human beings are subject to oppression?

It's doing a fairly uniform, consistent job of it in Charlestown and Jeffersonville, and less so in New Albany. Maybe that's because the newspaper's eyes on the ground in NA wear blinders.

But, predictably, I digress.

So, by the way, BoW doesn't know when Elm Street will carry two-way traffic because of this railroad and that luxury housing development.

Note also that BoW deems pedestrian amenities like crosswalk signals a "minor" part of the two-way reversion.

Think so?

By the time the first such pedestrian crossing finally becomes operational, it will have been a month since Spring Street went modern, for what was supposed to have been enhanced walkability.

It's okay. The irony probably was lost on every last one of them.

Market Street in New Albany now two ways — Elm is next (Beilman; 'Bune)

No date yet for Elm Street Conversion

NEW ALBANY — Market Street in downtown New Albany is now converted from one way to two, leaving just one street left to change as part of the city's grid modernization project.

City officials were told at the New Albany Board of Works and Safety meeting Tuesday that Elm Street will switch before the end of the month, though no date has been set. Contractors are waiting on a couple unrelated road projects to finish first.

A storm sewer is being replaced at Elm and 15th streets, which is expected to be finished by next week, if not by the end of this week.

Heavy equipment is maneuvering around the under-construction Breakwater apartments to install metal siding on the structure. Contractors working on the grid modernization project wanted to wait until that work was finished, fearing the equipment would tear up a newly paved Elm Street. Paul Lincks, senior project manager with HWC Engineering, said the Breakwater work should be complete by Sept. 22.

Once all five downtown streets have converted to two ways, there will still be some minor portions of the project to complete, such as pedestrian-activated crosswalks.

"Eventually there'll be a plan to replant" the clear-cut tree cover, but of course no one can say what or when that might be.

At the October 20 council meeting, CM David Barksdale was quick to provide the answer (above) to a question that none of his colleagues had asked. was it because NAC did?

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2016
Clear Cut New Albany: Down go the first three of Judge Cody's street trees. Lord, how I detest this place at times.

Points to remember beyond the predictably indeterminate "plan" to replant include the amazing fact that the city has yet to chop down a healthy tree; as with unanimous vote totals during Communist electoral times, New Albany's street trees are 98.8% diseased, forever and always.

Also, the equation encompassed on the death certificate is nearly always presented in a false binary format: It's the tree OR the sidewalk. In an era of ubiquity in construction techniques, that's utter hogwash. It's easier to fell the tree, but this isn't the only "choice" available to thinkers stuck inside impermeable boxes.

Then there's the oldest excuse of all: "Our Tree Board is underfunded and neglected and does what it can." As though there's no way to fix that, but lest we forget, the Tree Board is an appendage of the Board of Works, and might be fixed any time the mayor desires. First he'd have to think, and therein lies the problem.

Finally, it's helpful to be wary of the city's historic preservation contingent, with whom I agree often, though not always. There are documented instances of preservationists grabbing their chain saws when a tree is blocking the pristine view of a lovely old home (generally, the view as enjoyed from a passing car speeding down a one-way street). That's not arbor; that's arson.

Perhaps the cloistered committee of captive usual suspects and yes-men toiling behind closed doors to formulate the purportedly "comprehensive" campaign finance plan (it should take us through a mayoral bid by the incumbent's yet-to-be-conceived grandson) could work something into it about trees?

You know, shade during times of climate change -- or don't they believe in climate change?

File under: The Chronicles of New Gahania.

ON THE AVENUES: They're coming to take me away.

ON THE AVENUES: They're coming to take me away.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

I was raised to give a damn, and it isn’t easy stepping away from that.

Conversely, I taught myself to self-medicate in times of extreme duress – and staying upright while inside a bottle is no picnic, either.

This year it’s been harder than ever.

I gaze longingly at those nice, clean receptacles of gin, bourbon and rum, and dream about blissful weeks drinking breakfast by dawn’s early light – or after lunch, whichever comes first.

For the most part, I’m sidestepping temptation. I may need a hobby, or a job.

Gads. It's come to that?

This year there have been numerous sources of dissonance worthy of attribution, and yet they’re little more than blips of background noise compared with the 800-lb simian’s source of unrelenting daily pressure: Trump, Clinton, and the deplorables on all sides of the most offensive exercise in so-called democracy I’ve ever seen in 56 years of near certainty that the only Americans who aren’t certifiable lunatics are those who remain oblivious to the idiocy, whether through drugs, alcohol or sheer cantankerousness.

I’d dearly love to join them, except I just cannot seem to succeed in tuning out the clatter. Why was my upbringing so oppressively responsible?

My parents weren’t deep readers. They perused the daily newspaper, watched television news and listened to the radio during a forgotten age when worthwhile chunks of genuine information sometimes penetrated the advertisements.

Perhaps my father’s keen interest in news and current affairs was compensation for the absence of formal education. He joined the Marines, went off to war at the tender age of 17, and later completed his G.E.D., but I always had the sense he felt something was missing.

At any rate, whatever the motivation, he taught me to care about the world at large, and for this I’m appreciative.

My maternal grandfather was involved in civic affairs in Henderson, Kentucky, and my mother inherited his interest in politics, generally referring to herself as a “Yellow Dog Democrat,” which means she’d sooner vote for a yellow dog than a Republican.

Vulgar talking yams (to quote Charles P. Pierce) are another matter. My mom just turned 84, and when I went to see her earlier today at Silvercrest, she was watching Donald Trump speak in Florida.

Mother: What do you think of Trump?

Son: He’s an idiot.

Mother: You don’t think he’ll win?

Son: Doubtful. He’s an idiot.

Mother: I sure hope he doesn’t.

Her absentee ballot rested on the coffee table, and my guess is you can chalk one up for Hillary Clinton. After all, my mom would sooner vote for a yellow dog than a surreal absurdity.

---

As for me, I’ve been examining the sample ballot in a desperate attempt to spot viable options, whether local or national.

As previously noted, I’ll be voting for Dennis Roudenbush (Floyd County Commissioner) and Ed Clere (State Representative). Because I can trust Randy Smith (at-large) and Rebecca Gardenour (District 4) to reject the “good old boy” network of acolytes eager to shine Superintendent Hibbard’s shoes, they’re my choices for NA-FC school board.

I met Dale Bagshaw for the first time last year, and he’s both earnest and honest. Moreover, it’s been fascinating to see his position on two-way streets evolve. Dale has my vote for County Council.

Beyond these races, the labored mulling continues as the liquor cabinet beckons.

For President of these Disunited States, I simply will not waste my vote on a major party candidate. The most likely choice remains the Green Party’s Jill Stein as a write-in, although I’ve toyed with the idea of writing in Bernie Sanders, Jeff Gahan, David Duggins, Max the Wonder Chimp or even me.

If you detect notes of sarcasm, disdain, derision, contempt and disgust, you’re about halfway there, and I’m not sure the second half is traversable without more martinis than my liver is prepared to ingest.

---

Of course, this is the crux of it. As with the music I can’t avoid hearing at the supermarket or the road signs I am unable to stop reading, it seems impossible for me to ignore the Great Electoral Train Wreck of 2016.

I want so badly to push it aside – to digest edifying novels, not installments of Five Thirty Eight; to imagine Mike Pence playing outfield for Rockheads (I mean Rockies); and to pretend that the Democratic Party is sufficiently progressive for me to support it.

Alas, I’m condemned to pay attention, reel in revulsion, take a second glance, vomit, gaze at the peanut gallery, and remain frozen unhappily into place, destined for further and unceasing punishment. Waking every morning to a news cycle guaranteed to insult the intelligence of our concrete retaining wall feels like a sledgehammer to the cranium.

And yet, I keep coming back for more. Is it a braindeath wish? Hypnotic suggestion? Misguided sobriety?

Two weeks ago, addressing New Albany’s maddening, protracted gavotte with those gold-paved Disney-endorsed two-way streets running through Jeff Gahan’s head, I wrote that it has become wearying to know that if I don't publicly rebut malarkey-spreaders and civic has-beens, no one else will.

I’ve managed to refrain. Don’t ask me how. Going to Wisconsin for the weekend helped – the Badger State has its own problems, but at least escaping the stifling inanity of Harvest Homecoming had a calming effect on me.

So will our Sicilian holiday during Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to seeing Mt. Etna close up and personal, drinking wine, and eating the local pasta dish made with anchovies and fresh sardines. There may be pistachio gelato, and a day trip to Malta.

Knowing the mafia is busy wetting beaks should make the city of Catania feel just like a Redevelopment Commission meeting, albeit one where the language is more sensible to innocent bystanders.

Pardon the digression.

It is tremendously frustrating to keep one’s counsel when misinformed community pillars dispense propaganda about two-way streets that's so distorted Trump would blush, but I’ve managed, and maybe this is a turning point.

Yes, it’s excruciatingly hard to disengage from something this passionate – and as noted, it’s someone else's turn, at least for a while.

Did I mention we brought home three and a half cases of beer from Wisconsin? If you’ll pardon me, it’s time to put the hammer down and inventory those tasty sedatives.

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October 6: ON THE AVENUES: His nose knows tolls and polls (2010).

September 29: ON THE AVENUES 3-PK, PART THREE: Survey says … Irv’s street grid agitprop won’t be putting Diogenes out of work any time soon.

September 29: ON THE AVENUES 3-PK, PART TWO: Inkem binkem notamus rex, protect us all from the city (still) with the hex (2014).

September 29: ON THE AVENUES 3-PK, PART ONE: Chocolate covered frozen banana republic, or "understanding" Harvest Homecoming, our peculiar institution (2014).

September 22: ON THE AVENUES: On two-way streets, a modest proposal for the consideration of my disoriented one-way counterpart.