California Burnin'

On this day:

1190
Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem.
1793
French Revolution: Following the arrests of Girondin leaders, the Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety installing the revolutionary dictatorship.
2003
The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.

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Is charity with borrowed money superior to self-indulgence with borrowed money?

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California Burnin'

LA is beginning to burn again. Fortunately, the heroes responsible for the brilliant reaction to the wildfires are still in office.

The demonstrations are said to be mostly peaceful. However, a mostly sterile solution is not sterile, as a mostly virtuous woman is not virtuous. There is no Richter Scale for violence, but if there were, burning police cars would probably be pretty high.

The peaceful, police-car-burning demonstrators have support. There are actually politicians and press representatives who think that confrontations with the police, complete with felonies, should be tolerated. Maybe even encouraged--in the name of free expression. Perhaps they long for the days of moral outrage--like those of the Vietnam demonstrations--when there was moral outrage, when the short-memoried public held Nixon responsible for the Asian adventures, when people felt more than manufactured and processed ideas of right and wrong.

But riots are not assembly. Arson will not highlight a wrong. The immigration riots are a mess. People are burning flags of the country they say they want to stay in and waving flags of the countries they say they don't want to return to. To the non-academic eye, that looks stupid at best, subversive at worst. And the Left, which caused this immigration problem in the first place, is now mindlessly doubling down and opposing its solution.

What will the stability-seeking guy who just wants to get to work in the morning think?

It looks like a PR event designed by their enemies.