John Glenn (1921-2016) was the oldest of the Mercury Seven, almost two years older than Wally Schirra, the next oldest. Gordon Cooper, the youngest, was six years younger than Glenn, and the astronauts ranged from 32- to 37-years old when presented to the world on April 9, 1959. After Scott Carpenter’s death three years ago, Glenn was the last of the Seven still alive.

To my mind, the most distinctive feature of the recent presidential election was the way in which it scrambled previously-stable political coalitions. Even Mormon voters, who are perhaps more similar to one another in mindset and political views than any other religious group, found themselves opposed in ways they never thought possible: Mommy-blogger was divided against mommy-blogger, and church-baller against church-baller.

Mormon Trump voters and McMullin voters differed less in political or moral views than in the meaning they impute to the act of voting. McMullin voters (like my in-laws) seemed to think of their vote as an affirmation of their values. By withholding a vote from Trump, they were making a statement about what they consider to be acceptable behavior in a president.

Although I voted for Trump, I have no quarrel with the “endorsement” view of voting. Not one person in the whole country can say, or likely ever will be able to say, that his vote changed the result of the election. Thus, the “meaning” which we attribute to our individual vote is essentially metaphysical, and not really subject to rational argument. (more…)

Kris Bryant, the 2016 National League MVP, is a native son of Las Vegas, born in 1992. As is the 2015 NL MVP, Bryce Harper. I am not aware of a third 24-year-old Las Vegan playing in major league baseball.

[Mafalda is an Argentine comic strip that ran in newspapers from 1964 to 1973.]

My week under the sea has ended, my first time under way though I have been serving the navy as a hydrodynamicist for the past dozen years. I may share bits of the experience if there is interest, but for now here are two experiences:

I: The last full day at sea was given to surface maneuvering off the California coast. Toward the end of the day, I requested and received permission from the chief of the watch to visit the bridge atop the sail. He assigned a sailor to help me into a harness, and I climbed up top, and spent a half hour standing there with two officers and one crewman, watching the sun lower and set as we cruised past a large island at 10 knots and the waves washed around us. Twenty minutes after going back down, I noticed some feeling within me and examined what it was. “I feel . . . serene.”

II: A couple hours after coming back in, I sat in the crew mess, eating pizza and listening to the World Series with a dozen crewmen. It felt American.

Stopped at an intersection, I heard a noise to my right, and there were four middle-aged women on the corner waving signs for the congressional candidate they favor, four weeks before election day, when it’s appropriate and good for citizens to participate in political campaigning. One of the weaknesses of the internet age is the weakening of local community, including newspapers and politics. Instead the nation obsesses inordinately on the one election choice we all have in common, electing the U.S. president, and does so for two years.

“Brookland Manor today has 134 four- and five-bedroom apartments. Yet when the new community is built, none of its 1,646 apartments or 114 for-sale townhouses will have more than three bedrooms, and a vast majority will have only one or two.

Brookland’s owner, Mid-City Financial Corp., based in Germantown, Md., told the city’s Zoning Commission that four- and five-bedroom apartments ‘are not consistent with the creation of a vibrant new community.'”
(link)

“Four- and five-bedroom units in the District constitute just 8 percent and 4 percent of available rental housing, respectively, with most of the properties in Wards 7 and 8, the city’s poorest areas, according a report last year.”

I’m looking at a recent traffic safety newsletter produced by Cape Fox, a company that does driver training programs for the military. An article on texting while parking (instead of driving) lists the U.S. states and territories where texting while driving is illegal. Six states are not on the list.

Which six states are they? Please restrict yourself to two states per hour in the comments.

His Majesty got back from a long campaign tour last night.

(more…)

From “Table 2. Births, by age of mother, live-birth order, and race of mother: United States, 2014” in “Births: Final Data for 2014,” National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 64, Number 12 are the following number of first-borns, second-borns, etc.:

1st: 1,550,475; 2nd: 1,267,334; 3rd: 667,446; 4th: 283,953; 5th; 110,565; 6th: 46,045; 7th: 20,771; 8th and over: 21,589; not stated: 19,898; total: 3,988,076.

That makes for the following ratios:

1st/2nd: 1.22; 2nd/3rd: 1.90; 3rd/4th: 2.35; 4th/5th: 2.57; 5th/6th: 2.40; 6th/7th: 2.22.

I wonder what my six children would make of this, particularly the youngest. The ratios correspond somewhat with my own experience as a potential parent: The choice to have a second child was never pondered independently—it was part of the choice to marry. After that, conception was a consciously considered matter, and considered one child at a time. The last two were on exception, though. Before conceiving a fifth child, we decided to also have a sixth if we could and then retire from getting and bearing. After the sixth was born, that seemed to be a good decision and we stayed with it.

As a rule, there are not many experiences more dull than being the only sober person at a gathering of drunk people. However, I have to think that even a teetotaler like me would have loved to be present the night that Sir Richard Burton sat down in American Fork, Utah for a “squar” drink with Porter Rockwell.

Here’s a parody blog making fun of Russophile paleocons:

http://www.splicetoday.com/writing/paleocon-diary-16

The parody unfairly lumps Russian Orthodox Christians like Rod Dreher in with Putin-adoring Lew Rockwell types, although the writer’s voice resembles nothing so much as one of those neoreactionary bloggers for whom Russophilia is just the next logical step after they’ve gotten bored with Dungeons and Dragons.

I find myself sympathizing more with the paleocons over time. While Putin is not a good man, and Russia is not a place I would like to live, the affinity for Putin’s Russia didn’t come out of the blue. I think I can demonstrate this with an economy of examples. (more…)

His Majesty was playing marbles with the cats this morning.

(more…)

“As the rain clouds dispersed over Madison High before a recent Saturday afternoon game, a throng of pro scouts in a rainbow of Major League Baseball caps crowded along the backstop, eyes focused on two seniors who may not even be playing baseball in two years.”

In the Washington Post, with quotes from former missionary Jeremy Guthrie and not-former missionary Bryce Harper. (link)

Amending the Constitution would be more than worth it to make it happen. I’m pretty sure Simon Schama had to be carried out of this debate on a stretcher: