The Daily Parker

On my flight yesterday, I finally read Nicholas Confessore's explanation of how US v Skrmetti got to the Supreme Court, and...wow. I am actually shocked at how illiberal and extremist the ACLU's leadership has become, and how far the transgender rights movement has moved to the left:

For Chase Strangio, the stakes were both personal and political. He joined the A.C.L.U. in 2013, a few years after undergoing top surgery, or a mastectomy, a procedure that “saved my life,” as he later wrote. “When you spend your life hiding from yourself, experiencing embodiment is nourishing, exhilarating,” Strangio wrote. “It is survival.” He vowed to work “to create social, political and legal conditions so that others could experience the same possibility.”

Like Strangio, the younger people going to work at L.G.B.T.Q. groups leaned further left than their older colleagues. Often identifying as queer — a label that could connote radical politics as much as any sexual or gender identity — they resented the incremental, assimilationist politics that had won the right to same-sex marriage. They sought to deconstruct assumptions about what was normal — to dismantle bourgeois institutions, not seek inclusion in them.

When the journalist Abigail Shrier published her 2020 book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” — casting the rise in dysphoria among teenage girls as a form of social contagion — Strangio tweeted that “stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on.”

An ACLU lawyer arguing in favor of book banning? What the actual? Confessore also elucidates Strangio's views on biology which don't, perhaps, conform with what actual biologists think:

Strangio disputed that a trans woman could be “born with a male body” or “born male”; in his view, a trans woman was born a woman just like any other woman. There was no such thing as a “male body,” Strangio told his colleagues: “A penis is not a male body part. It’s just an unusual body part for a woman.”

In interviews and on social media, he has described himself as “a constitutional lawyer who fundamentally doesn’t believe in the Constitution,” an L.G.B.T.Q. activist who felt his movement was overly devoted to gay white men with “social power and capital and political power” and to the “fundamentally violent institution of civil marriage.” The turn to trans rights would ultimately reopen an old fissure in the L.G.B.T.Q. movement: whether to seek civic equality — or liberation.

It's all of a piece with young people throughout history wanting to change the world and not wanting to wait around for inconvenient things like democracy, I suppose.

Andrew Sullivan has fought Strangio's way of thinking for years, frustrated that the LGBTQ+ movement has shortchanged the Ls and the Gs especially. He has a lot to say about the Skrmetti decision in genral and Strangio in particular:

This disdain for the greatest gay rights victory made him a Grand Marshal in the New York pride parade that year (that’s how far left the gay elite has now gone). His view of his critics was: “I think they genuinely want to take away rights for trans people and kill trans people.” Yeah, I’m not worried about safeguards for children and good scientific evidence; I just want to kill trans people.

Strangio, in line with the deep illiberalism of his movement, refuses to debate anyone who is not fully in agreement with him; won’t provide evidence to back up wild claims; and wouldn’t even agree to be interviewed in person on the record by the trans-friendly NYT! He opposed any journalistic coverage of the debate on child sex changes, and supported targeting the Times: “The NYT’s horrible coverage of and fixation on trans people has been central to the progression of anti-trans bills and policies nationally.”

In front of the Supreme Court, the gist of Strangio’s argument was, well, absurd. It was about puberty blockers that are used medically to stop a condition called “central precocious puberty” — where kids younger than 8 go into puberty because the hypothalamus triggers the pituitary gland prematurely. It can be caused by an endocrine disorder, tumors, rare genetic mutations, or appear without apparent cause in girls. Strangio actually tried to argue that because the drug is used for cis kids for this reason, it cannot be denied much older “trans” children with no precocious puberty who want to change sex before puberty for psychological reasons. Apart from the age and the diagnosis, exactly the same!

Strangio and his fellow nutters have also pushed the gay and lesbian rights movement onto thin political ice — and it’s now cracking beneath our feet. The queer radicals have lost an election, debates in 27 state legislatures, the Biden DOJ, public opinion, the Supreme Court, and now — with this definitive piece and a solid podcast series, The Protocol — the New York Times. And next month, the most famous clinic in the US transing kids, run by Johanna Olson-Kennedy, will shutter. She was a key promoter of the suicide lie. The lawsuits are going to be brutal.

Maybe there’s a chance for what’s left of the former gay groups to recover their liberal principles, support free speech, engage opponents, respect religious dissent, use plain English, and trust rigorous, evidence-based science again. If we can do that, and help kids in gender distress without irreversibly and prematurely medicalizing them, we can begin to regain the broader public trust we have recently lost.

I have personally experienced the results of this radicalization of the left, and I don't just mean the spanking our party received last November. I've been an ally all my life, as gay friends going all the way back to high school will attest (in the '80s, when being openly gay was dangerous), and even I have gotten pushback for not being in line with the Movement.

I really hope the Democratic Party can get back to the center in the next year or we're going to get smacked around again. There's no hope for the Republicans as long as the OAFPOTUS leads them; but we can--and absolutely should--peel off the 25% of their voters who think they've gone off the deep end to the right. Getting people like Strangio off the stage will help. They don't represent the majority of the Party and they certainly don't come close to representing a majority of Americans.

I almost never fly out of the L concourse at O'Hare, mainly because American only has a handful of gates there. (Most AA gates are in G, H, and K.) Also, the lounge is kind of sad. But at least with a 30-minute flight delay I've got time to download the stuff I forgot to download at home, and to get Second Breakfast.

Next post from Seattle, where it promises to rain the entire time I'm visiting.

Jaws came out fifty years ago today:

The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the highest-grossing film in movie history until it was bested by 1977’s Star Wars. Jaws was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category and took home three Oscars, for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. The film, a breakthrough for director Spielberg, then 27 years old, spawned several sequels.

Jaws put now-famed director Steven Spielberg on the Hollywood map. Spielberg went on to become one of the most influential, iconic directors in the film world, with such epics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ET: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). E.T., Jaws and Jurassic Park rank among the highest-grossing movies of all time.

If I recall, my parents wouldn't let me watch the movie until I was 10. Since that was also around when we got a VCR, they had no trouble enforcing this.

I'm flying tomorrow and Sunday, giving me a few uninterrupted hours to read between now and Monday. So I'm just queuing some of these things up:

• The US Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law that prohibits certain medical interventions for minors who want to transition genders.
• As the opinion came from Justice Samuel Alito (R) and the dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor (I), I have a feeling both it and the dissent will satisfy no one.
• The Times characterizes the decision as setting back "the movement" a generation. I'm sure Andrew Sullivan will have a lot to say tomorrow, too.
• James Fallows contrasts his friend William Langewische with the OAFPOTUS's nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration.
• The New Republic has a series this week on "the obscene wealth issue."
• One more reason never to buy a Tesla: its cameras are always on.

Finally, after four years, the CTA Red Line stations at Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn, and Bryn Mawr will re-open July 20th, which also means that Purple Line trains will resume running express. I am very pleased that a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar transport project actually finished on time and within budget in Chicago. If only we could do more of them.

I'm cleaning out some old boxes, and in one from my college years in New York, I found this gem:

I clipped it because I found it shocking at the time. Here was this buffoon demonstrating the corollary to the proverb "even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise," spending whatever it cost to get a full-page ad on page A13 of The New York Times, yearning for the halcyon days when we could just string 'em up.

When I saw the performance-art piece "Imbecile Descending on an Escalator" ten years ago, I could not imagine this encased meat product becoming president. What's left of his drug-ravaged brain still thinks it's 1975* and New York is overrun by those people. He thought so in 1989, thought so in 2015, and thinks so now.

But hey, the old guy you'd move away from if he were ranting on a barstool is reshaping the world today. History will not be kind to him. Or us.

* See this.

The OAFPOTUS threatened to kill an adversary's head of state today, showing the world not only how reckless and stupid he is, but also that he has never actually seen the movie he clearly wants to emulate:

Lebanon, desperately wanting to stay out of this one, has warned the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah not to attack Israel. No word yet from our allies, who I'm sure did not want our village idiot to go rogue on this one. But, hey, he's the Inciter in Chief back home, so why would we expect any measured diplomacy from him abroad?

As if that were the only thing going on today:

• The Atlantic's Andrew Ryvkin argues that the OAFPOTUS has become a problem for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
• Philip Bump tells Democrats to quit catastrophizing: protests against the OAFPOTUS do not help him.
• Staff at Le Musée de Louvre went on strike yesterday to protest "untenable" working conditions because of crowding and chronic understaffing.
• As I've warned for years, the United States has fallen behind our peer countries because of our crumbling and obsolete infrastructure.
• Bruce Schneier lays out four ways that AI is actually useful, even though many uses remain problematic.

OK, I'm done for now. Say what you will about President Biden, but we didn't have this kind of chaos every day while he was in office.

The pilot and journalist, who wrote clear and readable articles and books about complex topics, has died at age 70:

For 10 years running, from 1999 to 2008, his pieces were finalists for the National Magazine Award, and he won it twice: in 2007 for “Rules of Engagement,” about the killing of 24 unarmed civilians by U.S. Marines in 2005 in Haditha, Iraq; and in 2002 for “The Crash of EgyptAir 990,” about a flight that went down in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999 with the loss of all 217 people aboard.

Mr. Langewiesche’s account of the EgyptAir crash in 1999, which was profoundly enriched by his own aviation background, blamed a suicidal co-pilot. Egyptian officials refused to accept that conclusion, a response, he wrote, that was rooted in political and cultural chauvinism.

William Archibald Langewiesche was born on June 12, 1955, in Sharon, Conn. His mother, Priscilla (Coleman) Langewiesche, was a computer analyst. His father, Wolfgang Langewiesche, a German-born émigré, was a test pilot for the maker of the Corsair fighter used by the U.S. Navy; he wrote a classic book on flying, “Stick and Rudder,” in the 1940s.

William’s father taught him to fly before the boy could see over the instrument panel. Later, as an undergraduate at Stanford University, Mr. Langewiesche helped pay his way through college by piloting air taxis and charters.

“Writing is thinking; writing is a form of thought,” he said. “It’s difficult for me to believe that real thought is possible without writing.”

I've quoted him extensively in the Daily Parker, and for good reason. He will be missed.

Earlier I mentioned Cassie and I had a fun weekend with lots of outdoor time. Unfortunately, the weekend wasn't as much fun for others:

• Contrasting the 5-million-plus No Kings demonstrators across the country with the desultory turnout to the Army's 250th birthday parade that the OAFPOTUS co-opted, Norman Eisen concludes that the OAFPOTUS "is a lousy dictator."
• The OAFPOTUS, disappointed that he didn't get loads of goose-stepping troops carrying his photo like the DPRK army on parade, predictably threw a tantrum, threatening to step up mass deportations in cities with large No Kings turnouts.
• Still, as Philip Kennicott reports, the Army comported itself professionally as the non-partisan organization it strives to be, on what was after all supposed to be their celebration. (This only made the OAFPOTUS angrier, of course.)
• And Yascha Mounk answers the question of whether we're headed towards dictatorship with some optimism: "Not today. Not tomorrow. But the danger is real. And the ultimate outcome, far from being predetermined, may not be knowable for decades to come."
• The Verge's David Pierce has a WTF? moment over the "Trump Mobile" T1 8002 (Gold Edition), the OAFPOTUS's latest scam.
• Jodi Kantor takes a look at Justice Amey Coney Barrett's rulings, speculating that she may indeed be the next Brennan.

Finally, and completely outside of politics, the Nielsen-Norman Group has a detailed analysis of the hamburger-menu icon. Though it's only about 10 years old, most people know what they are today. Fewer people know how usability experts criticized it when it emerged, and how it still has serious failings as a design element. But like the gearshift lever on the steering column, it persists because it persists.

Oh, and because today would have been Parker's 19th birthday...

What a weekend. I mean, for the world; for me, yesterday included vacuuming the house and my car, and taking Cassie on 2½ hours of walks plus sitting outside at Begyle to get pats from random strangers. (To be clear, Cassie got random pats; I did not.)

We started at Horner Park:

And stopped briefly at Burning Bush, where Cassie was under the table even before I got my beer:

I had some stuff about the political events over the weekend, but I'll put that off until later.

Organizers estimate 75,000 people marched in downtown Chicago yesterday, joining groups in 2,000 other cities and towns across the country to protest against the OAFPOTUS's illegal and immoral actions since taking office:

While the big-city rallies attracted the attention and the cameras, smaller events were organized in rural areas, including three dozen in Indiana, a state Mr. Trump won last November by 19 points.

In Dallas, another stronghold of Mr. Trump’s support, crowds of protesters stretched across a wide street for at least five blocks. The Houston protest looked more like a block party, with dances to Mexican music and cool-offs in a fountain.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the OAFPOTUS celebrated his birthday in the classic style of Soviet-bloc dictators by hijacking the US Army's 250th anniversary celebration with a tank parade across the city:

The festivities were a rapid escalation of the fairly modest affair the Army had initially envisioned when they first filed a permit request with the National Park Service last June. The parade component, specifically, was added to existing birthday plans this year. The president has long mused about a display of soldiers and tanks on the streets of the capital with aircraft overhead but backed off the idea in 2018 amid pushback from the Army and D.C. officials over exorbitant costs and the damage tanks might cause to roads.

While the Army estimates Saturday’s spectacle will cost the branch $25 million to $45 million, the cost to the city, and potentially the entire government, remained unclear as the parade roared into action. The Army agreed to foot the bill for any damage to local streets, and in an effort to reduce impact, they reinforced parts of the route with metal plates and outfitted vehicles with new rubber track pads.

Many commentators remembered the President Eisenhower's thoughts on having a huge military parade to counter the Soviets: "For us to try to imitate what the Soviets are doing in Red Square would make us look weak."

The OAFPOTUS has weakened us. Two thousand cities and millions of Americans told him that yesterday.