I'm having trouble finding something of broader interest because I'm currently preoccupied with "The rebellion is spreading"-drama.

I'm also interested in the census results, however, if you've got something interesting to share there.

Actually, I do have a thought: I have asked Mexican-American scholars about census categories and the distinction between race and ethnicity, and my understanding of the answer was, "I know that Hispanic people in Texas look more racially homogeneous, but across the US, it's a racially diverse group (and in fact a very heterogeneous group in all senses). Therefore it doesn't make sense to have a Hispanic "race"."

That makes total sense to me. My follow up question is, why not have a racial category in the census categories for the mid-brown-but-not-Asian-descent category? More or less a "mestizo" category? Why force people in this GIANT group to select a race among White/Black/Asian/Native American/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, when clearly none of those fit? (Native American feels like it's referring to Native Americans located in the United States, and so that's what it communicates imho, even if the intent is to capture Native South Americans and Native Central Americans, etc.)

This article on the time tax is very good. There's nothing in it that you don't already know. But when someone organizes a hazy pervasive frustration and labels it and puts words to the explanation, it's hugely beneficial for catapulting it to the forefront of your understanding.

One thought that occurs to me: you know, for all this bullshit about running government like a business? One thing businesses do generally is try not to punish their customers. Mostly, businesses actually try to get the customer through to purchase and completion in as streamlined a manner as possible. Even when their customers are poor! Walmart's website may lag behind Apple's, but they are aware that it's in their own interest to make it as user-friendly as possible.

(At least mostly they don't want punishments to be directly obvious. TurboTax lobbying the government to keep them from eliminating their industry is not as visible to the customer as when the social program has broken links that prevent you from getting to a 30 page PDF that you have to print out and fill out, or whatever.)

Also this doesn't apply to industries where the incentives are different, like healthcare and insurance. With insurance, it's easy to purchase but not easy to use. Maybe that's a central difference: you use a government service, it's not a one-time purchase. The article is much smarter than my ramblings.

via one of you at the other place

Nick S. writes: Molly Ball's profile of DC Police Office Mike Fanone, and his experience on Jan 6th, and subsequently, is really well done. In particular I find the descriptions of how he ended up in a very political and very uncomfortable situation quite sympathetic.

Leslie was there on Jan. 6. He was in the battle with Fanone and got hit with hammers. But he's suspicious of Fanone's new liberal friends. "I love the guy, and I'm concerned that all those people are using and manipulating him," Leslie says. "He's always wanted us to be respected and appreciated for what we do, and it's never going to happen. We're never going to get a parade. No one cares. Now all these people want to use him against Trump. But these are still the same people calling us white supremists and saying we should be defunded."

Fanone shares that worry: "If I didn't speak out against Trump, would people think I was just another evil white cop?" What he hoped to make people understand was that he wasn't some exceptional "good cop"--he was every cop. The worst kind of cop: the arrogant adrenaline junkie. And the best kind of cop: meticulous, humane, committed. Maybe the liberals who supported him would see they ought to support the others too--the hundreds who answered the call at the Capitol; the thousands who rush into danger every day for the sake of their ungrateful asses.

...

Healed from his physical injuries but still on mental-health leave, Fanone now spends most days alone. He goes to the gym, takes care of his daughters part time, fields media calls. He probably can't go back to undercover work, and he wonders if he'd be safe going back on the job at all. Colleagues he's known for decades don't talk to him anymore. Guys who never called to check in when he was in the hospital send him taunting memes about his liberal-darling status.

"I had convinced myself, Mike, you're vocalizing the opinions of thousands and thousands of police officers. But I'm starting to think I'm vocalizing the beliefs of just one," Fanone says one day over lunch, as his three young daughters dig into their chicken tenders. "While there are still some officers that are very supportive of me, I can count them on one hand. The vast majority of police officers--would they have been on the other side of those battle lines?"

His mission to defend his colleagues' actions had morphed into something bigger and more daunting. What he had to do, he concluded, was not just to speak up on behalf of law enforcement. He needed to shake his fellow Americans out of their Trump-induced delusions, debunk the lies that had poisoned his friends' minds. He needed to root out the hatred that led to Trump in the first place.

Heebie's take: This is a really good interview. This is a really nuanced take on one particular cop (who happens to have found himself as a liberal darling because he's actually got his eyes open about 1/6.)

However, from above:

What he hoped to make people understand was that he wasn't some exceptional "good cop"--he was every cop. The worst kind of cop: the arrogant adrenaline junkie. And the best kind of cop: meticulous, humane, committed.

This is a really nice take, except that's not the worst kind of cop. "Arrogant adrenaline junkie" are the rough edges of an ethical cop. The worst should include corrupt and racist.

I'm seeing tons of articles and quasi-articles to that effect lately. Is this an illusion, part of a larger pro-vax movement that's increasingly willing to share and promote such incidents? Or is this a mathematical consequence of the uptick in Covid deaths being concentrated in a shrinking pool of people who are unwilling to be vaccinated?

There was one in particular that stuck with me, a photo of six Texas politicians who were some vocal covid denying group, and now half of them are dead.

This is intended to be our system for checking in on imaginary friends, so that we know whether or not to be concerned if you go offline for a while. There is no way it could function as that sentence implies, but it's still nice to have a thread.

Episode 90.

After watching myself on zoom all year, I guess I complained to my friend too much, because she was like, "We're getting you a skincare routine." I had bought products on a one-off basis before, but never stuck with anything for more than a few days. My friend was like "you need this and this and this", and drove me to Aveda and Sephora and Trader Joe's, when we were in Gainesville back in July. This time I wrote down her specific, concrete instructions and with items in hand, could start anew.

I took "before" photos, and then she asked for an update recently, so I compared them to "in progress" photos, and there really is a difference which is easily visible to the scrutiny of the two of us. We were pleased with ourselves.

Along the way, I looked up twin studies of skin care, which is the point of the post. Here are some articles with side by side photos of twins who differ on things like smoking, depression, sun exposure, etc. (There's some repetition in those three photo essays.)

What stands out most to me is that if you do everything right and look like the more-youthful twin, you are still basically going to be categorized as yourself. You are not changing the overwhelming majority of what contributes to the gestalt impression you make on other people. (Aside from the one set of twins with distinct pigmentation differences.)

You can nudge the needle, but you are basically you. Overwhelmingly how you look is all genetics. Skincare is about making a difference that is visible to yourself. (Not make up. Make up is a very different category than skin care in its power to change how you look.)