The Crowhill Journal

When P&C started the podcast, Pigweed thought we might have three or four topics to discuss, but then what? Now, many scores of episodes in, the boys find they can’t keep up with everything they want to talk about, so from time to time they have to plow through several topics in one episode. This time …

1. Our insulation from death in the modern world, and how that affects our lives.

2. What if the media covered auto fatalities in the same 24×7 manner they cover other stories? Auto fatalities by brand, by model, by the age or sex or nationality of the driver, by region …. There’s no end to the stories they could get out of it.

3. How much power do you hand over to the government during a crisis, and what are the limits? Right now, the tech titans are offering to track people to ensure they’re following government mandates about social distancing. Once the crisis is over, will they stop?

4. Pigweed’s theory of the Asian bow, and might we see the death of the handshake?

5. Mail bag. Did the boys diss the 7 deadly sins? Also, women and men, the sense of smell, and brewing.

Pigweed and Crowhill discuss the Ten Commandments and their role in the modern world.

Where did we get them, and why do they have such an influence on our understanding of morality?

Why are so few of the commandments reflected in our laws?

Why do Jews, Protestants, and Catholics number them differently? And are there conflicting versions of the commandments in the Bible?

What role did Moses play in the commandments? And what the heck is the Pentateuch?

Don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say here. I think some form of slow down / quarantine / stay at home / social distancing rule was right and necessary (even though probably unconstitutional). The medical experts say this is a very contagious and deadly virus, and without a pause of some kind, the death toll could have been very bad.

Having said that, the after-action review is going to be interesting. (If it’s honest.)

There are a lot of strange components to this story.

People who are dying from other causes, who are also infected with coronavirus, are being counted as having died from coronavirus. Is that right?

I’ve also heard that suicides are way up. Losing your job can push some people over the edge, and lots of people have lost their jobs. So it’s not just “the economy vs. saving lives,” as some people have said. It’s one kind of harm vs. another kind of harm.

And then there are the models. The models were used to scare us into hibernation, and now that they’ve turned out to be very wrong, they’re spinning it as “that’s how bad it would have been if we hadn’t taken measures.”

Yeah. I don’t believe it. I think the models took mitigation measures into account.

So will someone review the models to see what went wrong?

Once this whole thing clears up, we’re going to need a multi-disciplinary, non-partisan panel of experts to look over it all and figure out what really happened.

And re: my comment above about the various government orders being unconstitutional, I think it’s possible to say that some of them were both necessary and unconstitutional. Which means we need to clarify how to handle such emergencies in the future.

Somewhat along these lines, this is an interesting read: The Stress Pandemic.

I started on a new book last night. It was recommended by a friend whose taste I have learned to trust.

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin.

I can’t say yet whether I like it, but it did almost immediately remind me of some old noodlings I’ve had about fantasy.

Books that go too far — other worlds, other creatures, other customs, etc. — into the unfamiliar turn me off.

The Lord of the Rings has hobbits and elves and dwarves and wizards, all set in a different world at a different time, but it still manages to be very familiar and homey. Which I like.

When a book is too weird, it loses me.

Sorry to be slow with my post. Happy Easter to all my western calendar friends. I hope you find a way to have a joyful day despite the bad circumstances.

The Crowhill family had a group zoom meeting this morning. 🙂

In the meanwhile, it’s not Easter (for me) without some 70s Christian music.