Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* The Supreme Court is going to rule on Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act:

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* To Rep. Jimmy Duncan on his opposition to VAWA:

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* Redefining American Masculinity:

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* Anna Julia Cooper was born a slave and became a teacher and activist in her 105 years of life.

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* Athlete Kenneth Faried standing up for Marriage Equality:

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* Watching Melissa Harris-Perry's discussion of Detroit, I kept thinking of 14th Century cities. This isn't a slam on Detroit. Hear me out. Detroit is a city that had 1.8 million people in 1950. It is now a city of half that, with a quarter of it's 1950 population leaving in the last decade. They lost all that tax base, services are spread thin. People are living on blocks full of vacant houses. Houses are burning and no one is coming to put it out as there is no one to report it and the fire department is spread thin. The murder rate is scary high and there aren't close enough to enough police.

Now think about Medieval England for a minute. Before the Great Pestilence, the life span of a family in the city was three generations. The Death rate was so high do to the prevalence of vermin, sewage in the water supply, higher exposure to contagion, etc. that cities needed a constant large influx of folks from the countryside to make a fairly stable population. Then came the Famine, the influenza epidemic, and the sheep and cattle murrain of 1315-17, which killed a lot of people, and slowed the influx to cities. Things started picking back up, but then the Great Pestilence of 1348-50, which killed 30%-60% of the population depending on where you lived. Then there was the particularly heartbreaking outbreak of 1360–1363 that disproportionally killed children and teens, who then failed to live to help replace the numbers lost in the previous outbreak, further depressing the population numbers. Then it came back a decade later, and again in 1400, when Europe's population hit it's lowest point in centuries. Whole villages and small towns simply disappeared. There was a massive labor shortage everywhere, which had all sorts of effects I've written of elsewhere.

It also had the effect of dramatically shrinking cities. After all, urban populations were hit hard for the same reasons that epidemics are always worst in Medieval cities. Even with some folks fleeing serfdom in the countryside trying to move somewhere new where no one will know they weren't born free choosing cities instead of different rural areas where the Lord/Lady, Abbot/ess, or manager is offering better terms than on the home farms, there literally were not enough people to fill all those houses and shops that the Pestilence depopulated. Out in the countryside, people were abandoning the less arable land, Nobles were switching from farming to sheep, and the forests were regrowing to fill areas that had been farmed for centuries. What did the cities do when in the course of a few years or decades (depending on which city), there were half as many people as there had been a generation before? People moved to the center, where there were still markets and shops and neighbors to help in case of fire or break ins. It wasn't safe being the only family on your block when the looters or a fire came through. People upgraded their living quarters. If they inherited a better house further in, all to the good. Alternately, there were all these abandoned building to cannibalize to build a better house or upgrade an existing one. Survivors had lived through a series of horrific events. They were not used to letting resources go to waste in the lean times, and many of them were suddenly better off so they reconfigured the shape of the city where necessary, but they ultimately rebuilt and carried on. The cities contracted, but they survived for the most part.

I get that it's more complicated now to simply move people into the areas where the resources are, especially with unofficial segregation still in effect there, but still, if you shrunk Detroit, it would be easier to supply water, sewage, power, schools, police, and firemen. But of course it won't happen that way, and I have a good ideas of the legal and political obstacles involved. Still, I couldn't help thinking of all those ahell shocked plague survivors loading their possessions onto carts and shifting house in all those 14th century cities and towns.

* "Disabled Sea Turtle Gets 27th Pair of Artificial Fins:" http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/22/disabled-sea-turtle-gets-27th-pair-of-artificial-fins/#ixzz2Lng6ySJ7

* On sexual harassment. "Opera Muliebria:" http://www.puristbleedspinstripes.com/2013/02/opera-muliebria/

* Yesterday was a bad pain day, but a bunch of stuff needed doing including a med run, gerdening related purchases, actual gardening, animal maintenance, and assorted house work. I only manged about half the gardening, but the rest did get sorted. Today and tomorrow are rest days, as the spoon count is low.

* Am I watching the Oscars? No. I find awards ceremonies deadly dull for the most part, so I only watch if there's a really good reason, such as an interesting presenter or important movie. I hate Seth McFarlane's transphobic as and watching him smarm and smug for that long would make me all stabby. It doesn't mean there aren't specific awards I care about. After all, I'm still angry Gabourey Sidibe lost to Sandra Bullock that time. It just means that I'd much rather go see the results compiled on a website than sit through all the boring. I'm sure if someone does something particularly interesting or heinous, I'll hear about it. Similarly, I'll see the really elegant and ridiculous fashions Monday and/or Tuesday. so no Oscars for me.

* "The New and Improved Leading Man:" http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201303/the-new-and-improved-leading-man-march-2013?currentPage=1

Note Bene: Fassbender actually is a douche, not an exception.

* It's ebay time again:

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