can it be that it was all so simple then (relativism and equivalence)

it is the anniversary of the PPE (peter, paul and enza) gig - it is the fourth anniversary of it (how time flies). he still regrets not carrying on with it and in particular not getting a version of puff the magic dragon up and going (by peter, paul and mary see it's a terrible joke but horsemouth thinks it would have worked quite well). 

horsemouth was mainly interested because he wanted to play more jazzy stuff. enza could speak italian and french so there was the possibility of doing songs in those languages. 

it crashed about 5 minutes after the gig. an attempt to relaunch it crashed on take off.

horsemouth thinks there may still be stuff to be done with pete (doing his songs).  

sadly horsemouth has no recordings to play you (this he regrets also). 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'I ask myself whether we can mourn, without qualification, for the lives lost in ------  as well as those lost in ----- without getting bogged down in debates about relativism and equivalence. perhaps the wider compass of mourning serves a more substantial ideal of equality, one that acknowledges the equal grievability of lives, and gives rise to an outrage that these lives should not have been lost, that the dead deserved more life and equal recognition for their lives. ' 

- judith butler, the compass of mourning, LRB 19th october 2023.

horsemouth thinks 'compass' here is  primarily a spatial metaphor - to 'encompass' is to include within (but that does not necessarily stop it from referring to time because time may be thought about and must often be represented spatially, a time can be encompassed) . 

to work out how judith butler is using it horsemouth would have to sit down and read the article. 

people speak of a moral compass meaning a sense of a moral direction but a compass of mourning gives a sense of including, 'encompassing' and doing all the mourning  (doing all the different types of mourning that lie within the space of mourning).

some auto-dictionary definitions; 

'compass as a NOUN

1. an instrument containing a magnetized pointer which shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it...

2. an instrument for drawing circles and arcs and measuring distances between points...

3. the range or scope of something...

also as a VERB (ARCHAIC)

1. go round (something) in a circular course...

2. contrive to accomplish (something)...'

so noun meaning 3 and verb meaning 2  seem to be closest to our purpose. horsemouth thinks noun meaning 3 - the range or scope of something

of course every word carries a number of meanings within it that can be deployed depending on where the word is used and the distribution of those meanings alters over time  - a compass in the sense of an instrument for drawing arcs barely exists anymore (horsemouth had to be reminded of it now, but there is the confusion between compass and protractor also). 

the wider compass of mourning serves a more substantial ideal of equality - to move consideration of deaths out from under a claim to a simple claim to equality, to not be equivocal about that death, nor to chose to mourn one death but not another.

the gesture is doomed in any event. but horsemouth cannot blame butler for making it.

-----------------------------------------

labour takes mid-bedfordshire and tamworth overturning 20,000 type majorities in both cases. given the size of this rout the question becomes, even at a general election, which tories will survive not which tories will lose their seats. pardon the mule while he snickers evilly.