UD‘s hopeless, hapless, Montgomery County could do nothing the other night as one of Potomac’s vast empty mcmansions hosted a pay as you go ‘Wet Dreams’ party for over a thousand. “Where are the whores?” nearby home owners report guests shouting on entry. “I think it was a sex party,” said the neighborhood’s state delegate.

Capitalism being what it is, an owner is free to furnish her house, leave, and rent the thing out as a big ol’ brothel (or is the brothel thing legal?); and there’s nothing like Potomac, full of massive empty or semi-empty mcmansions, for this purpose.

[One] couple called county police, but were not satisfied with the response. They said the one officer who responded was helpful and listened to their concerns, but said he wasn’t able to do much.

“The police should’ve shut this thing down,” [the neighbor] said. “We’re really darn lucky an incident didn’t happen.”

Huh yeah an incident and you better believe the Moco police did nothing about it out of sheer terror. Airbnb mass shootings and the like happen a lot; there’s a HUGE number of guns at these parties. Only an idiot would walk in on five hundred heavily armed post-coital drunks and druggies lolling about a pool.

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UPDATE: Gets prettier and prettier. “Multiple neighbors told FOX 5, the owner of the home told them there would be a party on May 25. It wouldn’t be the only one. In order to offset “inordinate” personal legal costs, the homeowner said she planned to host both large-scale events and family gatherings.”

The idiot is now looking forward to much more serious legal costs.

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UPDATE: Are we surprised it’s becoming a bigger story? Let’s see: Sex, wealth, Potomac, drugs, drink, a rancid owner, sordid Airbnb (one point subtracted, however, for no gunplay)… UD might have glombed onto “Wet Dreams” early, cuz this is close to where she lives, and she spent years visiting her aunt and uncle in their own vast lifeless Potomac mcmansion, but it was always going to break free from obscurity because of its unbeatable plot elements. And wait until some of the partiers begin to talk!

From UD‘s garden.

She may not look it, but UD’s quite sentimental, and she found herself choking up as she read this beautiful evocation of her hometown.

[The] red-brick mansion, [on the market for $23.5 million,] sits on [a] gated two-acre property, which [has] six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and three half-baths. Inside are six fireplaces, a library, a wine cellar, a recreation room, a fitness center, a billiards room, … a guest suite [,] an infinity pool and hot tub, an English garden, and a two-car garage… [The current owner] used the residence for entertaining and only spent a few nights there.

The school newspaper has up to the minute updates.

On a misty morning, the view from UD‘s front stoop.

I think boxelders. I think mating.

The Cave.

… whatever specimen. UD‘s bad at identifying her plants.

• University Yard was previously reserved and is not available for demonstrations. GW Law final exams are taking place at adjacent buildings.
• Demonstrators must move with their tents to Anniversary Park at F Street NW between 21st and 22nd streets.
• GW will prohibit all non-GW individuals from participating in any demonstration on university property.
• GW does not permit overnight encampments on university property. 
• Students may demonstrate until 7 p.m. if they abide by the university’s free expression guidelines, the Code of Student Conduct, and other applicable policies. 
• At 7 p.m., the students will be required to remove tents and disperse.

And UD knows every inch of hers, especially the system of paths she created through her forest.

Early this morning, gazing out her back windows at the path closest to her house, she saw a largish unmoving object on it. Her binoculars revealed this.

It’s a stock photo. UD wouldn’t know how to photograph an animal at that distance.

Her fox was bigger than this one, and seemed half-awake, calmly watching me as I watched it. I’d never seen a fox this close, and certainly not one comfortable enough to bed down so nearby.

I had all the usual thoughts… It’s beautiful. Is it rabid? Is it wounded? When will it leave? I can’t let the dog out. Will I have to call animal control?

And then I Googled. Turns out this is not an unusual event – foxes are nocturnal and will sometimes bed down close to people in daylight. And I mean – our garden is packed with rabbits and voles, etc. Why wouldn’t you want to be around that?

But this one wasn’t about solitary pleasures; my friend and neighbor Tammy came along, and we talked and talked about art. As usual, UD liked all the muted-color paintings (browns, blacks, tans, grays) like ter Brugghen’s Bagpipe Player. The garish reds (robes, blood) of the big Christian canvases do little for your blogueuse.

UD wondered if David Brooks’ moral endorsement of limits on the display of wealth extended to, well, David Brooks.

At first, finding he not long ago sold a house for $4.5 million, she was ready to pounce.

But when she realized that the UD houselet, bought in 1996 for a virtuous pittance (by ‘thesdan standards) and owned outright, is valued at $1,041,300 — not all that much less than what Brooks paid for his current non-showy house on Capitol Hill — she was inclined to shut up about it.

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As to other stuff in this defense of liberalism: Brooks, fundamentally a religious cultural conservative, is always going to have trouble truly defending liberalism, which tends toward secularity and restless change. He puts the search for meaning, transcendence, and community at the forefront of everyone’s basic life demands, but if you’re really itching for these, liberalism ain’t your best bet. Let me cite a passage from an earlier blog entry.

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In a recent interview, Adam Gopnik, who wrote a book defending liberalism from left and right attacks on it, observes that

[O]ur hunger for [collective] identity, our need for connection, is overwhelming and … liberalism [some argue] impedes it. Liberalism acts as a stopper on it. [This is Charles] Taylor’s point: We [have a] need to ask, “Where am I?” and liberalism [which is much better at giving us time and space to ask “Who am I?’] doesn’t seem to give a good answer to that.

But, Gopnik continues:

What liberals, I think, would say in response, what my liberalism would say in response, is first of all, liberalism has actually been very good at the project of making community. It’s why we live in New York. You know, I never get over the miracle of New York… A tolerant community is another kind of community. A pluralistic community is another kind of community. I delight exactly in the variety of kinds that I can find every time in New York. That’s not an absence of community. It’s a particular kind of community that we relish.

Is it, though, a community without roots, without stable collective identity, without inherited meanings, symbols, rituals?

Damn right it is.

“Is a lack of meaning really worse than a lack of freedom? … What liberalism’s critics appear unable, or unwilling, to address is whether a lack of meaning is a worse problem to have than a lack of freedom.”

Maybe liberalism – “the political order that privileges non-negotiable rights, personal freedoms, and individual autonomy” – issues in some degree of conceptual confusion, and maybe even in a difficulty or refusal to commit oneself to clear philosophical/theological convictions and collectivities – but is this really so unbearable a position to be in?

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UD thanks Tammy for the link.

Five AM this morning.

… to anyone in Garrett Park who wants some. UD put it on the neighborhood listserv, and it’s almost gone.