Tuesday, September 30. 2014
I'm not ashamed of the fact that I've been laid off 4 times in the last 20 years. I work in a business which has undergone significant transformations in the last 15 years and it is particularly sensitive to recessions. More importantly, it is an industry which has engaged and embraced 'diversity' as a goal, meaning the supposed benefits of being a white male (which were slim to begin with) are more or less nonexistent today.
2 years of unemployment over a 20 year period isn't too bad when you consider how many people are still looking for steady work since 2008. I have a number of friends who have left this industry and entered new careers. It's tough to start over when you're past the age of 45. Which is why I'm glad I'm working and complain very little about my job. I make less than others with similar experience to mine, mainly because each bout of unemployment forced me to rearrange my salary needs and alter spending patterns. This is unfortunate, now that I have 2 kids in college, but it's good, too. I'm less likely to face the ax again since my experience comes cheap.
But I haven't been around Maggie's lately, and it's because I've had issues I'd classify as "First World Problems" over the past few months, which are better than the alternative "Big Problems". But it's worth sharing one in particular because it may help others with perspective, and it sure helps me with dealing with it.
Continue reading "Work: It's All About Attitude"
 Hong Kong Demonstrators Unveil 'Umbrella Revolution'
The rise and fall and rise of the National Council of Churches
Too much politics, too little God
Walking is the superfood of fitness, experts say
Althouse:
You know what's not "life-affirming"?
The word "life-affirming."
Think you drink a lot? This chart will tell you.
Feeding America: ‘Public service’ lies
California Decides That It Does Want Government In The Bedroom
University of Chicago Suspends Chinese Government-Backed Institute
Program criticized as a propaganda tool employed by China
Obama Wants You To Notice He’s Going Gray
Sensitivity course teaches opposition to gay marriage can be harassment
University of Chicago Students Publically Post Names of Men With “Troubling Behavior”
Obamacare doctor networks to stay limited in 2015
Swiss Reject Single-Payer Health Care
Via Driscoll's We Must Face Up to the Grim Fact that the Teachers We Employ are Losing Patience With Us
My concern with democracy is highly specific. It begins in observing the remarkable fact that, while democracy means a government accountable to the electorate, our rulers now make us accountable to them. Most Western governments hate me smoking, or eating the wrong kind of food, or hunting foxes, or drinking too much, and these are merely the surface disapprovals, the ones that provoke legislation or public campaigns. We also borrow too much money for our personal pleasures, and many of us are very bad parents. Ministers of state have been known to instruct us in elementary matters, such as the importance of reading stories to our children. Again, many of us have unsound views about people of other races, cultures, or religions, and the distribution of our friends does not always correspond, as governments think that it ought, to the cultural diversity of our society. We must face up to the grim fact that the rulers we elect are losing patience with us.
California drought and climate warming: Studies find no clear link
The Radical Environmental Agenda Should Be Rejected, even if Global Warming Is Real
Earth-Friendly Energy Is Anything But
It’s Immigration Uber Alles at the Wall Street Journal - Chief spokesmen for unrestricted immigration.
Jerry Brown approves loan program for undocumented illegal students
SCHOOLS SCRAMBLE TO HELP TEENS WHO CROSSED BORDER
Military Poll: Most Troops Oppose Ground Troops in Iraq
So, apparently, does the Iraq army
'Every War Must End'
Really?
Due to unforeseen (annoying but not serious) circumstances, we could not do the annual Manitoba hunt this fall so I will revisit it in photos and in dreams.
Two more road pics below the fold -
Continue reading "Driving up"
Monday, September 29. 2014
If scientists cannot or will not explain the issue, then farmers have
very little chance of protecting a technology that has immense value to
consumers.
Food superstitions will never die; they just change over time.
Investments in luxuries for the brats: Colleges drift away from their academic priorities:
As a 2013 analysis for the National Bureau of Economic Research showed, only the minority of higher-achieving students value academic quality over campus amenities; Ivy League schools and the like compete on that dimension, not amenities. The vast majority of would-be undergrads, however, are more likely to put a premium on the social side of college, and this is especially true of the wealthier students among them.
 French actor Gerard Depardieu, 65, admits to drinking 14 bottles of wine a day
Braggart
1000 Veterans Line Up for Free Marijuana
Kevin Williamson to Lena Dunham: “We really, truly, sincerely do not wish to be involved in your sex life.”
When Prayer Makes Anxiety Worse - Several new studies show that praying might help alleviate worries—but only if the person has a secure relationship with God
Bayeux Diary: A gem untouched in 1944
The price of pre-K in 2016 might be higher than you think
Dental care is excluded from most insurance plans for a bizarre and
antiquated reason, and millions of people suffer as a result.
'A' Is for Agitation: What's Really Going on in Jefferson County Schools
How a Government Scheme Steers Student Loan Relief Away From Free Enterprise
Via SDA, Half-decaf half-soy hazelnut latte in the pike position
Shocker: Obama Admits Islam Biggest Cause of Conflict in the World
Ron Fournier Summarizes Obama’s CBS Interview: ‘I, Me, My, It’s Their Fault’
Left’s Pre-emptive Hits on Walker, Christie, & Perry
We are surely suffering from warming, except there is this Antarctic ice problem
New York Times Jumps the Global Warming Shark, Declares Alaska Will Soon Be Like Florida
Venezuela: Nothing to dance about
Horror as an Instrument of War
The New York Times’ Obsessive, Unsubstantiated Criticism of Israel Reaches New Depths
Can U.S. Build a Better Iraqi Army the Second Time Around?
Taiwan, Asia’s Secret Air Power - A look at what Taiwan is doing to ensure its air defense and why it matters for the United States and the region
How American Fracking Could Cause a Russian Recession
Sunday, September 28. 2014
At least in the northern climes, it's the last chance to aerate or plug, overseed, and fertilize if you want a half-decent "grass garden" which is suitable for walking and dog abuse. As I always say, lawn grass is a garden. It's not natural, and needs care just like any garden. Lawns benefit a great deal from fall fertilizing. If lawns are walked on at all, they require aerating. It's not a rug. If you have a small lawn, you can do that by hand with a hand aerator or a spade: stick it in, wiggle it, and pull it out.
A Spring or Fall aeration or plugging, a Fall overseeding, and three fertilizations per year ought to be good enough for any grass lawn, with or without irrigation but using a mulching mower. Readers know that I top-dress in Spring, but it might not be necessary for everybody. I like doing it.
(The only purpose of irrigation is to make a lawn green when it doesn't want to be green. It's fine for ahow, but spray paint might be cheaper.)
I advise doing those chores all at once. Do it now, and if you have a crabgrass problem, you can deal with it in the Spring with crabgrass-preventer. (You can't overseed and use crabgrass-preventer at the same time because the weed-preventer will prevent germination of your grass seed.)
Best, most logical plan? Minimize your lawn and grow lots of trees and shrubs, and mulch the heck out of them. It's a shame that the "gracious lawn" became the American Way, as if our little 1-2-acre plots were English estates. Heck, all anybody needs is room for Croquet and Badminton, some walking paths and maybe a cool little putting green, but the American lawn has become the expected standard.
McArdle: How the Poor Can Afford to Live in New York
All it takes is a little savvy. Government has totally distorted this housing market, but that's just the way it is for now. That's politics. NYC is fortunate that so many people, young and old, rich, middle, and poor, want to live here and are willing to deal with the discomforts.
When a gay guy in Vanity Fair is calling you a wuss, you are probably a wuss.
America Stalled:
On the domestic front, the travails of Obamacare suggest that for the first time in recent memory Americans are coming face to face with a new entitlement they don't like. And a political storm has been gathering over the budgetary costs and pension entitlements of state and city workforces. In three very different policy realms--foreign affairs, social welfare, state and local entitlements--a similar discontent is evident: an anti-progressivism that is in some ways the antithesis of the Progressive movement of a century and more ago.
Psalm 25:1-9
25:1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
25:2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.
25:3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
25:4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
25:5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
25:6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
25:7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD!
25:8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
25:9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
Saturday, September 27. 2014
Political entities and boundaries come and go. They should never be frozen in history, because so many are accidents of history anyway. Should powerful empires, crazy-quilt conglomerates - China, Russia, the EU, maybe the USA - devolve? Why not? Would it be worse, or better?
In the US, I can easily see California and Texas as their own countries. They were never envisioned at the beginning anyway. Either one would be more of a nation than Canada, Australia, or Austria. Smalleer governments are more accountable and more responsive.
Even Spain could break into its constituent parts if the empire permits a vote.
Dismantling Empires Through Devolution - Democracy is not the most potent political force of the 21st century.
Should the American civil war have been subject to a confederate referendum first?
 Three-herb salad
I think it would go well with a grilled steak.
 Pic: rainy day in NYC on Thursday
Fashion as an Inescapable Institution
Stop the pipeline!
The Anti-Vaccination Epidemic - Whooping cough, mumps and measles are making an alarming comeback, thanks to seriously misguided parents.
Fun factoids of old-time Jewish celebs
Central Banking Is The Problem, Not The Solution
More Than 40,000 Illegals Recently Caught Crossing The Border Failed To Show Up For Immigration Hearings…
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Delusional Daydreams of Total Tyranny
Krauthammer likes Obama's war
The MSM and Hillary Clinton
Michelle Obama Bashes America’s “Harmful Cultural Norms” in UN Speech
Official German body says incest a 'fundamental right'
Britain is on Fire, Let the blank Burn
They deserve what they get. No one forced this on Britain. The English had a long conversation with themselves, and decided to commit mass suicide and welcome the Muslim hordes intent on replacing them. If anything, Britain should serve as a haunting lesson of what happens when a people intellectualizes themselves into a position so far to the left it condones their own self-destruction.
China:
China has only 31 government and party employees per thousand residents. The number of civil servants per thousand residents in France is 95, in the United States, 75, and in Germany 53.
India Plans for 30+ Years of Emissions Growth
China
has only 31 government and party employees per thousand residents. The
number of civil servants per thousand residents in France is 95, in the
United States, 75, and in Germany 53. - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/09/china-fact-of-the-day-21.html#sthash.tv0GCjgE.dpuf
China
has only 31 government and party employees per thousand residents. The
number of civil servants per thousand residents in France is 95, in the
United States, 75, and in Germany 53. - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/09/china-fact-of-the-day-21.html#sthash.tv0GCjgE.dpuf
When You Are Old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
Friday, September 26. 2014
Many articles I read about Jihadists refer to "disaffected youth," even this one about the Algerian beheading of the French hiker.
I am sorry to say that these are not "disaffected youth" (as if they were Holden Caulfields or Benjamin Braddocks), they are deeply "affected" people from all walks of life who do not mind dying for their beliefs. They are true believers, Muslim fundies following their scripture and their religious leaders. Any efforts to psychologize them are amateurish, naive, ignorant, and Western cultural-centric.
Multicultural dogma says that we must comprehend people in the context of their cultures, not in the context of our materialist, secular, and therapeutic culture.
When your elite team of doctors, unwilling to admit defeat or accept failure, does more harm than good.
Our survival instinct makes death an enemy, but our wisdom tells us that it is not.
Well, nobody. However, it doesn't matter because the regulators are our moral and intellectual superiors like Cass Sunstein. Philosopher-Kings, you might say, or experts.
I am more from the William F. Buckley Jr school:
"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."
The regulation-maniacs assume, of course, that we common folk have no sense, no information, and few morals, and constantly need their guidance, rules, and laws. Most of them, I suspect, have minimal contact with us regular folks.
How foolish and depraved are people anyway? We are told that we are an irrational tangle of biases, to be nudged any which way. Does this claim stand to reason?
Modern skepticism about rationality is largely motivated by years of experiments on cognitive bias. We are prone to apparently irrational phenomena such as the anchoring effect (if we are told to think of some arbitrary number, it will affect our snap response to an unrelated question) or the availability error (we judge questions according to the examples that come most easily to mind, rather than a wide sample of evidence). There has been some controversy over the correct statistical interpretations of some studies, and several experiments that ostensibly demonstrate ‘priming’ effects, in particular, have notoriously proven difficult to replicate. But more fundamentally, the extent to which such findings can show that we are acting irrationally often depends on what we agree should count as ‘rational’ in the first place.
It's an interesting article. I have always figured that humans are partly and sometimes rational and practical, often emotional, frequently uninformed or misinformed, etc. etc. I feel the same way about the regulators who seem to me to be irrationally obsessed with the idea of controlling others to try to make the world fit their fantasies. I'm sure Psychiatry has a term for that tendency. After all those who like to regulate are heir to the same human foibles and temptations as everybody else. Just more grandiose in their self-esteem and less humble and self-doubting.
Sunstein seems, currently, to be preoccupied by digital regulation.
I wish people like him would worry more about their own lives, and leave me alone.
How to best survive a black bear attack
Here's a Griz, but it makes the point
Vanderleun: The Web Above Us
Derek Jeter hero in Bronx finale
Nice
Sol Stern on The Free Speech Movement at 50 - The movement won; free speech lost.
The radical movement that the FSM spawned soon imploded into violence and mindless anti-Americanism. After helping to instigate riots in Newark, New Jersey (and writing about his accomplishments for The New York Review of Books), New Left stalwart Tom Hayden heard the siren song of the FSM and moved to Berkeley. He settled into one of the city’s many radical communes and rallied students to support the Black Panthers—America’s “internal Vietcong,” according to Hayden—and to create “liberated zones” to serve as Panther sanctuaries. He pushed the Berkeley radicals to learn how to use guns because the revolution was surely coming. Hayden and some movement veterans organized trips to North Vietnam and North Korea. The youthful political pilgrims came back singing the praises of Ho Chi Minh and Kim Il Sung. Left untold by most of the friendly narratives about the FSM and the New Left is the story of how a once-idealistic student movement crossed the line to antidemocratic ideologies and undermined the possibility of a decent Left in America.
The real story: he was there.
So Long, Shaker Pint: The Rise and Fall of America's Awful Beer Glass - How the entire U.S. came to drink out of a vessel never meant for human lips.
7 Reasons Why Dating Multiple Men At Once Made Me Crazy
Just not up to the job. Bright women date a lot, and handle it.
Do Statistical Disparities Mean Injustice?
Where Have the Young Farmers Gone?
Ever hear of estate taxes?
An ebola doc reports
A Voice Can Be Heard, From Painful Necessity, Commanding, ‘To The Compost Heap—Go!’
Labor Giant Puts Politics, Pay Over Serving Teachers - NEA spends more on lobbying than representing members
Via SDA:
Examples of sexual violence include: discounting the partner's feelings regarding sex; criticizing the partner sexually; touching the partner sexually in inappropriate and uncomfortable ways; withholding sex and affection...
Peace Protests, R.I.P.
WHITE LIBERALS Say Obama Gets Away With War-Mongering Because He’s Black
Privatize air traffic control
I like and respect Mitt, but please no
What Karl Rove Won’t Tell You - Wave goodbye to the Republican wave?
Jamie Gorelick? please, no
Stuff Bush Didn't Do, Illustrated
Erikson:
I think the GOP, without a message, can have one simple message — we’re the grown ups who will keep you safe and get out of your way. Many middle class mothers remember their grandfathers fondly. They were men who stormed beaches to kill monsters. They don’t see men like that around here now. They don’t see anyone honoring their grandfathers’ legacies. The world has come undone. America needs grownups, not technocrats, to fix it.
U.S. Immigrant Population Hits All-Time High: 41.3 Million People
Too many to assimilate
Iraq War critic says Iraq withdrawal may have been the worst strategic mistake of all
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