Wednesday morning links

Moore was a terrible candidate, and an accidental candidate too

Moore was emblematic of the fecklessness, the sloth, the arrogance, and the staggering incompetence of the Republicans' nationwide circular firing squad. The GOP is merely the visible front office of their hundred year old running disaster.

Trump - for whatever accidental good he'll have done, and none of it aimed at reforming Republican statism - will never be reelected. Republicans are too lame.

Three cheers for "conservatism". What a joke.

#1 Meh on 2017-12-13 08:28 (Reply)

Wisconsin: The joke around here was that if we already had beer, sausages, and polka as part of our German heritage, why not add the Stasi?

Engineering: Engineering is hard. It requires knowledge of math at the calculus level. It requires physics that presupposes knowledge of math at the calculus level. It reinforces a mindset of rigid analysis and synthesis.

Why? Precisely because steel doesn't care. Steam doesn't care. Electrons don't care. when a bridge collapses, when a boiler explodes, when a power grid collapses you can't pat someone on the back, say good try, and move on. People get hurt; people get killed. You can't intuit a hydro-electric dam. It's been tried, and in all cases it failed miserably.

If there is a way of knowing the profession and discipline that doesn't involve calculating entropy of bounded systems at 3:00 am, the field would embrace it, but so far no one has demonstrated that such method work in this universe.

#2 another guy named Dan on 2017-12-13 09:15 (Reply)

Steel, steam, electrons, bridges, boilers, physics and calculus are all part of the non-intersectional, heteronormative racist culture. They would not exist in a perfect intersectional world, so must be destroyed.

Math is too hard. We need laws to make it criminal.

#2.1 jaybird on 2017-12-13 11:37 (Reply)

Warm rock rising: There is so much we don't know, or don't understand.

Purdue's College of Engineering Education is apparently now run by the Insane Clown Posse.

Discussing the attractiveness of women: THE HORROR!!!! The horror...

Man saves Bunny: WHITENESS to blame for it! (Saints preserve us from such idiocy.)

Nunes and DOJ: DOJ ain't trustworthy. Hasn't been for at least 8 years.

Britain's NHS: News about it from Britain shows why Paullie "The Beard" Krugman cannnot be believed.

#3 Sam L. on 2017-12-13 09:48 (Reply)

Jonah Goldberg is a never Trumper. He is an elitist who would rather lose than elect someone he didn't personally pick and approve. To him, and sadly so many Republicans, it isn't about Americans and making America great again or reversing our current trend away from the constitution. It is about his elite buddies staying on the cocktail circuit and having a share in the spoils of government. The elite Republicans can do that even if the Democrats control the congress and presidency. In fact it is easier, less work, zero blame and increased fund raising.
What is missing in this equation and all of the discussion by the MSM is that there is a huge portion of this country who are unhappy with the left and with the stupid party Republicans. They want their country back. They are tired of ever increasing taxes and ever increasing welfare. They are convinced that our incredibly large national debt will cause the next great depression, They know that when that happens the elite on the left and the right will not suffer one iota but the vast majority of Americans will. Our congress and our judges are letting us down and have been letting us down for 50 years of more and now it is becoming painfully obvious to everyone even those who don’t like politics and believe CNN.

This senate race in Alabama was a great victory for Democrats. But understand two things about this:
1. That everyone sees that the Democrats resorted to dirty politics to sway the race to their side.
2. That a very large minority still voted for Moore in spite of the millions in George Soros money and the entire MSM working overtime to steal the election. The Democrats can ignore flyover country at their peril.

#4 GoneWithTheWind on 2017-12-13 10:02 (Reply)

Moore was a well-known complete nut.

The AL primaries were screwed up. Either other guy would have won easily.

#4.1 The NJ on 2017-12-13 10:26 (Reply)

What is missing in this equation and all of the discussion by the MSM is that there is a huge portion of this country who are unhappy with the left and with the stupid party Republicans. They want their country back. They are tired of ever increasing taxes and ever increasing welfare.

Bullshit. What's missing is ninety-nine out of every hundred ostensible "conservatives" - rightists in my book - bothering to have the first clue what structural originalism is and having the balls to demand it as their heritage and right. There's no "wanting their country back" - that's an empty slogan idiots paste on ignorance, laziness, and arrogance. Rightists haven't even written DC this month, much less in the last twelve hundred months. Too many better things to do.

But understand two things about this:
1. That everyone sees that the Democrats resorted to dirty politics to sway the race to their side.
2. That a very large minority still voted for Moore in spite of the millions in George Soros money and the entire MSM working overtime to steal the election. The Democrats can ignore flyover country at their peril.

More bullshit. Nobody cares that dirty politics are standard procedure. Nobody cares that they're willfully duped. Nobody cares that they can't define conservatism; they have their little lifestyle and their little partisan divisions and their little petty anti-Democrat causes and not two in a hundred cares to see beyond this endless, useless game they've been playing all their lives to no good effect whatsoever.

And for that "flyover country" thing you think you've identified, think back to your various screeds against hurricane-ravaged PR, according to your magnificent insights on the place and its economics, certainly the emblem of fifty US states in comparable financial shape. Those refugees from PR that you hate so much are in FL now and that means FL never again, in the history of America, votes for the craven liars in the GOP. From here on out it's voting for the psychos in the donkey Party.

Not only can the left ignore flyover country, they can ignore flyover country forever and it's because in 200 years the ostensible right couldn't reform one major piece of leftist legislation and couldn't erect a single edifice to the structuralism inscribed in their founding for all time. Not one. Why? Because of their smug sloth and because they don't even know what it is.

Understand those two things.

#4.2 Meh on 2017-12-13 11:22 (Reply)

So, what is your solution, asshole?

You do a lot of bitching, but offer no solutions.

Man up.

#4.2.1 jimg on 2017-12-13 14:16 (Reply)

You're just so precious, aren't ya, snowflake?

#4.2.1.1 Meh on 2017-12-13 16:42 (Reply)

Moore was a 'terrible candidate' picked by Republicans in a large majority over Strange in the Republican primary. They wanted him over Strange. So I just don't buy 'terrible candidate.'

The allegations, to me, are all fake and the press NEVER covered Moore's defenses of these charges with facts & his own witnesses, plus the yearbook Allred wouldn't let be examined.

So, no, he wasn't terrible. The left railroaded him with false charges and the press and RINOs helped by piling on.

#5 MissT on 2017-12-13 12:05 (Reply)

Yes, of course, the Trumpsters will learn nothing, and believe that if we just do more of what is failing, we will get ever-increasing majorities in the House and Senate.

Populists, even with magical Master Persuader candidates heading the bill, do not have enough votes to elect anyone. As long as they persist in the insanity that there is no difference between Democrats and the Republicans they don't like, the Democrats will continue to make gains. Spite is not a platform.

Hope you liked Gorsuch. He might be the last Trump nominee.

#5.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2017-12-13 22:41 (Reply)

Years ago the University of Texas (if I recall correctly) required a 650 mathsat to go into engineering. The administration discovered this had an adverse impact on women and people of color so the requirement was eliminated. The administration was surprised when there was no big increase in women and people of color taking engineering. They forgot you still had to pass the calculus course because calculus was a prerequisite for so many engineering courses. The 650 mathsat was simply an indication that you could do calculus. The obvious solution to this problem is to eliminate all those engineering courses that use calculus. Engineering was so much easier before Newton invented calculus. I'm certain Newton invented calculus just to confuse and frustrate women and people of color.

#6 Ray on 2017-12-13 12:36 (Reply)

Not from The Onion: At Purdue, The Clown Quarter Now Has An Engineering Division

It is very discouraging that this came from Purdue, which for decades has had one of the best engineering schools in the nation. In addition, Mitch Daniels is President of Purdue, which makes it even worse, as Daniels is as far from politically correct as any university president in the nation.

Note that Riley is Head of the School of Engineering Education, which is NOT the same as Purdue's College of Engineering.

The basic fact is that if you aren't good in math and in three-dimensional thinking, you aren't going to get an engineering degree, regardless of the issue of "white heterosexual male privilege." What were Donna Riley's SATs? As she went to Princeton, probably rather good- well above 650 I suspect.

In addition, it is rather ironic that for decades, the underlying message of math and engineering profs to those privileged white heterosexual males is that they aren't good enough to be engineers. Which is why so many privileged white heterosexual males wash out of engineering.

At the same time, engineering education could be improved. Such as more hands-on stuff with tools and equipment early on, to illustrate to engineering students that engineering is about applying mind to the physical world.

#6.1 Gringo on 2017-12-13 15:12 (Reply)

If you are a strong assertive female you will get an engineering degree whether or not you can do the calculus! There is not white male teacher in this country that will flunk her out of class.

#6.1.1 faculty wife on 2017-12-14 00:41 (Reply)

That ****ard!!!

#6.2 Sam L. on 2017-12-13 18:54 (Reply)

Weird. I had 3 semesters of calculus before I even left high school. The idea of enrolling someone in a university-level engineering program who had never been exposed to calculus, let alone someone who couldn't master it once he got there!

#6.3 Texan99 on 2017-12-13 19:03 (Reply)

"America’s Malls Are Rotting Away"

Reminds me of last holiday season. We went to one of the larger indoor malls in our area. Literally none of the ecalators in the mall worked, they were all blocked off.

It's not that easy to get around a mall when there is no access other than the back stairs and small elevators to get you from level to level.

At the time I thought that was atrocious and someone should get fired. But now I see that more and more at all the malls. They are obviously struggling and deferred maintenance is becoming very noticeable. It is even happening at our premiere mall which is primarily geared towards wealthy Asian tourists (they are pretty much all wealthy these days compared to Americans).

#7 Jim on 2017-12-13 15:19 (Reply)

Maintenance can only be deferred so long. Then you get accidents and liability suits. Unless the business is folded in time.

#7.1 Sam L. on 2017-12-13 18:56 (Reply)

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Wednesday, December 13. 2017

Wednesday morning links