Wednesday morning links

So why do you constantly link to NYT, Boston Globe stories that are behind a paywall? I doubt that 5% of your readers subscribe and most of us wouldn't read the stories if they were free. You're wasting real estate.

#1 FRP on 2018-02-28 08:20 (Reply)

Sorry about that.

I do not mean to do that, but it happens.

Heck, this is a volunteer operation!

#1.1 Bird Dog on 2018-02-28 08:47 (Reply)

Both the New York Times and the Boston Globe offer limited free viewing of articles.

#1.2 Zachriel on 2018-02-28 10:41 (Reply)

Hell has frozen over. I agree with the paid Soros troll(s):

The NYT gives me 10 free views a month. Not sure about Boston Globe.

#1.2.1 Dangerous Dean on 2018-02-28 11:28 (Reply)

Someone mentioned the other day that you can open an "incognito window" and you won't be recognized by the paper and then you can read as many free articles as you want. Not great for the newspaper that needs to make money obviously.
I know in Safari the incognito window is called "private window" and it's under the File tab.

#1.2.1.1 LP on 2018-02-28 16:44 (Reply)

Yep. Criminals, terrorists and crazies are gong to run to the nearest police station and turn their weapons in. That's according to Liberal logic.

#2 oolioo (Link) on 2018-02-28 08:40 (Reply)

re A tidal wave of refugees is coming

Perhaps, but Spengler's future telling hasn't been very accurate on much shorter timelines.

No one knows what will happen 20 . . . 30 . . . 40 years into the future. Spengler is no exception.

#3 feeblemind on 2018-02-28 09:36 (Reply)

There are 7.6B people on the planet. I don't know where they all are, only a billion are in the Americas. Lot's of them live pretty marginal lives. Be grateful for the oceans. Just a gentle reminder; migration is part of the human condition, and always has been.

#3.1 Exasperated on 2018-03-01 07:01 (Reply)

So 26 of the last 27 mass shooting are linked to toxic masculinity. Another writer worries that "our boys are broken". I would offer that since abortion has been made legal 57,000,000 babies have been killed by toxic femininity. Perhaps our girls are broken.

#4 TheRiver on 2018-02-28 09:37 (Reply)

Yes, and I'm not getting how the problem of absent fathers can be described as "toxic masculinity." According to the spate of absent-father articles making the rounds this week, young women do just as badly in fatherless homes as young men do. Presumably it's not the evil testosterone in the veins of the young women that's the problem, and obviously the problem isn't the testosterone of the distant father. Must we now start blaming the toxic estrogen of the only parent who is present? Or can we admit that this talk of hormonal culprits is the height of silliness?

#4.1 Texan99 on 2018-02-28 11:30 (Reply)

When I went to the 26 of 27 story, the top reply said that the data was wrong. But still, I am sure that most of the shooters had bad father figures.

I wanted to respond to what you said about toxic femininity. I work with a woman who I get along with most of the time. She has been indoctrinated at a liberal college back east, so when abortion came up a few years ago, she took me to task asking "how a man could dare to talk about aborting a baby?!? How can you even imagine?" I told her I was adopted, so I had every right. Then I told her that my mom, sister and wife were at least as pro-life as I am. Given a chance, each of them would vote to end abortion immediately.

But when I asked her how many women were pressured into abortions by the men in their life, the argument ended. I can't find any study that answers my question, but I have had three women share their abortion story with me. Two of them have told me that they very much wanted to give their babies up for adoption, but that the baby-dady or their own fathers pressured them into killing the babies.

I understand selection bias, so it is entirely possible that I know three other women who had abortions and might all assert that the abortion was strictly their own decision with no male pressure, but they don't want to admit that guilt. But assuming for a second that my limited experiences are typical, what would it say about feminism that this most sacred sacrament of the modern Democrat party is NOT a case where independent, sexually liberated women are taking control of their bodies to kill their unborn? What if everything they have been told about their "reproductive freedom" is really a male lie to dodge responsibility and/or child support payments?

Now THAT would be a horrible reveal for feminists. And I think that question is why my colleague hasn't mentioned abortion to me since I asked her that question.

#4.2 Dangerous Dean on 2018-02-28 11:39 (Reply)

Your point about men pressuring women to abort is entirely reasonable and very likely true in many cases. I think society also pressures women, especially young women, to abort. But the decision is in the end up to one person and one person only. I was not trying to throw stones from a glass house but rather trying to dissuade others from throwing stones from their own glass house. IMHO there is only one reason to make a statement that "since most mass shooting are done by men that it is therefore masculine toxicity" and that is pure discrimination/misandry/prejudice against men. So it would seem logical to use the same kind of hateful statement to illustrate their stupidity with stupidity. I feel/felt that no one could possibly mistake that comment about toxic Femininity as serious and would thus clearly see that it illustrated the fallacy of the original statement about toxic masculinity. Was I too subtle???

I do not harbor any hate or negative feelings for women who have had an abortion. In fact I cannot imagine the lifetime of pain such a decision can bring. The misgivings and guilt would be very difficult to bear. In my life I have learned so much from others mistakes and I'm thankful that even though I have made many mistakes I have avoided many too exactly because I was able to reflect on someone else's mistake and it made an impression on me. If nothing else, old age humbles us and makes us forgiving of the mistakes of the young who have so much to learn.

To soon old, to late smart.

#4.2.1 TheRiver on 2018-02-28 13:17 (Reply)

There is some inaccuracy in the article about the mass shooters. The real number is that "only one in seven" were raised by their biological father start to finish. I will submit again, because no one seems to remember, that genetics is as good an explanation for this as environment, and probably much better. Dad (and mom) having been a jerk to begin with and demonstrating that in his own choices is much more likely than claiming that mere presence of dads, with their many different styles and level of involvement, and a wide range of good and bad behaviors in the home, is a magical protective factor.

Our grandparents used to know these things, but we choose to ignore them.

#5 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2018-02-28 09:51 (Reply)

Indeed. But also, people who are antisocial, aggressive, impulsive, etc. are also very likely to end up driving away anybody who could have helped them. So, they not only have a Dad who shared those traits, maybe abused them directly, and then skipped out; they not only share the same unfavorable biology; but also, they drive away or alienate any potential father-figures who could have helped (coach, teacher, Scout master, etc.). Our society is also "thinning out", that is, systematically emptying out of these sorts of social organizations-- churches, Scouts, house-league sports (who take everybody, regardless of skill), neighborhood organizations, local charities, etc.-- which make a variety of father-figures available naturally to many kids.

This is really the Problem from Hell.

#5.1 Janet on 2018-02-28 15:53 (Reply)

Statistically and empirically one half of relationship breakups would be the fault of the women.

My brother-in-law divorced the mother of two of his kids. He tried his best to stay in their lives while the mother did everything in her power to stifle that including having her new boyfriends start fights with the dad when he came to pick up his boys. She would file charges for failing to pay child support even though he did pay. The charges would remain active and if he was stopped for a traffic infraction a ID check would turn up a warrant so he would be arrested and held until he could see a judge. She filed PO's against him and in general made his life a living hell.

Another example. A good friend of mine who with his two siblings was raised by his mother never "knew" his father. Never got cards or presents and as far as he knew the father didn't exist. After his father passed away the adult kids received their fathers personal effects which included cards and letters sent to them over the years but refused by the mother and evidence that the father had payed a substantial monthly child support payment. The mother had kept the dad away and kept the children ignorant.

#5.1.1 Someone on 2018-02-28 16:49 (Reply)

As we have for decades, last weekend our family went to dim sum and watched the parade that celebrates Chinese New Year with friends who are of Chinese heritage. Years ago, only the older generation didn't speak English. Now it's the 20 to 30 years olds that don't understand the language as well as many of their non-school-age children. This is not a good sign.

#6 jma on 2018-02-28 11:04 (Reply)

In Australian schools, a slice of chocolate cake is in the Red Food Category (or possibly the Amber Food Category "cakes, muffins, swee biscuits, slices"). This is quite obviously a bunch of 20th century hippie-dippy bullshit, since the first item in the approve Green Food Category is "breads and cereals, rice, pasta, noodles." The Australian appear to be well on their way to a 21st century of obsese, short-lived diabetic citizens.

I, for one, demand Blue and Purple Food categories to properly describe my favorite alcoholic beverages!

#7 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2018-02-28 11:21 (Reply)

Re: The left’s pathetic case making public workers pay union fees

What they did not discuss was the mandatory government deduction of union dues from member paychecks and depositing directly into union bank accounts.

Make the unions collect their OWN dues at their OWN expense from their members.

#8 drowningpuppies on 2018-02-28 11:39 (Reply)

RE: Netflix and Hollywood

Nearly all of my video/film entertainment these days is of shows created by Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Starz. Over the past few years I am averaging two Hollywood industry movies per year - and that includes movies I see in theaters or stream at home. Hollywood content is crap IMHO. Remakes of perfectly good old movies, shoot-em-up, crummy sci-fi, and so on do not amount to anything that compels me to watch their product. So I think it fair to say that if Hollywood is losing to these folks, it's by their own hand.

#9 steve walsh on 2018-02-28 11:59 (Reply)

I'm pretty much just watching TCM's old movies. No Netflix or Amazon.

#9.1 Sam L. on 2018-02-28 12:10 (Reply)

Heh. Another green scam unravels.

GreenTech, the electric car company once led by McAuliffe, files for bankruptcy

http://www.richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/greentech-the-electric-car-company-once-led-by-mcauliffe-files/article_bf83ede4-ae12-5561-ad3b-b0a29c2b0984.html

#10 feeblemind on 2018-02-28 12:13 (Reply)

"We must have laws that keep Americans safe from gun technology that the Constitution’s framers never foresaw, "
I agree. For instance, they never foresaw computerized type setting machines and high speed rotary presses. All those publishers that don't set type by hand and use a hand operated printing press that prints one page at a time should be closed down. Especially the Portland Press Herald.

#11 Ray on 2018-02-28 12:23 (Reply)

Yoga Pants: Women, hating other women.

Maine No Guns: No guns for police, either, if "No Guns" means "NO GUNS". Which, of course, it doesn't.

The Problem With White Guys: I'm white; I've learned to live with it.

Bernification of Dems: That's '...lurched farther, much farther left..."

Dispatches From Inside...": Lefties cannot STAND dissent, unless it's theirs.

Harvard Magazine: Closed-Minded Fools.

It must be really bad if it's the UN saying the Norks are shipping chemicals to Syria.

#12 Sam L. on 2018-02-28 12:42 (Reply)

The Yoga Pants article seems to be an example of Sailer's First Law of Female Journalism ("The most heartfelt journalistic extrusions will be demands for how society must be re-engineered so that, come the Revolution, the writer herself will be considered hotter-looking") in action.

#12.1 Soviet of Washington on 2018-02-28 13:29 (Reply)

Has the idiot who wrote this piece ever tried doing yoga in sweat pants? Yoga pants - like tights for dancers - are the way they are for a reason: they facilitate the wearer's ability to make the proper movements.

On the other hand, had she decided to write about the unfortunate fad of women wearing too-tight pants and leggings in public, I would have been in total agreement. In my view, it's the very rare female who can or should wear such gear after about age ten.

#12.1.1 Frances on 2018-02-28 21:15 (Reply)

Dick's Sporting goods to not sell guns to under 21:
Isn't that age discrimination, if it was legal to sell under the law?
Calling all lawyers, it sounds like an easy case to win.
The other thing I wonder is just how many guns they did actually sell to under 21, so maybe they thought it wasn't a hard call to make, "we weren't selling that much" to that demographic?

Some Co-op in Canada is now going to take food out of the mouths of babes because the store sells outdoor stuff from a company that also happens to have a gun subsidiary. That will show Them.

#13 Jerry on 2018-02-28 12:46 (Reply)

The religion of peace:
http://www.theospark.net/2018/02/merkel-has-murdered-germanyfrom-rico.html

#14 TheRiver on 2018-02-28 12:59 (Reply)

Netflix, HBO, and Disney/Marvel have caught onto a change in audience taste more accurately than other studios. The viewing audience of today is looking for entertainment that is cinematic in scope but episodic in form. People want stories that are too layered and complex to be told in a two-hour feature, but expect the production values of feature films. Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, The Avengers all fit this mold, but the conventional studios don't seem to have caught on.

#15 another guy named Dan on 2018-02-28 13:39 (Reply)

Agree completely. I would add: the big studio's product is mediocre, at best, it is inconvenient to go to the theater, home audio and video quality at is really good.

#15.1 steve walsh on 2018-02-28 14:17 (Reply)

Do Not Get a PhD in the Liberal Arts Unless

First, you will not go to any program that wants to charge you tuition. Ideally, you will be offered some sort of assistantship so that you won’t have to look for other jobs to make money.

I agree w/ this, and would say it's as true, maybe moreso, for STEM fields. I was shocked to interview job applicants who [/i]paid[/i] tuition for grad school in chemistry.

It's bad enough that they were not getting paid, were paying tuition, some even private school tuition! But it's a big red flag for a potential employer who wonders, "Weren't you good enough to get a TA?"

I'm appreciative that there are professors like the one referenced in the article, who care about their students' futures.

#16 DrTorch on 2018-02-28 13:42 (Reply)

Why don't they wear shorts, like guys do?

Because if I am wearing shorts, I might flash people when I am on my back doing leg stuff. I don't like that.

If the shorts are tight enough not to flash, then they are constricting when I do squats.

#17 the gold digger (Link) on 2018-03-01 14:40 (Reply)

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Wednesday, February 28. 2018

Wednesday morning links