Monday morning links

Scrooge was a hoarder. Hoarders don't lift society from poverty.

The Bible explicitly condemns hoarding.

I can't access WSJ, but the headline does not advance the cause of capitalism, it explicitly harms it, while fueling strife among people.

#1 DrTorch (Link) on 2020-12-28 09:19 (Reply)

Nor was he charitable, until he had the bejeebers scared out of him.

#1.1 Aggie on 2020-12-28 09:22 (Reply)

Wow! I guess I'm a hoarder too. I had a 401k and IRA before I retired and savings and a paid off home. What a bastard I am hoarding like that.
So what are our property rights? Does everything belong to those who don't/won't work or do we working stiffs get to own something too?

#1.2 OneGuy on 2020-12-28 10:41 (Reply)

Scrooge & Marley was a lender of last resort, mush like today's payday lenders. They provided credit at high rates to those who could get it nowhere else - after they had pawned everything that could be pawned and sold everything that could be sold. His recourse for non-payment was the institution of the debtor's prison, one that he did not create and was considered to be preferable to the alternative, which had been slavery.

#1.3 Another Guy Named Dan on 2020-12-28 12:12 (Reply)

I really appreciate it when other people hoard enough to take care of emergencies, instead of collapsing on everyone around them and expecting them to pick up the slack. "I'm a little short this week" does get old.

#1.4 Texan99 on 2020-12-28 15:16 (Reply)

Faulk’s broadcast originated in 1974.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Faulk

#2 Marina on 2020-12-28 10:09 (Reply)

Clicking on the Faulk story got me a message asking that I donate to my local NPR station. Years ago I used to listen fairly regularly to the local NPR station. It had a number of local DJs that played an idiosyncratic medley of music. I once was in a polling station line with one of the DJs I listened to, recognizing him by his voice. Over the years, most of the local DJs got replaced by national programs, which for the most part were NOT improvements over the local DJs. The local DJs were very good.

I hardly ever listened to NPR news, as its bias was obvious to me even decades ago, when I was a Third Party voter. It appears that today NPR news is just as biased, if not worse, compared to how it was.

NPR Says They Won’t Cover The Hunter Biden Story Because ‘Russia’ And ‘It Doesn’t Amount To Much.’

#2.1 Gringo on 2020-12-28 13:04 (Reply)

I used to listen to NPR while driving cross country for my business. When I heard them absolutely lie about the doings of Bill Clinton I turned them off and haven't listened since.

#2.1.1 JC on 2020-12-28 13:18 (Reply)

Our schools were already failing. Is the teachers union telling us accept their trash product or get nothing? How many more of these monsters are we required to submit to?

#3 Judith on 2020-12-28 10:10 (Reply)

Losing a Generation?

More like peeling off the mask of rampant social promotions, grade inflation, and self-serving "exemplary" school ratings. Only a third of Texas high school grads were university quality before the WuFlu, and about half of them couldn't even spell algebra, let alone do it. The pandemic and accompanying social engineering demolition have exposed public education for the massive fraud and Kabuki show that it is.

In the 21st century, the only educated people will be hardcore homeschoolers and rich kids blessed with demanding parents and expensive private academies. All others will be Boob Bait Bubbas.

#3.1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2020-12-28 13:54 (Reply)

Last Stand.

A complex question. Despite the flowery language of their commanders and Hollywood movies, soldiers in extremis fight for their comrades in their section or squad or other small unit and at the very end are fighting for their lives if there's no choice the the matter. This is especially true at the Little Big Horn and the Alamo where no one expected the indians to take prisoners and the mexicans stated this specifically. The last men to die were the wounded unable to continue fighting, probably well over half of the combatants.

At the Alamo and the Little Big Horn, the last men to die still fighting were attempting break outs so we should presume they were trying to survive and not die for a cause. Those who surrendered at the Alamo also expected to live. The man who bugged out of the Alamo before (likely during) the final assault was not ostracized for his decision.

Grant at Shiloh. Really? This probably refers to the Hornet's Nest, where Grant wasn't the officer in tactical command. Federal forces holding this position surrendered after the main breakout attempt failed. This is a "last" stand from a odd point of view.

#4 The Trappist on 2020-12-28 10:48 (Reply)

I'm trying to understand what main breakout attempt you are referring to? The Hornet's Nest, so named by the confederate soldiers who fought there because, "Attesting to the fury in the area, Confederates so named the location because, they said, the enemy's bullets sounded like swarms of angry hornets."

According to Grant, in his memoirs, he had expected General Prentiss to fall back, with the others, on the 5th, thus leaving his (Prentiss's) flanks exposed. Still, the men and General Prentiss, fought on into the late afternoon of the 6th, where, with the aid of 62 confederate cannon, they completely surrounded Prentiss, thus capturing him and 2,200 troops.

I would also like to point out that Grant visited Prentiss several times, during the battle on the 6th. Grant throughout his career was no stranger to the front lines of battle. He routinely exposed himself to the enemy, in order to gain first hand knowledge of the battle. Grant was the reason the North was even at Pittsburg Landing. Grant was the officer that assigned Prentiss to his command.

#4.1 B. Hammer on 2020-12-28 16:06 (Reply)

Other than the offense being taken due to a completely false folk etymology, in IT "PICNIC" is an acronym for "Problem In Chair, Not In Computer", that is to say a persistent user error. See also PEBCAC (Problem Exists Between Chair and Computer) or the famous ID Ten T .

#5 Another Guy named Dan on 2020-12-28 11:30 (Reply)

UMich’s IT department told to stop using word ‘picnic,’ it could ‘harm morale’ : HOW???? Again I say, the STUPID is STRONG in these ones.

TIKI Bars: These people are against FUN! BOO! HISS!!

Soccer Club Demands Fans Who Booed BLM Undergo Re-Education Courses Before Being Allowed Back: My money's on "AIN'T comin' back"!!

Understanding black Americans: Don’t ask liberals: They just can't wrap their minds around this.

Testing The "Systemic Racism" Narrative: WELL!!! These guys must (MUST) be CHEATING and using BAD MATH!!!111!!!!!

Tucker Carlson: The slow, painful death of California: The STUPID is STRONG in Califonia.

Washington Post Warns Joe Biden: "Pandemonium at the Border’ : I trust nothing in the WaPoo; neither should Joe.

Ossoff: Sorry, but my company’s finances are confidential: Tell us again WHY we should trust you??????

#6 Sam L. on 2020-12-28 11:34 (Reply)

What will VP Pence do on Jan 6th? This has the potential to be the most significant day and the most significant act in our history. Will he stand up for truth and the 80 million voters that re-elected Trump or will he take the easy way out and concede to the Commie 'steal'? My advice to Pence would be to stand up for what is right. Otherwise the left and China pulls off a coup that may never be undone and the U.S. will just become another parking lot on China's Belt and Road. DO IT! Just do it VP Pence.

#7 Saul on 2020-12-28 11:38 (Reply)

Pence is a creature of the system, and therefore will act to preserve the host above all else. Think of him as a lymphocyte, attacking an organism that is dangerous to the health of the system.

#7.1 Aggie on 2020-12-28 12:06 (Reply)

Agree with you Aggie: "Pence is a creature of the system..." William Barr was a creature of the system too, thus no prosecution, much less an investigation, against those doing the systems bidding. Although Trump was never anything resembling a fiscal conservative, the system beat him down too. In the end, he signed the horribly corrupt awful 'stimulus' bill. He could have taken a stand. He didn't.

Amongst the vast swath of government, how many individuals are willing to stand up to it? Even outside government, how many stand up to the boss, or HR? Damned few.

#7.1.1 B. Hammer on 2020-12-28 15:15 (Reply)

I disagree. Trump really didn't have a chpoice with the bill. No matter what he did congress would pass the bill but if he vetoed it innocent people would suffer until congress got around to passing the bill. Every president faces this and a big part of the problem is that congress is not adhering to their constitutional mandates.

Trump is so different, so much better for the U.S. and the citizens than any other president since maybe Washington. THAT is what the Democrats stole when they stole the election. I believe we are seeing the end of the country and if you do not see that expect to be surprised... soon. Trump will be missed.

#7.1.1.1 OneGuy on 2020-12-28 21:35 (Reply)

"In the 1840s, Dickens didn’t see how businessmen like his hero were already lifting mankind from poverty."

You don't have to read that article to see that the WSJ has completely misread Dickens. No one doubts that the Industrial Revolution was lifting people out of poverty. But the impersonal, high-blown, grand scale reordering of society did not mitigate the hard reality of Victorian squalor.

Dickens wasn't a revolutionary calling for political change; he was calling for a change in spirit. It was the individual mean-spiritedness of his age that concerned him.

Or, as George Orwell put it so well:

"If men would behave decently the world would be decent."

#8 JJM on 2020-12-28 11:46 (Reply)

And Madison said "If men were angels, we wouldn't need a government."

#8.1 Dangerous Dean on 2020-12-28 13:17 (Reply)

Do yourself and us a favor - don"t quote Newsweek about Israel.

It's probably best not to quote them about anything.

#9 BenDavid on 2020-12-28 14:02 (Reply)

I, for one, find it difficult to label as "controversial" the killing of a leader of Iran's nuclear weapon program. Instead of being "controversial," it is something to celebrate.

Note that even Obama's agreement with Iran did not consider Iran's acquiring the capability of making nuclear weapons to be a good thing. Not that Obama's agreement did anything to stop Iran from such capability, mind you.

#9.1 Gringo on 2020-12-28 14:45 (Reply)

You remember the report of a truck driver bringing ballots from NY to PA and the subsequent 3 AM drop of 100's of thousand of Biden ballots? Well, yesterday City Blue Imaging Services in Rochester NY burned to the ground leaving nothing but ashes. This was one of the printing companies that print legitimate ballots. I wonder why it was burned to the ground destroying all evidence of any possible crimes...

#10 OneGuy on 2020-12-28 17:50 (Reply)

If the New York Post wants to follow Fox News into oblivion, who are we to stand in their way?

#11 Brother John on 2020-12-29 00:12 (Reply)

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Monday, December 28. 2020

Monday morning links