Tuesday morning links

It's not their job to balance risks with benefits

Bingo.

Lowering the speed limit to 5 mph would save thousands of lives lost to automobile crashes. That's a fact. So why don't we lower the speed limit to 5 mph? Because there are costs to that as well and we have decided that the costs are not worth the benefits, we have decided (whether you've ever thought about it or not) that there is an acceptable number of traffic deaths. We do what we can to minimize those deaths of course, but nobody that I know of is arguing that zero deaths is the only acceptable number of deaths. We recognize that there are trade-offs to be made, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Politicians rarely have to think about how much the lunch costs, they're not the ones paying for it, they have no skin in the game. They feel free to engage in absolutes, it doesn't cost them anything to do so.

#1 Jerryskids on 2021-05-18 09:20 (Reply)

Bill Gates has made my family an obscene amount of money. Bill Gates is a very flawed individual. Not mutually exclusive, but I’ll refrain from chucking stones.

#2 DblTap on 2021-05-18 09:41 (Reply)

I quit Chelsea Wald when she blamed rising sea levels and climate change for a hurricane damaged sewage treatment plant.

#3 Craig Furlong (Link) on 2021-05-18 09:55 (Reply)

City Journal writes an article about their fight with Facebook and similar tactics by YouTube (Google) 'Fact-Checking' censors, who incorrectly label and remove stories on face mask negative effects, using bad science or arbitrary logic that is apparently not subject to appeal.

And for me to read it: I must first log in, using either Facebook or Google. Today's irony moment.

#4 Aggie on 2021-05-18 10:09 (Reply)

For whatever reason, I did not have to log into anything to read the article but I did notice the buttons at the bottom of the article that allow you to quickly share it to various anti free speech platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn but not one for Parler, Gab, or MeWe.

Isn’t past time that people who value free speech support platforms that also support free speech?

#4.1 mudbug on 2021-05-18 10:51 (Reply)

That’s odd, for me the City Journal website has never once required a login ... you might have a virus or spyware of some kind on your machine?

#4.2 Jeff Brokaw (Link) on 2021-05-18 12:04 (Reply)

Never has required a login from me either, before today. I used F8 to circumvent it. I'm well-protected against viruses and malware; I do routinely scrape out cookies & caches though, and sometimes taking out the tracking cookies triggers re-credentialing.

#4.2.1 Aggie on 2021-05-18 12:12 (Reply)

Gotcha - that makes sense

#4.2.1.1 Jeff Brokaw (Link) on 2021-05-18 12:21 (Reply)

RE fact checking: Neither "independent" nor "non-partisan" is synonymous with "no agenda".

Re masks: Many people have made their masks a fetish or talisman to ward off the dreaded Covid Demon. There's nothing resembling science in their belief; it's become a cargo cult.

#5 Another Guy named Dan on 2021-05-18 10:15 (Reply)

It’s Time to Knock the Toilet Off Its Pedestal: Maybe so, but since this post won't OPEN!!!111!!!! I get only 5 lines of text after the opener.

If You Suspected That Most Epidemiologists Were Complete Clowns, This Will Seal The Deal: Yesterday, I got an e-mail from Costco saying: Masks not required unless your state government requires it.

DHS, DOJ Designate Americans as Primary Threat:
That's CNN: Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. This is why I despise, detest, and totally distrust the media.

Collusion: How Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier fooled the world with the media's help. (See comment above.)

The Media Hates You And Is Shocked That You Hate It Back: Ah, the Crap "News" Network! (See comment above.)

Men Give Birth. America Was Founded in 1619. And Israel Is the Aggressor. (Refer back to my first comment.)

#6 Sam L. on 2021-05-18 10:42 (Reply)

...and speaking of Tech OverReach, if you have any kind of Alexa or Echo device in your home, you're a-fixin' to Go Live to the world on June 8th - unless you opt-out. That's because Amazon has pre-installed software to connect everybody's devices on this date by default unless you Opt-Out of being connected.

A How-To article is here:

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/amazons-sidewalk-network-is-turned-on-by-default-heres-how-to-turn-it-off.html

#7 Aggie on 2021-05-18 10:56 (Reply)

We give up enough privacy already! I would not have one of those devices in my house. I can't imagine why anybody would.

#7.1 mudbug on 2021-05-18 16:37 (Reply)

Where sewers aren’t feasible, concepts involving container-based systems that compost human waste into fertilizer — a contemporary update of the “night soil” collectors of pre-sewer cities — have proved to be effective in places like Haiti

Ok I spent a week in Haiti for a wedding and 5 months for making Bill Clinton look tough….If you use Haiti as an example for what sewers should look like past….”well it’s better than shitting in your bed” you’re a complete and total moron.

#8 DblTap on 2021-05-18 11:00 (Reply)

Neanderthal Thinking?

Didn't Hillary call them "Deplorable Neanderthals".

#9 oolioo on 2021-05-18 13:11 (Reply)

Toilet and Sewage Article:That article is a perfect example of what Thomas Sowell wrote: “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

#10 snopercod on 2021-05-18 13:37 (Reply)

In England, a toilet is often referred to as a "crapper", a tribute to one Thomas Crapper whose improvements (which he prudently patented) to the water closet commonly used at the time revolutionized indoor plumbing.

#10.1 Frances on 2021-05-19 00:43 (Reply)

Whoa on that Texas cheering. The whole country has gotten better, but they still have very bad days and are mostly a mildly-bad example of re-opening about a week or two too early. Look at the longer trends. Florida, the other conservative poster child, about the same. Not terrible. Not that good.

#11 Assistant Village Idiot on 2021-05-18 14:31 (Reply)

Choosing which Napoleon? Don't be silly. You are expecting intellectual consistency from continental Europe? They will not only attempt to have it both ways, they will succeed with muddled culture. This is because they have a small frigging-brilliant scientific elite that keeps the pseudo-intellectuals afloat. It should be inspiring to Americans, who seem headed down that cultural path, that this can go on for decades. In much of Europe, especially France, the 99% are the treasured, entertaining pets of the 1% who indulge them.

#12 Assistant Village Idiot on 2021-05-18 14:36 (Reply)

The Quillette article about the supposed racism of the Brits and the report about that is excellent. The devastating report has been out for a while and subject to "deplatforming" in many places, but it keeps leaking out.

#13 Assistant Village Idiot on 2021-05-18 14:47 (Reply)

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Tuesday, May 18. 2021

Tuesday morning links