Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Much Sorry with Delays
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Your "identity"
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Saturday, October 28. 2023

Saturday morning links


 Cosmology’s crisis challenges scientific realism


Academic job openings 


 Pittsburgh public schools to ponder racism ’embedded’ in its math curriculum


 Test Scores Are Plummeting Despite California Spending Wildly on Education. State officials seem to delight in how much money they "invest" in different priorities, without worrying too much about outcomes.


Weiss:  Four Stories about Parenting - Grizzly dad Steve Rinella wants you to raise adventurous children, the virtues of being a young mom, and more.


Stuart's Saturday Miscellany 


 Involuntarily Committing the Violently Mentally Ill Is the Only Solution


VDH: Premodern Diversity Vs. Civilizational Unity - Old immigration once enriched America, but our new version is destroying it


 AMY KLOBUCHAR, CENSOR


 Failing the Hamas Litmus Test - The inflammatory Al-Ahli hospital hoax shows that much of the Western media remains compulsively addicted to dangerous and self-defeating war journalism.


 IDF: Hamas Uses Al-Shifa Hospital as Main Terror Base


 The deranged defence of Hamas on campuses across the West is fuelling a counter-revolution that could finally loosen the stranglehold of wokeism


 It's almost like there's a conspiracy against Trump...


 Carlson Warns Against Biden’s $105 Billion Foreign Aid Request

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:38 | Comments (22) | Trackbacks (0)

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Two years ago, the Oregon Department of Education offered a “micro-course” which taught the “toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture with respect to math.” These included a “focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer,” student “tracking” (kids assigned to classes according to ability level), and “participation structures reinforc[ing] dominant ways of being.”

Tell that story to your local drug dealer when you come up short on money owed. I'm sure he'll be down with your anti-racist struggle.
#1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2023-10-28 09:01 (Reply)
It's almost as though the Democrats/left used the book "1984" as a instructional manual instead of a warning.
#1.1 JustMe on 2023-10-28 10:31 (Reply)
" Old immigration once enriched America, but our new version is destroying it"

Yes! That is the intent. They intend to rule over us and independent middle class voters don't want to be ruled over. So these are your replacements.
#2 OneGuy on 2023-10-28 10:01 (Reply)
'Involuntarily Committing the Violently Mentally Ill Is the Only Solution'

I have to reluctantly agree. We're approaching the anniversary of the Springfield Mall shooting in Pennsylvania. Sylvia Seegrist was notorious for being mentally unstable yet was also allowed to purchase a rifle, which she used to kill three people.

Guns don't kill people; broken minds do.
#3 Maniac on 2023-10-28 11:14 (Reply)
The problem is that the definition of what is "violently mentally ill" and who gets to decide will be the new battleground.

I doubt the Left is interested in making clear delineations unless they are in control. And just as the old Soviet Union would declare anyone who opposed them as insane (because who in their right mind would oppose them?), the Left, just like a vindictive ex-spouse, will use red flag laws to disarm their opponents without due process.
#3.1 ruralcounsel on 2023-10-29 11:37 (Reply)
And let me add ... even when the red flag laws exist, they depend upon civil servants doing their jobs, keeping databases up to date, sending notifications to other agencies, etc.

The Maine mass shooter had red flags galore. He'd been hearing voices. He'd been involuntarily committed for a couple of weeks by the military. The New York State Police were notified.

But nobody passed that information along to Maine authorities, or if they did, it was ignored. Subsequently, despite his family trying to get authorities to act, nothing was done to remove his weapons from his possession.

Somebody dropped the ball. And that somebody will probably never be publically known, will keep their job, will keep their civil service pension. At best, there will be a letter in their file admonishing them for a clerical faux pas.


Pass all the crazy ill-thought out gun control and mental health laws you want. If the data and notification systems don't work easily and seamlessly, it is all for naught.
#3.1.1 ruralcounsel on 2023-10-29 11:46 (Reply)
So do knives. A young man who was schizophrenic killed five young people at an end-of-term party some years ago. It came out after the fact that the family realized the young man was having serious mental problems, but were worried in terms of self-harm and never dreamed he would turn violent killer.
Ironically, the same young man is pushing authorities to be given more freedom. Supposedly he "understands" what he did and realizes he needs to stay on his meds. Which is all well and good. However, unless meds for this condition have improved markedly, schizophrenics who take them do not like the side-effects and are wont to just stop taking same. And given this young man's reaction to his previous psychotic episode, I would not want to be nearby should he have another.
#3.2 Frances on 2023-10-30 02:16 (Reply)
The only reason old immigration enriched America was because immigrants stopped coming. The massive wave of immigration between the 1880s and 1920s stopped in 1920s due to Italian anarchists blowing up Wall Street and the elitists getting scared and enabling strict immigration limits to be imposed. Assimilation is hard. Over 70% of the Italians went back home. The rest of them along with the German and the Irish assimilated and we're encouraged to assimilate. The problem is nowadays the elitists don't consider themself American and are globalist and are trying to erase and replace us. This will never end until immigration becomes a problem for those at the top. Immigration is about profit power and punishment. It's a racket. It's a scam. Immigration is a transfer of money from the working class from labor to capital.
#4 Robert Moffett (Link) on 2023-10-28 11:23 (Reply)
Air Force to Miss Recruiting Goals for First Time in More Than 2 Decades

We're almost to the end of the fiscal year, and the expectation is we're going to come in short about 10%,"

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/09/11/air-force-miss-recruiting-goals-first-time-more-2-decades.html
#5 feeblemind on 2023-10-28 12:01 (Reply)
Re: Math is racist.

From the Quetzal website: Vision: We ally with Black and Brown communities to decolonize education, reclaim our ancestral genius, and reimagine post-abolitionist spaces for families, students, and educators of Color.

There’s a lot to unpack in that statement. Decolonize, a favorite buzzword of the left. How do you actually decolonize a centuries old, established country? The left never really spells that out, but I bet that decolonization will lead to a lot of violence and balkanization. None of that e pluribus unum colonizer crap.

Post-abolitionist spaces. I’m not sure what that even is, much less reimagining it. I take it that the abolitionist was a bad person? Was that because they were mostly white? I can get behind the fact that John Brown tended towards violence and murder, but there were many other white abolitionists that tried peaceful means. And these ‘spaces’ are for person of color only. I get that, it’s spelled out quite clearly.

Basically their website is a long list of racist claptrap, and the only place that I could find the word math, was in one of the founders biography. Dani Wadlington, is an award winning mathematician and teacher. It doesn’t say what the mathematical award was for. “Dani has a MA in Education, a MA in Educational Leadership, and a teaching & administration credential.“ That and connections to Chicago politicians will get your racist drivel taught at public institutions.

My love of mathematics is the pure logic of it. I know I’m a bit odd, but I found the hand of God many time in my studies of math. I’m no mathematical genius, I was an A student up until deferential equations. For the most part, math is right or wrong, sometimes imaginary, but even those can be put right. When so many students are not proficient at math at their own grade level, actually several multiples behind their grade level, isn’t it way passed time to go back to the basics? Of course that would mean that you actually care about teaching students, not propagandizing them with your hateful, racist politics.
#6 B. Hammer on 2023-10-28 13:29 (Reply)
I got past differential equations with no hiccups, but the stopper for me was non-Euclidean geometry.
#6.1 rocdoctom on 2023-10-28 16:11 (Reply)
You might want to give it another look. I got brain lock with differential equations as an undergrad, then did an end run around all that with linear and modern algebra in grad school. I still think real analysis is akin to counting infinitesimals angels on the head of a pin.
#6.1.1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2023-10-29 02:44 (Reply)
"Pittsburgh public schools to ponder racism ’embedded’ in its math curriculum".

Its a shame that they don't have the intellectual honesty to ponder the stupidity embedded in the melanin enhanced.
#7 Anonymous White Male on 2023-10-28 14:30 (Reply)
It's a triumph of the ignorant over the learned.

It boggles my feeble mind that it has been allowed to happen. It's a situation that was unimaginable in my youth.
#7.1 feeblemind on 2023-10-28 14:54 (Reply)
Statist utopians got rid of the mental health clinics.
Locally a particle board apartment complex for the replacements is built on what used to be the mental hospital.
A conspiracy against Emmanuel Trumpstein!
But but but muh New Civility?
The Great Reset Leap Forward?
It is to get rid of the major world religions and all nation states by using the WWIII cudgel.
AI is the anti human ruler who will take over after that with a CBDC and social credit score.
Could you imagine the hubris in thinking that proud nations and religions will be OK with that.
That kind of arrogance is put there for a reason and it really comes down to more for them and less for us as philosopher George Carlin said.
#8 Got Math on 2023-10-28 14:31 (Reply)
WHO gets to determine who is "violently mentally ill?" Hillary? Wray? Garland? Pelosi? Schumer?
#9 Mark Matis on 2023-10-28 15:10 (Reply)
If you commit the violently mental ill to institutions, you are going to have to build lots more institutions, and they are very expensive. You are also going to be trampling rights of people who pose little danger to the community compared to the baseline average.

Something might be done with outpatient commitments, of which NH has two of the most developed versions. The laws have withstood a lot of legal challenges at this point, and due process is now built into the system. There is added cost, but nowhere near what it would take to build 3x institutions. The few other states that have such laws have ill-advised ones, with loopholes that make them useless.
#9.1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2023-10-29 02:16 (Reply)
Semi-Honest Question {not really posed to you}:
There was money to build, staff, and maintain Mental Hospitals throughout the 20th Century ('till ACLU lawsuits), and, enough money to build the Interstate Highways after the gigantic expense of WWII, and, enough money to bring electricity to rural areas of the USA during the Great Depression. But today, building, and maintaining such hospitals, properly maintaining, and where needed, upgrading those same highways, bringing high-speed internet to rural areas - none of these is financially feasible.
Why?
#9.1.1 Alpha_Omega on 2023-10-30 07:39 (Reply)
Alpha-Omega: But today, building, and maintaining such hospitals, properly maintaining, and where needed, upgrading those same highways, bringing high-speed internet to rural areas - none of these is financially feasible.

They're feasible, but it requires a commitment of resources. You can't have big projects, but not make the investments. Just infrastructure is woefully underfunded in the United States. Americans are averse to taxes, but want their Social Security and Medicare. They want their cake and eat it too. (The marginal tax rate in the mid-twentieth century was 70-90%.)
#9.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2023-10-30 08:22 (Reply)
Dark Matter is similar to Phlogiston.
#10 John C Grier on 2023-10-28 18:32 (Reply)
The intent of gun control is to disarm honest people. It is obvious that the dishonest people don't obey those laws and they are the ones that use guns to kill people which results in the Democrats demanding more gun control. Disarming honest people to stop illegal shootings is like taking away sober peoples driving license to prevent drunk driving. It would be like forcing everyone in congress to be silent because Ilhan Omar or Rashida Talib spoke up in support of terrorists. Wait! That might not be a bad idea. Let's just stick to the drunk driving comparison.
#11 OneGuy on 2023-10-28 18:33 (Reply)
Turkey has expressed full support of Hamas and are threatening to attack Israel. This is no small thing. If Turkey uses their army to attack Israel then Israel will be forced to counter attack Turkey. If that happens NATO is bound by treaty to defend Turkey. There is a clinker in that Turkey cannot actively support terrorism which they are, and the treaty is inconclusive as to what action to take if a member state initiates the attack especially against a Western Ally. But this could get messy very quickly if Turkey follows through on its threats.
#12 Anon on 2023-10-29 11:37 (Reply)

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