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.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
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NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
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Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

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Saturday, March 29. 2025

Saturday morning links

The problem of spring break


The average college student today



I don’t blame K-12 teachers. This is not an educational system problem,
this is a societal problem. What am I supposed to do? Keep standards
high and fail them all? That’s not an option for untenured faculty who
would like to keep their jobs. I’m a tenured full professor. I could
probably get away with that for a while, but sooner or later the Dean’s
going to bring me in for a sit-down. Plus, if we flunk out half the
student body and drive the university into bankruptcy, all we’re doing
is depriving the good students of an education.



“Trad Life” Is A Spectrum, Not A Straitjacket



Saturday Miscellany



Katherine Maher shoots herself, and NPR, in the foot


California High Speed Rail Asks for $7 Billion More


DEI in Airlines Having Haunting Effect on Veteran Pilots, Many Afraid to Leave Co-Pilots Alone in the Cockpit


DOGE Slashed US Funding For Peruvian Climate Scam Programs


Leftists Melt Down after Climate Change Removed from America’s List of Policy Priorities


More Meritless Lawsuits Against the Fossil Energy Producers


What to Know About the U.S. Military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland


Vance Visits Greenland

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 11:00 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Average college student today... We've been devolving into ghetto culture for decades because standards are just too tough for the adults to enforce and for the political system to maintain. Just slouching toward the goal of mediocrity with phone in hand.
#1 indyjonesouthere on 2025-03-29 14:22 (Reply)
As with many things, Sowell warned about grade inflation and other aspects of the declining education standards decades ago.

https://youtu.be/Bv13ynsArIg?si=0SjwJB5oDsMI020L
#2 Tman on 2025-03-29 14:35 (Reply)
Perhaps no partially constructed very tall building could withstand a 7.7 earthquake. But having seen construction in third world countries I suspect that lower standards and methods were the problem.
#3 OneGuy on 2025-03-29 16:30 (Reply)
re DEI in Airlines Having Haunting Effect on Veteran Pilots, Many Afraid to Leave Co-Pilots Alone in the Cockpit

Was this a tirade by a disgruntled employee with an axe to grind?

If not aren't there FAA standards these pilots have to meet?

If the story was indeed accurate it leads one to wonder how many Torontos lie in the near future?
#4 feeblemind on 2025-03-29 16:40 (Reply)
re California High Speed Rail Asks for $7 Billion More

How many airline and bus tickets could have been purchased and given to the people of California for the money that has been put into the fantasy train up to this point?

Or how far would that money have gone to improve infrastructure like power generation or water storage, or even implementing fire suppression plans? But wait. they don't want those things.
#5 feeblemind on 2025-03-29 16:48 (Reply)
It was never about the rail, I think. It was about the grift. And it probably started small - giving various contracts to various connected companies who could provide kickbacks. And everyone understood it wouldn't be a FAST process - there had to be a lot of negotiations done for land and rights of way - and when the lawyers got involved there was NO incentive to do things quickly.

A quick settlement means fewer payable hours, after all. We've even seen that close up - a friend of mine's wife passed away about three, four years ago of Covid. She had some property in another state that he wanted to get rid of. Slight problem in that he wasn't on the deed. It's taken close to 18 months now to simply transfer the deed to his name. Why? Heck if he knows. All he hears from the lawyers is 'these things take time'. (And regular infusions of money, apparently...)

Anyway I think most of the folks involved at the start of this rail debacle figured they'd be retired long before it was clear what a waste this all was. They made their money, why would they care if it ever carried a passenger? Flying in first class was SO much better between LA and SF Anyway.
#5.1 JLawson (Link) on 2025-03-29 18:23 (Reply)
Maher did nothing of the sort. She simply did what she has learned to do: Lie to navigate the controversy or difficulty of the moment.

Tomorrow, she will tell a conflicting lie if this is what is required to navigate tomorrow's moment.

Here is how you address this kind of dishonest, unprincipled, cynical behavior: Stop paying CEOs millions for terrible performance.

What should have happened, when she started saying that she didn't 'recall' these examples or wasn't 'aware' of these biases, she should have been stripped of her role on the spot, and fired with no further comment - because she is either lying, or wholly incompetent in her role. Either of which cannot continue in a merit-based marketplace.
#6 Aggie on 2025-03-29 17:55 (Reply)
Spring break dad said come home, it’s time to roof the house.
#7 Bobmark on 2025-03-29 20:36 (Reply)

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