Tuesday, November 11. 2014
 Hooray for sexual liberation! Now I can die lonely and poor
Marriage? Check
Kid? Check
Affair? Check
Divorce? Check
Shitty work? Check
Lousy life? Check
Wants a do-over? Yes.
I’m 41, Single and Pregnant. Welcome to the New Normal.
She sounds like a 14 year-old, maybe got the numbers reversed
"We should stop putting women in jail. For anything.”
Innocent little things, victims of oppression.
The Rise of Extreme Daycare
It takes a village
Those of us who served are usually those who most observe the meaning and rituals of Veterans Day. The poem below may help those who have not served to understand, and feel..
To the Soldier, To the Veteran
These things I do not know:
The sound of a bullet.
The power of a blast.
The blood of a comrade.
The depth of your wound.
The terror at midnight.
The dread at dawn.
Your fear or your pain.
These things I know:
The sound of your honor.
The power of your courage.
The blood of your wound.
The depth of your strength.
The terror that binds you.
The dread that remains.
Your dignity and your valor.
For these things we pray:
The sound of your laughter.
The power of your voice.
The blood of your yearning.
The depth of your healing.
The joy that frees you.
The hope that remains.
Your wholeness and your love.
© 2011 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved
Monday, November 10. 2014
This topic might be triggering to our readers: This is how bad censorship is getting: Discussions of what can’t be said come with a ‘trigger warning.’
Hypersensitivity to the trauma allegedly inflicted by listening to controversial ideas approaches a strange form of derangement—a disorder whose lethal spread in academia grows by the day. What should be the object of derision, a focus for satire, is instead the subject of serious faux academic discussion and precautionary warnings. For this disorder there is no effective quarantine.
It doesn't need satire because it satirizes itself. But in the UK, the government is considering speech permits. That is not a joke. I think it must be mostly about not pissing off their Muslims.
Today the United States Marine Corps celebrates its 239th Anniversary. Our motto "Semper Fidelis", otherwise usually spoken as "Semper Fi", Latin for "Always Faithful", neatly sums up what we carry through service and life, what stands Marines apart as the nation's ready, reliable, dedicated warriors, never beaten. This short essay does the motto proud.
American Women: Julia Lost - Perhaps American women aspire to more than receiving political patronage.
American women: The Rise of the Factual Feminist
There is a new feminism on the rise, however—one that’s marked by the belief that women don’t have to be men to be happy. The American Enterprise Institute’s C.H. Sommers calls it “factual feminism.” These commonsense feminists deny they are being oppressed. Instead of complaining, they embrace their beauty, their innate ability to nurture, and the wonderful gift that is childbirth. Many have careers now but they don’t scoff at the housewife. They recognize her family as the backbone of Western civilization. This week America confirmed their beliefs.
I’m a die-hard liberal. It ruined my parenting.
A real nutjob
Is it better if cities have more compact shapes?
By continuously intervening in all of the markets, the Fed has destroyed the information transmission system that is built into freely trading markets.
Markets Are Overvalued By 2X—Here Are The Reasons Why:
Now the Federal Reserve, Bernanke particularly, believed that if you made people speculate enough and they drove prices up enough that they would feel wealthier and go out and spend. That actually contradicts what economists have known for decades and what Milton Friedman won a Nobel Price largely for demonstrating which is that people don’t consume off of speculative sources of income. They don’t consume off of volatile asset prices. They consume off of what they believe their long-term permanent income is and their view of their long-term earnings power and so forth.
Is it better if cities have more compact shapes?
How to Implement the IPCC Program - Accepting the climate change plan would necessitate the elimination of 90% of the world's population. How could that be done?
New Global Warming Report a Disgrace - Royal Society/National Academy of Sciences propaganda would enrage Newton.
It’s the Culture, Stupid: Welfare Programs Can’t Solve Economic Gap Created by Marriage Decline
The Drug War Divide - The Obama Administration’s more nuanced
approach to domestic drug policy has no parallel south of the border,
where militarized narco-inanity continues apace.
The Ivanpah solar scam
Job Growth Is Picking Up. But What About All the Sidelined Workers?
Geraldo Rivera: There Is No Doubt The NAACP Is A Satellite Of The Democratic Party - Tim Scott and Mia Love are seen as Uncle Toms or Aunt Toms by the NAACP
Academics and media tell minorities: You’ll never succeed because of racism
Shellacking, the Sequel - Tuesday's rout again revealed the limits of the modern Democratic coalition.
GOP majority: Embrace energy abundance and our new status as an energy superpower
Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber: "stupidity of the American voter" was critical to passage...
Time to rethink Hillary Clinton 2016:
“She is smart, tough and savvy and has a capacity to learn from failure and adjust. But . . . people are bored of her and feel like she has been talking at them forever. . . . She is a dull, grating, inauthentic, over-eager, insipid elitist with ideological blinders yet no particular vision and is likely to be reduced to running on a dubious promise of experience and competence while faking idealism and hope — a very common type of presidential contender in both parties, but one that almost always loses.”
Eliz. Warren: Country ready for a Left turn
Iran Rising: Mullah-Backed Rebels Reach Yemen’s Capital
Sunday, November 9. 2014
 It's the peak of apple season in Yankeeland, and the best use for apples is Apple Pie and Tarte Tatin, which is sort of a semi-burned upside-down apple pie. Other than just eating one off the tree.
The Tarte Tatin was supposedly invented by mistake. I have tried to make them many times, but I can never get the hard crispy caramelization on the apples that I seek: I just get a browned upside-down apple pie - a gooey mush that sticks to the pan and makes for a mess of a presentation (but tastes good anyway).
Hard apples - not cooking apples, high heat and an iron skillet seem to be important. Some people seem to have no trouble getting it right, but I never do.
Here's a recipe. If you can make it right, it ain't too terribly bad with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on the side.
My chef friend advises making them with a basic Flan Pastry, aka Chef's Pastry. Chef claims that once you've had a good Tarte Tatin, you'll never go back to apple pie with its overdose of pastry.
Barone: Democrats see themselves as the party of the future, but their policies are antique.
I don't think the Left is shrinking in the US, but I do think American Lefty politics and policies are antiquated, obsolete, and backward.
I have wanted to add my two cents to the catcall discussion (Beyond Parody: How Feminists Are Redefining 'Hello' As Sexual Assault).
Let's first accept that men, especially young men, tend to be hormonally sexually alert and curious most of the time. Flirtatious too, when feeling confident. Doesn't that mean that the catcalls and other uninvited words simply come down to a matter of manners?
Here's a related question:
A good and mannerly young fellow on the subway finds himself standing next to a young lady who is reading Jane Austen. Cupid's arrow strikes him. From her appearance, her movements, etc. he feels that this is the girl God has made him for and he can't keep his eyes off her.
Should he say "How do you like the book?" Or should he decide not to be taken as a creep, let it pass, and kick himself for a month for passing up what might have been a life-changing opportunity to meet the woman of his dreams?
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
24:1 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God.
24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors--Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor--lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.
24:3a Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many.
24:14 "Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
24:15 Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
24:16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods;
24:17 for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed;
24:18 and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."
24:19 But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.
24:20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good."
24:21 And the people said to Joshua, "No, we will serve the LORD!"
24:22 Then Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses."
24:23 He said, "Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."
24:24 The people said to Joshua, "The LORD our God we will serve, and him we will obey."
24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.
Saturday, November 8. 2014
From the report:
Each year, 4.3 million Americans turn 18, and face competition for jobs from roughly 10 million unemployed Americans, 11 million illegal immigrants, plus the annual inflow of 1.1 million new legal immigrants and 70,000 guest workers.
Earlier this year, my son came home from school and asked me how hard it was to brew beer. This was not a surprising question from a boy who is 17. I still asked him why he wanted to know. His response was related to school (shocking). He said his Chemistry teacher brewed beer. I thought for a moment, and pointed out that cooking was a form of chemistry, so brewing seemed a natural extension.
At that point I mentioned a brew kit my brother had purchased for my birthday many years ago. It languished in an apartment closet until we moved to our house, and I never utilized it It was gone, but I asked would he be interested in learning to brew?
The answer was robustly affirmative, and we began to look into the purchase of a brew kit.
If you have the desire, you can build your own brew kit for about $35. Two 6 gallon Home Depot buckets, a siphon, an airlock, some washers and a small plastic spigot and you're all set to build the kit on your own. The spigot, washers and airlock can all be purchased online. You'll need lids for the Home Depot buckets. You'll need drills to attach the spigot and the airlock. It will take a little time and effort, but would save a little cash. The alternative is to spend about $100, buy the kit ready made along with all the ingredients for your first batch of brew. I opted for the expensive, easier, route.
You'll also want to read up on brewing first, too.
Continue reading "Oktober Brew for November - reposted"
Not Asian-Americans, but Asians from Asia:
They’re far outpacing Americans, particularly on the quantitative section of the test. Many B-school admissions officers say that a score on the quantitative section is the best predictor of success in an MBA program.
One result of these disparities is that Americans’ percentile rankings have dropped, even though their raw scores have remained constant in recent years. With Asia-Pacific students applying to and attending American business schools in large numbers, some schools complained to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which administers the GMAT. As the WSJ put it, schools “don’t want to become factories for high-scoring test-takers from abroad.”
22 habits of unhappy people (h/t Insty)
Forgiving God?
Why There Is No Wage Growth: One In Five Jobs Added Was A Waiter Or A Bartender
The Pros and Cons of Stock Diversification
The Corporate Neighborhood
RC church still stuck on divorce.
Cities: Traditional Development Is a Municipal Gold Mine
People like human scale and they do not like retail deserts
The problem is that rapists don’t care that it’s wrong. Rapists aren’t ignorant; they’re bad. They’re evil. They’re rapists.
Gallup: Most Americans trust guns in the home
Sen. Tim Scott Calls for a 'Revolution': School Choice
Harsh Winter Outlook Made a Bit More Dire by Siberia Snow
Tech firms hire a lot of Asians, and the NBA hires a lot of blacks. What’s the big deal?
Maine: Stone Brain Rises - The press mocks him, political elites hate him, but the people
of Maine like Paul LePage even more than they did four years ago.
Hatch: No, the Senate GOP should not “unilaterally disarm” after Reid’s abuses
Outrageous 'John Doe' prosecution of Scott Walker supporters in Wisconsin ends
It's called lawfare, and it is disgusting
Dems need some new ideas with new faces:
Democrats see themselves as the party of the future. But their policies are antique. The federal minimum wage dates to 1938, equal pay for women to 1963, access to contraceptives to 1965. Raising these issues now is campaign gimmickry, not serious policymaking.
I can’t live in Tijuana Norte.
Women still fighting the abortion wars. It's over, and has been for a long time.
Did The "War on Women" Campaign Actually Kinda Work?
Works on low-info voters
Election Advice To Dems That They Will Never Ever Take
Obama to send 1,500 more troops to Iraq as campaign expand
Why is the US involved in these ancient tribal disputes? There is no winning.
Hamas attacks Fatah with bombs
Top US general: Israel protected civilian lives in Gaza
Palestinians' "Car Intifada" and Obama's Peace Process
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Shelley (1792-1822) led one heck of a rebellious life - a classic poet's life full of tragedy,
unconformity, love, and pain.
Friday, November 7. 2014
A conversation with F. Roger Devlin. One quote:
The liberal system will collapse of its own weight: debt, over-centralization, anti-natalism, all the perverse incentives it creates. As our old sources of national strength quietly dry up, the regime is distracted with exotic trivia like gay marriage and the search for new forms of discrimination to combat. Competition from China alone is going to put an end to this ideological navel-gazing in the not-too-distant future. We must position ourselves to present the public with a credible alternative when the crisis hits. This is my focus, not the shadow-boxing of Republicans vs. Democrats.
Thursday, November 6. 2014
People voted "for an agenda very different from what they want and need."
Sen. Bernie Sanders
Quite different, perhaps, from what his poor Vermonters "need and want" which seems mostly to be free stuff, no jobs, single mothers on welfare, and plentiful meth and heroin. Thank God for our moral and intellectual superiors. We would be lost without them, just like the Pilgrims and the American pioneers were.
How to Lie With Statistics was the first book I was required to read when I was studying for my Master's in Economics. The book wasn't designed to show us how to lie, but to make a point. It's easy to lie with statistics. 100% of the time. 60% of the time, lying works all the time. It's all about positioning. Al Franken cut his teeth by showing how Republicans lied using tricky graphing techniques, then started using his own special brand of lying to continue to hoodwink his constituents.
The book was really designed to get students to think about context. When I present data, I never present just data, I present context. It's not enough to say that Man-Made Global Warming correlates with the reduction in pirate activity. We all know correlation is not causation, the context of why the lack of piracy is causing Global Warming is critical.
I recently posted about why interest rates won't rise. Part of that discussion continued on in the comments section, regarding inflation and savings. Normally, interest rates are slightly higher than inflation (positive real interest rates), and typically fall below the rate of inflation when the economy is in a rut (negative real interest rates, when people spend more than they save, driving up inflation but eventually causing interest rates to rise in order to attract savings). Yet we have not seen a general rise in inflation or interest rates in the last few years. There are many reasons for this, and those reasons are helping to keep real interest rates negative and low. If we knew the truth, we'd probably see more consumers behave differently, and it's likely the Fed couldn't continue engaging its policy of printing more money. But hiding inflation is exceedingly easy to do. Especially if you utilize hedonic adjustments, which is one of many methods used to delude the populace.
Hedonic adjustments can be justifiable. For example, if a regular banana costs $1, but a banana that keeps you full all day and meets your minimum daily health needs is only $5, it would appear the 'cost' of a banana is 400% higher than it should be, if you want to live. However, if it takes 10 regular bananas to match what you can get from 1 $5 banana, then you've actually realized a 50% decrease in price! Hedonics DO make sense,when in the realm of productivity gains for the consumer.
However, as the linked article from Zero Hedge points out, you can use 'enjoyment quality' to make a 400% increase actually appear to be a 7.1% decrease. You get no real additional value out of a 42 inch plasma TV that you didn't get from a 27 inch LCD. But the government can quantify and justify that the price you paid was actually LESS for the big screen plasma, even if it wasn't. Voila! You've saved money by spending more! Looking at the list of areas where hedonic adjustments are applied show a variety of useless of price decreases, simply so the government can imply regularly that you are spending less than you really are. It helps our politicians maintain "the money illusion." This benefits them, allowing them to engage Keynes' famous quote, “Lenin (the founder of the former communist Soviet Union) was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose”.
So yes, technically our inflation rate has been far higher than you realize, and the Fed has been making your savings worth less and less each year. No, it probably won't end well, so enjoy it while you can, and remember to try and find the contextual support for any government data. There usually isn't any.
At Neoneo:
What Democrats said to Republicans when Democrats were in charge of Congress: We don’t have to listen to you any more.
What Democrats will say to Republicans now that Democrats are no longer in charge of Congress: Bipartisanship forever!
Bipartisanship to get what "jobs done"? Oh, it's about "progress." Althouse:
I'm uneasy at the word "progress." It assumes the existence of a road and knowledge of where it leads. I see no reason to believe in President Obama's idea of "progress." America rejected it yesterday.
When progress means more Federal money, power, control, and force, it's not progress: it's regression towards feudalism. I have some ideas about "jobs to be done" on the federal level which would mean progress to me:
Fix tort law, install a universal flat tax with no deductions and maybe a negative tax for the very poor and hopeless and helpless (or should that be left to the states?), secure the US border, deport illegals and be more welcoming of valuable legals, revise Obamacare to voluntary with a meaningful mix of options, eliminate the useless Federal Dept of Education, eliminate Death Taxes, make unionizing federal employees illegal, get rid of the failed war on drugs, eliminate the Dept of Homeland Security, shrink the EPA back to its original purpose, eliminate all farm subsidies including the ethanol scam and the sugar scam, eliminate all federal subsidies for flood insurance, eliminate the Dept of Commerce (except for NOAA), eliminate the ATF, tighten oversight for Disability, quit funding the UN, put a tight leash on the NSA, ban all government drones domestically along with banning the militarization of police, put NASA back in space - or privatize it, find a way to felonize crony capitalism, eliminate the Dept of HUD, restructure Social Security, get our military out of Europe and Japan and let them fend for themselves, get the federal government out of the mortgage market entirely, eliminate corporate taxes and make the US a corporate tax haven for the world (economic effects would be amazing), shut down the Fed and let markets work freely for better or worse without central efforts at control...and that's just for starters.
Let's get all those jobs done in a nice bipartisan way, ok? If there was ever a time to reach fearlessly, it's now. It might be a narrow window for real progress.
Scott Ott: No, Sen. Reid, Americans Don’t Want Washington to ‘Work Together’, ‘Get Things Done’?
What progress is on your wish list, my fellow Americans?
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Veteran's Day: Thank you veterans, for your service 
'Trojan Horse' Bug