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.
Conservative fiscal policy, coupled with the missteps of rival states, helped bolster the Connecticut economy throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. New York State’s top income-tax rate surged into the double-digits around 1960, and an extra city-level tax was imposed in 1966. New York’s combined top state and city gross income-tax rate reached a peak of 19.7 percent in 1976. By contrast, Connecticut’s gross income-tax rate was zero, and would remain so until the early 1990s. During New York’s fiscal crisis, debates about the city’s future often invoked fears of residents and businesses fleeing to Connecticut, where taxes were lower and services widely considered superior.
This lovely Yankee state, "The Land of Steady Habits," is broke. It is still a wealthy state, thanks to Fairfield County's proximity to NYC, but the rest of the state is on a downhill slope. The prosperous cities are a distant memory. The government is now mainly ruled by the unions which drove manufacturing away. Currently, the tax structure is driving wealthy residents away. Six months + one day gets you Florida residency, so you can summer in CT with your friends.
To be cast out and shunned as an academic is not only to lose your identity but also to lose your entire way of life, from your social circles, your sense of intellectual accomplishment, and even your ability to provide for yourself and your family. Once you are shunned from an academic institution there is little chance you will ever make it back in. The University system is too competitive for second chances.
Is Prof. Peterson the only brave and manly professor in the USA? (Correction: in North America)
Alexis de Tocqueville celebrated American women’s worldliness as a youthful humor that evolves into a matronly reserve. In Democracy in America, he described the daughters of our young republic and predicted “that the social changes which bring nearer to the same level the father and son, the master and servant, and superiors and inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and make her more and more the equal of man.” Between cloistered superiority—for America owes its “singular prosperity and growing strength . . . to the superiority of their women”...
Historical fiction (I still do not know how much of it is historically accurate) about the legal and commercial battles between Westinghouse and Edison during New York's Gilded Age: The Last Days of Night: A Novel by Graham Moore. (The youthful Moore has made quite a varied writing career for himself.)
I do know that Paul Cravath played a major role in the battles, and that Westinghouse promoted alternating current while Edison preferred DC. A good story with mythic underpinnings.
I promise you that I would have no chance with these high driven pheasants. For one thing, it's not a game we play in the us. A delightful tradition, though.
The Damore panel we posted yesterday mentioned two related fallacies, "Is-Ought" and the naturalistic fallacy.
"Is-Ought" generally is used to refer to the mistaken assumption that a statement of fact is some sort of moral endorsement of the fact. This assumption often lies behind efforts to suppress or ignore unpopular facts.
"The term "naturalistic fallacy" or "appeal to nature" may also be used to characterize inferences of the form "Something is natural; therefore, it is morally acceptable" or "This property is unnatural; therefore, this property is undesirable."" (Wiki). "Natural," however, is near-impossible to define in human terms because formation of culture is natural for humans.
It's actually "middle-class privilege", if you need to call it "privilege." From a reader's comment on Wednesday:
Concepts like self actualization, self discipline, fairness, loyalty (though not blind loyalty), valuing individual lives, integrity, rectitude, civic mindedness, reliability and accountability, courage, autonomy, problem solving, saving and postponement of gratification, being productive and contributing to the community and the economic pie. This is privilege?
Your moral and intellectual superiors and experts feel fit to run your life. We regular people know that they put their pants on one leg at a time just like us, and that we probably have more real life experience and practical sense than they do.
In the 19th century Alexis de Tocqueville described the phenomenon of bureaucracy almost before it had revealed itself. He called it centralized administration, which he considered the new form of despotism that democracies must fear if they are to remain free. This democratic disease had not yet infected the Jacksonian America he examined; in fact, he praised America for its burgeoning civil and political associations, and for the absence of centralized administrative rule. The Constitution and a federal system had allowed for a decentralized political and administrative system of government, which inhibited the rise of the administrative state. Nonetheless, Tocqueville in Democracy in America warned against abandoning those traditional political and social institutions that had prevented its growth...
It's a complicated topic. I know that I was fortunate, or some might term it "privileged", to be raised in a stable middle or upper-middle class two-parent family with plenty of travel, worldly exposure, and ivy League education. I had parents who set a good example for responsibility, affection, discipline, and self-discipline. I was also advantaged by an IQ over 100 (with which only 50% are blessed) and a fully-functional, somewhat-athletic body.
I know that I have never made the most of these gifts, but have made a good life given circumstances, chance, opportunities, and life's exigencies. I had choices. I had college classmates die of drug overdoses. Character traits and talents are far more important in managing life than IQ. I am bright enough, but without special talents, and lacking in a high level of ambition. I just like to be content and to pursue my various interests in a serene environment.
Had I been born to a single crack-addicted mother in Baltimore, God knows where my life might have gone financially and otherwise. Likely not too well, because it was only external discipline which kept me on productive tracks. I needed that because, despite some innate curiosity, I am someone who would always prefer sports, fishing, hunting, etc. than sitting in a classroom or office. Since I do like to make money, I might have been a drug-dealer although, being me, I might have had conscience issues with that. Who knows?
Nothing in life is distributed fairly, especially parents and genetics. In my case, I credit my parents for making the efforts and sacrifices to set us kids up as best they could. Doing the same for my own offspring has been my main goal and satisfaction. At the same time, my life has been rich in many other non-financial ways.
I have never been convinced that Freedom is a common or powerful human aspiration. A noble one, probably, but there are many things most people care about more. Freedom is scary. There are reasons people will cling to external and internal tyrannies.
A minority of Americans were in favor of the War of Independence.
"This commencement address will never be given, because graduation speakers are supposed to offer encouragement and inspiration. That's not what you need. You need a warning."
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
From Frank Herbert's Dune, The Litany Against Fear
The endurance of teeth has to do with genetics, diet, hygiene, and injuries. Due to bad luck, I have ended up with a fine (expensive) bridge which is anchored in (expensive) implants. After all, nobody wants to look like they come from England.
The question du jour is this: What do you do about dental hygiene?
- Once daily or twice? Or, God forbid, after every meal? - Toothpaste, salt, or nothing? (I have read that toothpaste is a useless product of genius marketing) - Regular brush, electric rotary brush, or water pic? (My people recommend the latter, along with an office deep cleaning every 3-4 months. Takes 1/2 hour. I feel sorry for those gals, disgusting but very useful job.
Nobody writes a beach-reading book with the wit and dark craziness as Carl Hiassen, but he has a new book coming: