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.
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, Sperry observes, recently announced a similar, more “holistic” policy that, according to him, deals with the “root causes” of bad behavior and will provide “a safe learning environment.”
In Syracuse, New York, where the school district adopted “restorative justice” anti-discipline practices, Sperry reports that student behavior has worsened, with more fighting among teens, increased verbal abuse of teachers, and more student time spent walking around the halls.
The "root cause" of that teen violence is human nature, untamed.
I want to remind readers that the "morning link" post is a group effort by Maggie's Farmers, readers, friends, and others who suggest links. As is clear from our posts, we do not try to do the news but sometimes we just have to. Generally speaking, we post things of interest to us and things and viewpoints likely to be overlooked by the dogmatic part of the MSM. That's the idea, anyway.
Please feel free to submit ideas, but don't feel hurt if we don't use them. There is only so much time and space.
Hopeful news. Visiting Egypt is on my bucket list - not just to see the monuments, but to see the country. They had a golden age long ago, but the peasants there never had one and still do not.
I am not sure whether there is any dishonor or crime the Clintons could commit which would dampen their popularity. It's a puzzle to me. The Bonny and Clyde of American politics, I guess.
I read somewhere today that she had been fired from the legal team of the Watergate Commission and called a liar by her boss. But of course everything is just political smears or it's "old news."
Of course, none of this necessarily discredits her policy ideas, but I do not know what they are either.
Just about everything we thought we knew about the evils of cholesterol and fats has turned out to be wrong. The doctors, the nutritionists, the dietitians, the heart societies, the experts at Health Canada, the food pyramid that hung on the wall in school – the entire health and medical establishment, in fact, have been perpetuating a big fat fraud.
Did
economic incentives destroy lower-income families? - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/03/did-economic-incentives-destroy-lower-income-families.html#sthash.p1Uw1TKv.dpuf
Some thoughts about Mr. and Mrs. Clinton below the fold so as not to overburden our front page with annoying Clinton links -
It's an issue of character. We all know not to look for high character in those inclined towards careers in politics but, policies aside, I think the Left can do better than these grifters and con artists. Even their "marriage" is a fraud, and so is the Clinton Foundation.
I think even the MSM press is weary of them and their endless BS. I am, anyway. Rejected once; why try again?
And I'll ask once again, How does one accumulate a $200 million bank account and a $2 billion slush fund in "a life devoted to public service"? Perhaps that trick can be listed as one of her major life accomplishments. I am impressed by that.
She is the "I went to Wellesley, and I married a sociopathic redneck politician" candidate. Wow.
From one of our links below:
Clinton's political career was launched based on the record and relationships of her husband. She has no accomplishments to speak of from either her time in the Senate or as Secretary of State. But her personal network has put her in the position as the overwhelming frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination.
In the liberal ghetto of Ann Arbor, several University of Michigan administrators recently gathered for a passionate brainstorm. The head of student affairs declared he was simply “going to die” if he heard about one more so-called micro-aggression on campus. When a colleague told him he was “acting crazy” for being so sensitive, he was shipped off to a mandatory session for freshmen where he learned about white privilege and determined that he would never say anything potentially controversial again. And with that, the Inclusive Language Campaign was born.
Academics often defend tenure, despite its many negative consequences, on grounds that it allows academic freedom for independent minds. Yet there are few places in America with more taboos and intellectual intolerance than academic campuses.
What scares the new atheists - The vocal fervour of today’s missionary atheism conceals a panic that religion is not only refusing to decline – but in fact flourishing
Of course loans of any sort should be discharged in bankruptcy. That's why lenders have loan officers. Lenders are responsible, and count on their debtors to do what they say they will.
I oppose any sort of government-guaranteed loans, whether mortgages, student loans, loans to solar companies, or loans to car companies. Also, the SBA loans. Government is not a bank. Government-guaranteed loans put taxpayers on the hook for things they would never lend to, including dumb and unmotivated kids.
The Millennial’s Guide To Reaching Adulthood - Here are seven ways millennials can reach adult milestones such as paying off student loans, getting married, buying a house, and starting a family.
The Greatest (Party) Generation - Raising children wasn’t always an all-consuming job. Humorist Dave Barry on his parents’ wild parties and the grown-up escapades of the ‘Mad Men’ era
Professor Judith Hall, of Northeastern University in Boston, said: ‘Benevolent sexism is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing that perpetuates support for gender inequality among women.'
I hold doors for both ladies and gentlemen. Some women can never be happy
It was what kept coming to mind as she stood before the cameras once again, under fire once again, aggrieved once again by Americans’ refusal to see and simply trust how well intentioned and virtuous and good for the country she is:
I received an email from my alma mater, the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University. It was a request to join a social media campaign about professing what you believe citizenship is. The idea is to download a 'thought bubble', write your view in the bubble, take a picture of you holding it, then add the picture to a social media outlet with the #ToMeCitizenship on it. For those of you unfamiliar with hashtags, this is the social media equivalent of joining a discussion in a somewhat indirect fashion.
At first I considered joining, if only to share a slightly different viewpoint than the ones I'd seen posted (click and take a look). I saw comments like "Serving people & Loyalty to government" (loyalty to government? Why is this always absolutely necessary? What would Jefferson and Washington have said?). Or "Respect for Authority" (this is so wrong, I can't even think of where to begin. I'm not sure 'authority' is generated from winning a popularity contest). Then there are some really bizarre ones like "Identity, Belonging, Altruism" (not sure when being a citizen provided me an identity, helped me feel like I belonged and don't get me started on the concept of altruism).
So I figured, I'd start my own here and find out what Maggie's visitors consider citizenship to be. Here was my stab at it, the one I never posted:
To me, Citizenship is loving my country and the rights of the individual which are protected by the Constitution while questioning the nature of human authority. Acknowledge and respect individual rights while exercising individual responsibility which strengthens those rights. #ToMeCitizenship
A New Life for Dead Malls - Developers have had to to get creative when it comes to salvaging America's failing shopping centers, turning them into hospitals, churches, and even parks.
Let's face it. The Clintons are pond scum. Not even genuine Lefties, just opportunistically left-ish. No core, no integrity, nothing. Neither has held an honest job in their life.
We support Bernie Sanders as an honest Democrat-Socialist candidate. Would not vote for him, but honest at least. I think the Dems will soon decide they have had enough Clintonian slime.
People talk about how the shrinks are making all sorts of normal variants into diseases, but how much insanity are they now regarding as normal variants?
A Wellfleet beach this week. Proof of global warming, I'd say. The warming makes it colder. I understand that part, but it's a little too nuanced for most people.
The other day, our esteemed editor made this statement in one of his posts. It was a good post, though I don't agree with much of the bias in it (Dalio is very intelligent, and quite successful, so his working model explains much of why he can be successful, though it's certainly not a good explanation of how economic cycles operate).
I happen to agree with Bird Dog's statement, too. But I believe economists often do themselves a disservice. Usually it's the economists who make predictions about macroeconomic outlooks which do this. By and large, it's the economists with Progressive tendencies. Though certainly some in the Republican camp get a bit outrageous.
I'm fond of saying economists can't make predictions, nor should they. They should offer scenarios. That's what I tend to do. Options of potential outcomes. Economics involves far too many variables to be a predictive science, though the basic rules can explain many things we see quite well, and that's what science is for.
When I grew up, I thought the Democratic Party was the great friend of minorities and women. The party wanted a world of equality, I thought. Most people I knew believed that too. Sorry, I was an idiot.
You have to feel a little sorry these days for professors married to their former students. They used to be respectable citizens—leaders in their fields, department chairs, maybe even a dean or two—and now they’re abusers of power avant la lettre.
Who Wants to Live in Detroit? Four decades after 'white flight' began, tens of thousands of African-Americans have now left as well. What does that mean for the city's future?
Racism! Patriarchy! Sexism! Rape on campus! Christianity's bigotry! The reactionary average American! Republicans' hate speech and hate thought! US history, a litany of racism and oppression! All the founding fathers, hypocritical sonzabitches! All our ancestors, imperialist mongrels! Oppression of women, and gays, and transgenders!
(The only person, the only people, who come out positive in this (self-serving) world view are — surprise, surprise — the drama queens themselves! Also known as the wise men, and the wise women, arriving as knights in shining armor on their white steeds to fight for the victims and the martyrs of the world.)
Ginsberg and Breyer care more about leftist policy than about the Constitution. They are rather open about that, but it's not their job. Thus I have no respect for them.
Kevin Williamson has the ability to take on any topic and go straight to the heart of the matter. A guote from his piece about government roads:
There are two ways of allocating capital: through politics, or through markets. Our progressive friends generally prefer to use politics when there is a choice, because they distrust markets, thinking them disorderly, irrational, vulgar, and prone to being dominated by the top-hat-wearing and bemonocled Mr. Monopoly cartoons that haunt their nightmares. Using politics is, in their view, more democratic. Most of the evidence is contrary to that proposition. In politics, it is quite easy for a small number of powerful people — wealth is only one form of power — to get their way. In politics, one rich guy can make a difference. The theory of progressive planning is that government intervention allows the aggregation of the interests of the non-wealthy and the non-powerful, but in reality central planning accomplishes the opposite...
also,
Political institutions are incapable of rational economic planning, because they operate outside of the market environment and thus are cut off from the critical economic intelligence communicated by prices, and they are vulnerable to all of the temptations described by public-choice economics, because human beings do not cease to be self-interested once they win an election or are appointed to a highway commission or school board.
and
Most people understand and appreciate the difference between market performance and political performance in many areas, if only because they cannot help but notice that the Apple Store and the DMV are such radically different experiences. Poor, nonwhite people are as eager to send their children to private schools as are members of the country-club set in Greenwich, but political domination of the education system deprives them of the means to do so — and, cynically enough, purports to do so in their interests.
Helping the Irish 
I want to remind readers that the "morning link" post is a group effort by Maggie's Farmers, readers, friends, and others who suggest links. As is clear from our posts, we do not try to do the news but sometimes we just have to. Generally speaking, we post things of interest to us and things and viewpoints likely to be overlooked by the dogmatic part of the MSM. That's the idea, anyway.
Document theft and destruction nothing new for Hillary Clinton
Some thoughts about Mr. and Mrs. Clinton below the fold so as not to overburden our front page with annoying Clinton links -
An amusing book, and still accurate: 
Department of Corrections: Those Carville boxed quotes which we linked to yesterday were not real - but they are truthy
A book by a fellow blogger, Robert Stacy McCain: 
Top 10 secrets of Grand Central Terminal 
Pic from a reader in Yankeeland this week 
Image via