Wednesday, January 14. 2015
Tuesday, January 13. 2015
Monday, January 12. 2015
Caldwell in New York Magazine
Obama’s legacy is one of means, not ends. He has laid the groundwork for a political order less answerable to voters. His delay of the Obamacare employer mandate by fiat, his provision of working papers to immigrants by executive order — these are not applications of old tricks but dangerous constitutional innovations. After last fall’s electoral rout, the president claimed to have “heard” (presumably to speak on behalf of) the two-thirds of people who didn’t vote. And he has forged a partnership with the country’s rich — not the high-earning professionals calumniated in populist oratory (including his own) but the really existing Silicon Valley and Wall Street plutocracy.
Photo above from Old Trees
How Brazilians Fish For Piranhas
Science: Your Kid’s Not Special
In Praise of Marriage
More: Study Finds More Reasons to Get and Stay Married
Can the Government Force Medical Treatment?
Kerry Gets It totally Wrong on Climate’s Impact on New Zealand’s Dairy Farmers
Repeat After Tweety: Ted Cruz = Joe McCarthy
Wounded Warrior Project Wasting Donations?
Obama Will Hold Summit on 'Countering Violent Extremism'--Not Radical Muslim Terrorism
6 TIMES THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SAID ITS JOB WAS TO PROMOTE ISLAM
Eugene Robinson: France attack might have been worse here, because guns
Moderate Muslims Criticize the Charlie Hebdo Attacks
Afghanistan rally hails Charlie Hebdo attackers as 'heroes'
Feel Good Story: Muslim African American Hid the Thirty Jews in the Freezer at the Hyper Casher, Saved Their Lives
Joyce Carol Oates: “It is delicate matter to adjudicate, even to
oneself, where a literary/political sort of satire ends & something
like ‘hate crime’ begins…”
Sultan: Let's Laugh at Islam
Rupert Murdoch Tweets About "Jihadist Cancer"
Powerline: Terrorism as Rorschach Test
Williamson:
Some forgotten early homo sapiens, the first great moral philosopher of our species, forever lost in the shadows of prehistory, took note of the fact that while wolves kill because they are hungry and bears kill because they are threatened, the human animal kills toward unknowable ends, from motives far more complex than biological necessity. Eventually, that first moral philosopher or one of his intellectual descendants came up with a word for that, for this inexplicable inclination that is not known to any wild animals, no matter how ravenous — but which is present only in men.
If only we could remember that word, and remember what it means.
It's called the sinfulness of fallen mankind
Re Gwynnie's post on Saturday: Saturday´s suicide bombing elicited little coverage...
Sunday, January 11. 2015
A critic of police shoots first
Comply with the Law, whatever. You can argue later.
“I’m now retired, so I have no scientific career to protect by spreading lies.”
He said he thinks dire global warming predictions are really all about lassoing federal research funding and votes.
Saturday, January 10. 2015
The MSM are in a twit about 16 Frenchmen. Well and good, but thanks to The List of Islamic Terror Attacks from 2014 you can see that, in 2014, they killed 32,004 people, or 88 a day. I copied it to a spreadsheet and there are 3,000 incidents.
Why no fuss? It is brown people killing other brown people. The killers "don't know any better" because they are brown and therefore judged under a different, lower standard. The victims don't count because they too are brown and the MSM can't pronounce their names.
Remember how we ignored the Cambodian holocaust? Brown vs. brown. I thought when Jews spoke of their Holocaust and said "never again" that they meant no more holocausts. Nope - the media in NYC were silent about killing 3,000,000 Cambodians; I guess "never again" meant no more killing Jews. Good idea for certain, but a far smaller scope.
Now THAT is racism!!
 Today's image from People's Cube
Poor teeth - If you have a mouthful of teeth shaped by a childhood in poverty, don’t go knocking on the door of American privilege
My own teeth are a disaster, and I was never really poor except temporarily. Just bad luck and bad genes
This isn’t a culture anymore. It is a freak show.
The New Sneaky Tactic Gun Control Advocates Are Embracing
A Conservative case for New Urbanism: Conservatism for the City - Beauty, streetcars, and dual codes are the right ideas for urban policy.
Nikon 1200-1700mm Helps French Photogs Capture Hostage Situation from a Safe Distance
Mankind Tired Of Having To Remind Itself Of Good In World
We Don’t Need No (Free) Education - Ultimately, Obama's plan is a bad deal for America, because it will hurt people’s employment opportunities and cost too much.
Dalrymple:
Among the many thousands of my patients, I do not recall one who demanded to know the source of the good aspects of his character. This might be because virtue does not know, or at least proclaim, itself. And, indeed, if someone were to ask the origins of his own good character, we should suspect him of being a Tartuffe or a Pecksniff.
This is not all there is to it, however. We are not inclined to demand an explanation of other people’s goodness, either. For every such enquiry, we ask a thousand times about the origins of other people’s malignity. Our enquiries about the origins of our own malignity are perhaps less frequent, but they are incomparably more frequent, even infinitely more so, than our enquiries about the origins of our own goodness.
On population growth and decline (a reader found this somewhere) - correction, it is from Alan Macfarlane, ‘The Invention of the Modern World’ -
Alan
Macfarlane, ‘The Invention of the Modern World’ - See more at:
http://www.joannejacobs.com/2014/08/dumb-and-dumber-2/#sthash.WvW1G8Hh.dpuf:
Putting it simply, in an embedded peasant economy, when the unit of production and consumption is the family household, it is sensible to have as large a family as possible, to work the land and to protect against risk in sickness and old age. To increase reproduction is to increase production. Yet as Jack Caldwell and others have shown, when the individual becomes integrated into the market, when wealth flows down the generations, when the cost of education and leaving for an independent economic existence on an open market occurs, children become a burden rather than an asset. In other words, capitalistic relations combined with individualism knocks away the basis of high fertility, and if this is combined with a political and legal security so that one does not have to protect oneself with a layer of cousin, the sensible strategy is to have a few children and to educate them well.
A low-pressure demography means that a society avoids the situation where extra resources are automatically absorbed by population expansion. As Malthus argued, the only force strong enough to stand against the biological desire to mate and have children, was the even stronger social desire to live comfortably and avoid poverty.
Some people are surprised that Raùl Castro would act to precipitately in cracking down on Cuban freedom advocates. But why the surprise?
House passes 40-hour workweek for Obamacare; Dems buck Obama veto threat
The U.S. Marines' 5 Most Lethal Weapons of War
We Are Not All Charlie - It is easy to express solidarity with murdered cartoonists, but it is difficult to live as bravely as they did
Not so difficult if you are armed
Boko Haram massacres 2,000 in Nigeria
The Examiner on The NYT:
Elsewhere, in separate statement to Politico, Baquet explained that the New York Times is also trying to avoid offending its Muslim readers: “[L]et's not forget the Muslim family in Brooklyn who read us and is offended by any depiction of what he sees as his prophet.”
“I don't give a damn about the head of [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] but I do care about that family and it is arrogant to ignore them,” he said
In 1999, the New York Times republished an image of Chris Ofili's “The Holy Virgin Mary,” a painting “with a clump of elephant dung on one breast and cutouts of genitalia from pornographic magazines in the background,” Politico reported.
Nobody is afraid of Christians
Friday, January 9. 2015
 Rush said today: "Just two Muslims with guns dominated the world news, and scared the media out of their minds, for almost a week. That, my friends, is called power."
It is amazing how fearful the American MSM is of, of Muslims. The New York Times males have their panties messed up. Man up, pussies. I advise 12 ga. shotgun, not rifle or handgun. When lunatics in the vicinity, steady aim is difficult except for the pros.
He went on to explain that those two are not the real news, that the real news is the millions of Muslims all around the world who remain silent, support, or applaud their war on Western civilization. Not to mention their apologists and the scaredy-cats in the West.
Has any Muslim organization in the world condemned these sorts of evil ones yet? Not one.
 Unlike some hysterics, I have no big fear of the batshit lunatics. Unlike the French, we regular Americans are well-armed. Unlike past free-world threats, these are snakes, not formidable armies. Slippery, though, because Islam advises them to lie to nonbelievers so, if in the wrong place at the wrong time, these snakes can bite. They need killing, same as a rattlesnake in the barn.
This idiotic war has been going on for a long time, since around 600 AD. We are on the side of the crusaders, defending the foundations of Judeo-Christian civ. It ain't perfect, but it's OK. The French may need a Charles Martel, but most of the West just needs a St. Patrick to eliminate the snakes. Send them packing back to whence they came along with their loony cult and their hopeless, ignorant, pedophile, goat-f-ing, wife-beating, bloody, desert culture where their fun was in killing eachother and nobody really cared what they did until WW1.
My only problem with all of this is that I have some Muslim friends and colleagues who I respect - and vice-versa - and whose company I enjoy a great deal. They have zero interest in killing me for my Christian faith and I believe it because we've talked over (many) beers in NYC pubs. In fact, in my heart I would rather bring them to Christ than they are interested in bringing me to their Mohammed prophet.
For me, live and let live - but if you want to harm me, I will kill you and I have the means and the heart to do so with no remorse.
Metamorphosis is disgusting
How Exercise Keeps Us Young
Why daughters might be better than sons
Some of each is best
The First Jew Scalped for America
Why white dudes often don't make the NBA (quick vid)
Kevin Williamson: The New Royals - Princesses, peas, and the emotional needs of chickens:
As in the case of the princess in Hans Christian Andersen’s 1835 story, so sensitive that she could feel the pea under 20 mattresses and 20 featherbeds, acute dissatisfaction with the tiniest, most ridiculous little details of life is how 21st-century progressives communicate to the world that they are indeed the new royalty, with sensibilities finer than those known to mere commoners. No normal, mentally healthy adult human being actually gives a good and sincere goddamn about the “emotional needs of chickens.” But that sort of posing, along with such daft enthusiasms as foie-gras horror, wetting oneself liberally over the fact that Bradley Manning’s Wikipedia page identified him as “Bradley Manning” for a full eleven minutes after he declared that he wants to be called “Chelsea,” sneering at SUVs and roomy suburban homes, insisting that Melissa McCarthy is a comic genius, using the word “mansplaining,” being terrorized by “thigh gaps” in advertisements, fretting about “micro-aggressions” — all of it is a way of saying, “Look at me! I went to a good school! (Or am truly at heart the sort of person who might have!)” There is a term for this that is uncharitable but cannot be improved upon: status-whoring. The old status symbols may have been shallow; the new ones are shallow, destructive, and a great deal less fun to drive.
And they don’t even require you to work particularly hard in school.
Williamson keeps getting better, doesn't he?
Gobble Down Those Goose Guts, Californians! Judge Strikes Down Foie Gras Ban
Yum. Really.
High speed rail in CA: "It's not that expensive. We can afford it. In fact, we cannot NOT afford it."
I can't NOT afford a Ferrari. Don't they have airplanes in California?
The slow death of the precious gem jewelry business
Diamonds are a scam and everybody knows it now
Brutal Cold Does Not Factor Into Man's Decision To Stay Inside For Two Days Straight
A diverse group of social psychologists calls for more diversity in their field
UVA Still Punishing Fraternities Over Debunked Story
Sowell: The Dogma of Multiculturalism - The fallacy of “equally valid” cultures polarizes society.
Obama to propose two free years of community college for students
If it doesn't cost you, you don't value it
17 Brilliant Insights From Legendary Marine General James Mattis
Christians in the Holy Land: Don’t Call Us Arabs
Where's the Coverage? Majority of Israeli Arabs Proud to Be Israeli
As the Purge Intensifies, Xi Shifts to the Left
East Asia's Population 'Death Spiral'
What's wrong with population decrease? Seems like a good thing to me.
Dalrymple: Equating Prudence with Cowardice - France must continue to mock, bait, and needle its Muslims.
Muslims segregated from French society in growing Islamist mini-states
Nobody segregated them.
Don’t Blame the Charlie Hebdo Mass Murder on ‘Extremism’ - Intolerance for free expression is rooted in classical Islam.
Saudi Blogger To Be Publicly Flogged Outside Mosque For “Insulting Islam”…
French policewoman killed in shoot-out, hunt broadens for militant killers
New York Times Reports On Muslim Proselytizing During Charlie Hebdo Attack, Then Deletes It
Chickenshit weenies
Thursday, January 8. 2015
Will a Cheap Engagement Ring and Wedding Help Your Marriage?
Contents of Paul Revere’s time capsule unveiled in Boston
Jeffrey Epstein's Society Friends
Living the Hugh Hefner life style. Those aren't "sex slaves," - they are concubines, courtesans
Just Because It Sucks Is No Reason to Leave New Jersey - Why would anyone leave New Jersey?
Naomi Oreskes and Post-Modern Science
Frontiers of microaggression
Why ‘Manspreading’ Is Definitely a Serious Issue, as Explained by the Feminist Internet - The government should maybe do even more.
This Is Not Your Grandma's Humane Society
Hating Whitey’s Brunch
Solving the Police Problem - If They Don't Want to be Policed, Don't Police Them
The Overcriminalization of America - How to reduce poverty and improve race relations by rethinking our justice system:
Congress creates, on average, more than 50 new criminal laws each year. Over time, this has translated into more than 4,500 federal criminal laws spread across 27,000 pages of the United States federal code. (This number does not include the thousands of criminal penalties in federal regulations.) As a result, the United States is the world’s largest jailer — first in the world for total number imprisoned and first among industrialized nations in the rate of incarceration. The United States represents about 5 percent of the world's population, but houses around 25 percent of the world's prisoners.
Why academics can't write:
The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.
Le Pen Plays Islamist Card Linking Attacks to Immigration
No - it's the Islamists playing their Islam card. She's France's Paul Revere
Via Reuters:
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday the attack in Paris had nothing to do with Islam. "Islamic extremists and Islamic terror are something entirely different from Islam," he said. "It is immensely important to underscore that difference on a day like today."
Howard Dean: Don’t Call Paris Terrorists ‘Muslim’
We call them Lutherans
Lutheran cleric: ‘Freedom of Expression Does Not Extend to Insulting’ Muhammad
Mark Steyn To Media: 'Man Up' Before You 'Retreat Even Further Into Self-Censorship'
New York Times: With A Dozen Parisians Dead, MUSLIMS Hit Hardest
The lefty New Yorker:
A religion is not just a set of texts but the living beliefs and practices of its adherents. Islam today includes a substantial minority of believers who countenance, if they don’t actually carry out, a degree of violence in the application of their convictions that is currently unique. Charlie Hebdo had been nondenominational in its satire, sticking its finger into the sensitivities of Jews and Christians, too—but only Muslims responded with threats and acts of terrorism. For some believers, the violence serves a will to absolute power in the name of God, which is a form of totalitarianism called Islamism—politics as religion, religion as politics. “Allahu Akbar!” the killers shouted in the street outside Charlie Hebdo. They, at any rate, know what they’re about.
And even The Atlantic:
The Islamist terror campaign in Europe has focused on Jews and cartoonists, but it will not end with Jews and cartoonists.
My question for the day: Why do the euro elites want all these Muslim immigrants?
Wednesday, January 7. 2015
 It's been smoldering for years, but Jihad is not smoldering anymore in Europe.
Is everybody worried about the "backlash"? I hope not. We all have big problems with these bat-shit crazy bloodthirsty barbarians.
Brit imam living on welfare celebrates Paris massacre. Where is Charles Martel when you need him?
At Am. Interest:
Europe dreams that it has entered a post-historical paradise of international peace and social tranquillity resting on blue model social capitalism and the cooling of religious passion. In reality, every year the foundations of Europe’s peace and order are eroding. The great achievements of European civilization and culture have to be defended, and at the end of the day you can’t defend something unless you believe in it.
Also, Some Outlets Are Censoring Charlie Hebdo’s Satirical Cartoons After Attack - News outlets shy away from publishing the controversial images of the paper’s satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Driscoll:
...with Wolf Blitzer of appeasement-oriented CNN already muttering about Charlie Hebdo occasionally going “over the line,” as Pundit Press notes today, and Ed Morrissey paraphrasing at Hot Air that the Financial Times thinks that “Charlie Hebdo kinda asked for it, y’know?”, tomorrow’s news stories write themselves, don’t they?
Also, France Under Islamist President in Novel Stirs Controversy
Some of the victims.
CNN’s Sally Kohn: Wanting To Censor Criticism Of Islam Is Consistent With Belief In Free Speech…
Catholic League President Bill Donohue on Charlie Hebdo: 'Muslims Are Right to Be Angry'
Greenfield:
Mocking Jews, Catholics, Mormons and atheists isn’t going too far. But mocking Muslims… that’s going too far.
Finally, this:
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith went on an editorial rant against those rushing to judgment and suggesting that the terrorists who massacred twelve people at Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday might be — gasp — Muslims.
Monday, January 5. 2015
 Why are we so obsessed with plane crashes?
Our old friend Tigerhawk is now a contributing writer at Conservative Wahoo
Edward
Brooke, The Former Massachusetts Republican Who Was The First Black
Person Elected To the U.S. Senate Since Reconstruction, Died Saturday
Markets in everything, spas for seven year olds
2014: The Year of Peak Stupidity
"You see, Elly, I raised you like a boy, and I was wrong to do it."
Here's the main problem with feminism. Bat shit crazy broads
Home Schooling: More Pupils, Less Regulation
Klavan: we will have to offend people. A lot of people. A lot of the time.
Markets in everything, spas for seven year olds
Gun Trouble - The rifle that today's infantry uses is little changed since the 1960s—and it is badly flawed. Military lives depend on these cheap composites of metal and plastic. So why can't the richest country in the world give its soldiers better ones?
Listening to Dr. King, I wonder what happened to us
How Sharpton gets paid to not cry ‘racism’ at corporations
What’s your top priority in 2016? Let this poll help you pick! We’ve got 99 problems, and we can’t run on all of ‘em.
Government is the Country's Biggest Problem, Say Americans
Government Orders Wage Hikes in 20 States
"...imagine if at some point from late 2001 through the end of 2008, a troop of American soldiers turned their backs on George W. Bush during a speech*, they’d be praised as brave dissent demonstrators, and possibly “Salon’s People of the Year.”"
Cause of Pause in Global Warming
Snow in Palermo, Sicily
Kim Jong Un: Slavetrader - North Korea is actually a vast slave labor plantation and human trafficking operation run for the profit and hedonistic pleasure of its morally degenerate rulers.
India's Government Will Now 'Check and Verify the Use of Toilets' - It's an unprecedented plan aimed at eliminating open defecation across the country. Could it work?
France Joins the Supply Side: Paul Krugman Hardest Hit
Mental patients, screaming "Allahu Akbar," are storming France.
Egypt’s al-Sisi Makes Extraordinary Speech on Islam
Maoists in China, Given New Life, Attack Dissent
In instructions published last week, Mr. Xi urged universities to “enhance guidance over thinking and keep a tight grip on leading ideological work in higher education,” Xinhua, the official news agency, reported.
Saturday, January 3. 2015
The Top 1 Percent: What Jobs Do They Have? It's an interactive site.
 Toon via the WSJ
I'm an "aye," especially if the vote is to remove laws, rules, and regulations.
Related: A political system is often at its best when it does nothing.
Doctor: "death from cancer is the best"
“Those that get up at 5 a.m. rule the world.”
I'm a 4:30 guy myself, and I rule nothing
Hot Sauce Maker Blisters Federal Nanny
Common Core Sparks Rise in Home Schooling
Are UNC centers politically biased?
The numbers add up to one fact: Cops are a blessing to NYC
Want a President Who Loves America
Oh Yeah, Jeb’s Running — But Should He?
Salon: Our scary new Congress: Meet 5 Tea Party extremists taking office this month
Jonah quotes:
“The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand the New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie-chart format. . . . The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country, and they did a far superior job of it, thank you very much . . .
December 31, 1912
Land is subsiding but they call it sea level rise
Cleric Shakes Up Saudis: Uncover Your Face, Wear Makeup, Mingle with Men
The logic behind President Obama’s Cuba normalization, assuming there is one, is the nylon strategy.
Friday, January 2. 2015
Some years ago, after his governorship of NY, Cuomo had a short-lived national radio talk show.
I phoned in once, on a whim. He was gracious, warm, and pleasant, and I was pleasant to him. I asked him what was on liberalism's agenda. He said government needs to provide and run medical care in the US. I said "OK, what after that?" He hesitated. I said "How about government car insurance?" He said "That's definitely something to look into."
Then I got to my point: I asked him "At what point is the progressive agenda complete - where does it end?" He hesitated again, then said (approx) "Government needs to assure that all Americans get what they need." I cheerfully responded "That's what I thought." It went on for a brief while.
He emailed me the next day, and asked me to call again. Said I had interesting comments. I never bothered to do so, though, figuring he was hopeless. An affable guy, though, unlike his son "Evil Eyes" Cuomo, aka Michael Corleone. They took Mario off the air a while later because he acquired no listeners.
Sleazy politician, good speaker, decent fellow, and deeply misguided which is disappointing in an immigrant family.
Barrels: a history of hogsheads, kegs and puncheons
Don’t Like Guns? Then Regulate Them Like Cars!
Re guns: "hilariously pretentious"
Taco Town!
Biological bad luck blamed in two-thirds of cancer cases
Cheer up. Things are not all that bad for the world
Can’t Find Enough (Excellent) Programmers Here
France Finally Runs Out of Other People’s Money
Climate: Ask Questions and Endanger Your Career
Giant fans kill birds
Williamson: 2015 Non-Predictions And one prediction, too
Dino:
...you have the bizarre spectacle of the media running from city to city and village to village to find an event to fit the narrative. Boy, these progressive narratives, one after the other and non-stop, are getting to be really annoying.
WALL OF SHAME: Top 10 most outrageously biased professors of 2014
Professor – It’s Time for UVA to Apologize
Unarmed White Man Killed by Alabama Police; No Protests, No Riots, No National Media
Goldberg - A Year of Liberal Double Standards What seems like staggering hypocrisy is actually remarkably consistent from liberals’ perspective:
Peaceful, law-abiding tea-party groups who cleaned up after their protests — and got legal permits for them — were signs of nascent fascism lurking in the American soul. Violent, anarchic, and illegal protests by Occupy Wall Street a few years ago or, more recently, in Ferguson, Mo., were proof that a new idealistic generation was renewing its commitment to idealism.
Thursday, January 1. 2015
 2014 Man of the Year: Hillary’s Service Dog
A Farmer Discusses How His Marshmallow Crop Is Threatened by Heavy Rains
The Benefits of Being Cold - Year-round warmth is a modern luxury, and one that could be affecting body weight and health.
Rescuing Boys from Disney Princesses
You Might Think This Was The Most Maine Thing Ever
For Paul McCartney, "it’s ridiculous, and yet very flattering" that college students now take courses on the music of The Beatles. "Ridiculous because we never studied anything..."
And The Highest-Paid US Government Employee is....
A streetcar not desired?
U.Va. professor, son want apology to those 'wrongfully punished'
Of course: Anti-police protesters call the police after road blockade goes bad
PSA To Kids: Steal Parents’ Guns, Give Them To Teachers
4 Ways Neo-Victorianism Reared Its Ugly Head in 2014
Hands up–I’m lying–Thomas Sowell comments on race hustlers and demogogues
Is Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients Catching On?
Bad idea
White Liberals and the New Racism
SHOTS FIRED at Ferguson Police During Burglary Call – Six Arrested
There goes the neighborhood
The Effect of Broken Windows Policing in New York City
White Liberals and the New Racism
High Taxes, Regulations Send New Yorkers Fleeing
Fleeing the state, not the city
Obama said 'Tehran is a large, sophisticated country.'
Imagine if Bush...
Commenter re the EU here: "They've been killing each other for centuries to avoid shit like this..."
Commenter here: "Never, ever hire a person with a degree in ethnic or black studies,
critical race theory, or anything with feminist in the name. They are a
walking lawsuit or HR disaster..."
Obamacare: Even More of a Scam Than You Thought - A welfare program by another name...
It’s time the good Muslims cleaned house. It’s time they swept the jihadists and terrorists into the well.
Gaza Is Nowhere
It's their own darn fault
Wednesday, December 31. 2014
Tuesday, December 30. 2014
Regulation gone wild – Christmas lights are the next target of nanny state thinking
Cracking the Sitcom Code - After signing up to write a script for Croatian television, I learned that virtually all TV comedies, from Seinfeld to South Park, follow a simple formula.
Let Them Eat Quiche: How the Local Food Movement Swerved Right
Prostitution Was Made Illegal — Is Porn Next?
Should adultery be illegal?
California Moonbats Demand Schools Teach “Sexual Consent” To Kindergarteners…
In LA, CBS Station Pretends There Was a Real Kwanzaa Parade
n
LA, CBS Station Pretends There Was a Real Kwanzaa Parade - See more
at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2014/12/27/la-cbs-station-pretends-there-was-real-kwanzaa-parade-yesterday#sthash.jakpMTUY.dpuf
Cop Killings in New York: Who's Responsible?
Michigan Has More Food Stamp Recipients Than Students
Pope Francis to Lead Fight Against Global Warming Junk Science
Will Elizabeth Warren sell ‘outside the bubble’?
When Republican Nixon Listened to Liberal Moynihan
Drug prohibition and mass incarceration
Sweden to Opt for Suicide by Immigration?
Woe to anyone in Sweden who dissents from the orthodox view that welcoming large numbers of indigent peoples from such countries as Iraq, Syria, and Somalia is anything but a fine and noble idea. Even to argue that permitting about 1 percent of the existing population to emigrate annually from an alien civilization renders one politically, socially, and even legally beyond the pale. (I know a journalist threatened with arrest for mild dissent on this issue.) Stating that there exists a Swedish culture worth preserving meets with puzzlement.
116 foreign fighters who had joined Islamic State but later wanted to return home, were executed in the Syrian provinces of Deir Al-Zor, Raqqa and Hassakeh since November.
Monday, December 29. 2014
I've started, revised, and rewritten this post several times. I began it just about the time of the Ferguson riots. Then something happened and I had to add to it, while altering other parts. Something else occurred, and so on. Certain issues continue a narrative over time, and that is the nature of news.
The post I was writing was specific to the riots in Ferguson. Then Eric Garner's Grand Jury results came in and it morphed. Then my ultra-liberal sister posted an article about how white people simply can't understand the black narrative and we need to be sensitive to why they feel the way they do about cops. This was followed by a discussion over a post by my friend which supported the #crimingwhilewhite tweeters. Then I picked up my son from college and heard about how 'white privilege' is now a hot topic among his classmates. Finally, two cops were shot and buried in the last week. I spent time trying to decide whether this was a post about race, cops, or something else altogether. In the end, I realized it's probably a number of things, because there wasn't just one narrative here. Brown and Garner were not about race, no matter how much people wanted them to be. Nor were they only about how bad cops are, or can be. Nor was any of this about how poorly the media handles these topics, or how those who consider themselves the intellectual elite manage the discussion. It's really about all of these items, but none of them, either. Ultimately, in the end, it's about each of us and how we individually think about unconnected events which we try to connect through some kind of hive mentality. It's about whether we really care about these events, and how we care about them.
At first, I planned to discuss how far we'd come in race relations. We have come very far. It's impossible to look at how we deal with race today and say we are in the same place we were in any year from 1880-2000. My friend said that improvement is relative, that we have further to go. Perhaps we do. But I'm not benchmarking myself against an unclear ideal which no group of people fully agree on. What will represent the final 'best' format of race in our nation? Nobody knows. All we can do is be aware of ourselves, individually, and try to be better about how we treat people when it comes to race, gender, nationality and religion. I include all of these together because as a society we have issues in every single one of these categories. We need to stop letting one word, used out of place or out of context, produce rage. We need to ignore things like "trigger words", which are nothing more than words which certain people have designated for censorship because they lack the courage to accept that language is malleable and can sometimes offend even slightly. As a nation, we need a real dialogue. Not about race, in particular. We need a dialogue about values and what is truly important. Race may be part of that value structure, but it's only a small part. Individual responsibility is really the larger value structure we need to focus on. Responsibility for our own health, our own minds, our own speech and our own education. We can't let small parts of the 'society' value chain derail us from the goal of crafting a nation which is unified entirely by how different each person is.
Continue reading "I Do Care about race relations"
Getting away from all news and internet for 5 or 6 days is always interesting. To make it even more liberating, I leave my cell phone at home.
Sometimes I feel strongly that politics is important, and at other times I believe that they are all big government scoundrels and that America would be best off with a philosopher-king with perfect integrity, as long as it were me. I'd hate the job.
This is interesting: 2014: The Year the Democratic Party Death Watch Resumed
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A Nerd for Our Times: Alan Turing