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.
It's the inner totalitarianism of the worldwide Left. There is always an excuse to control and oppress the people, and to take their money. For the Greater Good, of course.
Same in the US, altho China is more obvious about its attempts to control markets. In the US, ZIRP and QE were errors in the beginning, and led to a bubble stock market which needs a meaningful correction, a high colonic enema. Central banks distort markets, distort reality.
The Long Rise of the Secular Faith - The threat to religious liberty has its roots in a progressivist faith that has been steadily gaining momentum in America for at least a century and a half.
Nobody understands that you have to be able to do it first. You can't deconstruct a goddamned thing until you can do it, and if you could do it, you wouldn't get the urge to deconstruct it. Frank Gehry can't design a proper two-holer so he designs giant monstrosities to hide the fact.
Politics is the same. You will never elect anyone to take the government apart. Once you know how to work it well enough to get in charge of it, you don't want to wreck it. You want to lord over it and add to it. No one wants the bulldozed empty lot where a Post Office once stood to be named after them. Humans don't work that way.
Blasphemy laws are ridiculous, outdated, historical anachronisms. But what's interesting is, in Britain, for example, we no longer have blasphemy laws - that was seen as being a great step forward... - but what they did was introduce hate speech laws instead.
So we...no longer have old-fashioned religious blasphemy laws, we have a kind of secular blasphemy laws: there are new [rules] you are allowed not to break, there are new groups you are not allowed not to offend ...and in many ways, more insidious and pervasive than blasphemy ever was - which was a dead law on the statute books for most of the last 100 years. -- Mick Hume of Spiked!
Glad my kids don't go here. It's unfortunate that this is in my home state of NJ. It's unfortunate this is the prevailing viewpoint at many universities. I am not aware of any notifications like this at Syracuse, or Miami (OH), where my boys are. However, I know this pattern of thinking is common at both schools.
There has been some strange collateral damage in the Republican War on Women. We taught them that cooking and cleaning are for squares and they shouldn’t know how to do either. This has left young women today with apartments that are complete pigsties. There is nothing in the fridge and a mountain of clothes in one corner and a futon on the floor. This means millennial males end up having to do the cooking and cleaning themselves. Oh well, you can’t win them all.
America’s two major political parties have always been fundamentally different. The Republican Party has been rooted in the moral principles and transcendent values expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Democratic Party acknowledges that the starting point of the country may have been the Declaration and the Constitution, but since Woodrow Wilson many Democratic Party leaders have contended that progress requires constant adaptation, changing morals, and liberal interpretations of law and history.
The progressive philosophy that the Democratic Party has come to embrace now has its roots less in the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of individual happiness and more in the tenets of race and class identity, equal outcomes, and an expanding welfare state. Since individuals vary in talent, ability, and motivation and the free market system produces unequal outcomes of success, a core principle of the Democratic Party is now redressing this disparity through the redistribution of wealth.
The
growing importance of social skills in the labor market - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/08/the-growing-importance-of-social-skills-in-the-labor-market.html#sthash.3m0UeYyV.dpuf
The Suicide of the Liberal Arts - Indoctrinating students isn’t the same as teaching them. Homer and Shakespeare have much to tell us about how to think and how to live.
Like most conservationists, I believe that Smokey The Bear is obsolete. He was, in fact, an agent of the lumber industry as administered and subsidized by the US Forest Service. Lives and money should not be spent to combat a necessary natural process. As that article notes:
"What we're getting now are much more intense fires because of all those years of suppression," said John Freemuth, a Boise State University professor and a public lands expert. "Those kinds of intense fires are usually not allowed to burn."
Government fire-suppression policies, like so many government policies, have unintended consequences which are worse than the original problem. If you must have a house in the woods or fire zone, get fire insurance and hope for the best. Or don't. Monitoring fires from the air is a worthwhile government - or private -warning service, same as storms.
And let the trees burn. That restarts the natural succession which produces an abundance of wildlife and biodiversity. Brave as they are, these firefighters die horribly for no good reason at all.
Germany
fact of the day, will support for immigration collapse? - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/08/germany-projection-of-the-day.html#sthash.99uUvG13.dpuf
Molecular
scientists unexpectedly produce new type of glass - See more at:
http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2015/08/13/molecular-scientists-unexpectedly-produce-new-type-glass#sthash.iSthJMGb.dpuf
If you want to see what unlimited immigration (against the consent of the people) looks like, take a look at Europe. Mezzican immigrants now amount to what had been 1/3 of the Mexican population. That is an invasion, and it is without our consent. If we want to consent to that, then fine. However, I can say that there is not a single job I had while growing up which is not occupied by immigrants. What work would I do today as a 13 or 15 year-old eager beaver?
The dominant issue in the West is immigration. The ruling elites are obsessed with filling up our lands with people from other lands. It’s nearly impossible to get members of the elite to discuss the matter, much less explain their reasoning. A politician or party that embraces immigration reform, even mild reform, is treated like a Holocaust denier. Even climate change, which is pretty much a religion at this point, is more open to debate than immigration.
Citizen government was the original idea, not professional careerists looking for an easy unskilled government job for life. Thank God she's not a lefty. Quick as a whip, compelling and highly likable. I do not agree with her on everything, but so what?
She is an effective spokesperson, which is what she is running for.
Yesterday's NLRB ruling came as a surprise to nobody but the groups seeking to unionize, and it's not a decision so much as kicking the can. The NLRB decided it has no jurisdiction in the Northwestern case, but this non-decision has some interesting implications. While Northwestern, and other state-run universities, won't see players unionize any time soon, the case for unionization can be taken to private universities and did not outright rule against unionization. The union pushing for this has vowed to try again.
It's widely known that college football and basketball are de facto minor leagues for the NBA and NFL. But they are not true minor leagues, and while the athletes are not paid in the same fashion as professionals (they are 'amateurs', after all), they are actually paid quite a bit of money. Most of these payments are utilized at their own discretion, such as getting an education and not just taking Underwater Pottery 101.
At any major school, the education itself carries a cost of $18,000-50,000 a year. At some elite schools, it could be substantially more. Very few people in the 18-24 age range earn this much money, let alone are given the opportunity to supplement that 'payment' through the use of educational facilities.
There are other payments as well. 'Free' food (the players eat substantial portions at the school cafeterias), 'free' living facilities (not always 5-star quality, but I liked my college digs), 'free' health care and fitness facilities, travel to and from games, and the likelihood of a free meal at a host of local bars and restaurants (if you're the big star).
My neighbor's son is currently playing Wide Receiver at a major northeastern university. I've spoken with him many times since he's been up there, and he works hard. His freshman year was a bust, due to pulled hamstring (he tells me the workouts for injured players are harder than for those who are healthy, but you work on other muscle groups that usually go ignored). To hear his stories, however, you come to realize these young people have a very good lifestyle, even if they are not the rock-star QB.
The NCAA needs reform, no doubt. College athletics (and education - but that's a completely different matter), in general, needs reform. I don't think unionization will solve any of these issues, nor will any kind of governmental interference. It's fair to say these are well-compensated student/athletes (emphasis on athlete) for the level of play they are engaged in. If the players want to unionize, I really don't have a problem with that. I suppose if they did and pushed for more 'stuff', they'd find out just how important or unimportant they are (I'm thinking unimportant, at many schools, though not the big-sports ones).
It's also fair to say that, if some people have their way, and these athletes get paid, the Title IX athletics will disappear. The wide-ranging effects of unionization and paid student-athletes has never truly been investigated. My guess is the only logical end to this will be to turn major college sports into a true minor league. For now, however, the NCAA continues to hold sway.
New book: Thoughts on ‘The Devil’s Pleasure Palace’ - Subversion is Michael Walsh’s primary focus and the battle he describes is nothing less than a battle between good and evil
From
the UNEXPECTEDLY!!! Files: In the Wake of Proposition 47, California
Sees a Crime Wave - See more at:
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=57497#sthash.XI1BP41p.dpuf
The gals of UA's Alpha Phi strike back. Yes, they are in college, but they want friends, fun, dates, and a good husband at the end. But do not be fooled: some of them are math majors. I met one from this tribe, every bit as smart as the grouchy, unfeminine, poorly-dressed northern girls but full of charm, optimism, good cheer, and humor.
No double moon in 2015, 
Global Warming Killed 30% Of Moose, Is Preventing Bears From Hibernating? 
Her
Fallen firefighters remembered as heroes 
6 Things You Should Know About