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.
"What the elites now consider normal and standard seems, to a growing minority of Americans, aberrant and unhinged — and they are looking for a remedy, even if it is mostly rhetorical and chimerical."
The other day, I tackled the vexing question of why so few Americans seem able to save enough. Today I’ll tackle the vexing corollary to this question: the assertion that if individuals can’t manage to save, the government must step in. Corporate pensions are dying, the argument goes, and private savings is laughably inadequate. Obviously, what we need is a much more generous Social Security system...
The Average American 29-Year-Old - Forget media archetypes of older Millennials as college-educated singles living in cities. The typical 29-year-old is living with a partner in the suburbs—without a bachelor’s degree.
Got a ride last night in a pal's new Tesla. After two whiskeys, even he was startled by the acceleration. Everything loose in the car flew to the back. Rocket Man. Then he had to demonstrate its no-hands driving. Sheesh.
When the angry bull-dyke Senator visits, they can show her how enthusiastic they are for girls in combat. This also requires a catalog of euphemisms and esoteric rules to game the theocrats. Everyone in the military now speaks in tongues.
Regulatory
Arbitrage, Rent-Seeking and the Deal of the Year - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/04/regulatory-arbitrage-deal-of-the-year.html#sthash.0fa5Lo0p.dpuf
Regulatory
Arbitrage, Rent-Seeking and the Deal of the Year - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/04/regulatory-arbitrage-deal-of-the-year.html#sthash.0fa5Lo0p.dpuf
Fancy folk have Chubb and the others, but good old Allstate has been a boon to our family over the past few months. Also, pleasant, helpful, and easy to deal with. Eager to please.
A near-total car crash and, this week, a burst water pipe in the basement. Whatever it is, they send people to fix and repair every mess, like the Cat in the Hat.
We have their Homeowner's, their Auto, their Business, and their Umbrella. Worth it.
We have been expensive to them this year, but 25 years with only one (also a basement water pipe) previous claim. Hope they don't cancel us. Thanks, Allstate.
This letter was a hoax of sorts, posted somewhere on the internet as a response from Oxford to students attending as Rhodes Scholars to remove the statue of Oxford Benefactor Cecil Rhodes.
Not sure who wrote this. Best line to the students: "Understand us and understand this clearly: you have everything to learn from us; we have nothing to learn from you."
American higher ed administrators might bear that in mind.
Dear Scrotty Students,
Cecil Rhodes’s generous bequest has contributed greatly to the comfort and well being of many generations of Oxford students – a good many of them, dare we say it, better, brighter and more deserving than you.
This does not necessarily mean we approve of everything Rhodes did in his lifetime – but then we don’t have to. Cecil Rhodes died over a century ago. Autres temps, autres moeurs. If you don’t understand what this means – and it would not remotely surprise us if that were the case – then we really think you should ask yourself the question: “Why am I at Oxford?”
Oxford, let us remind you, is the world’s second oldest extant university. Scholars have been studying here since at least the 11th century. We’ve played a major part in the invention of Western civilisation, from the 12th century intellectual renaissance through the Enlightenment and beyond. Our alumni include William of Ockham, Roger Bacon, William Tyndale, John Donne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Erasmus, Sir Christopher Wren, William Penn, Samuel Johnson, Robert Hooke, William Morris, Oscar Wilde, Emily Davison, Cardinal Newman. We’re a big deal. And most of the people privileged to come and study here are conscious of what a big deal we are. Oxford is their alma mater – their dear mother – and they respect and revere her accordingly.
And what were your ancestors doing in that period? Living in mud huts, mainly. Sure we’ll concede you the short lived Southern African civilisation of Great Zimbabwe. But let’s be brutally honest here. The contribution of the Bantu tribes to modern civilisation has been as near as damn it to zilch.
Darn good job. Why the college admin called him a Nazi and deleted his speech/Q&A is beyond me. Why not just call him a poopy-face or something if you don't like his points of view?
Whittle is a likeable, humble, engaging fellow. I would enjoy meeting him over a beer.
Her argument comes down to something like "It might maybe help kids from low-functioning families a tiny bit for a year or two." Weak argument. Don't have kids if you can not raise them well, teach them well. We already have free government birth control...
Wrong, because the true Progressive argument is more unionized "teaching" jobs. We all know that "Pre-K" is a euphemism for babysitting. Prosperous moms use nursery school so they have time to volunteer, get to the gym, and play tennis. And, of course, to get a break from the brats.
"Education"? Well, if your parents can't teach you to speak, count, add, or recite the alphabet, you are in trouble anyway. Blame your parent(s) for a crappy start in life, and get yourself going.
Why do you like Trump? Is it because you think he is the only Repub who can win, is it his attitude and the atmospherics, is it plain hope, or is it his policy tendencies?
Besides immigration, in my view nothing he says about policy makes any sense to me. So why Trump? Tell me. I am persuadable.
Ted Cruz is the only candidate, Democrat or Republican, who understands and is prepared to address the twin dangers of executive overreach and the stealth statism of regulatory bloat.
What a disgraceful person she is, the worst German chancellor since ...well, I don't want to go all Godwin's this early in the piece. But a few years ago, when Maclean's and I had our triple-jeopardy difficulties with the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission, the Ontario "Human Rights" Commission and the British Columbia "Human Rights" Tribunal, the response of many of my fellow Canadians to the eventual outcome was along the lines of: "Well, I don't know what Steyn was making such a fuss about. The process played itself out and he was acquitted. So the system worked."
Some of these people were genuine innocents who've never been caught up in a time-consuming seven-figure legal battle before. But many others were making the argument cynically. They know that, if you can tie up a book or a magazine article in court, then there will be fewer books and magazine articles.
The litigants win whether they win or lose. Exxon can afford the lawyers and the time, but can you? Thus self-censorship and paranoia.
How
to manage your supply of the very best chocolate - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/04/how-to-manage-your-supply-of-the-very-best-chocolate.html#sthash.oGRUrhIR.dpuf
Donald Trump won’t like it if he loses despite entering the convention with the largest number of first ballot votes, but if that happens to Trump, he won’t be the first GOP front-runner to fall behind in the course of convention balloting. It has not happened recently, not since 1940, but Donald Trump would actually be the 23rd of 22 men who had exactly the same experience (two of them, John Sherman and James G. Blaine, twice).
The more the West indulges its humanitarian sentiments–that is, its squeamishness in the face of absolute evil–the more calamities will befall Muslim civilians, because Muslim leaders from Raqqa to Ankara have learned to weaponize horror. Staging humanitarian catastrophes in order to blackmail the West has succeeded for the most part.
Americans tend to prefer to care more about the details of their personal lives than about national politics, but at some point they can feel kicked enough to wake up. At some point, people realize that they might not be too interested in Washington, but that Washington effects them more than they wish. Kick, kick, kick.
"My thinking now is that the election is likely to be a blowout landslide, somewhere between the elections of 1980 and 2008 in scope. I just don’t know which way."
Michael worries about dying old mill towns in upstate New York and similar places and wonders why the party of free enterprise doesn’t have more to offer people dwelling in them. He imagines a disability fraudster dwelling in Garbutt, N.Y., and asks what we (we conservatives) are going to do for him and his sad little town. (Among the many dishonest responses to my piece were those treating the addled fraud artist in Garbutt as my hostile literary invention rather than Michael’s sympathetic one; no doubt Michael will have a lot to answer for the next time he visits the Greater Garbutt Chamber of Commerce.) My answer is that if there’s nothing for you in Garbutt but penury, dysfunction, and addiction, then get the hell out.
Of course it is. It is not the Court's job to reinforce culture, customs, taboos, and traditions other than their own. We can label some things or people as immoral or depraved, but there is freedom too.
Pop culture changes as Judeo-Christian standards decline. Adultery used to have a death sentence unless you were royalty or an aristocrat. Today, it seems unremarkable as habits of the lower classes and those of the rich and powerful converge.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour, who insisted that there’s no difference between the once supposedly unassimilable Irish Catholics and East European Jews and the new Pushtun goatherds and Mogadishu hoodlums. It’s one of the curious aspects of self-proclaimed “multiculturalists” that they are, essentially, uniculturalists: they think everybody’s the same. But sometimes history doesn’t repeat itself — and Emma Lazarus’ lousy poem is an even lousier guide to social policy.
Academic 
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