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.
The concept of an elite guiding national development for the benefit of those it governs remains operative today among blue partisans, but what’s changed is that the blue elite no longer sees a bright future for the masses. It turns out that there are two ways to think about the trajectory of liberal society. The traditional view is that over time the differences between elites and non-elites can and should shrink, and it is the proper goal of liberal policy to ensure that they do.
The other view is to believe that differences of talent and ambition ensure that the world will always be divided between a creative minority and an inert majority, and that the goal of social policy isn’t to eliminate that ineradicable difference, but to ensure that the process of recruitment into the elite is genuinely fair. Once the privileges of race, gender and fortune have been neutralized so that the elite is a purely meritocratic body, the members of the elite are obliged to concern themselves for the welfare of the majority, but there is nothing more to be done about equalizing their condition with that of the elite. Authority must rest in the hands of the qualified; those who score poorly on aptitude tests, don’t do well in classes and/or lack extraordinary beauty, artistic talent or ambition must resign themselves to taking direction from the natural aristocracy that a well ordered society has brought so smoothly to the fore.
Whenever I do a movie review, I always include a clip highlighting the main actor doing his or her thing.
What a disgrace.
It seems as though I'm bedazzled by star power, completely ignoring all the lesser actors; those who really make the movie click.
But not this time.
No, this time I'm determined to focus on the supporting cast, those who really make the movie work; those who provide the surrounding aura so that Keanu Reeves may shine.
Heather on women in combat: "I am not aware of any comparable crusade to create gender-integrated football teams. At least America knows what’s really important."
However, we know that Leviathan's hunger for money and control is never sated. If you imagine that there is ever "enough," just ask a Leftist where the endpoint should be, the point at which government's task is complete.
There will always be a list, the job will never be done, and, still, utopia will never arrive because dystopia always arrives first.
Related: Gerard found that One Cosmos has reviewed Our Logophobic President, with his sarcasm button turned on. One sample:
"A great nation must protect its people from life's worst hazards and misfortune."
Hmm. Does that include protection from the most devastating hazard and misfortune of them all, the tyrannical and intrusive state?
Because if the 20th century taught us one lesson, it is that there is nothing more destructive than the all-wise and all-powerful state predicated on the fantasy that it will protect its citizens from all of life's unavoidable exigencies. I mean, just protect me from domestic and foreign enemies, okay? And stop violating with the Constitution. Then we'll talk.
What are life's worst hazards, anyway? Probably the same they've always been: war. Famine. Disease. Poverty. So, why don't we cure hunger by imitating the Soviet Union and putting the state in charge of food production and distribution? While we're at it, why doesn't the federal government create millions of pretend jobs and lavish its worthless employees with absurdly generous wages and benefits?
Oh, right. I guess Obama noticed how effectively that model is working here in California
"after the Sandy Hook murders I felt compelled to do something, even if it was only symbolic. So, last month, I joined the NRA, the nation’s most effective civil rights organization, for the first time."
Harvard is looking for a woman to bear a Neanderthal child. She might need broad hips. They would probably gain plenty of applicants if the kid were guaranteed admission on a multicultural basis. Might be a threat as a linebacker on the Crimson team too or, given the brain size, a threat on the Chess Team.
I was disappointed that the post the other day about human migration excluded our Neanderthal brethren. They were made in God's image too, were they not?
Global cooling is a real threat for mankind's global future, obviously. One advantage of bringing back our Neanderthal brothers and sisters is that they know how to hunt the coming influx of Wooly Mammoths, as Steyn reminded us today on the radio. At some point, in the Northeast, the dang Mammoths will become pests, rooting around in our Rhododendrons in the snow along with the Polar Bears and those annoying and smelly Musk Oxen.
It's a very sad story, and it is due, in part but not entirely, to the Obama economy in my opinion because nobody is hiring anybody right now, and neither are we:
The belief that education is both good in and of itself, and also, is practically a guarantee of a good job, was never entirely true. But now it's clearly false in many fields, and insiders who blind themselves to this reality are doing naive kids a great wrong. Increasingly, getting the extra degree may actually decrease peoples' chances of finding jobs, partners, and satisfying lives, because of the debt and time that are poured into them.
What we really need around here are more good plumbers and electricians who do not abuse drugs. We have plenty of skilled, reliable masons, all clean-cut Mexican immigrants. In today's economic mess, it's time for people to get creative and to start their own businesses. Necessity is the mother of invention. Just make sure you don't hire more than 49 employees (same as they do in France). After 49, you get in deep government issues which nobody can comprehend but you just know you will make some error somewhere.
There have been a couple of aviation stories in the news recently. Here's a quick update.
Pic: Doc's lifelong dream of flight begins to take shape
As noted in The F-35 Debacle, perhaps the goofiest weapon of war the United States armed forces has ever commissioned was the fastest, sleekest, most modern fighter jet in history — while requiring that it also have the capabilities of a helicopter.
The mind reels.
But, even though they now cost about 10 times the original estimate, this isn't to say that our money's not being put to good use. Sure, there are bound to be a few little glitches, but that's expected when developing a new breed of aircraft.
Little glitches like, say, turning into a fireball of death when hit by lightning.
The production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter – the world’s most sophisticated and expensive combat aircraft – has been derailed after engineers discovered that the jet’s fuel tank could explode if struck by lightning.
But at least they're watching every dollar and not frivolously wasting it on unnecessary weight:
Attempts to increase fuel efficiency by reducing the jet’s weight have also made it more vulnerable to enemy attack than the generation of aircraft it was supposed to replace.
Or scaring innocent civilians on the ground by flying too low:
A design fault in the fuel tank has also prevented the JSF being able to rapidly descend to low altitude.
What's so sobering is that, after more than a decade, this thing's still in the developmental stage. It hasn't even been put to use and field-tested yet.
Let's hope the bad guys don't live in an area protected by lots of thunderstorms.
Speaking of fireballs of death, below the fold we'll get an update on the Boeing 787 and how our ever-vigilant MSM has handled the story.
America is being run by a Made in Indonesia leader whose performance is as bad as any of the Made in Indonesia, Pakistan or China crap you'll find in Wal-Mart. And it doesn't matter because he's a brand. The savvier younger and urban voters don't care what he's made of, they care how he makes them feel. They may lose their job the next day and their prospects for paying off their college loans may be missing, but if it makes them feel good at the point of polling, then that's what matters.
Raise it to 75. Americans are not like lazy European slackers. We like to be useful and productive, and it helps us respect ourselves. Any 65 year-old American will tell you that they are in the prime of life and ready to do anything. 65 is the new 45. The vast majority of Americans who retire at 65 have incomes at or below $20,000 per year. That's a bad plan.
Obama’s postelection arrogance and intransigence can put you in a fighting mood. I sympathize. But I’m tending toward the realist view: Don’t force the issue when you don’t have the power.
The irony is that over the last 30 years, the U.S. homicide rate has declined by 50 percent. Gun murders as well. We’re living not through an epidemic of gun violence but through a historic decline.
Readers know my views. I am in favor of grabbing the firearms of violent criminals and loonies. Start with the violent crims in gun-controlled Chicago, please. Bill Bratton knew how to do that in NYC.
Law-abiding people ought to have all the firearms they desire. Lethal hammers and knives, too. They do not need a reason. This is America.
The irony is that over the last 30 years, the U.S. homicide rate has declined by 50 percent. Gun murders as well. We’re living not through an epidemic of gun violence but through a historic decline.
For the convenience of readers, I collected two posters which you anti-gun nuts might wish to enlarge and display to advertise your virtue, if you have any cojones:
Here's an alternative yard sign for those who believe that evil exists, but know they are probably not it:
Let's face it: many of the effete urban elites are just plain askeered of guns. Afraid to touch one, but no problem driving their lethal Volvos to their vacation homes or hiding behind armed security guards or bodyguards in their hotels, banks, office buildings, private roads, and private schools. Guns go "boom," and make holes in things. However, I shoot with many of the non-effete elite, and they are all quite comfortable with guns. They run businesses, or are heirs to fortunes, or are doctors and lawyers. They are outdoor people, know how to protect themselves and their families, and they read books, too. These guys I know tend to have lots of firearms. Some gals too, but they tend to rely on guys for their protection.
I know it is not PC, but married women do, statistically, tend to rely on masculine guys for lots of things.
Firearms are not just for criminals. They are basic life tools, like hammers. Who wants to be killed by a scumbag, or eaten by a Cougar?
...if an employer has 40 full-time workers and 20 part-time workers, that employer would be considered by the government to have 50 full-time workers and would be subject to the mandate because the 20 part-time workers average to 10 full-time workers – meeting the 50 full-time-worker threshold.
House Passes $50 Billion In Sandy Relief (Mostly Unrelated Pork) With Democrats Providing Majority Of The Yes Votes - UPDATE: Less Than Half The Money Is Sandy Related
The Whiz Kids - They didn’t come here to cut spending:
This is the overcaffeinated game of leapfrog that’s characterized Washington for years. Policy wonks and whiz kid pundits fly to a problem, waving calculators and smacking each other with rolled-up charts in attempts to get there first. Legislation is passed that supposedly ameliorates the problem. Everyone trips over each other and gets a convenient case of amnesia. Then it’s on to the next problem. And for God’s sake, don’t look back at the previous one…or at least not for another few years when everyone can return and try to solve it all over again.
Americans are suckers for a sob story. But a lot of them are also suckers for personal freedom. Whenever a bullseye is put on freedom for the greater good, two narratives battle it out for the soul of the country. "We have to fix this" and "Leave me alone."
Think of We have to fix this" and "Leave me alone" as the devil and angel on the shoulders of every cartoon character for the last hundred years. "We have to fix this," wears an earnest expression and her appearance is calculated to suggest nurse, teacher or PTA member, when in reality she's usually an Ivy League grad with a lot of time spent in government and political advocacy and whose kids are raised by Elena from Guatemala, whose immigration status is that of Undocumented Democrat.
I had been under the impression that the reason to spend big bucks for an elite education in prep schools like Andover, Exeter, Choate, Deerfield, etc. was for a very rigorous classical education, traditional and strict moral standards, and, in general, a special culture set apart from ordinary society and its fads, from factory-style public education, and from ordinary mindless and immature teen pursuits.
If these sorts of schools no longer aspire to be different, what's the point?
So now Geoff Chaucer, the father of modern English, is voiceless and the whores have voices? Thus the culture progresses, forgetting the Wife of Bath - and the Whore of Babylon.
Boring, unless you want to spend two hours looking at Jessica Chastain's quivering lips.
Argo, equally tedious.
Two movies in a row that kept me checking my watch to see how much longer I had to sit there. Much rather read a book. Why do I bother going to the movies? Well, to be a good husband.
Bronx crime, like most urban crime, is driven by gangs. The Black Assassins, Majestic Warlocks and the Black Muslim Five Percenters are one of the 70 street gangs in New York's own Detroit. While civil rights activists call for fighting gang violence with peace treaties and afterschool programs, there are really only two things that work. Either a police state of the kind you will find in the Bronx where the cops monitor the Twitter and Facebook postings of gang members, and their text messages, or an armed population that is capable of defending itself against them.
Liberals invariably choose none of the above.
What goes on in the 40th isn't just a New York issue. It's nationwide.
This is entertaining, but the alert and fast-talking Ben Shapiro makes one disputative error which might seem minor, but is not. His error was in answering the question "Why does anyone need an assault rifle?"
The right answer would be "I don't know what your definition of an assault rifle is, but nobody has to justify his wants in America. It's a free country. Piers, why do you need a polluting Town Car and driver to bring you to work?"
When white kids are killed, it's a catastrophe. When young black gangbangers die in Chicago, it's a non-story. The more I listen to all the hysteria, the more I want an AR-15 to play with even though I tend to prefer more aesthetic, old-school firearms, with wood in them. It appears that they are on back-order anyway.
Just had to repost the Hello Kitty AR-15. I would not mess with this pleasant lady:
Hilarious climate science fail by the warmists at GRIST (and now CNN)
About the 
Harvard is looking for 
There have been a couple of aviation stories in the news recently. Here's a quick update.
National Geographic Links Snow And Cold To Globull Warming
Mayor Of Gun Violence Capitol Of America 
Our friend