Friday, February 14. 2014
Yesterday most of us here in the Northeast spent the day digging out of yet another big snow pile. I grew up with snow, in the mountains of Pennsylvania, then four years of Syracuse nastiness. It doesn't bother me in the least, and I'm more than happy going out with a snow shovel to dig, dig, dig.
I figure you need at least 4+ inches to call off school, and at least that much to prevent me from heading in to NYC and the office. Yesterday was one of those days, with my younger son having yet another snow day and me staying home for probably the fifth time this winter.
But Bill de Blasio was having none of it. His point of view was to get the kids into school at all costs.
This is a mayor who is slowly destroying any popularity he has with voters by making decisions which are difficult to support in any way. I couldn't believe NYC schools were open yesterday, until I heard the press conference. Bill's words go far in explaining how important he feels school is. It hasn't got anything to do with education, it has everything to do with having daycare so parents can work.
"It's always a tough decision based on imperfect information."
Really? The Weather Service had said, with regularity, that it was going to be a minimum of 6 inches, Bill. They warned of potential for a foot or more. Sure, the Weather Service may be wrong about climate change, but you believe that, so surely you must have some level of trust in their observations?
"There are huge number of parents for whom the consistency of the school schedule is absolutely necessary," de Blasio said. "They are going to work, they have no choice. If they can't get their kid to school, they don't have another option. There are huge numbers of parents for whom their kid getting to school also means their child will have a good meal, and in some cases, two meals. And so, the fact is, it's a very big deal to some parents."
Ohhhh...OK, now I get it. You just wanted to make sure daycare was in session. Fine, everything is understood and all is well. I'm sure the teachers will be happy to know they are part of your daycare plan.
Continue reading "Mayor Bill Thinks School is Daycare"
Wednesday, February 12. 2014
A reader mentioned this post: The Nanny State Didn't Show Up, You Hired It
He makes good points. My main hobbies are shooting and hunting, boating, skiing, and hanging out in NYC pubs with pals and gals. Each can be dangerous to some degree. I am heading out to Big Sky tonight for 6 days of off-trail reckless tree skiing with old skiing pals, risking life and limb in deep powder. It's more dangerous than smoking.
We will have a blast, and drink lots of beer too. My theory is that safety is for pussies but, since I have a little sense, there are some things I just won't do. Cave scuba diving is one of them. I can handle fear, but cave diving scares me too much. Once was enough, at 65 feet. A very cool experience, though, and I am glad I did it.
Risk is the zest of life.
Monday, February 10. 2014
This is a rather remarkable admission from the leadership of the Democratic Party. Have they merged with the Socialist-Worker's Party? Or with the Leisure/Artist Party?
Democrats’ New Rallying Cry: Work Is a Trap and We Celebrate Those Who Can Avoid It
I am, of course, opposed to "job-lock", but there is no job-lock, aka indentured servitude, in America today. America is seen as the land of opportunity for people all around the world who dream of getting here. What the heck are these Dems talking about? To whom are they pandering now?
Thursday, February 6. 2014
State Department upset that a private conversation was intercepted and recorded. They were shocked this is happening. I was too. Just kidding. Ever heard of the NSA?
What were they concerned about? US involvement in unrest in the Ukraine. Because we don't do that stuff anymore now that Barry is in charge.
As the Olympics is about to begin, I can only imagine this phone call ended with chants of "USA, USA!"
If you can make a case for government-controlled education and medical care, then it is easier to make a case for socialized law - or socialized plumbing, for that matter.
Liberal Democrats all but concede that Obamacare marked the end of their activist ambitions. Hereafter, we will all take vigorous walks and watch prestige dramas on HBO.
But there’s still at least one major social-welfare project the left must see through before anyone considers its mission accomplished. The issue is the vast injustice that arises from the way the law is applied to different classes of citizens.
If and when that's done, there will something else, ad infinitum, until the people rebel and take back their birthright.
Tuesday, February 4. 2014
Common Core 101: What Is It and How Does It Affect Our Children?
(Years ago) Tucker outlined to Hillary the transformation of the entire American system into "a seamless web that extends from cradle to grave" and is the "same system for everyone," coordinated by a "system of labor market boards at the local, state and federal levels" where curriculum and job matching will be handled by counselors "accessing the integrated computer-based program." The mission of schools would change from "teaching children academic basics and knowledge to training them to serve the global economy in jobs selected by workforce boards" in an outcome-based system "guided by clear national standards of performance," set to "international benchmarks" that "define the stages of the system for the people who progress through it." In this "new system of linked standards, curriculum and pedagogy will abandon the American tracking system." Best of all, college loans debt will be forgiven for "public service." Sound familiar?
The hubris is mind-boggling.
Sunday, February 2. 2014
We have often wondered here what the end point of Progressivism is. It often seems to us to be the point at which the State controls most everything and provides all the things people minimally need - except for individual freedom.
Given history, and everyday experience, this sort of childlike trust in the wisdom, efficacy, and altruism of the State seems deeply misguided, and the endpoint usually consists of a sort of serfdom of the people and a sort of monarchy of the State. Eventually, people with backbones and spirit rebel against it if they are able. (However, since fully-developed State utopias are usually, necessarily, oppressive police states, and the rebellious people are disarmed and lacking in funds, it's difficult.)
Sultan highlights one aspect of State utopianism: its resistance to change, in Progressives Without Progress:
Visions lead to utopias, but once utopia is achieved, there is no more room for vision. Visions, like viruses, are competitive creatures. When a Vision achieves a static order by killing all other visions, then vision dies, but that Vision remains with its dead hand on the wheel of history.
Saturday, February 1. 2014
Government subsidies and grants lead to misallocation of resources regularly. This is one of the primary reasons the Austrian School of Economic Thought opposes government support for businesses. Long ago, I was taught Economics isn't about getting rich or achieving a goal. It's about managing process.
"While Austrian economists acknowledge some institutions are helpful to the individual economic process, they tend to view most institutions and regulations as inhibiting individuals from reaching their goals. Therefore, they tend to support a free market and laissez-faire governance. They believe government intervention hinders the process and decision making of market participants, resulting in suboptimal economic conditions."
This author explains why the problem isn't the government, but the entrepreneurs looking for money. I'd say she's incorrect. People are frequently distracted by shiny objects. Government offers of cash are usually rule-bound and inflexible. meaning we alter our decisions to get 'free stuff'. If you told me that you'd pay 1/2 of the price of a car, but I had to buy a $70,000 Tesla (costing me $35,000) as opposed to a $25,000 Mini which I have the cash for, chances are I'm going to scrounge for the extra $10,000 even though I could use that $10,000 to repay a loan or take a vacation. We always tend to try and 'trade up' in the world, and if the incentive seems too good to be true, we'll usually take it. Unfortunately, Sky Masterson's wisdom regarding an offer which is too good to be true:
One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken. Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you're going to wind up with an ear full of cider.
Yes, the entrepreneurs should be more thoughtful and careful. It says much about their ability to run a business if they deviate from their business plan for less than optimal reasons. But what does it say about the government that is encouraging them to deviate from the business plan? Sky Masterson likely recognized the government as the biggest con running.
Tuesday, January 21. 2014
Fernandez brilliantly discusses political business models.
“Republicans need to ask what’s wrong with our business model...”
Friday, January 17. 2014
Absent fathers and poverty:
If President Obama really wants to set us on a course to greater income mobility, he could confront head-on the problem of father absence, perhaps in his January 28 State of the Union address. But instead, after $20 trillion in real spending on the War on Poverty, I anticipate we’ll hear a public call for still more federal spending aimed at aiding “our neediest citizens,” or overcoming income inequality through new government-led reforms.
Peter Cove on Poverty Bailouts:
What were the programs proposed by Lyndon Johnson that envisioned an America without poor people? They included not one program that transferred wealth from one slice of society to another to reduce poverty. They were job programs, education and skill training and legal help to gain access to housing and jobs. These included Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA), Job Corps, Head Start, GED programs, and Community Action Agencies to bring the poor, with programs they helped design, into the mainstream. Whether these were the right strategies -- and I now have my doubts -- they did not include trillions for a bailout to help people stay self-sufficient. For us now to say the War on Poverty was a success because we handed out the financial resources to alleviate poverty is a gross misunderstanding of the war in order to support the conclusion the war was at least in part won.
Many people in America do not mind relative poverty. Money isn't everything; freedom and self-determination is a lot, and the most important thing in the US.
Thursday, January 9. 2014
Chris Christie may harbor dreams of winning the presidency in 2016, and for the last few years he has done a moderately good job acquitting himself. Sure, he's got the persona of a bully, but in New Jersey that's a positive trait if you want to get things done. Christie has gotten many things done. However, his road to the White House is starting to his some snags.
For the record, I have no issues with Christie calling a reporter an "idiot". Most of them are idiots. Unfortunately, they are the heralds of his public personality. It would help if he managed his tongue a bit.
Continue reading "Bumps in the Road to 2016"
Wednesday, January 8. 2014
No, it's unpossible. But it could be Bill has himself a minor scandal less than 2 weeks on the job.
Horse-drawn carriage bans wouldn't seem to be the kind of thing a new mayor would care to endorse, unless there's money in it for him. This isn't out of the realm of possibility.
It's still early in Billy-boy's tenure, so if this is just smoke and no fire, there will be plenty more to come. I'm sure he likes money. Most people do. I just prefer it be earned the old-fashioned way, not through political power-brokering. In most cases like this, all you have to do is follow the money.
Wednesday, January 1. 2014
From Greenfield, with whom we agree more and more: The American Bushwhacked still wonder what happened. When did this stop being a free country? There Ain’t No More Middle-Ground:
The average American still holds the fanciful belief that, if he isn’t annoying anyone, he should be left alone. To the people running his country, this is as bizarre and unworkable as Phrenology or the Geocentric theory or handing out universal health care without also compelling everyone to buy it.
This is not a nation where people are left alone anymore..
Monday, December 30. 2013
Rosenberg: Liberal to Conservative: The Conversion Experience
Most of the stories are in his comments section. One of these days, I will report my story which had to do with growing up, seeing the world clearly, and being involved with business.
Sunday, December 29. 2013
Somewhat related to the post below, We Are the Radicals Now (h/t Am. Digest). A quote (my bolds):
Despite their grimly statist ways, the utopians continue to pass themselves off as well-meaning hipsters, anti-establishment rebels and earthy pro-underdog types, united by a devotion to freedom and tolerance. This has to be the most successful PR exercise in history – no less astonishing than if Hitler had convinced the world he was an avid Judeophile. The people responsible for hate crimes, speech codes, the smoking ban, debilitating taxes, and a soul-sucking state bureaucracy would have us believe that they are chilled-out hepcats, who totally dig your scene. If you think what they think, do what they say, and accept the terms of their ‘generosity’, it might be possible to enjoy their simulacrum of freedom as though it’s the real thing. But wander too far from the coop and soon you’ll soon collide with the chicken wire.
Also
Young people once looked forward to the day they would escape the family home and forge their own path through life. Holding down a job, managing their finances and taking responsibility for their actions were what defined them as adults. And a society of such people, working together, was the cornerstone of Western civilisation. But for the past few decades, the Left has sold us a different dream. They have promised to look after the boring admin of life, so we might set off on its great adventure, like Georgian gentlemen embarking on Grand Tours. Even if this vision had not soured to a living nightmare, it would have still been profoundly dehumanising. Coping with the vagaries of life is life. It’s how we express our individuality and become more mature, rounded human beings. By seeking to liberate us from life’s challenges, the Left has turned us into a nation of children, trapped in a shabby, impoverished society, the primary function of which is to subsidise its least productive members.
Sunday, December 22. 2013
Here
Here's one of the 30:
I was a liberal once. I knew that liberal policy was wrong — but I also knew that conservatives were evil. Racist, sexist, uncaring, one step from Nazis. This was a religious truth to me. Well, of course it was. All leftists are taught this. That’s how the left keeps you in the fold despite the evidence of your own eyes. Leftists do to their followers what the townspeople did to Jim Carrey’s character in that movie The Truman Show. They teach them to fear and hate the unknown so much that they won’t test alternative ideas no matter how bad things get. “Life in Liberal World may be a mess, Truman,” they tell you, “but oh the horrors that wait for you out there in Conservative Land!”
Andrew Klavan
Friday, December 13. 2013
“Once men get in the habit of helping themselves to the property of others they are not easily cured of it.” The NY Times editorializing in 1909 against the federal income tax.
Wednesday, December 11. 2013
What qualities do people look for in elected (or unelected) leaders? The question applies to all areas of life, not just politics.
What qualities stimulate people to "follow," or choose, a leader? Among others, physical presence, ability to speak, self-confidence, and reliable decision-making play important parts, but some of it is difficult to express. This post stimulates the discussion: What is the "Presidential Presence"?
One component of it, perhaps not a large one, is a person's aptitude for being a target of positive transferences. That, plus the power, is what transforms an employee of the citizens (ie a politician) into something that seems special, probably too special. After Washington, my favorite President was Coolidge.
When it comes to politics in the modern era, one part of it is simply celebrity. "Charisma." TV, video, and film create celebrity, as in "famous for being famous." What qualities support that? Why does anybody listen to, or pay attention to, celebs?
Monday, December 9. 2013
"There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs."
Booker T. Washington, “My Larger Education, Being Chapters from My Experience“ (1911), Ch. V: The Intellectuals and the Boston Mob (pg. 118 )
Friday, December 6. 2013
Rent control is a malignant residue of 1930s progressivism. Distortion of free markets hurts everybody except the greedy recipients. They vote self-interest.
New York, same as San Francisco.
Wednesday, December 4. 2013
 Hawkins begins his short post with these quotes:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." -- C.S. Lewis
”One of the overriding points of Liberal Fascism is that all of the totalitarian ‘isms’ of the left commit the fallacy of the category error. They all want the state to be something it cannot be. They passionately believe the government can love you, that the state can be your God or your church or your tribe or your parent or your village or all of these things at once. Conservatives occasionally make this mistake, libertarians never do, liberals almost always do.” -- Jonah Goldberg
Leftists do dream of a utopia, a Garden of Eden where dreams come true and wants are met - according to their wants for us. They forget what messed up the Garden of Eden: humans. God felt lonely, but was disappointed by his creations. Real humans even rejected God's utopia because we have minds of our own.
Human nature continues to mess up utopian fantasies. Our Dr. Bliss has taught us countless times that utopian ideas are regressive, infantile fantasies, and that life is difficult and challenging. That's why we offer charity to the faint of heart and the terribly-damaged, so their families won't have to bear the burden alone and the government gets the credit (and the votes), thus taking over the role of America's magnificent and munificent tradition of private charity.
America is not designed for the faint-hearted, but the welfare state enables faint-heartedness and often, I see in my rambles in life, encourages it. Spends lots of taxpayer money, in fact, to encourage people to work the system. However, the vast majority of us are capable of, and desiring of, independence and accomplishment. We take pride in a "can do" attitude, and feel pity for those lacking in American vigor and uninterested in their opportunities which exceed those anywhere else on the planet except, maybe, Singapore.
Nobody can feel dignity without contributing to life, without being useful and productive. It's depressing and degrading not to contribute, even if you are getting free stuff. Why design an entire government-driven society around the few who cannot or will not negotiate life in an independent manner? Just give them money to survive, let them do what they will, and forget about them unless they break laws. It's not realistic to expect everybody to be a noble and honorable pillar of society.
Does "history" inevitably lead to serfdom to government? Are freebies and benevolent control and humble serfdom the future for America, under the dominion of our moral and intellectual superiors?
Here's the post by Hawkins, which mostly represents the Maggie's view of life: Why Liberalism Is On The Wrong Side Of History.
One quote:
Liberals dream of one day seeing all Americans permanently locked in the smothering, cradle-to-grave death grip of the nanny state. Nothing excites a liberal more than the idea of controlling where you go to school, regulating your work and play, deciding what type of health care you're going to have and then deciding when you get to retire and how much money you have when you do. Even if you want to choose, you can't. Even if you want to break free, you're stuck. You're not allowed to make different choices because liberals have made it illegal.
Why do they want this "for me"? Why do they want to control things? I hate it, and it was not what I was raised for. I was not raised to be a recipient of "services" or insane regulations designed by people who have never done my work. We the people are not stupid, and just want to be left alone. Trust me, Lefties: We can figure out what is best for ourselves, our families, and our communities. We're adults, proud citizens. We just ask for freedom from the heavy hand of intrusive government like the rebels in 1775.
Art: The Adam and Eve is by Cranach the Elder
Tuesday, November 26. 2013
I read this today. Krugman is the king of fallacies and member of the royal family when it comes to revisionism. I'm not sure what world exists in which unproductive spending is better than nothing. If all I did was spend money buying sand to make an ever larger sand pile, soon I will be bankrupt. Multiply this many times over a population, and soon society is starving and bankrupt.
“This is the kind of environment in which Keynes’s hypothetical policy of burying currency in coalmines and letting the private sector dig it up – or my version, which involves faking a threat from nonexistent space aliens – becomes a good thing; spending is good, and while productive spending is best, unproductive spending is still better than nothing.”
(cough, cough. bullsh-t)
Thursday, November 21. 2013
Hey Harry, remember that thing about protecting the rights of the minority? You know, avoiding the tyranny of the majority and other such nonsense? Yeah, just forget it. Nevermind. We're fine with your fascistic stylings.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): "As majority leader, I intend to run the Senate with respect for the rules and for the minority rights the rules protect. The Senate was not established to be efficient. Sometimes the rules get in the way of efficiency. The Senate was established to make sure that minorities are protected. Majorities can always protect themselves, but minorities cannot. That is what the Senate is all about. For more than 200 years, the rules of the Senate have protected the American people, and rightfully so. The need to muster 60 votes in order to terminate Senate debate naturally frustrates the majority and oftentimes the minority. I am sure it will frustrate me when I assume the office of majority leader in a few weeks. But I recognize this requirement is a tool that serves the long-term interest of the Senate and the American people and our country."
-Senator Harry Reid, Congressional Record, S.11591, 12/8/06)
Wednesday, November 20. 2013
I recently had a discussion with one of the hiring managers at my office, discussing an informational interview she'd had with a young fellow graduating from college. Good experience was all over his resume, plenty of jobs, references and the candidate played on a Div. 1 football squad. He was second team on defense, but he had an agent encouraging him to go pro. He had a good shot at making the NFL, either on a practice squad somewhere or possibly special teams, both offering the chance of better things.
He was a good student, too. As a result, he opted out of the NFL, and decided the working life was a better career choice. He was a bit tired of the culture of football. He loved it, but it's grinding work. He wanted to use other skills he'd developed. I don't blame him.
As the hiring manager and I spoke, she commented "Well, he has the added benefit of being diverse."
I looked at her and said, "What do you mean, exactly?"
"I think you know what I mean, he's ethnic."
"So he's black. You're telling me this makes him more qualified?"
"No, not more qualified, but you know how things are today. We have to remain conscious of this fact, diversity is so important in the workplace."
"Yes, I agree, it is important. But having me as part of the team doesn't make us more diverse? I'm curious if I'm diverse?"
"Well, you're diverse in terms of thought. You think in ways nobody else here does, but that's not what we focus on in diversity."
"So I'm not diverse?"
Continue reading "How Do I Become Diverse?"
|
