Pseudo-Polymath

So, Lent has begun (and will begin tomorrow for y’all in the West … and some suggestions). I would suggest for any in the Western tradition would be, in the next few days (through Thursday night) to look up a local Orthodox parish and see if they are doing the Canon of St Andrew (in English). Nothing exemplifies the spirit of Lent more than that service.

1. So, the Ukraine is in the news. Alas for the administration as noted here and noted here.
2. Guns in Crimea. One of the interesting things I learned reading this book, was that the “Charge of the Light Brigade” contrary to popular conceptions was not the failure it was pretended to be.
3. More we can learn from the Crimea.
4. Whales, not Wales, and the significance of “White”.
5. Global warming, 17 years and counting.
6. Walmart and Logistics.
7. Them beaches.
8. Noting the obvious.
9. Folding tech.
10. Hammurabi and Middle Eastern Courts.
11. Archaeology and tooth decay.
12. For Christians allergic to, uhm, Christian tradition. Why invent “31″ days?
13. So, why complain about gay marriage, marriage is already broken?
14. Well, one “time to stop correcting” it is when “it” is grammatically correct.
15. For the Palin fans.
16. Publish or perish, or perish the thought?

G’day.

1. Shakespeare.
2. A book for your Lenten journey.
3. So the latest Obamacare lockstep talking point is “where are the people badly harmed if it is o bad” (which seems to me a really really low bar to set). Well, they asked.
4. Information and state vs people.
5. Afghanistan. I think multicultural “Star-Trek” thinking is what is (was) hurting us most in Iraq and Afghanistan. We were too afraid to be American’s and walk in and ask what American’s usually ask, how can we make a buck here (and in exchange you make a buck too). We should be going in like Poul Anderson’s Falkayn or Van Rijn, not like Picard.
6. Gay activists remark on the Collins/Sam coming “out” and that is on side of the coin. What is missed by all of these remarks is the other side. How Collins and Sam are barely-in-the-game (Collins a 12th man and Sam a late round draft possibility) by their “brave” action getting national attention and SI covers. How brave is it to do something which yields fame and fortune?
7. So, much has been made of the Thomas/Tobin not talking during oral argument things, e.g., here. Here is from an observer post-remarks. It’s interesting that the negative remarks by Tobin get lots of talk and coverage, but the more damning negative remarks of racism and the North-East elites by Justice Thomas get so little. Could he liberal east coasters be in denial about their own racism?
8. How not to think about stand your ground.
9. Oooh, hate crime?
10. Hypocrisy, for those who are confused on what that term means.
11. Mr Walker, so liberal attention is making me like him more. Is that their intent I wonder?
12. And no, brother-sister normally means they share parents. If you share one parent, there is a different word for that. I’ll bet you knew that already though.
13. Goverment unfairness.
14. Truth and advertising.

Well, now I’m in South East California (Visalia).

1. When I saw this, a question occurred to me. If it is (allegedly) illegal to refuse a same sex couple on top of a cake if you run a cake shop. Can you refuse to put a stripper pole on a wedding cake? If you can, … then I’m afraid I don’t see the reasoning behind the first being illegal. If you can’t, that’s also wrong it seems to me.
2. Tactics and Ukrainian resistance.
3. Alas, more politicians in the beltway don’t do this.
4. Wisconsin liberals show their liberal colors.
5. Conservative vs liberal notions of diversity.
6. In answer to the question, no it doesn’t insult the child or the mother, it indicates the speaker is either misogynistic moron or is trying to shock the listener with the how the pro-abortion crowd sees things.
7. Just remember, an elephant is just a mouse that the government spec’ed and built.
8. Of sport and danger.
9. Yes, it might be best, but the FDA has no mechanism for approving a treatment like that.
10. Punny.
11. McCain puts his mark on where Obama stands in the stupid vs evil choice. Liberal outraged that McCain called Obama stupid, apparently they prefer willful evil.
12. Mr Holder has apparently gone on record telling prosecutors to stop prosecuting gun laws like background checks and what types of gun are allowed and how/when you can carry, oh wait … it was a different law. If you’re a liberal cheering his “not stopping SSM in states where it is not legal” … how would you feel if it was about not holding to your states gun laws?
13. Yet another racist liberal.
14. Progress.

Moving the week right along. With Links!

1. From where I come from, “black bodies” brings to mind not racial politics but Planck’s constant and black body radiation. ‘Tis a better place I deem.
2. Death comes to all men.
3. Law and international relations, part one and two. In which it is admitted that all attacks on civilian objects not in time of war is an international war crime. Drone fans take note.
4. Mr Kerry is anti-science.
5. Wolves and their large scale construction projects.
6. Oh, that’s going to play well with the grandchildren.
7. A well played reverse fisking.
8. The intrinsic problem with the “GOP war on women” tactic. ‘Tis feminists and the pro-abortion left which war on women.
9. Apparently in outer space mass is not conserved. Who knew? Perhaps however there is another hypothesis.
10. Tourism and the Black Sea.
11. Curling participation apparently involves more than beer.
12. Cinema. If the Ark has a rudder, the Noah being portrayed is Gilgamesh with a pseudonym.

And so it goes (as they say … whomever constitutes “they” is not something I understand).

1. So, you want to commit horrible crimes?
2. Playdough law.
3. Cui bono. I’m still confused on who benefits from this law.
4. Re-design .. the axle?
5. Say it ain’t so Joe, err, James. (but note … new blog)
6. The hair makes the man, holds for other species.
7. Snerk.
8. A wordy math proof.
9. Oh, joy.
10. Gosh, I haven’t heard the President using the bully pulpit to denounce this. I’m thinking I didn’t miss it.
11. That’s really cool.
12. This may be a little offensive (which is kinda the point) but it does make good point about PC speech.
13. Going off the deep end (in two ways) … the writer finds someone who went off the rails … and the does so himself. Seriously, when you write “is now how quickly adults are willing to shoot teenagers” … re-read that. Then … count the number of adults in this country. Count how many of those adults actually “quickly shoot teenagers”.  How many is that? Then make your decision, write stupid things or shut up. Alas …..
14. Putting the IRS in its place.
15. How the beltway will doom us all with its good intentions.

So. More snow was apparently what someone influential in the Mid-West ordered. And we got it.

1. Exploiting God and other notions.
2. Speaking of snow and ice.
3. Actually, untrue. Chicago’s “paper of Record” page 2 columnist (Kass) had a page 2 column at the beginning of the Olympics in which he went to the Stalin residence. Well, let me correct that, he didn’t ignore it, but he also noticed that the Olympics and the rest of the crowds were mostly ignoring the site noted.
4. Yikes.
5. The world’s ugliest equation on record.
6. 10 bullet points on Orthodoxy for Western protestants.
7. Reverse colonization.
8. How to watch those Olympics.
9. Speaking of the Olympics and those graceful ice artists.
10. Losing or gaining freedoms and pedagogy.
11. The only way to construe this statement as reasonable, is to be clever about what you mean by “largest”. He must mean by volume, not be any count of deaths or damages.
12. A dangerous marine noted.
13. What science has to say to the feminist.
14. Yah, yah. Valentines day was last week, but heh.

Well, I got home last night. Woo.

1. Government intrusion into market, what could go wrong after all it can be “more just”?
2. So the courts have some gun control rulings, a few remarks here and here and … here.
3. Bad metrics matter.
4. Speaking of economic metrics.
5. Our balanced Olympics coverage.
6. Zoom.
7. Obsession.
8. In the “do as I say not as I do” department.
9. And the First Lady follows suit … w.r.t. “what to eat”. I have to say that “12k” dress wasn’t worth $10. Looks horrible.
10. Following the IRS matter.
11. Say it ain’t so!
12. Codes of the Vikings.
13. An hypothetical question.

Ok then. Links? I guess the NorthEast is up for another helping of snow now that they’ve got a slap in the face the cold weather we just had. We’re predicted to have the first “above freezing day” in quite some time … but I don’t believe it will quite happen. The last four days the temperature predictions have all been about 4-5 degrees (F) on the high side.

1. So there’s a study (probably needing verification) that mammograms don’t help statistically. So some jump to policy. Others ignore this side of the equation, the Queen of Hearts had it apparently (“Off with their heads”) … she missed by a foot or so.
2. The knee jerk liberal economist apparently forgot that interest rates remain toxic low level, why? Oh, the debt is why. With that much national debt worldwide if we had healthy 5-7% interest rates loans, nations never ever make their interest payments.
3. More on the knee jerk effect.
4. Shania Twain and medical science  .. It only breaks when it’s beating.
5. What teachers don’t do. Why? This makes no sense when you think about it. But when you do, it’s obvious.
6. I don’t get the “courage” allusions. Look a year ago (?) a basketball player came out and became nationally famous. Turns out he was a 12th man and would never have a spot of mention anywhere without “bravely” coming out (to unexpected national fame). Now an “expected 4th round pick” comes out and gets the same national fame and every team is talking about it. Brave to face fame and fortune? Please.
7. Breaking news! NOW spokesmen fail literacy tests! Please. I read the column too. Here’s an out of context (for maximum misunderstanding) of what they misconstrue: In theory that means, as FIRE notes, that “if both parties are intoxicated during sex, they are both technically guilty of sexually assaulting each other.” In practice it means that women, but not men, are absolved of responsibility by virtue of having consumed alcohol. So how does NOW read that, … that Taranto is “enhancing a rape culture.
8. Speaking about intentionally misunderstanding. Seems Twain missed one. Twain said that there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics”, to which we can add “and progressives practicing journalism”. Or should I say “mal-practicing”.
9. Well, yesterday we had “scary bad aunt” and today we have a good uncle.
10. Liberals misbehavior on display. People who have manners, all know not to speak ill of the dead. And on this matter, WTF anyhow?
11. So, the Obamacare scorecard … 1 million more covered at a cost of 120 billion a year and 2.5 million jobs. A little more aid for the needy like that and we’ll all be underwater. And … now we have a recipe to dismantle it.
12. Affirmative action noted. The film (and the historical) Tuskegee Airmen disproved the (flawed) assumption behind affirmative action. If you make things hard on a group that group will become elite. The reverse is true as well. If you want to make them substandard, make things easier for them. Works every time. The only choice then is that supporters of aff action are either stupid or evil (they don’t realize how to make an group better or … they do and want to harm the group they pretend to help).
13. What not to play soccer while wearing.

Yo!

1. So, monkey-boy thinks he’s safe in the trees eh? Crocodile says … not so fast!
2. If you have the big bucks, you can(!) get the girl, err, the photo.
3. Somebody else isn’t a fan of the FDA monopolizing choice with respect to risk.
4. Horrible, if true, … but it is interesting to note the dichotomy between studying and practicing ethics.
5. Sanity scarcity.
6. Words fail me, I mean I think he’s spot on but … geesh. I mean I know the standard trope is that lib/progressives think conservatives are evil and conservatives typically on the other hand think their counterparts are merely naive or misguided. Perhaps the evil thing is a better fit, but that presumes intention.
7. On a lighter note, speaking of evil.
8. Continuing (the lighter note thing) … oh no! Don’t do that! If you’re going to use American Football teams just do some variation of the current Superbowl champs with a local twist, how about “SteppeHawks” for this year. And change the name every year, that’d be fun.
9. On a not-lighter note, uhm, that description of the “romantic aunt” sounds a lot like like incest-ridden pedophilia (two words you just never ever ever want to see together, incest and pedophile). Just replace “aunt” with “uncle” … yech.
10. Well, that combination will torque the tail of the atheist.
11. Obamacare, screwing the middle class by design. Just google “Doc Shock” if you don’t believe it.
12. Unneeded legislation … I mean, what airline in their right mind would voluntarily allow that? Why, oh why, would Washington think it needs to pass laws against things nobody is doing or would do?
13. Who was the knucklehead who thought Cuban health-care was better than that of the US?
14. Kinda like this guy who forgot Caesar was a Tribune.
15. Global warming models and their results. Climate scientists can now slink to the back of the room and shut up for a while. Please?
16. All right thinking people abhor female genital mutilation right? But they also (apparently) praise voluntary sex change (genital mutilation as well) and other voluntary body modification. Coherence? Not!

Well, a busy weekend … working Sat & Sun. 5 more to go for a break.

1. Food and community under stress.
2. Arabian anarchy.
3. Government overreach. But don’t worry, government is uniquely situated to more fairly apply justice … or not.
4. Here’s one reason why, the big brained guys running things … aren’t (hint: aren’t as smart as they pretend).
5. Turning down a lot of money … for what?
6. Things break more often when subjected to more stress. Who knew?
7. Art criticism … is based on something  called an aesthetic basically a criteria which you establish and then use to judge artistic merit.
8. Speaking of art and beauty, the rarity of beauty in modern art gets remarks like this to be offered. This is a topic I’ve ranted (or mentioned) before. One reply is that much of the beauty that remains in our culture is encased in in things like the SR-71.
9. Speaking of aesthetics … one might be suggested here, eh?
10. I haven’t seen the movie … so did have that joke?
11. Knowing God … what I was taught is that has a Trinitarian answer, you cannot know the Father (except through the Son), specifically the Father is unknowable.
12. Thankful for my alma mater at which more often then not, we read the whole damn book (including for example “read War and Peace for next class, which fortunately was after the one week Spring break … and more fortunately for me I had two about 24 hour train rides in which to easily do that reading).
13. Smoking may be illogical, but addiction is psychological and chemical.
14. For your valentine.

Well better late than, uhm, tomorrow.

1. Let’s see, you can’t make it legal to shoot them down and at the same time you can’t fly them. The libertarian argument gets better every day.
2. The President feels the fetus is guilty … (of what?) or something like that. Just remember, liberals like Rawls at least pay lip sevice to it, but just don’t pay attention to the consequences.
3. The Boston bomber and penalty.
4. Obamacare and economic consequences. More on the same … attack a straw man is one strategy in Obamacare defense (apparently someone doesn’t realize that if you stop working to pay for your medical care and instead stop working and let taxes (other peoples money) to handle it … that’s not a net gain for the country).
5. And one more “how not to defend” Obamacare.
6. A book suggested. I picked up the first one, as I’ll be on the road starting tomorrow night until Thursday night.
7. Or you could just figure out it’s just a cat or a dog, and get a new one.
8. Hello? The surprise would be the government doing it well. Duh.
9. “more likely to seek treatment” … that would be on planet liberal-pipe-dreams-come-true. Back on this world, the mentally ill rarely seek treatment voluntarily because they are, wait for it …, mentally ill. This can be put along side of the “those without insurance don’t have it because they can’t afford it (as opposed don’t really want it and want to spend their money elsewhere).
10. Self parody. In which the poster notes in his second part “one of those annoying columns that comes so close to making an important point, only to swerve away into inanity” and then in his response, does exactly that. Examine for example, “ Ironically, government is far, far better at this — by maintaining a monopoly on sanction, they can make punishments more precise and ultimately more just” … in the context of the IRS “justly” decided to single out one parties groups for antagonistic vetting at the prompting of the President.
11. In which “strange” probably means “kinda neat”.
12. And the problem is … likely that the NSA doesn’t have the data but ordinary people do. Ordinary people, on might note, having such information is less problematic than the government.
13. Quantity and quality.
14. Trust and vendors.
15. Don’t worry, wait 2 more years and the expected costs will double again, … why not worry? Well, it was all part of the original “cunning plan.” All part of the “Obama = BlackAdder” (with Biden as Baldrick) theme.
16. Scurillous for whom? I’d hope Ms Hurley would have far better taste than spending time with a sleaze like that.

Well, the 3-6 inches of snow turned out to be closer to 6 than 3, perhaps 5 here.

1. I’m on a 6 month “fix it with diet” deal with my doctor or these are likely in my future. Apparently I “lost the genetic lottery” as exercise which normally has a big effect in normalizing your LDL/HDL ratio doesn’t work for me.
2. Misunderstanding miracle.
3. Yesterday I linked a piece noting the silent assent which permitted Mr Hoffman’s death. It’s not like this isn’t a somewhat regular thing.
4. We’re just glad it doesn’t include the partially female athletes.
5. So, does Madison avenue have a clue? Or do the Democrats? Here is a suggestion that November might be a litmus test for that question.
6. So, decades ago, science fiction writer Poul Andersen wrote a series of books featuring the exploits and adventures of a Dominic Flandry. Mr Flandry’s problem was he was knowingly fighting a lost cause, his people (a large human dominated stellar empire) was failing due to cultural decadence. He knew it was a lost cause, but soldiered on regardless. This post reminds me of that. As does this one. And this one.
7. Meanwhile lawmakers concentrate on what is important.
8. Apparently the “new atheists” are “very certain” about many things, kind of like the global warming crowd. Odd then that this is in the context of a Physics community (which involves measurements far more accurate and simpler systems) that isn’t sure if protons decay.
9. Let’s see, first sexual slavery/trafficking and the Super-Bowl was a problem, then it wasn’t. It seems the former might have been more accurate.
10. The real reason.
11. Seriously?
12. Climate and negative feedback. Uhm, the climate has been amazingly stable for hundreds of millions of years. If you don’t think there are lots and lots of negative feedback mechanisms keeping on the rails, then check your shoes, you probably never learned to tie them for that’s clearly pushing your cognitive boundaries.
13. That’s not a “car” engine. It’s a jet fighter plane that forgot to wear its wings.

G’day.

1. Beating a dead horse as it were.
2. Yikes.
3. The crux of the liberal notion that in government lies the solution.
4. Mr Hoffman, justly mourned or a death enabled.
5. Clever.
6. The upcoming political moves by the Admin noted.
7. Lame duckisms.
8. Two governments move toward economic suicide.
9. Obamacare looking more and more like a cunning plan.
10. Well, heck, that describes everyone who came of age in the Nixon era.
11. Mr Obama interview notes “politicians are liars“.
12. Cool tech.
13. 29ers, the new trend. Thank your Democrat leaders for that.
14. Hawkings and the black hole.
15. Some towns have snow removal problems, others don’t.
16. Obama and his “art history” diss … setting aside why he didn’t go for the actual popular fluff majors.

G’day.

1. Not Crazy, more specifically defined.
2. Mr Obama apparently imitates one of my favorite Calvin/Hobbes cartoons (use your own words). Immigration will help businesses “to locate”, yah. Whatever you pretend that means I guess.
3. Some more detailed remarks, apparently the speech was very, if unintentionally, humorous.
4. Tech notes.
5. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
6. Faith and action.
7. More Democrat Senators who haven’t been to a drug store to price condoms in quite some time.
8. India “perplexed” that the US is bug-nuts crazy. I am too I guess.
9. What to do? You mean besides learning to like red-beans+rice and/or split-peas with spam?
10. “Science” apparently confused which kids are fat, uhm, duh.
11. Speaking of childhood obesity … it’s not necesssarily permanent.
12. Palinquin lady.
13. ‘Cause industrial Carbon in the 11th century was omnipresent. Alas, the seas rose and killed everything (just after it had been turned into a newt). But, “it got better.”
14. Stupidity in schools.

Hello. Cold out there it seems. Mr Gore apparently not in touch (this weather may be cold but it only “extreme” if you are susceptible to confirmation bias … in which case you think the climate is radically changing because of normal weather patterns like el Nino (Nina?) moving the jetstream). Links?

1. Place and income mobility. At a glance, you’re best of in the Mid-west and West.
2. Chaos and electric demand.
3. Another question for the pseudo-intellectual Gore.
4. Repealing the 14th in practice.
5. Twitter as precis practice.
6. Finding love.
7. Or finding something akin to love in the wrong places.
8. Energy balance and the sloth.
9. Always beware of the “I can’t imagine” argument, it’s a not-well-known rhetorical/logical fallacy.
10. Cinema.
11. Mr Huckabee was he recently abused for making sense?
12. Return query, replace “all women” with “All men” or “all fans of Charles Dickens” “all prefer pink to purple” (to which you’d should object). If the criteria isn’t germane to the topic using it is a criteria is bigotry or race/sex/whatever-criteria -ism.
13. Language does not commute (order matters).
14. Uranium enrichment numbers.

So, -8 F here this morning. Seems like the weather is returning to that pattern of a few years ago, of about a week of bitter cold with occasional warming spells during which snow is dumped on us. #2 daughter opted to be dropped off at school instead of walking.

1. This person seems to have more difficulty with their child’s choice than might be expected.
2. I’d have to support the Att. Gen. decision if honest (even though I disagree with his conclusion), you have two choices when electing an official, that you want him to guess and vote/act according to his perception his constituents, or the constituents should expect evaluate him and expect him to vote/act according to his conscience. Back in the day, Mr Kerry claimed he did the former. I think the former is not right.
3. More Benghazi lies. First “it was the video” canard, now it was the Ambassador’s fault. Geesh.
4. We’ll be seeing lots of posts of this sort on this anniversary. Liberals often like to base civic ethics on Rawls and “they are to be of the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society” … somehow they pretend that the fetus is more advantaged, has a louder/stronger voice in society, and more empowered than the mother. That illogical twist fuels much wickedness.
5. One more, “abortion allows women … to fulfill their dreams”. Say what? Little girls dream of many things, few dream of killing their child. I mean, I’ve joked with my daughter’s about embarking on the career path of “evil genius” and that they should practice their “evil laugh” but they just roll their eyes at me when I do that. Perhaps the President has the same joke and his daughter’s take him seriously. Hmm.
6. Revenge ala Christie claimed. I wouldn’t put it past the Admin.
7. So, in those states with legal marijuana … apparently the illegal street price is lower than the legal price. So, what besides taxes might cause that? Perhaps the FDA has a hand in raising those prices too.
8. Hacking and gas.
9. Another Obamacare suit which may have  legs.
10. More on the min wage.
11. Obama’s NSA speech (which apparently was roundly panned) graded here.

Well, back at home. Links?

1. A use for that valve cap.
2. Yer gubmit, looking out for … well, no good reason I guess.
3. No no no, don’t slander the teacher, if anything slander the administrators.
4. Speaking of teachers ….
5. Gender and quotes, not unexpected results.
6. Consequences for not towing the party line.
7. Prayer of very different sorts, here and here.
8. Of cold and calorie.
9. The IRS and implications.
10. Of hard drives and failure.

Good morning.

1. From the economists, trouble ahead and rebuttals to the notion that minimum wage increases don’t actually help the poor are very weak.
2. Why are you laughing? I’m trying to figure out why the side of his head is melting! That seems a lot more relevant than what he’s saying.
3. An unusual Iranian (putting it somewhat mildly).
4. Mr King.
5. On standing on the right side of history.
6. This would be a better side, or at least a side I’d like to, well, own.
7. Uhm, that would be yes.
8. Still a dumb idea, GOP people for impeachment seem to forget that as bad (horrible) as Mr Obama might be and whatever he does, Mr Biden would be far worse.
9. Mr Biden apparently thinks the Detroit economy is doing just fine.
10. Maybe? Don’t hold your breath.
11. Gills?
12. Editorial bias?
13. Nah, it’s a master-race kinda novel.

Links?

1. So there’s this survey …. I have a beef with one of their questions. There is a question asking if you value higher self-control or creativity. This is a confusing question to answer, I think creativity is incredibly important. I also think that self-discipline/self-control are a pre-requisite for creativity. If you think calculus is valuable can you weigh the relative importance of the ability to do algebra or calculus higher? I answered algebra, because calculus. Is this how we distinguish liberals from conservatives, liberals are those who don’t think creativity requires discipline? What? Do they think creativity just sort of “happens” magically?
2. A died in the wool classical liberal.
3. Mammals can learn.
4. So, cui bono and the minimum wage. When you factor in how much a higher min wage boosts automation, you can pretty much set aside notion that the beneficiaries are the “the poor”.
5. Ignorance, democracy, and gun control.
6. Safety nets.
7. Haute couture.
8. Obamacare. And the coming bailout.
9. Climate change, I’m missing the part where this is bad.
10. More on climate here.
11. A quality American education, eh?
12. “Republicans” do that? Not all of us.
13. Bigotry exemplified. Don’t judge on the quality of the work (content of character) but the gender count of your references, i.e., the color of your skin.
14. Income inequality.
15. That voter fraud.
16. Go girl!

Links?

1. A question of bias. Case in point.
2. Zoooom, or should that be “hyper-zoom”.
3. Eating only fast food, what really happens.
4. Moving towards single payer, because we all wish our health care was as good as the VA. The wealthy just wish they had it so so good. This is their strategy for getting that. File *that* under “cunning plan”.
5. Reading between the lines that means plastic = cheese and the big companies like Nabisco &c have figured out how to make sawdust taste “good”. Apparently we can thank Ms Obama.
6. Copyright silliness.
7. Our brilliant, err, cunning foreign policy plan. I recently read a hisory of the Crimean War. Cunning plans seem to spring up in foreign policy quite frequently. (as in Am I jumping the gun, Baldrick, or are the words “I have a cunning plan” marching with ill-deserved confidence in the direction of this conversation?)
8. Poverty is ended in the US. Who knew? By the calculation a single person making about 11k per year is “below the poverty level”  but that same person typically gets 20k in aid .. putting them well above the poverty line, hence my conclusion. Oddly enough a single young 20-something makinger 11k per year but who live at home with his parents counts as “below the poverty line” by their calculation I think.
9. Our tone deaf and aggressively stupid Administration, exhibit A.
10. Putting Mr Coates down a few notches.
11. Diet and exercise are the key I suppose.
12. No no no. Congress-critters are on a par with used car salesmen, it’s the life long bureaucrats and executives that are on a par with criminals.
13. Well grammar is one culprit, I suspect “because they don’t read” is the other.
14. This was known before Oct. 1 2013.
15. Hint: people who defended Mr Obama vis a vis the IRS scandal don’t have a leg to stand on regarding criticism like that without being hypocritical.

Links?

1. So, will this news spread? Or will left wing MSM loyalists quash it successfully?
2. The scandal of the day, it’s been my impressions that people are also saying “the cover up is making it worse.” If cover ups always made it worse, politicians would learn an never do it. That they do, gives reason to believe that most of the time, the cover up is successful. Which likely means that like icebergs 90% of the crap is under the surface.
3. Watch for the smears to begin.
4. So, in the wake of a cold snap, we are warned that “weather doesn’t equal climate” … except apparently when it is convenient to pretend it does. Consistency is apparently not required.
5. Obama and Afghanistan. Has there been a more shallow President, ever?
6. Cross-aisle praise.
7. Thesis sometimes should begin with the letter “F” at the start instead of the di-graph “Th”.
8. Crime and concealed carry.
9. Stupid laws across the pond.
10. What is a right (hint: not having healthcare/job/food/home provided)?
11. An MIT climate scientist speaks on climate.
12. Modeling and economics.
13. Cold weather and verse.
14. A commercial has “people talking” … how they talk beyond saying … “that’s really dumb” escapes me. I suppose they could enumerate the many ways in which it is really off the rails.

OK.

1. An economics question (dismal science indeed).
2. Bike meets phone.
3. Growing up is hard to do … apparently.
4. An amazingly bad analogy.
5. The right corrects the right regarding Obamacare.
6. Gains given up. Regrets? Or not?
7. I haven’t read the paper yet, but I suspect there’s a catch.
8. Misunderstanding Plato noted.
9. Guns are one thing, perhaps we need less emphasis on gun control and more on intelligence minimums for politicians.
10. Rules like this have completely eliminted gun violence in Chicago, oh, wait.
11. Actual science imitates 1970s Michael Moorcock  science fiction. His character Jerry Cornelius was big on optical stimulation for various effects.
12. If something can’t continue, it won’t.
13. Look what a little confirmation bias can get you.
14. Relationship advice.

Well, after a good almost full day of skiing … my injured knee stiffened. Kids are having a blast which is the important thing.

1. Obamacare wins an award.
2. And it losing (apparently) the hard left.
3. Bio oil from a different source.
4. Hmmm.
5. Examining the lack-of-logic behind  the thoughts of those desiring to ban guns.
6. A case for which shooting drones (as suggested by that Colorado town) makes perfect sense.
7. Seems to me, when you discuss other’s sins … you should remember 1 Timothy 1:15.
8. He’s not saying that … he’s saying higher taxes lead to greater economic growth. That’s not right, but that’s what he thinks.
9. China, children, and economics.
10. Climate models.
11. Star Trek mocked.

Have fun with those resolutions. (Which are so often summed up via Spike Lee’s enjoiner “Do the Right Thing”).

1. Well, in January, it seems I’ll be following the rich and famous (that is to say having a my colon scoped). My results will not likely reported by ABC News.
2. Without cause. Oh, goody.
3. Good news presented as bad.
4. On the hand, perhaps “if true” needs to be appended to the above.
5. Father Time is a T. Rex.
6. Who is surprised?
7. What a perfect landing looks like.
8. I’d share some of the other links, but my guess none of my readers would be interested in things like this.

Posting in general seems to have slowed. Have a good New Years day!

Woo. Two days in a row, … link?

1. Hypocrite of the year award in the field of privacy law sense … voting and nominees.
2. Resolutions and advice.
3. World currency. Which brings to mind the classic Rocky and Bullwinkle series  of cartoons in which the world economic leaders despairing of a basis for currency settle on “box tops”, which a particular moose in the Dakotas has an abundance.
4. Lassiz-Faire defended.
5. A book reviewed.
6. For the Palin fans.
7. Mr Gandleman, showing how to jump to the wrong conclusion. This is evidence primarily of the increasing failure of scientific credibility. Exhibit A, elsewhere “climate change, formerly global warming, formerly global cooling” is another.
8. Another NSA whistleblower.
9. On crossing the aisle.
10. Affluence.
11. And … a flash mob.

Yo. Links?

1. A book noted, still in my inbox.
2. Some lessons forgotten in peacetime.
3. Some science and short animations.
4. Tax money wasted.
5. An Evangelical and the East.
6. As a Rightie who “supports” him (in the sense of don’t fire/suspend), that one supports the right of a man to say a thing doesn’t (oddly enough) mean you support what he says. That seems to be lost on the linked blogger.
7. Some income inequality for discussion.
8. Missing a major point, that is, the reason that civilians are being targeted it because the rebels dress like and hide among the same. War crimes beget the same, but the original crime it seems can be laid at the feet of rebels.
9. Remember this.
10. A meaningless statement by the Democrat organ of record noted.
11. An elephant does the high hurdles.
12. After all, the more time a doctor spends doing paperwork/data entry the better off we’ll all be, according ACA supporters is yet another one of their non-economic economic claims. Kinda like taxes on new medical equipment development will spur the same.

Well, we made it to the East coast, i.e., Jersey. Today we were doing a college tour for my youngest.

1. I don’t get cable, but apparently there is a “reality” show about Ducks … (two remarks on that here and here). Seems to me the situation is basically as follows,  the left purports to want to enter into “conversations about race/gender/marriage”, but they really don’t. If you really want to “have a conversation” when the other side speaks their mind, you reply, you engage in conversation, you …, uhm, talk. But no. What the left does is try to shut you down and fire you. That’s not engaging in conversation, that’s naked coercion. Persuasion by force and coercion (a) doesn’t work and (b) is highly unethical. So in the absence of people like Mr Schraub and the left leading (or at least entering) the hew and cry to reverse the suspension, those on the left are left with that unfortunate choice of asking themselves, “am I stupid or evil.” (the assumption here being that attempts at persuasion by coercion is evil). The first link makes an interesting point, you can’t refuse to sell a cake based on your beliefs, but you can be fired saying what you believe, hmm.
2. Faith and commerce.
3. Cinema.
4. A really bad whoops moment noted.
5. Theotokos and Nativity.
6. Situation and being awake.
7. Obesity. I’ve seem some remarks about obesity and whether or not it should be treated as a disease and why we so often blame the obese for their condition. I think the salient insight on why we tend to blame the obese for their condition in the US is that those of us who are not oveweight realize how easy it would be to eat to much and not exercise. The non-obese have to work at it to stay thin, their feeling is that those who are not thin just didn’t do their due diligence and got where they were.
8. What the administration is setting aside.
9. A book noted.
10. Of war and human nature.